greatest contribution, with a much smaller amount coming from white pine and hemlock.

At the beginning of British settlement all of the trees that were used in ship-building were relatively common species on the island, though as the years went by, due to land clearance and forest fire, as well as the effects of timber extraction for ship-building and other purposes, they would have gradually declined. In fact, the ship-building records themselves provide evidence that some of these woods were becoming scarcer as the nineteenth century progressed: the casual observation of Greenhill and Giffard (1967), based on an examination of the Lloyd's Survey Reports of some of the ships built by James Yeo at Port Hill — that the woods used in ships in the 18505 (hardwoods such as yellow birch, beech, maple, ash and oak, and the softwoods tamarack and pine) were in the 1870s giving way to spruce698 — is confirmed by my quantitative analysis in Appendix 4 of a sample of ships from the Lloyd’s Register: spruce increased from a 24% frequency in the records of 1856 to 75% in 1876, while the hardwoods (comprising primarily ’birch’ [i.e. yellow birch] and beech) declined from 57% in 1856 to 22% in 1876, and tamarack fell from 33% in 1861 to 3% in 1876. There is also evidence that in the 18705 it had become necessary to import wood to the island from a considerable distance for particular parts of the larger more expensive ships (especially for the masts and spars): pitch pine from Florida and Georgia, masts from England, and pine from Quebec are mentioned.699

698 The ship James Yeo launched in 1856 was built of birch,

juniper, oak and yellow pine [i.e. white pine], while the brigantine Sara Jane launched in the same year was built predominantly of ‘juniper' along with some birch, beech, ash and maple in her framing and white pine in her planking. However, “eighteen years later the Bridegroom, like nearly all of her successors, was constructed almost entirely of spruce" (Greenhill & Giffard, 1967, p. 203). I also note a reference to Prince Edward Island “spruce built vessels" as early as 1860 (De Jong & Moore 1994, p. 108), and according to Cousins (1973?) (p. 60), in 1867 the Summerside Progress reported that of the 57 vessels built in Prince County from January to September of that year “nearly all" were of spruce, all the timber “being the production of this Island". (A search of all issues of the newspaper from September to December 1867 failed to find this reference.)

699 I note this evidence for the importing of woods in primary sources (mostly newspaper reports of launchings) cited by De Jong and Moore (1994): the barque Victoria (880 tons), launched in 1874 at Bideford, had "built masts imported from England" and "decks of Quebec pine" (p. 365); the barquentine, City of Charlottetown (643 tons), built at Egmont Bay in 1876, had “masts of first class pitch pine [and] a bowsprit of yellow pine [i.e. white pine]" (the former definitely, and the latter probably, imported) (p. 198); the ship Maggie A. Robertson (966 new tons), built at Fortune in 1876, had a "stem and stem post of oak" (most likely imported), and much of her structure was of pitch pine (including

104

The importing of such woods is a clear sign that the timber resources of the island were no longer able to fully support the ship-building industry. However, De Jong and Moore (1994), noting that it was the sudden collapse of the British market for wooden—hulled sailing vessels that brought about the collapse of the industry in the 18705, state that "any suggestion that Island ship—building was curtailed because of a shortage of lumber is incorrect"7°°. They reason that, had a market for wooden ships continued in Great Britain, ship— building could have continued on the island, with where necessary, timber being rafted from areas on the island where it was still plentiful (such as, they assert, western Prince Countyml, or else

keelsons, upperdeck beams and decks), while her “lower masts, top masts and yards" (which is pretty much all of her masting) were of “pitch pine specially imported from Savannah [Georgia]” (p. 315); the ship Gondolier, built at Summerside in 1877, had spars of pitch pine imported from Pensacola Florida, the largest being 29 inches in diameter and 76 feet long (p. 213); the barque Flora (977 tons, new measure), launched at Bideford in 1877, had "beams, clamps etc. all made of pitch pine of the finest quality imported by Mr. Richards [the builder and owner], from Pensacola [Florida]" (p. 365). There is also a proposal in 1877 to build a vessel at Vernon River with “lower masts of pitch pine" to be provided by the financier (p. 157). All of these are from the 18705 but as early as 1840 the white oak used in the ship Dahlia (643 tons) built in the Pope shipyard at Bedeque must also have been imported (p. 206), and for the 18505 I have come across other records of imported wood: the Examiner of 8 September 1856 reported that “the most important sections" of the barque Panthea were of “Quebec timber", while four vessels launched from the shipyard of J. B. Cox of Morell were “chiefly built of Quebec oak, juniper and pine" — I think it is the oak only that is from Quebec.

I realise that the above evidence is for only ten of the 418 vessels of larger than schooner size built on the island between 1871 and 1880, and that such newspaper reports of launches may emphasise the unusual or atypical. What is required is a more detailed assessment of the woods used in Prince Edward Island ships as recorded in the Lloyd's Register,

70° De Jong & Moore, 1994, p. 161. I note that they state this for the island in general, even though they frequently attribute the decline or cessation of ship-building at particular localities to a local shortage of timber: in the Bedeque Bay area in the 18305 and 18405 (p. 206); the North and West Rivers in the 18405 (p. 224); Pinette prior to 1850 (p. 273); the south shore of the island between Bedeque Bay and Hillsborough Bay from the 18505 (p. 220); Rustico Bay in the 18605 (pp. 350, 357); the West Cape area in the 18605 (p. 188); and Pownal Bay throughout the period (p. 259).

701 De Jong & Moore (p. 161) cite as evidence that western Prince County still had adequate stands of timber, an article in the Alberfon Pioneer of 4 January 1878 which stated that western Prince County was “well calculated for carrying on a ship-building business. Labor is cheap and our supply of timber will not be exhausted for years to come". However, the evidence that they cite that the Egmont Bay area in 1862 still had good supplies of spruce and tamarack, implies that these trees were scarce elsewhere: “Any person wishing to build seven or four years' vessels will find this the only place where Spruce and Hacmatac is plenty" (p. 194 — from an advertisement for the sale of a shipyard).