The Northwest Arm

The Northwest Arm is a fork in the path of Halifax Harbour; a three mile by 3 quarters of a mile stretch of water cleaved off of the main habour by Halifax Peninsula. On the earliest maps of the region the Arm is noted as Sandwhich or Hawke River. The early explorers of the region seem to have never sailed the full extent of the Arm (and rightly so, the natural and noticeable benefits of the main harbour would have overshadowed the little body of water and distracted the explorers from it) so they never discovered what it truly was. It wasn't until after the colony at Halifax was settled and expanded that the truth about the little harbour would be discovered and noted. The settlers were, afterall, settling into hostile terrain and only the brave of heart wandered out from the palisades at Halifax before the Acadians were removed and the hatchet was buried so the chances to explore the Arm were limited in these early years

Of course, the local Acadian population of the Chebucto region that predated the British, however few there may have been there, would have known about the Arm, and the Mi'kmaw certainly did as well . It was known as Waegwoltic (a name preserved by the Waegwoltic Club today that meant "end of the water") to the Mi'kmaw and it was well traveled by them. Since the arrival of the French in the region the furthest extent of the Arm was the sight of the annual fest of St. Aspinquid. This was a festival instated by the first missionary to Chebucto, Father Thury, who adapted the Mi'kmaq feast that already took place annually on the Arm when the alewives swarmed in abundance, and used it to promote Christianity among the native population. This then French-Mi'kmaq Christian festival continued to be celebrated on the Northwest Arm almost until the 19th century, long after the colony had been made English and settled by the British who allowed the festival to continue on their shores in hopes of strengthening their strained relations with the Mi'kmaw.

The Arm was a sight of leisure for the area. It has through its history seen use of the fisheries as in its earliest days, and also more darkly a prison, but for the most part was the site of the most lavish estates of wealthiest Haligonians. It had been favoured from the outset of the British colony for its natural beauty and the shelter it was afford as compared to the harbour. It was quiet and secluded, but still has access to the main harbour and the wider ocean beyond. It is now the site of many clubs: yatch clubs, boating clubs, tennis clubs, and the Waegwaltic. Much of the natural beauty has been retained since many of the estates that bordered the Arm have been converted to parks.

Deadmans Island and Melville Prison

Meville's Prison and Deadmans- 1889. Photo Courtesy of the NS Archives.

Deadmans Island is, ironically enough, not an island at all, but a small peninsula on the Northwest Arm after having been connect by a causeway some years ago. It is easily missed as one looks across the Arm as it is just an empty wooded hill sandwiched between The Armdale Yacht club and Stanford Fleming park. For many years, it seems, that though the sister site of the Melville Prison which is now part of the yatch club remained a well know feature of the Arm, Deadmans faded from the public consciousness until the early 2000's when a developer proposed to build a condo complex on the island, which met with opposition by those who knew there were several hundred unmarked graves on the island.

The Island ominous name apparently does not actually come from these hundreds of graves, as one might expect, but rather the name “Deadmans Island” was derived from the knowledge of it as the resting place of one soldier. Back at the turn of the century there had stood a cross on the island, with a stone slab under it reading:

Sacred to the memory

of

John Dixon

of Sydney K.B.,

who died on the

6th of August, 1817.

Erected by the

VIII King’s Foot.

Many stories circulated about this unfortunate soul, all revolving around the old Melville Prison a short hop across the water. It from this island that all of those who were buried on Deadmans came, whether prisoners, refugees or otherwise. However, this is the only sure part of the mystery soldiers story. Some locals used to say that he was an inmate who took his own life in jail. The soldiers who guarded the prison, telling a more elaborate tale, told of Dixon as a star-crossed lover, enamoured with the daughter of his regiment’s colonel. He had been handsome, strong and rose quickly in the ranks. His duties soon found him working and living at the colonel’s quarters and in closeness to the colonel’s eighteen year-old daughter, with whom he had developed a secret love affair. Once this was discovered by the colonel, Dixon was quickly demoted to private soldier and stripped of the rights and quarter’s of his previous rank. While still reeling from this, the colonel arranged for him to be falsely accused by another soldier of theft. Dixon was tried by court-martial, found guilty and locked away in Melville prison. Unable to bear the circumstance, he killed himself and was buried across the water on Deadman’s Island. His grave stood on the island until the 1930's, when the owner of the land donated it to the Provincial museum.

