GROSWATER BAY (HAMILTON INLET):

Groswater Bay (translated from French as Big Water Bay) is the name of the "larger bay" however, Hamilton Inlet is more likely to be shown in today's maps.

From Wikipedia comes the following information about the bay, and how its name came about:
in Groswater Bay (Inuttitut: Kangerliorsoak), also known by other names, is a bay south central Labrador, Canada.

Its Hamilton Inlet and Melville Lake extensions stretch 140 km (87 mi) inland.

Groswater Bay's name is a compound formed from French gros ("fat; thick; course, rough") and English water, reflecting the long history of using the arca for fishing.

It has also been know as Ivucktoke or Aviktok (Inuttitut: Aivitok); Eskimo or Esquimaux Bay (French: Baie des Esquimaux, "Bay of the Eskimos"); and St Bay (French: Baie-St Louis).

These names are also sometimes extended to Hamilton Inlet and even Lake Melville.... The Groswater culture of Paleo- Eskimos is named after Groswater Bay.
Hamilton Inlet is a fjord-like inlet of Groswater Bay on the Labrador.... Together with Lake Melville, it forms its province's largest estuary, extending over 140 km (87 mi) inland to Happy Valley-Goose Bay and primarily draining the Churchill River and Naskaupi River watersheds.

Lake Melville is generally considered a part of Hamilton Inlet and extends west of the deep, narrow passage at the community of Rigolet.

It was given its present name in honour of Charles Hamilton, commodore- governor of Newfoundland in the early 1800s and former namesake of the inlet's affluent, the Hamilton River (now the Churchill).

In discussing how place names evolve over time, the following shows how the name of Hamilton Inlet changed, the Rankin Report (mentioned earlier in the section on Bays) made the following comments:

One large bay 5 on the coast of central Labrador was called 'Ivuktoke', or 'walrus place', by the Inuit of the 18th century, reflecting their use of the place for subsistence activities.

French visitors called it "le Baie des Esquimaux" [Eskimo Bay] to reflect their interest in its (to them) exotic inhabitants, and perhaps possibilities for trade.

According to information presented in Wikipedia, it was also called by the French as Baie-St Louis.

Finally, English administrators called the place "Hamilton Inlet", after Sir Charles Hamilton, governor of the colony of Newfoundland, thereby asserting English ownership of the region by identifying it with the ruling class of Britain.

Cape North: The following description, of the actual cape and of the community which goes by the name "Cape North" comes from the ENL:

A low, peaked cape with a double summit formed by two cairns, Cape North lies just north of Cartwright on the coast of Labrador at the southern entrance to Groswater Bay.

During the Nineteenth Century, because of its sheltered anchorage and proximity to excellent cod and salmon fishing, Cape North was probably fished by fishermen based at Cartwright.

In 1901 Cape North was reported for the first time in the census, as a settlement with a population of two, an elderly couple who fished cod and salmon.

Because of its position at the entrance of Groswater Bay between Cartwright and Rigolet there was a need for a light, and in 1909 the Cape North lighthouse was built, and a P. O'Toole was reported to be the lighthouse keeper.

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/22853.html