The Town of Come by Chance is located at the head of Placentia Bay on the Isthmus of Avalon. Originally called Passage Harbour by John Guy in 1612, the name "Comby Chance" was first recorded in 1706, perhaps in reference to the discovery of the harbour by chance. Despite the presence of a telegraph station in the early 1900s, the settlement was almost deserted by the late 1930s. It was then chosen as the site of a cottage hospital (photo) because of its central location in the Trinity Bay-Placentia Bay area (Pitt, 2016).