Hatchet Cove: From the SWHS website: The origin of the name Hatchet Cove is not known, but folklore has it that on a calm night water lapping against the rocks created a sound much like the chopping of an axe.

An interesting story is one about the 'hatchet man' - many times, day and night, you could hear the sound of someone chopping wood with an axe, hence Hatchet Cove.

Some say the name is in honour of Rev. Henry Hatcher, a Methodist minister who was stationed at Shoal Harbour, and was called Hatcher's Cove prior to Hatchet Cove.

This is unlikely as per Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador which states Rev. Hatcher was stationed at Sound Island - Haystack until 1877 when he was ordained and stationed on the Shoal Harbour charge 1878-1879.

We find Hatchet Cove listed as a community on the 1873 voters' list for Trinity Bay.

This information varies differently from the history presented in the Decks Awash (Vol. 15, No. 6, Nov.-Dec. 1986): Most people would attribute the community's name to the predominance of lumbering from the early days of settlement.

The truth is, however, that the community was first called Hatcher's Cove, from the connection with the Reverend Henry Hatcher who was stationed at Shoal Harbour in the late 1870s.

Rex Clarke (1969) suggests Hatchet Cove was founded by the brother of Stephen Blundon of Bay de Verde who began a logging operation at Hickman's Harbour on Random Island in 1799.

Around 1910, some Blundon families changed their name to Blundell but the Blundons of Hatchet Cove did not. And then there is another theory, that espoused by Hamilton (1996).

He suggests that the name comes, oddly from the "nickname" for an Atlantic Puffin, "hatchet" or "hatchet face". If one turns a hatchet on its side,
and looks at its shape, and compares that to the beak of a puffin, the shape is very similar, hence the nickname.

The Atlantic puffin, the only puffin native to the Atlantic Ocean breeds on islands off the coast of Newfoundland. Seen in late spring when it returns from its winter out in the open cold northern seas to breed, it the "official bird symbol" of Newfoundland and as such has become a familiar icon that one sees depicted on just about every second item one can find in a tourist shop - puffin magnets, key rings, towels, oven mitts, even underwear - no guff!

Unfortunately, in 2018 BirdLife International reported that puffin is under threat of becoming extinct.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/HatchetCove