24 Trade and Commerce

The Shaver was the name of a treatise written by his grandfather, the Reverend John Macgowan who died in London, England in 1781. The Nutwood, a 99 ton two-masted schooner launched in 1888 and owned by Matthew, McLean & Company was named for a famous trotting stallion of the day. Brothers, Two, Three, or Five, depending on the number of owners, was a popular name. Betsy occurs several times. It was the Betsy built in 1784 that sailed to Cape Breton c. 1787 carrying Fortune Acadians to new homes in Cape Breton. It was the Betsey owned by John Cambridge, that was lost off East Point in 1792. Whatever the name, it was important to the owner. It gave his ship character and distinction.

In later years, small lobster boats were built in canneries after the lobster season closed. One of these was called Paquet’s Boat Factory. Other canner- ies belonged to Kickham at Souris West, Fred Carlton at Lower Rollo Bay, and OJ. Haley of Boston who located just east of the breakwater at Souris.

But the era ofbuilding larger wooden ships was over. The Island forests had been stripped of trees suitable for timber either for shipbuilding or export. Furthermore, as Thomas H. Raddall says in Wardens of the North: “Iron hulls, even for sailing ships were stronger, tighter, more enduring. They were cheaper to build and easy to maintain, their cargo capacity was greater for a given size and their insurance rate much less”.2

For a time after the end of the shipbuilding, a site could be identified by a hole or depression in the ground that marked the sawpit where the logs were sawed into timbers for the ships. Today, the shifting sands on our northern beaches sometimes expose the ribs of a wooden ship wrecked long ago.

Courtesy Mrs G A. [Anni

An early drawing of Souris before the bridge was built Haley’s lobster factory was situated to the east ofthe breakwater and is shown below the cliff on which the lighthouse is situated.