The 'Speedwell Lightship'. Photo by Frank Watson.
Germander Speedwell is a spoken-word artist based in London, UK who collects words on specific and often obscure factual subjects, and arranges these into entertaining and enigmatic word pieces. Her special areas of interest are place names, natural history, and maritime subjects. See www.germanderspeedwell.org.uk for full details.
The 'Speedwell Lightship'. Photo by Frank Watson.
Apologies to Newfoundlanders for the inevitable mispronounciations of place names - just consider this an English interpretation!
A wild and desolate cove on Ireland's Valentia Island, and the small bay of Heart's Content on Newfoundland: it was at these remote and unlikely spots that the great Atlantic telegraph cable first connected Europe and America in 1866. Through the modest telegraph offices at these points, millions of messages were sent and received between old and new worlds for nearly 100 years.
This light-hearted piece follows the cable's journey, in the names of places and features along its route, from County Kerry in Ireland, over the Atlantic seabed, to the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland.
COMPLIMENTS TO HEART'S CONTENT
From Ireland's island of Valentia
To the environs of Placentia
A line through the sea
Reaching over to feed
Telegrams to the New Found Land:
Connecting York with New York
England with New England
And the old with the new, Amsterdam.
Blarney conveyed from Killarney
Past the points of Knockaneden, Knocknadobar,
Knocknagapple and Knocknabreeda
The black peaks of MacGillicuddy's Reeks
And across the channel of Portmagee;
Along the length of Valentia
Retracing the track of the tetrapod
And backing away from the Deaf Rocks;
From Dingle Bay dangling
And out to sea setting
With messages for presidents
Pressing texts for emigrants
And express requests for terrapins.
Flanking Christ's Saddle on the Skelligs
Washer Woman Rock and the Blaskets
Past the Inch Bar, amid relics and wrecks
Of Limerick sloops, Tralee dandies
Cork cutters and Dingle fishers;
The Mary, the Sarah, the brig Veronica
The schooner Susan and the trawler Nora.
Crossing bottom topography
From fathomable cartography:
Down the Continental Slope
To the Continental Edge
And off the Continental Shelf
To the Telegraph Plateau;
Dodging headwinds and depressions
The North Atlantic Oscillation
Any hazards in Shannon, perils in Porcupine or difficulties in Hecate.
Grounds, deeps, ledges, steeps
Furrows, troughs, trenches and rifts
The crossing of, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge;
Before the Maxwell and Faraday Fracture Zones
Towards Orphan Knoll (of providence unknown)
Through the Cold Wall, and northerly avoiding
The Hibernia and Terra Nova, fields of oil.
Evading Cape Race and the look of The Gaze
Turning before Tilting on Fogo
The fogbanks on the Grand Banks
And the bunkers by Funk;
Savage Cove, Famish Gut, Wild Bight and Bad Bay
No-go approaches and treacherous indentations;
And Heartbreak Point is no place,
For the reception of expectations.
Wrecks of Hope, Adventure, Atlanta and Avenger
Pegasus, Vestal, Penelope and Hector
The Effie; the Ethie of the Alphabet Fleet
And a speculated Speedwell in the bay at Trinity!
But biding better by the promising presence
Of Bonavista and Bonaventure
Sliding under the sight of Ireland's Eye
With Random Sound, rambling by;
Then every message, ever sent,
Came up for air, at Heart's Content;
All efforts, all lengths, all led to this site
As did Heart's Desire and Heart's Delight.
Here each intention, arrived upon,
The Peninsula of Avalon
To find not once, but twice Paradise
(Not to mention Pleasantville, which is likely to be nice).
A land of Happy Adventure and telling nomenclature
Come-by-Chance, Run-by-Guess and Blow-me-down
Quidi Vidi fishing village, the whalebones at Dildo
Cupid's Cove in Conception Bay
The Butter Pot Barrens, and the Topsail Mountains
Of Fore, Gaff, Mizzen and Main;
The odd spots of Horse Chops, Cat Gut, Black Duck
Lion's Den, Bear's Cove, Snake's Bight
And their tickles, arms, reaches and runs.
A land of Mistaken Point, disappointments and joys
Comfort Cove, Confusion Bay
The Devil's Staircase, Harbour Grace
Ha Ha Bay, Bleak Jove Cove,
Bay Despair or Bay D'Espoir.
From Ireland's Island of Valentia
To cross the Atlantic and the Avalon Isthmus
And then pass the Isle of Valen in Placentia!
With ongoing correspondence between equivalents
Telegrams from Scotland, over to Nova Scotia
From Waterford, fording the waters, to New Waterford
Holland to New Holland, Berlin to New Berlin and Britain to New Britain;
With wires from Empires, replies to enquirers
Confidings to intelligence, compliments to recipients
And orders for elephants.
