Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic

How could you vacation in Canada's Maritime Provinces and take a nap instead of visiting the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic?  Ask Thom.

Like everything else in Lunenberg, the museum is brightly painted but it also acknowledges a crueler time in the village's history.

Nova Scotians mechanized harpoons so they could hunt whales more efficiently.

Ever wonder what a whale skull looks like?

 

Or about the size of a harpoon hole?

Exhibits on the third floor of the museum give visitors an idea of a landlubber's life in Nova Scotia a century ago.

Even their sleds were shaped like boats.

There's an entire section devoted to the Bluenose, once the fastest schooner in the North Atlantic.  Built in Nova Scotia, it became a national symbol in the 1930s.  In addition to depicting the boat in needlepoint and on a quilt, the Canadians commemorated it with a postage stamp.

Apparently, the vessel's captain lacked nothing.  Mirror, bathtub, typewriter and booze cabinet, all present and accounted for.

This volunteer knitted woolen socks in World War II period costume but she had to use wooden needles because steel ones are no longer manufactured.

An exhibit on the second floor illustrates what it took to be a fisherman.  Oil slick apparel protected them from water and fish guts.  Dickies weren't a ridiculous 60s fashion statement, but a practical way to keep a fisherman's neck warm.

A wooden sculpture in the neighborhood wore a similar garment.

In fact, fisherman sculptures seemed to be lurking everywhere.

The museum also housed a dodgy aquarium.  It probably wouldn't have passed muster with PETA.

Fortunately, Joe obeyed this warning sign, although the actual salmon swimming in the tanks lacked the energy of the one in the cartoon.

By this time, we lost Magda but Joe and I were determined to get full value from our admission.  We boarded an old fishing vessel docked outside for a self-guided tour.