Historical Accounts

Ships and Sails and Glorious Tales
© Deborah Carr 2000
published in the County Chronicle, March 15, 2000

Frequently these winter days, on trips to Moncton from my home in Hopewell Cape, I find myself traveling through the pastel hours of dawn and dusk when the world is drawn from muted splashes of seashell pink and white chocolate and dove grey....

As always, the river draws my gaze as a magnet, its blushing reflection of the sky a stroke of color bringing life to a silent painting.

And my imagination clears away the clutter of the past 150 years to the days when elegance, grace, and beauty filled the bay and river - stately wooden sailing ships, white sails unfurled, destined for adventure and other worlds.

In 1878, Canada ranked #4 among ship-owning countries and the Maritimes contributed in a significant way to that distinction. While the Albert County area is rarely mentioned in formal discussions of Maritime shipbuilding fame, there was barely a creek that was not the birthplace of several vessels. Albert County alone registered over 330 ships of varying tonnage during the peak shipbuilding years. Part of the reason for this obscurity may be that many of these ships sailed to Saint John for fitting, rigging, and registration, then were sold overseas, never to return to home waters again.

Barques, barqentines, brigs, brigantines, schooners, and ships were distinguishable by variations on the masts, sails, and rigging. The shipbuilding era was primarily responsible for population and economic growth in the area, employing hundreds of workers, crafts, and tradesmen and attracting associated businesses.

As ships were expensive to construct, most often builders sold shares in the vessel. Shares could be bought or exchanged for labour or materials. If the ship remained the property of the builder, then all shareholders divided the profits generated by the export of lumber, white pine masts, gypsum products, sandstone, and coal oil.

Most of the design work was done by a foreman, or master builder, who made a miniature half model of the vessel that could be taken apart in horizontal layers. Several of these half models are on display in a new shipbuilding exhibit at the Albert County Museum. The ships were primarily built of the plentiful pine, spruce, and hackmatack (tamarack) of the area.

Vessels constructed of hackmatack were considered to be the finest, most durable and buoyant. The best ships were constructed using hardwood spikes, dovetailing, and treenails, which, as the name suggests, were wooden nails that expanded and become watertight when wet.

The first known Petitcodiac boats were log dugouts, built by early settlers as their main means of transportation. Legend states Heinrich Stief (Steeves) built the first Albert County dugout in order to investigate the sound of muskets that could be heard from British troops practicing across the river in Fort Lawrence. He later built a larger boat to conduct trading at the fort.

The first documented vessel after the arrival of the Pennsylvania Planters appears to be the Good Brig, built by John Polley at Hopewell Cape in 1793.

The first registered vessel was the Betsey in 1803, built by John Dudgeon in Hopewell Hill. It was a small 51-ton schooner, constructed for the purpose of marketing his lumber and farm produce down the coast as far as Maine. She was put together entirely with wood, using treenails, a saw, broad axe, auger, adze, and a homemade plane. John's wife and daughters wove the linen pieces by hand that, when stitched together, formed the sails. In 1824, he built a second Betsey, somewhat smaller at 37 tons. There may have been a third 'Betsy', but if so, she was never registered.

In 1839, Alexander Wright moved his small shipyard near Five Points to Boundary Creek for easier launching. Wright built six vessels in his yard, two of which were the Salisbury and the Petitcodiac, the latter being the last ship built in the Salisbury area. The vessels were moved down river through a 'draw' in the bridge that connected Moncton and Coverdale.

Further downstream, small shipyards existed at Stoney Creek, Edgetts Landing, Waterside, and Point Wolfe, but the most productive yards were located at Hopewell Cape, Hamilton Creek, Harvey Bank and Alma.

The Bennetts, Calhouns, Pyes and Newcombs made Hopewell Cape famous for its shipbuilding. Nathan and Josiah Bennett teamed up to build 18 ships together at a yard near the Rocks, while two other brothers, Capt. William and Nehemiah Bennett combined talents to send 17 ships to sea from their yard farther upriver.

John and Edward Pye, Gilbert and Andrew Newcomb, James, William, and 'Little Jack' Calhoun and Herbert Condon (masterbuilder), were all well-known names associated with the construction of many ships and turned out a combined total of 36 ships.

Capt. Warren Dixon built a barque and two schooners in the Cape, one of which, the Gladys MacLauchlan under the command of Capt. Joe Read, struck a coral reef and was lost between Jamaica and Barbados during her first year. Builder, Herb Condon, who had shares in the vessel, was required to pay $9 in order to bring back the crew. Capt. Dixon also holds the distinction of having built the last boat in Hopewell Cape in 1903. She was a small river steamer and was almost ready for launching when a large forest fire destroyed 25 buildings in the community, leaving nothing behind of the small craft but her iron bolts and steel fittings.

The next shipyard of consequence was at Hamilton Creek, then known as Sodom Creek, a name perhaps bestowed with consideration to the ships' workmen 'from away', who generously partook of the devil's gin and gambling, to the horror of the good folk who lived there.

In spite of these distractions, 19 ships were built on this creek, with Capt. John Bishop responsible for nine of them. In Harvey, the Turner/Brewster shipyard was responsible for a combined total of 31 ships.

Between 1860 and 1918, approximately 16 ships built by P. C. Copeland set sail from Alma shipyards, but perhaps the most oft-mentioned name associated with shipbuilding in Alma, is that of C. T. White. He launched the sister ships Vincent White and Meredith White, so-named for his own twins, in the fall of 1918, in a gala affair such as Alma had never seen. Wagonloads of people came to watch, a steamer brought guests from across the bay, and locals participated in horse races on Main Street, as all awaited the arrival of the tidal waters for launching.

If it was steam and steel that drove wooden sailing ships to virtual extinction, it was also these factors that inspired our shipbuilders to become masters of perfection in their design and construction of these beautiful vessels. 'Bluenose' ships, as vessels from the Maritimes were frequently referred, were appreciated and known world wide.

These glorious vessels and the courageous men who commanded them paint a most fascinating depiction of our history and their stories serve to remind us how closely we are linked to the chocolate waters that flow close by our doors. These same waters that were such an integral part of our ancestors very existence, are now viewed as simply a splash of color on nature's canvas….and the subject of one romantic's idle daydream.

Author's Note: Both the Albert County Museum in Hopewell Cape and the Old Bank Museum in Riverside-Albert contain fascinating photos and information on the area's shipbuilding history and are worth a visit.