operations at Chateau. A year after Dr. Wilfred Grenfell's visit to Battle Harbour in 1892 he built a hospital there. One of the first in Labrador, it opened for year-round service with a qualified doctor and nurse on staff in 1893. In 1896 a new wing was added from the remains of two wrecked vessels. In the fall of 1930 Battle Harbour was destroyed by fire so devastating that, Grenfell stated, "even the Marconi Pole on the top of the hill was burned". The new school and the hospital were rebuilt at Mary's Harbour. Economy In 1851 Bishop Edward Feild describes Battle Harbour as probably the oldest, as well as the largest settlement on the Labrador coast. The men who came and stayed there were generally from the Island of Newfoundland that used to bring with them servants from Dorset. Some of the first permanent residents were fishermen, carpenters and coopers from Poole, Dorset, Fogo Island and New World Island. As the community grew, there became an increasing need for supplies and merchants took full advantage of that where in some cases local residents paid as much as 100% beyond the regular cash price for goods. The exclusive monopoly was not challenged until 1918, when Battle Harbour's first co-operative was set up, through the initiative of Dr. Wilfred Grenfell. In 1905 the first Newfoundland government lighthouse in Labrador, called Double Island Light, was set up at Battle Harbour, and in 1921 there was telegraph service installed. After the devastating fire of 1930 and the drastic decline of the fishery in 1950 and the prospect of employment elsewhere led to the resettlement of Battle Harbour in Mary's Harbour, Happy Valley and Epworth under the Fisheries Household Resettlement Programme of 1966. Since 1966 Battle Harbour has been a summer fishing station and in 1980 it was the site of a year-round government weather station. Culture In 1973 the St. John Ambulance originated their successful First Level Health Care Program at Battle Harbour. This program, based on teaching self-help health care and life-saving techniques to the people of isolated communities, received international recognition during its brief tenure, and was used as a model program in over thirty countries in Africa, the Caribbean, the South Pacific and the Middle East. See also Fishing stage List of communities in Newfoundland and Labrador List of ghost towns in Newfoundland and Labrador Footnotes External links Battle Harbour