of lumber, arriving on July Blst. December 30th of the same year found the young veteran bound for Queenstown, South Africa, with a cargo of guano. Nor were such voyages accomplished without peril. On September 30, 1894, the same vessel, 13 days out of Liverpool, was within 200 miles of St. John’s, Newfoundland. On that date, the barque was struck by a tremendous hurricane which carried away her two lower topsails, upper main topsail and three lower staysails, breaking the lower main topsail yard and main yard and also springing the foreyard and lower foretopsail yard. About 20 stanchions on the starboard side were broken, two boats were smashed, and considerable other damage was done to the deck. The captain put the vessel before the wind, and it arrived at the Azores, on the other side of the Atlantic, on October 15th. Other vessels were not as fortunate. In May of 1889, Peake Bros. & Co. were notified that the barque, “Moselle,” built by Coffin and Glover in 1878, was ashore near Bahia, Brazil, probably a total wreck. Again, the “Ella B,” built for Peake Bros. by Coffin and Glover in 1878, capsized on October 11th of the same year when overtaken by a hurricane while sailing in ballast from Liverpool to Charlottetown. The crew, eight in all, took to the boats and remained without water or provisions for three days. They were picked up by a Norwegian vessel out of Gloucester, England bound for Philadelphia.

An adventure story of a different sort befell the crew of the “Vic- tor,” a schooner built by Messrs. James Ross and David, Montague and Benjamin Pigot of Mount Stewart in 1874. Captain David Pigot frequently sailed the vessels he helped build, and this occasion, some time in 1882, found him leaving the “Victor” anchored in New York harbour while he went ashore to get clearance to sail. That night, John Williams, the able seaman of the crew, thought he heard a noise on deck. When he opened the hatch to the companionway, he found himself confronted with the bar- rel of a resolver. Williams slammed the hatch shut and ran to get the resolver which he know the captain kept under his pillow. Seeing men on deck as he passed the skylight, he fired through the opening and killed one man and wounder another. Three other intruders jumped from the Victor’s deck into their boat which was alongside; however, they upset it as they landed and were thereupon forced to swim around the schooner’s bow and hold on to the anchor rope. The crew took them upon deck one at a time and tied them securely. Next morning Captain Pigot was sum— moned from his hotel to the court house where he found his crew and the four surviving pirates. ‘The pirates were sent to prison, and the “Vic- tor” continued to roam the seas until she was totally wrecked at Grand River, Cape Breton on July 10, 1884.

On September 12, 1879, the Wesleyan reported that the once busy shipbuilding centre of Mount Stewart “has hung up its hammers and all is dead.” The reason, of course, was the lack of demand for wooden ships consequent upon the use of iron and steel for ship construction. These materials were not only cheaper than wood, but the new ships had a greater capacity than the old by reason of lighter framing. Their insurance rates were lower and repair bills less, and, if properly taken care of, they would outlast any wooden vessel. The Wesleyan correspondent went on to bemoan the village’s departed glory and to commiserate with those who had ruined themselves by selling their farms to work in the shipyards.

While the industry was indeed doomed to extinction, the process was not as abrupt as the Wesleyan article indicates. Some of the yards, notably those of David Egan, Coffin & Glover and Edwin Coffin, continued

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km,