The Valentine’s Day that froze the Halifax Harbour

By Alex Cooke

Instead of flowers, chocolates, and Cupid’s arrow, Valentine’s Day in 1859 brought about a different, less romantic event in Nova Scotia's capital: the freezing of the Halifax harbour.

On that day, the waters of the historic harbour was frozen over its whole width and almost down to McNabs Island, according to a marine historian.

“In this instance, it actually coincided with the arrival of one of the Cunard Line’s main ships, the RMS America, in Halifax,” said Roger Marsters, curator of marine history at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.

“It made quite a spectacular sight for locals, who were drawn to the waterfront, naturally, to see this vessel plowing through the frozen waters of the harbour.”

That moment was immortalized in an image in the museum’s marine history collection, which shows 19th-century Haligonians standing on the icy harbour — some wrapped in winter gear, gazing up at the ship, others taking advantage of the natural rink and gliding around on a pair of skates.

“When the museum became aware of it, which would have been around 2005, we were completely unaware that this picture even existed,” said Marsters. 

“So it was sort of a delightful surprise to have this record, not just of this extreme and unusual meteorological event, but to have this really beautiful representation — not just of the city, but of its population as well.”

While downtown Halifax looked a little different back then, there are a few familiar sights in the image for present-day Haligonians.

Citadel Hill and its iconic clock tower can be seen in the background, as well as spires from churches that still remain stranding: St. Matthew's United Church, St. Mary's Basilica, and St. Paul's Church, the oldest building in Halifax.

Marsters said the image was procured by the museum at an auction, though almost nothing is known about the person who painted it. 

It’s signed “Avery” — the same name as a vessel built specifically for use on the Shubenacadie Canal.

“(This) would kind of indicate to me that it might be a local artist rather than somebody visiting the city, though that’s still an open question,” he said.

Marsters said the frozen harbour, which he described as “a rare but not unprecedented event,” would have been a big deal to the people living there at the time, and was likely widely reported on by local media.

“The harbour freezing over was sort of a once-in-a-generation event in many ways,” he said, explaining that it had also frozen over in 1821 and 1839.

“It would have been in living memory, but relatively distant living memory, so it would have been a remarkable event. You can see in the image, there’s almost an air of festivity.”

He said it’s likely there were similar freezings in the 18th century, but those are not as well-documented because the press presence in Halifax wasn’t as well developed.

Marsters also noted the harbour was also covered in ice in late March 1987, though this was the result of ice shifting into the harbour from the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, instead of being frozen over. 

While there is a lively, happy nature to the 1859 painting, Marsters said the fact that the harbour had completely frozen over pointed to a long, cold winter.

“For the harbour to freeze over as opposed to being clogged with ice carried from elsewhere, it has to be really cold for a long time,” he said.

“Saltwater does freeze, but it takes some doing for it to happen, so I think you can see this as sort of the culmination of a sustained period of cold weather.” 

He added: “It must’ve been a hard winter in 1859.”

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