Though the "island" got its name from this lonely grave, for many years the residents of nearby Jolimore had known that many other graves where there, and had connected them to the prison. There were many stories about people going to the island after storms and seeing bones churned out of the shallow graves. Even today you can recognize the graves of many by the indents left by the soft earth of their burial sites as compared to the stony ground around them. In the 1920's, rather surprisingly, the island actually played host to an amusement park, where for a small fee brave visitors could go into a room a gaze upon three skulls the owner had dredged up in building the dance pavilion on the "island". So well into the 19th century the island was know to have a darker side apart form its name.

Beyond the name, the history of the island is long and complicated and inextricably tied to the history of nearby Melville Island, where the notorious prison still stands today, though refurbished as a Yatch Club. The ownership and use of Melville's has changed many times over its 264 year recorded history, and each change affected the history of Deadmans just as much. So, to avoid confusing the history, the rest will be told as closely to chronological order as possible.


Though both Melville Island and Deadmans would inevitably go down in the books for their rather brutal nature, their early history was quite mundane. Before the arrival of the English, the arm in general was the favored location for many Mi'Kmaq to hold the feast of St. Aspinquid each spring, a tradition set up by the french which continued well into the late 1700's, even though the founders had been vanquished from the province. This feast was likely still held here during the first two ownership of Melville's and Deadmans.

When the English first arrived at Chebucto Harbour, a 160 acre grant which included Mellville Cove was granted to Robert Cowie, a baker from whom Cowie Hill takes its name. He and John Aubony, a tavern owner and fellow first settler, had planned to build a storage shed on the island which they were going to protect with a blockhouse. Strangely, almost immediately after their construction the island was put up for sale. This was likely due to Aubony death in 1753. It took 30 years to sell.

James Kavanagh, a merchant in Halifax bought the land 1784 from Cowie's executors after Cowie's death. He was heavily involved in the local fishery, and used Melville Island to run his operations. He never lived on the island. He lived out his days on Sackville St in Halifax. During this ownership, Melville was known as Kavanagh's Island.

It was during the opening of the Napoleonic War that the idea of having a proper prison in the colony of Nova Scotia first began to be seriously discussed. Before this time any enemies captured were held in the hull of ships in the harbour, or at the Naval Dockyard. However, in 1793, when the Napoleonic War began, Governor Wentworth proposed using Kavanagh's Island as a permanent prison. The Northwest Arm was quite remote in the late 1700's, and in an age when few could swim, even the barely waterbound island offered a deterrent for escape. But Wentworth would not gain support until two years into the war when overcrowding on the ships and in the Naval Hospital at the dockyard became and issue as the port flooded with French prisoners. Kavanagh's fishing storehouses were annexed into service as hospitals for the overwhelming number of ill prisoners. This set the stage for the lease of the island in 1803 for use as a prison. In 1804 the Admiralty offered Kavanagh $1000 for the island. From then on it officially became Melville Island after the new First Lord of the Admiralty, Henry Dundas, Viscount of Melville.

  In the early years of the island being used as a prison, the prisoners were granted a great deal of freedom compared to what might be expected today, or even what its reputation would lead you to believe. However, these men were not considered dangerous criminals, and the rules of 19th century warfare demanded a certain amount of civility be shown to prisoner's of war. They were held more as bargaining chips than anything else. For the first two years the prisoners where free to leave the island and go into town. However, after a incident of revolt in 1805, both the prisoners and the guards were cracked down on. 1808 saw the construction for a proper wood prison to replace the storehouses. At the same time an officers' quarters was constructed on the high point of the island. Still, journal descriptions form prisoners in these early days depict the island prison as more like a village than what we would imagine as a prison. The inmate pursued trades in and outside of the prison, made money, bought goods, kept animals and some even had houses on the island. The french prisoners became so well known for their craftsmanship that the island actually served as an attraction for the the citizens of Halifax, who would travel out to the island to visit the market the prisoners' had set up in the common area of the island. Even still, some 130 French soldiers escaped in this time and many more tried. This period was also when the first recorded use of Deadman's Island as a burial ground. Apparently somewhere around 56 prisoners where buried here during this time.

