Bluenose was a fishing and racing gaff rig schooner built in 1921 in Nova Scotia, Canada. A celebrated racing ship and fishing vessel, Bluenose under the command of Angus Walters, became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s, serving as a working vessel until she was wrecked in 1946. Nicknamed the "Queen of the North Atlantic", she was later commemorated by a replica, Bluenose II, built in 1963. The name Bluenose originated as a nickname for Nova Scotians from as early as the late 18th century.
Yarmouth is a port town located on the Bay of Fundy in southwestern Nova Scotia, Canada. Yarmouth is the shire town of Yarmouth County and is the largest population centre in the region.
The Dominion Atlantic Railway was a historic railway which operated in the western part of Nova Scotia in Canada, primarily through an agricultural district known as the Annapolis Valley.
Marco Polo was a three-masted wooden clipper ship, launched in 1851 at Saint John, New Brunswick. She was named after Venetian traveler Marco Polo. The ship carried emigrants and passengers to Australia and was the first vessel to make the round trip from Liverpool in under six months. Later in her career, the ship was used as a cargo ship before running aground off Cavendish, Prince Edward Island, in 1883.
Ezra Churchill : Nineteenth-century industrialist, investing in shipbuilding, land, timber for domestic and foreign markets, gypsum quarries, insurance companies, hotels, etc. As a politician he held positions in the Nova Scotia legislature and was appointed a Canadian Senator for the Province of Nova Scotia. Churchill was also a Baptist lay preacher.
Cape Forchu is a Canadian fishing community and headland of the same name in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia.
CSS Acadia is a former hydrographic surveying and oceanographic research ship of the Hydrographic Survey of Canada and its successor the Canadian Hydrographic Service.
William D. Lawrence was a full-rigged sailing ship built in Maitland, Nova Scotia, along the Minas Basin and named after her builder, the merchant and politician William Dawson Lawrence (1817–1886).
Stag was a barque built in Nova Scotia which was renowned for her speed. Designed by a pioneering Canadian naval architect Ebenezer Moseley, Stag was built with a dramatic "Aberdeen bow". Considered an Atlantic Canadian example of a Clipper Ship, she was famous for several fast passages, despite her small size, and was painted by the famous Nova Scotian ship portrait artist John O'Brien.
Kings County was a four-masted barque built in 1890 at Kingsport, Nova Scotia on the Minas Basin. She was named to commemorate Kings County, Nova Scotia and represented the peak of the county's shipbuilding era. Kings County was one of the largest wooden sailing vessels ever built in Canada and one of only two Canadian four-masted barques. At first registered as a four-masted full-rigged ship, she was quickly changed to a barque after her June 2 launch. More than three thousand people from Kings and Hants counties attended the launch. She survived a collision with an iceberg on an 1893 voyage to Swansea, Wales. Like many of the large wooden merchant ships built in Atlantic Canada, she spent most of her career far from home on trading voyages around the world. In 1909, she returned to the Minas Basin for a refit at Hantsport and loaded a large cargo of lumber. In 1911 she became the largest wooden ship to enter Havana Harbour when she delivered a cargo of lumber and was briefly stranded. She was lost a few months later on a voyage to Montevideo, Uruguay when she ran aground in the River Plate. Too damaged to repair, she was scrapped in Montevideo where her massive timbers were visible for many years.
Hamburg was a three masted barque built in 1886 at Hantsport, Nova Scotia. She was the largest three masted barque ever built in Canada.
County of Yarmouth was a full-rigged ship built in Belliveau's Cove, Nova Scotia in 1884. She was the largest wooden ship ever built for shipowners in Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia, and the second largest wooden ship ever built in Canada, only a few tons less than the ship William D. Lawrence. The ship was one of a series of very large wooden ships proudly named after major shipbuilding counties of Nova Scotia at the end of the Age of Sail. William D. Lovitt, owner of a fleet of ships from Yarmouth, began as the sole owner. The ship enjoyed a profitable decade of service circling the globe several times but most often trading between South American, Canadian and British ports. She survived a serious grounding at Low Point, Cape Breton in 1893. After being dismasted in December 1895, she was to be broken up at Grimsby, England but was purchased by the government of Argentina as a school ship.
