Sailing
Ships of the Maritimes
As
soon as the morning chores were done, we headed to the hay barn near
Amor’s field.
Cliff had packed a hand saw, hammers, nails, spikes and rope in an old
book bag. I carried a candy pail with a lunch that Mum had prepared.
Some repairs had been done to the hay barn and the old boards had been
piled nearby. We worked most of the morning building a raft. Finally it
was ready for the sail down the brook. As we neared the Black Bridge,
we saw Gramp and Gram sitting on the verandah.
While Cliff poled, I jumped up and down, waved my arms and shouted to
attract their attention. Suddenly one of the boards broke, swallowing
my foot, causing me to fall. This threw Cliff off balance, knocking him
into the water.
Soaking wet, we made our way to the house. Gram was concerned about our
being hurt but Gramp simply asked, “Did the shipwrights use rotten
boards in building the brig?”.
As usual I didn’t have a clue what he was talking about. If we had
lived in one of the shipbuilding spots on the Maritime Coasts or
Rivers, where hundreds of ships were built, I would have known.
“Sailing Ships of the Maritimes:
An Illustrated History Of Shipping And Shipbuilding In The Maritime
Provinces of Canada 1750-1925" by Charles A. Armour and
Thomas Lackey offers a lively and authoritative account of the
development of Maritime sailing ships, from the privateers of the
eighteenth century to the magnificent clipper ships of the nineteenth
century and the swift schooners of the early twentieth century. It
covers not only the ships, but the men who built, owned and sailed
them.
In 1825, forty-five of the 145 vessels built in Saint John were brigs -
vessels with two masts, both square rigged.
The ‘Tantivy’,
a brig of 313 tons and 103 feet long, was built by Samuel Huston at
Norton and launched on 24 Oct. 1827. The owners were Thomas Hanford and
Thomas Raymond of Saint John. It was lost on Sable Island in 1834.
Prominent shipbuilders of Charlotte County in the 1830s and 1840s
included Joshua Briggs, John N. M. Brewer, James Rait, and Robert and
John Townsend. Many of the larger vessels were being built for British
owners.
Robert Ellis came to New Brunswick from Tynemouth, England. In 1823 he
established a shipyard at Tynemouth Creek, Saint John County. The yard
was taken over by his sons-in-law, John S. Parker and Richard Lovett.
John Robertson was a major ship owner and timber merchant in Saint
John. In 1867 he was appointed to the Senate.
Some of the shipyards owners in St. Martins were James Moran, David
Vaughan, George Marr, Jacob Bradshaw, William Vail, William Brown and
Samuel Carson.
The ‘S. L. Tilley’
was built in the yard of Seely and Roberts, at the Straight Shore
(Saint John) under the superintendency of Thomas Morgan.
The first of the major shipbuilders in Sackville were four members of
the Boultenhouse family: Bedford, Christopher, John and William.
Some names connected to shipbuilding in Hopewell are John Calhoon,
James Brewster, George Rogers, Samuel Clark, James Whitney, William
Hickman, and the Bennett family.
John Fletcher Taylor, Charles Edward Taylor and John Peabody Burpee
owned and operated a fleet of seventeen vessels.
Ships were built with the sweat of the brow. Some of the tools used
were, adze, fid, sailor’s palm, plane, and the broad axe.
“Prizes and Privateers” proved to be a very interesting chapter to me.
Paintings, photographs, logbooks, plans and other illustrations provide
information on vessels, builders, shipbuilding centers, hardships,
humour and tragedy of life on board a sailing ship.
The 1975 publication, “Sailing Ships
of the Maritimes: An Illustrated History Of Shipping And Shipbuilding
In The Maritime Provinces of Canada 1750-1925" by Charles A.
Armour and Thomas Lackey is available at several libraries and research
institutions.
***
Query 1321
Golding:
Samuel Wright Golding was born in Saint John, New Brunswick in 1843.
Interested in any information about his life and career.
STEVEN EVANS
177 Douglas Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
Canada, M5M 1G7
Telephone 416-485-2173
E-mail steven.evans@sympatico.ca
Query 1322
Foster-
Weyman- McLeod: Who were the parents of Elizabeth Foster,
born 1781 in Lower Millstream, Kings County? Elizabeth married
Henry Weyman in 1799 in Sussex Parish. Henry died in 1807 and Elizabeth
married Robert McLeod of Lower Millstream in 1811. Henry’s burial
place is unknown. Elizabeth and Robert are buried in Lester Cemetery in
Lower Millstream.
BARBARA F. PEARSON
476 Pearsonville Road,
Pearsonville, NB
Canada, E5P1S6
Telephone 506-433-3569
E-mail barbara3@nb.sympatico.ca
Query 1323
FitzMaurice:
Edward FitzMaurice, (1780-1842) and his wife Mary arrived in New
Brunswick about 1830 and settled in Rollingdam, Charlotte County. They
had three children John, James, and Ellen.
BERNARD FitzMAURICE
P.O. Box 34, Holden
Maine, 04429, USA
E-mail: fitz1959@netzero.com