The tone at the prison changed drastically with the opening of the war of 1812, a war, which unlike the Napoleonic wars, hit close to home. For the first time since the American Revolution, there was a serious threat to Nova Scotia from its home soil. The province was abuzz with concern, and the seas swarming with America Privateers, Warships and several hundred fishing vessels which its citizens had fitted out with guns to help take out the last remaining British colonies. To protect itself and the King's interests in Canada, Nova Scotia had to keep the ocean passages safe or they would risk being cut off from Britain entirely. To do so, the government sanctioned piracy against the Americans. From Halifax and the South Shore, Nova Scotian Privateers set out to capture "Prizes" of any warships and merchant vessels they could catch. In return for their service, anything that could be sold salvaged from the ships would be split between the Privateers and the government. This arrangement proved profitable for both sides.

The "prizes" were all brought into Halifax to be turned over to the local government and with them the crews of the captured ships, most of whom were interred at Melville Prison. During the first four months alone nearly 2000 prisoners went through Melville, the majority of which were either from the American Prize ships, or local vessels who had challenged the blockade against the New England ports. This was added to the numbers of French and Spanish prisoners already being held there, since the Napoleonic Wars would not end until 1815, after the war of 1812 had already come to a close. At one time, the little island prison held 1800 people. This lead to overcrowding, and brought with it all the disease and discontent that usually goes along with it. The descriptions of the prisoners interred her during these time were a far cry from those which the earlier french prisoners had left. The prisoners were stacked in hammocks in the all to small accommodations and had taken to gambling and planning their escapes as the primary forms of entertainment. A great majority of the prisoners were infested with lice, and pneumonia, small pox, dysentery and typhoid all ran rampant through the ranks. To make the stay even more unbearable, with the number of escape attempts and the rather regular vandalism committed by the officers who had been allowed to roam the town, security tightened drastically.

The War of 1812 ended on Christmas Eve 1814, which brought an end to this particularly dark chapter of the island's history, though another fifty or so prisoners died in the months it took for word of the wars end to reach Halifax in March. During this time many American prisoners died due to the poor conditions, and with the exception of some of the high ranking officers who were buried in St. Paul's, nearly all were tossed into the graves of Deadman's Island.

When the wars ended in 1815, the prison closed and was left empty, however, over the following decades it found itself in use for other purposes. When the close of the war of 1812 saw the arrival of nearly 800 African American refugees from the States, they all stayed at the prison while the government sorted out where to settle them. Their stay was only over the course of a year before they were all placed in such places as Preston and Hammonds Plains. Those who died during their stay on Melville were usually buried on Deadmans', since few had settled families in the area to bury them.

Over long stretches of time in the following decades the island was left empty, which made it a logical place to use as a Quarantine; a common fate of islands around Halifax Harbour. Being a port town, Halifax was particularly susceptible to epidemics, which were picked up by crews and passengers on the ships and left to fester in the closed quarters. Quarantines were a necessary feature of port towns of the 18th century to keep these infected ships from infecting the town itself and causing serious harm to the local population. With Melville Islands still far from the town, and its removal from the mainland except by a guarded bridge, it was a logical place to treat the infected crews and passengers until they were well enough to be integrated into town. The use of the island for this purpose would have certainly swelled the numbers buried on Deadmans, since, like the refugees before them, most of these patients would have been far from their families and would have had no one to pay for a proper burial or headstone. The last time that Deadman's Island appears to have been used for burial was during this period of the Island's use as a Quarantine. During this time, the island was also intermittently used as a training depot for the British Army. It is probably during this time that Deadman's earliest known name arose, which was Target Island, presumable due to its use as a target range.

