Historic Halifax Harbour Tour

About This Tour:

A Royal Navy admiral once called Halifax Harbour the most important port in the world. A lot has happened on, in, and under the harbour and along its shores.

You’ll find out about it when you spend some time in the most comfortable vessel you’ll ever sit in and slowly cruise the beguiling waters of Halifax. Your captain and guide is Bob Chaulk, harbour diver, historian, and the writer of six books about East Coast waters— and the spinner of many yarns. You have his undivided attention.

Then, there’s the view from out there. Don’t get us going on that!

What you’ll see as we glide by:

• Downtown Halifax

• All kinds of ships, including warships, cruise ships, container ships, up close

• The Halifax waterfront from the Dockyard to the container piers

• The outer Halifax Islands

• The line that takes you over the horizon, straight to the Caribbean

• The Harbour beach where the people swam and sunbathed in the 1800s

• Where they anchored and trained for the Battle of Quebec

• Where the Royal Navy ships anchored

• The bottom of the Macdonald Bridge. Look up, waaay up.

• The Royal Canadian Navy (RCN) Dockyard

• Where Oland’s first brewery was located

• Where the Halifax Explosion occurred, including the locations of the collision, the explosion, the ships and where they ended up

What’s down there, anyway?

Other things you’ll hear about:

• The submarine nets that kept the U-boats out

• The convoys, the Battle of the Atlantic and the third largest navy in the world—RCN

• What a container ship sounds like when it goes over you

• What it’s like looking up at the bottom of a warship

• The big ship that Canadian Naval guns sank in the harbour

• The harbour ferry that burned and sank and its connection to the Bluenose

• The two railway bridges across the harbour

• The antique bottles, steamship China, navy memorabilia and other goodies on the bottom

• The seals, fish, lobsters, shrimp, scallops, crabs, anemones, and creepy crawlies

Tour Includes:

1.5 Hour Tour of Halifax Harbour

Guided Commentary by Historian, Author, and Harbour Diver Bob Chaulk