© Germander Speedwell May 2007 www.germanderspeedwell.org.uk
Valentia Island
Island just off the Irish coast, and the most westerly point in Europe - therefore from where the Atlantic telegraph cable was laid, in an isolated cove at its end. The name, often also spelt Valencia, is not connected to the similar Spanish name, but is an English corruption of the celtic Beal Inse meaning 'mouth of the island'.
Placentia
Large bay on Newfoundland, named from the Spanish, meaning 'pleasing place'.
Tetrapod track
The fossilised footprints of a tetrapod (the first sea creature to venture onto land!) can be seen on Valentia Island.
Limerick sloops, Tralee dandies, Cork cutters and Dingle fishers / Susan, Nora, Mary, Sarah, Veronica
Types of vessels, and some specific named ones, that are recorded to have been wrecked in the Dingle Bay area and whose remains do, or may, still lie on the seabed.
Christ's Saddle
A small green plateau on the monastery island, the Great Skellig, off the Kerry coast.
Shannon, Hecate, Porcupine
Shannon is one of the British shipping/sea forecast regions, and Hecate and Porcupine are amongst the French forecast regions; these latter two probably being named after the banks/sea mountains of the same name.
Telegraph Plateau
Plateau in the Atlantic, so-called because it seemed, to the Victorian surveyors, purpose-made to conveniently lay a cable over.
Cold Wall
Where the Gulf Stream (warm, dark blue) and the Labrador Current (cold, light green) meet (but don't instantly mix), with a sudden contrast in temperature and water colour, as if there were a barrier between the two different water masses. This is especially apparent at the 'tail' of Newfoundland's Grand Banks.
The Gaze
Outlook point on the Avalon Peninsula.
Fogo and Funk
Islands off Newfoundland. Funk's name means 'evil odor or vapour', referring to the smell of guano from seabirds.
Alphabet Fleet
A fleet of Newfoundland boats named after towns in Scotland, where their owner was from; the SS Ethie being one of them.
Speedwell
Aha - the missing link between writer and subject! The discovery of an article about an unidentified wreck in Trinity Bay, which was thought to possibly be the Speedwell, was the cause of much excitement for myself.
Ireland's Eye
Island in Newfoundland's Trinity Bay; there is also an island of this same name off the Dublin coast in Ireland; could they be related?
Random Sound
River-like channel along Random Island in Newfoundland. A possible source for the word random could be the Old English word randon meaning disorderly, in reference to the sea.
Heart's Content, Heart's Desire, Heart's Delight
All harbour towns, neighbouring each other in Newfoundland's Trinity Bay.
Happy Adventure
Place on Newfoundland apparently named after a pirate ship! As were Heart's Desire and Bonaventure.
Whalebones at Dildo
Just offshore from a disused whaling station at the bay of Dildo on Newfoundland, is a 'graveyard' of whales' bones.
Tickles, arms, reaches and runs
Terms for different types of water passages in Newfoundland.
The Topsail Mountains of Fore, Gaff, Mizzen and Main
Mountain group on Newfoundland, each named after different types of sail.
The Devil's Staircase
The skeleton of a boat mysteriously perched on a clifftop on Newfoundland - legend says that the devil put it there.
Bay Despair / Bay D'Espoir
A Newfoundland bay originally named by the French as Baie des Esprits (for its mystical atmosphere?). The name was then corrupted by the English to Bay Despair, and later officials 'restored' it to Bay d'Espoir (Bay of Hope), but locals still call it Bay Despair.
Conception Bay
Bay in Newfoundland, so named because it was discovered on Dec 8 - the religious day of the Immaculate Conception.
Isle of Valen / Valen Island
A small island in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland - I haven't been able to find out the source of the name Valen, but was struck by the coincidence in its similarity to Valentia Island, especially as the cable from Valentia would have crossed the isthmus maybe just a few miles from Valen Island.
Waterford
Another interesting link: the city of Waterford in Ireland is famous for its Waterford Crystal - these factories were originally founded on money from cod fishing on Newfoundland's Grand Banks. (New Waterford is on Cape Breton Island, just south of Newfoundland).
Do you know any further information on the places mentioned in this piece, or know of any other curious links between Britain and Newfoundland, or interesting place name stories? If so, Germander Speedwell would be interested to hear from you: E-mail: g.speedwell@yahoo.co.uk
December, 2007This first edition of the Atlantic Basin Project has been made possible by the efforts of members of the Independent Artists Cooperative and its in house collective Rock Can Roll Independent and through the generous support of the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.