It was in 1856 that the prison would see its use as a prison again, though this time not for foreign captives but for the Citadel's own soldiers. During this time flogging was decreasingly viewed as an acceptable way to punish soldiers for poor behavior and imprisonment was increasingly the punishment of the day, however, the military establishments soon found themselves struggling to accommodate the number of ill behaved soldiers. Melville Island, after forty years of occasional use but longer periods of vacancy, was seen as the answer. A schoolhouse was built, and grounds made to exercise the prisoners, both of which had been sorely lacking and achievable where they had been held in the Citadel. The prisoners were set to hard labour, most often set to the task of breaking granite from Purcell's Cove. The island saw a great deal of improvement with the regular traffic and labour. Housing was built for the officers stationed there, the sewers were cleaned regularly by the inmates who also performed other maintenance tasks like monthly chimney sweeping. The island also saw its first regular ferry service, which ran for the foot of Jubilee Road to speed the passage of the new prisoners, the officers and visitors to the island. This is also the period when the now iconic stone prison was built, which was a much needed upgrade to the poor conditions of the old wooden prison which remained next to it. After the Canadian Military took over ownership when the British pulled out of the country in 1905, the mainland portion of the grounds was sold off to Charles Longley. This included Deadman's Island.

While the Island continued to be used as a Military Detention center the mainland was made into an amusement park by Longley. He called this park Melville Park. The primary entertainment seemed to be a dance hall he set up on Deadmans Island, which ran dances on Tuesday and Thursday nights. There were other forms of entertainment as well, including pipers, water sports and even a room for the brave of heart where Longley had strung up three skulls he had unearth in his yard on the "island". He built a covered pavilion on Deadmans, and also a number of cottages for vacationers to stay in. Unfortunately, his business seems to have suffered, like due to its unfortunate proximity to the military detention center which was in heavy use during both World Wars and remained open until 1947. His mortgage was foreclosed in 1927, but the park was reopened under new ownership in 1930 by A.J Davis.

Until the beginning of WWII, Melville Island continued to be used as a detention center for the Canadian Military, though during WWI it was used as a prison for German and Austrian prisoners of war. It was then that prisoners began to be held on MacNab's while Melville became an ammunition storage site, much to the displeasure of the neighborhood who felt this was unsafe and given the explosion at Magazine Hill in WWII, they can't be blamed. Once the war was over, the neighbourhood encouraged the Armdale Yacht Club to purchase the island. The Yacht Club has remained ever since.

After A.J Davis' park closed in the 30's Deadman's passed into private ownership and the "island" passed out of public memory. Though the homeowner commonly came across bones protruding from the ground around his home and donated many of these to the provincial museum, all that was generally remembered by my time was the dark history of the nearby Melville Prison, and the horrid conditions inside during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. That is until the little peninsula was slated for development in 1998. At this point the alarm was raised, and the potential of unmarked graves beneath the site began to get national, and some international attention. As a result, the claims had to be investigated.

The surveyor's reports concluded that there was somewhere in the vicinity of 35 bodies laying beneath the soil, however the city commissioned historian, Brian Cuthbertson determined it could contain almost 400; half of which were probably American soldiers captured in the war of 1812. According to the research, all of these men died in the the squalor of the prison, and were buried in a mass grave on the peninsula. The attention this research brought back to the little peninsula lead to its establishment as a park, in order to preserve it as a heritage site and to promote American tourism within the province, as it did during last years war of 1812 celebrations.



If anyone is looking for more information on Melville or Deadmans, the most detailed account I found was Deadmans: Mellville Island and its burial ground by Iris Shea and Heather Watts.
This site was also very helpful.
You can also find a fair bit in Sketches and Traditions of the Northwest Arm by John W Regan.

Joseph Howe's poem about the Melville Prison may be of interest as well.