![Cape Race from a distance](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Cape_Race_from_a_distance.jpg)
Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the
Avalon Peninsula on the island of
Newfoundland, in
Newfoundland and Labrador
Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic Canada, Atlantic region. The province comprises t ...
, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original
Portuguese
Portuguese may refer to:
* anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal
** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods
** Portuguese language, a Romance language
*** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language
** Portu ...
name for this cape, "Raso", meaning flat or low-lying. The Cape appeared on early sixteenth century maps as Cabo Raso and its name may derive from
a cape of the same name at the mouth of the
Tagus River
The Tagus ( ; es, Tajo ; pt, Tejo ; see below) is the longest river in the Iberian Peninsula. The river rises in the Montes Universales near Teruel, in mid-eastern Spain, flows , generally west with two main south-westward sections, to ...
in Portugal. The cape was the location of the
Cape Race LORAN-C transmitter
The Cape Race LORAN-C transmitter was a LORAN-C transmitter at Cape Race, Newfoundland and Labrador, on Canada's eastern seaboard.
The Cape Race LORAN-C transmitter was used as an antenna tower until February 2, 1993. It was a 411.48 m ...
until the system was decommissioned in 2010. It is also home to the
Cape Race Lighthouse
Cape Race Lighthouse is an active lighthouse located at Cape Race on the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland. The light's characteristic is a single white flash every 7.5 seconds; additionally, a foghorn may sound a signal of two blasts every 60 ...
, notable for having received the distress call from the
RMS ''Titanic''.
Geography
Dense fog, rocky coasts, and its proximity to trans-
Atlantic
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...
shipping routes have resulted in many
shipwrecks near Cape Race over the years. One of the most famous was the . Cape Race is a flat, barren point of land jutting out into the Atlantic Ocean, its cliffs rising almost vertically to above sea level. On average it is shrouded in fog on 158 days of the year.
Climate
History
![Caperacestamp](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/Caperacestamp.jpg)
In 1583, having claimed the port of
St John's for
Queen Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was Queen of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is sometimes referred to as the "Virgin Queen".
El ...
,
Sir Humphrey Gilbert
Sir Humphrey Gilbert (c. 1539 – 9 September 1583) was an English adventurer, explorer, member of parliament and soldier who served during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I and was a pioneer of the English colonial empire in North America ...
, on board the ship
''Squirrel'', and accompanied by the ships ''Golden Hind'' and ''Delight'', passed by Cape Race on his way back to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. ''Squirrel'' would sink en route, taking Gilbert with her.
From 1859 to 1866, the
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
Associated Press kept a newsboat at Cape Race to meet ocean liners passing by on their way from Europe so that news could be
telegraph
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas p ...
ed to New York.
[(April 1902)]
The Great Newspapers of the United States: The New York Evening Newspapers
''The Bookman (New York)
''The Bookman'' was a literary journal established in 1895 by Dodd, Mead and Company. It drew its name from the phrase, "I am a book-man," by James Russell Lowell. The phrase, without the hyphen, regularly appeared on the cover and title page o ...
'', p. 160 These news items carried the byline "via Cape Race".
In 1904, the first
wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
station in Newfoundland was built at Cape Race. On the night ''Titanic'' sank, wireless operator
Jack Phillips was sending telegraphs to Cape Race for relay to New York City. When
Cyril Evans, wireless operator of the Leyland Line
SS ''Californian'', sent an iceberg warning to the RMS ''Titanic'', only a few miles away, Phillips was so annoyed with the loud signal (due to the proximity) and responded "Keep out, Shut up, I'm working Cape Race," meaning that he was transmitting to the Cape Race Marconi Station. This would become a famous incident, as the bored and angry Evans soon switched off the wireless and went to sleep, and
''Titanic'' hit an iceberg only fifteen minutes later. After ''Titanic's'' distress call, Cape Race played a major role in relaying news of the sinking to other ships and land locations.
Marconi's station (MCE) was rebuilt on the same site and opened as a "wireless interpretation centre" to commemorate the 100th anniversary of ''Titanic''s sinking in 2012.
References
*
*http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amerika14April1912.JPG
External links
{{Commons category
Cape Race Wireless log at sinking of ''Titanic'' preserved at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, Halifax
Race
Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to:
* Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species
* Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...