Canada was a full-rigged ship built in 1891 at Kingsport, Nova Scotia on the Minas Basin and was the largest sailing ship operated in Canada when launched in 1891. Canada was built and owned by Charles Rufus Burgess of nearby Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Despite the decline in wooden shipbuilding, Burgess saw that there was still potential for very large wooden sailing ships to make profits in the twilight days of the wooden sailing ship era. He had built the barque Kings County, the previous year, the largest four-masted barque ever built in Canada. Burgess planned to make Canada to be the largest sailing ship ever built in Canada, but damage, during harvesting, to a timber intended for the keel caused her length to be trimmed by ten feet making Canada slightly smaller than the ship William D. Lawrence built in 1874. However, as the William D. Lawrence had been sold to Norwegian owners and renamed in 1883, the ship Canada still claimed the honour of being the largest sailing ship under the Canadian flag at the time of her launch. Between 75 and 150 men were employed in building the ship. Canada was designed by master builder Ebenezer Cox who was in charge of the Burgess Shipyard in Kingsport where he had built ships since the 1860s and was regarded at the time to have built more ships than any man in Canada. The construction cost $111,000. Her interior included a finely outfitted captain's cabin, finished in walnut, ash and rosewood with a full dining room, office and bathroom. Her launch at noon on July 6, 1891 attracted 5,000 people from all across Western Nova Scotia, brought by multiple special trains run by the Cornwallis Valley Railway. It was regarded as the biggest event in the history of the village. A tug took the completed hull of Canada from the launch at Kingsport to Saint John, New Brunswick where the masting, rigging and outfitting was completed at the Customs House Wharf. Her immense size attracted hundreds to the Saint John waterfront to see Canada depart on September 1, 1891 for her maiden voyage, carrying with a cargo of lumber worth $144,109 bound for Liverpool, England. Classed A1 by Lloyd's Register for 14 years, Canada made several fast passages between South America and Australia. However by 1900, the ship was facing stif competition for cargoes from the growing numbers of general cargo steamships. Canada was converted to a gypsum barge in 1910, carrying gypsum from Windsor, Nova Scotia to Staten Island, New York for the Gypsum Transportation Company of New York. She was towed a final time from New York to Portland, Maine in 1926 where she was broken up.
William Dawson Lawrence was a successful shipbuilder, businessman and politician. He built the William D. Lawrence, which is reported to be the largest wooden ship ever built in Canada.
The barque Tikoma was built in Richibucto, New Brunswick, Canada, by John and Thomas Jardine, nephews of the ship builder John Jardine. She was registered in 1877 in Chatham, New Brunswick and sold to O. C. Hansen in 1889. Tikoma was sold to C. Apenes and Son of Fredrikstad, Norway in 1897, and sold once more to Th. Andresen in 1906. She ran aground off Pictou, Nova Scotia, in 1909, and was lost.
Maid of England was a sailing barquentine built in Gross Coques, Digby County, Nova Scotia in 1919 by Omer Blinn. Maid of England was the last square-rigged cargo vessel built in Maritime provinces of Canada. Maid of England was owned by F.K. Warren for nine years, and then later abandoned at sea in 1928.
Calburga was a Canadian barque, the last Canadian-built square-rigger of large tonnage. She was built in 1890 at South Maitland, Nova Scotia by local shipbuilder, Adams MacDougall. Calburga was a spruce built vessel, iron and copper fastened, and equipped with three masts. Calburga boasted luxuries such as a windmill pump installed in 1913 to keep free of water, a wheelhouse completely enclosing the helmsman and wheel gear, round and elliptical stems, and an exterior ornamented by hand-carved scrolling.
Codseeker was a fishing schooner launched in April, 1877 that capsized east of Cape Sable Island, at the southwestern tip of Nova Scotia.
The Pictou Shipyard is a Canadian shipbuilding site located in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, and made famous by its use as an emergency shipbuilding facility in World War Two, during which it constructed twenty-four 4,700-ton Scandinavian class freighters.
Lucy Anne (Rogers) Butler, also known as Annie H. (Rogers) Butler, was a writer and social justice advocate. Her personal diary, which chronicled her travels with Captain John Kendrick Butler during the early years of their marriage, documents the lifestyle of Canadian mariners and their wives and widows during the mid to late 19th century.
