By Chris Lewis | July 22, 2021
Bay Bulls’ heritage committee is looking for pieces of the town’s past.
At the July 13 council meeting Mayor Harold Mullowney put out a call to residents to share any items from Bay Bulls’ long history that others might find interesting.
The artifacts will be put on display, he said, but details are yet to be ironed out.
“Any old artifacts, photographs, even some stories people might like to share. It’s all a great help to what the committee is planning to do,” Mullowney said.
Mullowney spent a year as chairman of the town’s historical society and said he is aware of things in the community that people have donated in the past. Some of those things are still in storage, in the basement of the town hall to be used in the displays at a later date.
“So, we’ve got a good start on this,” he said. “It’s a matter of going through those boxes now. I know we have old paper records, photographs, all sorts of things.”
He said there are hundreds, if not thousands of artifacts salvaged from the HMS Sapphire, a Royal Navy ship that was cornered and sank in Bay Bulls back in 1696. He hopes to see some of those come to light to be used by the committee.
“We always hoped that if we ever got to a point where we could build a climate-controlled building, we could bring those artifacts back to Bay Bulls,” he said, noting some of salvaged items are currently in Ontario. “As we move forward, there might still be hope for that. It’ll be good to see that re-energized.”
The Town has also received a private donation from a resident in the form of an old cannon that had been recovered from the water in Bay Bulls harbour.
According to Chief Administrative Officer Jennifer Aspell, the Town is in the process of restoring the cannon with the help of researchers from Memorial University. She said the Town hopes to put the cannon up for display within the next couple of months.
“With any luck, we’ll have it mounted here on the wall at the Town Hall,” she said.
