In the days of the great sailing ships, Yarmouth had more shipping tonnage per capita than almost any other port in the world. Captains who made their fortunes on the routes to the West Indies and Europe came home to build houses worthy of their success. These painted homes, bristling with turrets and ornate verandas, still watch over the town's streets, at the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia. The cruise dock opens onto the waterfront, a few minutes' walk from downtown and its heritage district.

The captains' quarter

A marked walking tour runs through the heritage district, home to dozens of residences in Queen Anne, Georgian and Italianate styles. Local guides tell of fortunes built on the lumber and salt fish trade, of shipwrecks, and of widows who scanned the horizon from the widow's walks perched on the roofs. The loop can be done without hurrying in about sixty minutes, camera in hand, among century-old maples and wrought-iron fences.

Two museums on a human scale

The Yarmouth County Museum, housed in a former granite church, holds one of the largest collections of ship portraits in Canada, navigation instruments and mementos of an era when the town fitted out entire fleets. On the waterfront, the W. Laurence Sweeney Fisheries Museum recreates a 1900s wharf: sheds, workshops, the shipowner's office, smell of tar included. Both can easily be visited in the same morning ashore.

Between visits, Frost Park offers a break in the heart of downtown, around a three-tiered fountain that has stood there for a century and a half. The shop windows on Main Street mix bookshops, cafés and artisan stores, and you sometimes hear the Acadian French of nearby St. Mary's Bay: the town is also the home port of the ferry linking Nova Scotia to Maine, and locals are used to visitors passing through.

Cape Forchu, the sentinel

About fifteen minutes' drive from downtown, the Cape Forchu lighthouse stands on a wind-swept spur of rock at the harbour entrance. Its slender silhouette, shaped like an apple core as locals put it, dates from 1962 and illustrates the striking meeting of sea and granite that characterizes this coast. The surrounding park offers trails, lookouts and a tearoom in the former keeper's house. On clear days, your gaze reaches the fishing banks once frequented by the schooners of old; in fog, the horn sets the rhythm of the visit like a metronome.

Lobster above all

Yarmouth bills itself as one of Canada's great lobster fishing ports: the southwest Nova Scotia fleet lands a significant share of the national catch. On the plate, this means generous lobster rolls, creamy chowders and whole lobsters served without fuss facing the harbour. The surroundings add their Acadian note: the neighbouring St. Mary's Bay region, French-speaking since 1768, gladly shares its rappie pie, a traditional dish of potatoes and poultry found almost nowhere else.

Landmarks for the day

When the foghorn salutes the departure

The ship leaves the harbour along Cape Forchu, whose light sweeps the passage as it does for the lobster boats every winter morning. Yarmouth doesn't raise its voice: it lets its captains' houses, its wooden wharves and its generous table do the talking. Passengers who love ports of call where maritime history can be read on every façade will find here one of the most genuine in the Maritimes.