(; , ) is in Atlantic Canada between Cape Ray, Newfoundland, and Cape North, Cape Breton Island.
The strait, approximately 110 kilometres wide, is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence into the Atlantic Ocean, the others being the Strait of Belle Isle and Strait of Canso. It is named for the Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto.
The steep slope of the Laurentian Channel was the site of a disastrous submarine landslide at the southeastern end of the strait, triggered by the 1929 Grand Banks earthquake and leading to a tsunami that devastated communities along Newfoundland's south coast and parts of Cape Breton Island.
In October 1942, German U-boat U-69 torpedoed and sank the unlit Newfoundland ferry , killing 137 people. Then on 25 November 1944 HMCS Shawinigan was torpedoed and sunk with all hands on board (91 crew) by .
In 1998, the Cypriot bulk carrier the split in half in the Cabot Strait while sailing from Rotterdam to Quebec with the loss of 21 lives on board.
The Trans Canada Microwave system was extended to Newfoundland in 1959. To get it to Newfoundland, it was fed from Sydney, Nova Scotia to a repeater in Cape North that was 427 metres above sea-level. That allowed it cross the 127 kilometres across the Cabot Strait to a repeater station perched 198 metres above sea-level in Red Rocks, Newfoundland and Labrador. From there, the signal was microwaved over land to St. John's.
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