Members of the St. Mary’s Battery Restoration Committee were recently awarded The Historical Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador Outstanding Heritage Project award. From left are David Fagan, Michelle Fagan and John Gibbons. Missing from photo is committee member Peter Buiteman. Submitted photo
Committee member Peter Buiteman.
By Mark Squibb
Within St. Mary’s, along the coast of St. Mary’s Harbour, is a park commemorating the historic St. Mary’s Battery, one of seven installed along the coast in the 18th century to ward off both American privateers and French marauders.
But not that many years ago, the now well groomed and cultivated park was nothing but a barren patch of land bearing a single plaque denoting its historical significance.
That changed with the formation of the St. Mary’s Battery Restoration Committee in 2018.
President Dave Fagan said the committee, through restoration of the historic site, set out to change the perception that St. Mary’s was an out of the way place where nothing ever happened.
“We used to say that St. Mary’s was the place that people drove through on their way to see the whales down in St. Vincent’s, or drove through on their way back from the Irish Loop,” said Fagan. “But we decided to make St. Mary’s a place that people will drive to, rather than through.”
The Historical Sites Association of Newfoundland and Labrador this May awarded the committee an Outstanding Heritage Project award for its work on restoring the historical site.
“It feels as if someone acknowledged that we were right all along,” said Fagan.
The battery, consisting of four large cannons, was erected in 1779 to protect the coast and fishing grounds from marauding privateers.
“The battery was built to keep American privateers at bay and keep them from messing with British access to the fishery,” said Fagan. “We also had trouble with the French, who would come over from Placentia and cause all kinds of havoc, and rob fishing gear and burn fishing stages, because the British in St. Mary’s were competing for the same fish in the same bay.”
Of the seven batteries established along the southern Avalon, it is believed the St. Mary’s Battery was the only one actively engaged during the American revolution. The battery also played a key role in the capture of an American privateer in 1782.
The battery was decommissioned in 1815, and in the following years little effort was made to preserve the site, and many of the cannons were lost.
The lone remaining cannon was at some point relocated to the town hall, and a single plaque was all that marked the land as historically significant. Few residents were even truly aware of the historical significance of the site, allowed Fagan. “Nobody really cared (about the battery) and fewer even knew what had been there,” he said.
In 2018, the committee was formed with the intent of restoring the site and bolstering community pride. The committee members dedicated hours upon hours, over 6,000 by Fagan’s reckoning, at The Rooms and the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, researching the history of the battery.
“We spent enough time at the Centre for Newfoundland Studies that the staff got to know us on a first name basis, and they were all really good to us,” said Fagan.
The members dug deep enough to find the actual handwritten log commanding that the cannons be installed way back in the 1700’s.
With financial support from both the federal and provincial governments, as well as local donations, the committee was able to acquire three cannons from other places and return the original cannon in St. Mary’s to its proper site. That cannon is cordoned off and marked with a plaque. The committee has also installed storyboards and picnic tables.
Much of the site work was completed using federal Job Creation Program (JCP) funding, and many of the picnic tables donated by local residents in memory of loved ones who have passed.
The committee also took care to ensure the park was made wheelchair accessible.
Since the restoration, the park has become a popular place for picnics and local events, such as the “The Invasion of St. Mary’s,” a day of pirates and family fun hosted by the committee last year.
Combined with reopening of the crab plant in 2022, the restoration of the park has been a boost to the community’s confidence and place on the Irish Loop.
Committee member Michelle Fagan said she’s especially excited to hear that young children have been enjoying the park and learning their local history.
“Hopefully, maybe next year, we would like to link up with the schools and be able to go in and have a talk and let them know the history of the St. Mary’s Battery, and all the other little folklores of the town,” said Fagan.
