At Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site one July day, visitors look for whales/Jennifer Bain

At the most easterly point of land in Canada, people come to watch and wait.

Some make the 20-minute drive from downtown St. John’s to Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site while it’s still dark to hopefully be the first people on the continent to see the sun rise. That’s too early for me at this time of year (5:09 a.m., give or take), plus Newfoundland and Labrador is full of fog and I’d rather not lose sleep to just see a thick blanket of the white stuff.

Instead, I head to Cape Spear one Sunday in July after a leisurely fish cake brunch at the Merchant Tavern and join the small crowd that’s standing on the rocky peninsula staring wistfully at the Atlantic Ocean and hoping to see migrating whales.

“It’s definitely the best spot to be watching whales,” enthuses Amelia Del Rizzo while leading a guided site tour. She says to be on the lookout for small minkes, playful humpbacks and elusive fins, the second-largest whale species on earth.

Writer Jennifer Bain and her son pose at the rock that marks Canada's most easterly point/Courtesy of Jennifer Bain

And then, right on cue, a vertical blast of spray shoots up from the ocean through a whale's blowhole. A few seconds later, a flash of a whale’s dark back breaks the surface. It’s not big enough or dramatic enough to be a humpback, so it's likely a minke. I kick myself for not taking up Cape Spear’s offer of rental binoculars.

“Last year was my first season here at Cape Spear and I saw a whale every single day of the season that I worked,” Del Rizzo boasts.

The gulls are out in full force and so are the Northern Gannets that dive into the ocean and grab fish on their way back up. They’re feasting on capelin and that means the whales won’t be far behind for a feed of the small silver fish that swim in massive schools and “roll” to shore to spawn. Yesterday, people even spotted puffins — my favorite seabird — from where I’m standing.

“We always say if you see a gannet, you’ll see a whale,” says Del Rizzo. She doesn’t mention icebergs, but this is a prime spot to see them as they make their way south from Greenland, melting as they go.

At a crowded viewing platform, I dutifully take photos of my son and I draped around a rock with a plaque that says “The Most Easterly Point” on it.

The viewing platform that Parks Canada likes Cape Spear visitors to use/Jennifer Bain

I’ve been here before, in the winter to birdwatch and on a miserable windy day before the pandemic, but this is the first time I’ve been able to enjoy Cape Spear in good weather and had someone who could put the national historic site into proper perspective.

The site has three things going on. On top of being Canada’s most easterly point (and the closest Canadian spot to Europe), Cape Spear has the remains of a Second World War coastal defence battery and the province’s oldest surviving lighthouse.

To the gun battery we go, working our way from the whale-watching present to the recent past.

Parks Canada tour guide Amelia Del Rizzo in what's left of a Second World War battery/Jennifer Bain

During the Second World War, this craggy headland was on a direct convoy route from Europe to North American and so German U-boats posed a real threat.

A coastal defence battery, equipped with two 10-foot guns, was built here to protect the entrance to St. John's Harbour. The gun emplacements were built at the tip of the cape and connected by underground passages to magazine and equipment rooms.

Troops — including the Royal Canadian Artillery and various American forces — were stationed at Fort Cape Spear from 1941 to 1945. The barracks, mess halls and canteens are long gone but the concrete bunkers and two guns remain.

This secondhand "disappearing gun" from America was kept hidden from passing enemies/Jennifer Bain

What looks like cannons are “disappearing guns” that hide behind a wall so enemy ships can’t see them. But thanks to a descending carriage and large lead counterweight, they lift up when fired. The guns were first used at Fort Mott on the Delaware River and then sold to Canada in 1941 as part of a wartime arms supply agreement.

“They were fired regularly for practice purposes,” Del Rizzo says, “but they were never fired in anger.” The guns were also too heavy and expensive to move, “so that’s why we have a piece of our history here today.”

The ocean around Cape Spear may look inviting but it's dangerous and can be lethal/Jennifer Bain

As we climb a hill towards two lighthouses, talk turns to how the coastline is dangerous.

“What do we say?” asks Del Rizzo. “If there’s no green, don’t go there.”

Indeed, one sign explains how large waves can occur without warning, sweeping the rocks all the way up to the grass and pulling unsuspecting people into the water and out to sea beyond rescue. “Stay on designated trails. Obey all warning signs. NEVER go near the water!" the sign says, making dramatic use of capital letters and exclamation marks. "People have DIED here after being swept from the rocks by ocean waves!”

The somewhat modern, active lighthouse can only be admired from outside/Jennifer Bain

For Del Rizzo, the most interesting part of the tour is the lighthouse history.

We don't spend much time outside the active lighthouse that was built in 1957 to replace the historic lighthouse. But we do hear that its distinctive light signal is “three short flashes every 15 seconds.” A lightkeeper’s house is closed but might become a café. The assistant lightkeeper’s home is now the Cape Spear Art Gallery featuring paintings and drawings of the province’s historic lighthouses by Leslie H. Noseworthy. It’s run privately by the by the Canadian Coast Guard Newfoundland Region Alumni Association.

Finally, we arrive at the lighthouse this site is named for.

Parks Canada's Amelia Del Rizzo stands outside Cape Spear's historic lighthouse/Jennifer Bain

The heritage lighthouse was designated as historically significant in 1962 for its age and architecture. To protect the commemorative integrity of the site, Parks Canada restored it to its original appearance and Cape Spear was officially opened to the public in 1983 by Prince Charles and Princess Diana.

According to Parks Canada, this was “only the second light to offer aid along any of Newfoundland's rocky coasts, even though the island had at the time been populated for two centuries.” A light was placed at Fort Amherst, at the entrance to St. John's Harbour, in 1810. Cape Spear was second when the newly created legislative assembly authorized lighthouses to aid coastal navigation and set local builders Nicholas Croke and William Parker to work.

The original wood-framed building was square and two storeys with a stone light tower in its middle. It launched in 1836 with a used light from Scotland that had a 17-second flash of white light, followed by 43 seconds of darkness. A fog horn was added in 1878.

The inside of the historic lighthouse has been carefully restored as a light keeper's residence from 1839/Jennifer Bain

Multiple generations of the famous Cantwell family of lightkeepers ran Cape Spear. Now the lighthouse has been restored to its original appearance and refurnished as a light keeper's residence to the period of 1839.

Parks Canada calls the combined residence/lighthouse an excellent design choice given the challenging weather conditions. It also says the building “an excellent illustration of the Neoclassical style applied to a lighthouse.” It’s characterized by its symmetry, balanced proportions and use of Neoclassical detailing.

“British neoclassical is very, very rare to find in North America,” says Del Rizzo. “In England, it was very unpopular and going out of style.”

The tour ends and we're left to explore the inside of the lighthouse on our own before taking one last look out to sea for hungry, migrating whales and then heading back to town for our own feed of fish.