V the St. Peters shipbuilders left the industry or built for non-resident shipwrights. One individual from St. Peters that eluded this category was John Alexander McLaine . McLaine was a successful merchant and shipbuilder in the-mid 1800s, at a time when the market proved to be the most demanding for local builders. He and his men constructed ten vessels in the area after 1855 with seven of them being quickly devoured ■ by the Newfoundland market. John A. McLaine was the only local ■ resident to make a significant contribution to the Industry after 1860. ■The prestigious Coffin family, having launched 25 vessels throughout ■ their time in the business, finished building ships in 1859 with the ■ construction of The Afton . (24) The last vessel to be transferred to ■ Newfoundland from St. Peters was the schooner Speed weighing 193 tons ■ sent by John A. McLaine in 1871. (25) The Patriot noted that John A. ■ McLaine was still constructing vessels in St. Peters as late as 1875. (26) SHIFTING SAND In 1857, the House of Assembly in Charlottetown addressed the St. I Peters Harbor access problem. This problem had existed since the I French occupation 100 years earlier. The sandbar lying across the I harbor entrance was exposed to the action of the sea and therefore I shifted and changed its position with violent storms. A letter from James I Duncan and Co. dated October 12, 1844 to James McLauchlan I addressed the accessibility of St. Peters Bay for shipping stating that " St. I Peters is anything but a good harbor...there is a great deal of difficulty in I vessels getting out..." (27). In 1857, the House of Assembly proposed the construction of a breastwork or embankment on the eastern side of the harbor's mouth that would resist storms and ensure a water depth that I would accommodate vessels of all sizes. St. Peter 's Bay residents were to I contribute £200 and the government was to grant the rest, approximately £200 to complete the project. (28) In the September 10th 1874 edition of the Patriot, an article about "Harbor Improvements" appeared. When St. Peters Harbor failed to be noticed in this article, an anonymous resident oi St. Peters wrote an objection to the newspaper. The individual stated that had no equal on the north side of the Island, being the only harbor between Tracadie and East Point , a distance of over sixty miles of coast and that "it will be to the interest of the General | Government to make St. Peters Harbor a good one." (29) The decline of the shipbuilding industry began in the 1870s ironically coinciding with the construction of the largest vessel, the iq°n?le' GVer t0 be bullt in St Peters- The end of an era occurred in 03 when the schooner Success was the last vessel to appear in the PEI shipbuilding Registry for St. Peters . 18 The st- Peters shipbuilding industry flourished throughout the oO s when the resources were abundant and the market was 35