“Buena Vista”
Friday is laundry day, and here in Bonavista it is relatively inexpensive to use the machines in the harbour master’s office. $2.50 to wash and dry is one quarter of what we have paid in other places.
I start early and have two loads run before the Visitor Information and Matthew Legacy building open. That is our first stop today. I have seen many photos of this building, especially in the background when sailor friends have docked here. The odd shape makes sense now - the actual replica of John Cabot’s Matthew is stored inside.
The tour begins with the story of a young boy, Jacobo from Genoa, who finds himself, at the age of twelve leaving his family home to be an apprentice to a “harber surgeon”. He sailed for seven years, living and working on a merchant ship. Fate would bring him to meet Giovanni Caboto, also from Genoa.
The story continues with Jacobo now sailing with Caboto and sharing with him his quest to find a westward, and faster, voyage to Cathay. They sailed from Bristol, England, down the English Channel then across to Fastnet. Next, north along the coast of Ireland before steering west. “Ahead lay an ocean so vast it unsettled our minds and chilled our hearts.”
The boat was the Matthew, a square rigged, three masted Caravel. It was sixty-three feet long, eighteen feet wide and to the top of the mast, where the crows nest sits, is seventy-six feet high. The boat was very open with just three cabins. The other seventeen men onboard would find whatever space they could find for sleeping - often in the open. If they were on watch, it would mean every four hours someone would climb to the crows nest for the next shift.
The boat is now named Matthew, but just like “John Cabot” it has been anglicized from the original name, Mattea, presumably named after Caboto’s wife.
On the 24th day of June, 1497, the Mattea, landed at Bonavista, the first land found on the journey to Cathay.
So this is how “Buena Vista” was named.
It is unfortunate we cannot see the entire ship, as the hull is not visible within the confides of the building, but we are happy with what we have seen and feel we are now better educated on this portion of Canadian history.
Five hundred years after John Cabot landed at Bonavista, a replica ship was built in Bristol and sailed across the Atlantic to Bonavista to celebrate this momentous anniversary. At the end of our tour we watched a video of its landing, on June 24, 1997, with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip in attendance, along with 30,000 spectators. It was sailed back to England and a second replica built in Bonavista where it sits today - an important tourist attraction.
A bad image of the tv screen, showing the video of the day the replica Matthew arrived in Bonavista, June 24, 1997.
We take a little wander along the shore and find lunch at the Bicycle Picnics Cafe and Bistro. We will not be renting bikes but enjoy the atmosphere and the good food, out of the wind and drizzle. Along the way we pass more historic homes and fish flakes, no longer used today but still standing from the many years ago when they were used for drying cod.
The Mockbeggar Plantation is currently closed. Built in 1870, this was once a thriving operation that played a major role in the development of Bonavista. Seems we will not be touring this historic site today, so we pass by taking the Old Days Pond Trail back to the parking lot at the wharf. We will drive to our next destination.
