Mnufacturing

Ship Building

Sailing vessels were the best and in many instances the only form of transportation before the coming of the steam ship and the motor car in the eighteenth and nineteenth century. At least forty-five vessels were built on the Tryon River over the period of seventy-nine years from 1789 to 1868.1

The first ship built on the tryon River was the 23 ton Tryon launched in 1789. She was broken up in 1791 and owner William Warren replaced her with the 35 ton Tryon II the same year. The last two ships launched from the Tryon River shipyards were the rather inappropriately named Morning Star and the Break of Day built by William Clark in 1858 and 1868 respectively.2 See Appendix A.

The most active ship building years were from 1840 to 1846 when eighteen vessels were constructed. The largest sailing ships built were the 230 ton Urgent built in 1840 for Robert Morton and William Lord, and the 213 ton Antelope built in 1841 for William Griffeth and William Warren.3

William Muirhead, son of Robert Muirhead and Mary Sharpe of North Tryon, was a seaman and owner of the Brig William and Charlotte, built below the Aboiteau, on the southwest side of the bridge, and launched in 1845. William Muirhead and his wife Charlotte Wright lived in Tryon. The story of the last voyage of the William and Charlotte and its sequel was recounted years later in the Wright History by Christopher Wright, nephew of Charlotte and William:

Uncle William loaded his vessel with produce and cleared for Newfound land. It was lovely, fine weather but the ship never reached Newfoundland. It was a great mystery what happened to her.

Uncle William was his own captain, and one of his crew was Garvey McCann, who lived on the Bedeque Road. Several nights after they left Tryon, Aunt Charlotte had a strange dream. She got up in the middle of the night and went over to her brother-in-lawjames Muirhead ’3 home and told him William was murdered.

The dream was dismissed in Tryon circles as a woman’s dream, but Aunt Charlotte was sure she would never see her William again. And she never did. Some years later at Goose River, Nova Scotia, a fellow was going along the road and felt thirsty. He went to a house and asked for a glass of water. One of Aunt Hannah ’s girls gave it to him in a cup. He was just raising it to his lips when Aunt Hannah came into the kitchen. She looked at the man, and he looked at her, and they recognized each other. He dropped the cup, turned, and ran for all he was worth.

It was Carvey McCann. It was believed the mystery was solved. McCann

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