Cape Race is a point of land located at the southeastern tip of the

Avalon Peninsula The Avalon Peninsula (french: Péninsule d'Avalon) is a large peninsula that makes up the southeast portion of the island of Newfoundland. It is in size. The peninsula is home to 270,348 people, about 52% of Newfoundland's population, according ...

on the island of

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, in

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

, Canada. Its name is thought to come from the original Portuguese 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 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 seco ...

, 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 ...

shipping routes have resulted in many

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. Shipwrecking may be intentional or unintentional. Angela Croome reported in January 1999 that there were approximately ...

s 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

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". Eli ...

, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, 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 ...

. ''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 List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

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 ...

ed to New York.(April 1902)
The Great Newspapers of the United States: The New York Evening Newspapers
'' The Bookman (New York)'', 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