Beacon Battery - Coastal Defense Series Multi-Cache
Beacon Battery - Coastal Defense Series
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Camouflage, wooded areas, batteries… sounds like geo-caching to me. However, on this multi-cache search you will discover that these items were first placed beside the Strait of Canso in Guysborough and Antigonish Counties in 1939 to 1945.
At the outbreak of World War II; when coal was king, when steel was manufactured in Sydney and when the ferries were the only way off the Island; the Strait of Canso was vulnerable to U-boat attack. These resources were essential to the war effort and their safe passage from Cape Breton Island to the mainland had to be protected.
The Pictou Highlanders were first on the scene in August of 1939 followed by the 86th Battery from Amherst in September. They were joined by a machine gun detachment from the North Nova Scotia Highlanders, who protected the ferry wharves on both sides of the Strait. By mid September the Pictou Highlanders were 400 strong and ‘under canvas’ at McNair’s Point, Mulgrave; your first waypoint at N 45' 37.023 W 61' 23.319.
They were equipped with two 4” guns at the Beacon Battery in Aulds Cove, Guysborough County. The guns were capable of firing a shell 6 kilometers. The training shots sounded “like a train going by” when fired over the house, stated local resident Jack Woods. You will see the gun blocks, a cement base with a ring of mounting bolts protruding, at the second waypoint. The second waypoint is for reference only. To find the cache add .043 to the N component and subtract .092 from the W component of the second waypoint's coordinates.
The camouflaged batteries were tucked in the woods so they wouldn’t be exposed to enemy observation and shelled from the ocean or bombed from the air.
Each coastal artillery battery was assisted with two 80 million candlepower, 60 inch searchlights and a ‘naval detection loop station’ at the shore in front of each battery.
Beacon Battery was moved to Bennett’s Farm in East Havre Boucher in 1940 to provide for a better ‘field of fire’. The gun blocks and the munitions magazine are still intact, but are located on private property and not available to geocachers.
The cache originally contained: an ice pack, hand warmers, a dinosaur finger puppet, a Sponge Bob child's fanny pack, a suction hook, a keychain flashlight, a frog fridge magnet / clip, a gate latch, bottle ice cube trays, and a toy American Military Jeep.
Please sign the log for credit.
Enjoy this bit of history, unknown by many or lost with the passing of the participants. Thankfully Brian Tennyson and Roger Sarty captured a full account of this period and place, in their book Guardian of the Gulf. They recap a war that was fought closer to home than many realize. Initially stationed at the Strait, these soldiers were sent overseas and saw action throughout Europe.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Gur frpbaq jnlcbvag vf ‘cbfgrq’ ng gur cbvag arneol. Qba'g or 'fghzcrq' svaqvat gur pnpur.
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures