Herring Seiner Bernadine In Lunenburg Harbour

The Lois and Isabel II looked like this and was pressed into service sometime after the second world war . As you can see, ships of this class were a far cry from the schooners from which they evolved. The Grace Darling which had been modernized to share this look was now 48 years old and was retired April 24, 1952.

Snapshot of the Lois and Isabel

This somewhat fuzzy shot represents the early days of the herring seining business in the inshore waters of Grand Manan. These newly built, much smaller boats, were obviously based on the old schooners and did retain a single stay-sail, which was rarely used. They were all true "knockabouts" and carried up to three hundred horsepower. Herring were trapped rather than caught on hooks, the enclosures where they were fished being referred to as weirs. The remaining mast of the herring-seiner was most often used in conjunction with a lever and a dip net to remove fish from a purse-seine to the hold of the ship. The Lois and Isabel (named for my mother and her sister) then hurried back t0 Grand Harbour where the fish were sluiced into work-sheds where my grandfather's relatives impaled them on long rods, through mouth and gill. They were then transferred to huge nearby smoke barns where they were hung over a wood smudge-fire. In those days of the late twenties, and all through the thirties and forties, the Grace Darling freighted the product as wooden boxed bloaters to customers at Eastport and Lubec, Maine. Fresh herring carried in the holds of seiners, usually ended up at Connors Brothers canning factory at Blacks Harbour, New Brunswick. The Grace carried her last cargo of smoked herring to Eastportin March, 1952.

Handlining in the Gulf of Maine

Until the late 1800s, handlining directly from the deck of an anchored schooner was preferred when fishing for cod and other groundfish. These lines reaching depths down to one hundred feet were equipped with a lead sinker and one or two hooks and were jigged to catch fish. Starting in the 1870s, handlining was somewhat modified and transferred to flat-bottomed dories associated with a mother ship. Longlining or trawl fishing involved the use of many hooks tied to a line which could be up to a mile-and-a-half in length. The trawl was laid from a dory by on man as another rowed. In this process, the baited hooks were tied at the ends of vertical lines placed at about three foot intervals along the line.

These offshore operations concluded about the year 1962 when the powered schooner Theresa E. Connor made her final fishing trip to the distant banks. Unable to find a crew for further ventures, she was purchased by the Town of Lunenburg and turned into a floating museum.

Bluenose I at Lunenburg

Even the Bluenose succumbed to the rush to modernize. She had diesel engines installed in 1936 just before her final year of participation in the International Fishermen's Race (1938). In spite of her many successes as a highliner and as a racer she fell into debt was reconfigured following the lines of ships actually built without a bowsprit and open wheel and sold into the West Indies where she sank in1946.

The Grace Darling which had a earlier refit along these same lines had a better time: During the war years and following Captain Cook's death, the ship continued to fish in Maritime waters. When Cook's sons returned from overseas duty, Captain Wilbur Cook took over as captain. From that period on, the Grace Darling was noteworthy for the number of rescues it completed at sea.

The Wheelhouse

The other dangerous feature of the schooner was the open helm at the stern of the ship. My grandfather Chester L. Guptill has related an incident where wave action forced his entire crew to tie themselves to the main mast where they remained awash and adrift for five days. The Grace Darling was an early convert to the wheel or pilot house. This superstructure obviously limits visibility but increases the comfort of the helmsmen at the expense of beauty. The first wheelhouses were not universally admired and the veteran skipper, Captain J.A. Ingersoll, thought that the one on the Grace Darling would soon be swept overboard. This did not prove the case, but some other vessels did lose the wheelhouse to waves.

Bow of the schooner "Bluenose II"

Here this crewman is no danger, but at sea the triangular head sail known as the jib has to be lowered to the bowsprit in stormy weather. Men have to crawl out along this "stick" to get this sail down. In rough weather this was a very dangerous proposition and so many men were lost overboard the "jib" was nicknamed the "widowmaker". T.E. MacManus of Boston solved this pr9oblem by designing a schooner whose bow actually incorporated the spar, lessening the danger at sea. This new design was known as a "knockabout" Knockabouts were definitely less picturesque than the earlier design but they did become commonplace particularly with the advent of the power engines and propellers. The Grace came to Grand Manan as a full-fledged schooner but received a one-half horse power engine to provide auxiliary power soon after her arrival. The "knockabout" feature was added by Captain Albert Cooke who had alterations to the bow made at the George E. Richardson boatyard at Richardson, Deer Island, New Brunswick. He also boosted the power of the engine several times over the following years. Eventually the Grace Darling housed a mammoth 90 horsepower engine, capable of getting her about without the use of sails.

Fishing Schooners Off Grand Manan Island 1890

The Grace Darling was brought to The Island as a schooner but she became one of the first sailing ships to get auxiliary power. The first installation was a seven and on-half horse power steam engine. Over the long term, several replacement engines went into this fishing vessel, until she finally she acquired a 90 horsepower gas-powered engine. It was under Albert Cook that this schooner's lines were altered at the Richardson boatyard on Deer Island. The first gasoline engines began to be installed in the local fishing fleet about 1919 so we presume that this final outfit came after that time. An "open-wheel" characterized the early schooners since their helmsmen needed an unimpeded view to sail in the face of a shifting boom.

Southern Head, Grand Manan Island

Schooners off Grand Manan Island in the 1890's: My grandfather's schooner, Grace Darling, was the scene of an accident several years after it was purchased. Harry Grey, a seaman from Nova Scotia serving under Judson Guptill was struck by a moving boom as the craft entered Grand Harbour. He was swept overboard and drowned. Judson, possibly influenced by this event, sold his boat to Captain Albert E. Cooke of Seal Cove, Grand Manan.

Who was Grace Darling?

Grace Horsley Darling who died in 1842 was born in Bamburgh, England and spent her early life in a couple of lighthouses run by her father.

In 1838 at the Longstone Light, off the coast of Scotland, she spotted the ship Forfarshire in distinct trouble! The sea was far too rough for Grace and her father to reach the foundering ship but they did pluck nine survivors from a nearby island. Her heroism was recognized financially by The Crown and her exploits fictionalized and rendered into poetry by Wordsworth. Afterwards,
life saving craft were often named Grace Darling.

I am not sure that this was the original name given the Nova Scotian schooner which belonged to my ancestor. Probably, not! Tales tend to become legend, and this story was transferred to a local Grand Manan lighthouse, and there it may still be seen on the world wide web!

Topsail Schooner

My grandfather's herring fishing boat probably looked like this when it was built. According to my island folk, the first schooner was built at Gloucester, Massachusetts in 1713 by Captain Andrew Robinson. When she was launched, a bystander is supposed to have cried out: "Oh how she scoons!" This Icelandic word identifies an object moving easily over water. Robinson agreed that she was indeed a"schooner" and the name stuck! In any event, a schooner is a fore and aft rigged vessel as opposed to one which is square rigged. Note that the earliest versions could not quite break from the square rigged tradition? A schooner is still usuallyu thought of as having two masts, but there have been exceptions! The mainmast was stepped near mid-ship. In other places, aside from America, square masts were carried on the main as well as the foremast. After 1840, schooners with more masts appeared on the scene and these were designated as three-masted; four-masted; five-masted and six-master schooners. The square rigging disappeared from these very large craft.

My Great Grandfather's "Schooner"

Sadly, I cannot claim any direct relationship to the folk of Lunenburg County, although the name Guptill (derived from Gubtael) is not unknown here. The Guptills were my mother's clan, and they hailed from Grand Harbour, Grand Manan Island, New Brunswick. This island is the largest in the Grand Manan Archipelego. My ancestor was William Guptill of Machias, Maine, who followed the fish rather than the ideals of the American Revolution. His descendants included two Judson Guptills and my grandfather, Chester Leeman Guptill. It was Judson Junior who commissioned the building of the Grace Darling at Selmach, Nova Scotia, in 1901 (the date is sometimes given as 1904). She did not look like this at this stage, the shortened masts and wheelhouse being subtractions and additions which came some time after her creation.

The Railway Wharf as it looks Today

There are actually two rails remaining in the wharf at the ocean side!

The Railway or Government Wharf

Train cars waiting to be loaded from "The Government Wharf" in 1916. This wharf serviced the Nictaux and Atlantic Railway which had connections with Annapolis County, Nova Scotia, located on the Fundy Shore. That line was completed in 1899 and used to connect Middletown with Bridgewater and Lunenburg. The line was bought out in 1903 by the Halifax and South Western Railway and coupled with a steamship service which operated from this place. It connected Yarmouth, Lunenburg and Halifax, Nova Scotia on a regular basis and opened up the local tourist trade.

Wind, Rain and Cold Weather

Spells an empty waterfront parking lot here in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. Trot In Time tours has not yet been exceedingly busy.

Corwith Cramer at Lunenburg

As seen from the window of the Old Fish House Restaurant housed on an upper floor of the Fisheries Museum.

Since the local newspaper does not report news from the waterfront, I have no idea where she is from or why she is in port, but she is the third tall ship to have called at Lunenburg this spring. Most have not been in port for more than a few days.

Mahone Bay Paint On Site, July 14 & 15, 2007

This will be a sale of so-called "wet" paintings at the Anglican Church Hall. Of course acrylic paintings are never wet for long especially in mid summer. Lasdt year it was an effort to maintain an open pallette. These are typically small paintings which are auctioned at under $100.

Studio paintings, of a much more finished nature, will also be shown at the Civic Centre. These are typically more than $100 but are professionally framed and much more sophisticated since they involve more hours of work.

All in aid of the local Settler's Museum. Many artists including Rod and his mother-in-law, the very proficient Mary Brownless will be on site. Come and watch us struggle!

Free Electronic Publications

http://rodneymackay.com/ebooks.htm




Subject matter in pdf format includes: Algonquian Bestiary; Anglo-Saxon Word Hoard; an echtral; druidheachd; Gorbeys; oceanus deu caledonius; Folklore of Maritime Canada; Map Memorials for Atlantic Canada; mhorrigan; Myths of Atlantic Canada; Norumbega; Old Books Atlantic; samh & samhain; Witchcraft in Atlantic Canada; Whistle Down the Wind; World's Mythological Creatures; The Yule.

Archived Website going back to 1994

Subject matter in html: Bonny River Settlements; Brief History of Clan Mackay; British Calendar; Ca;ledonians; Covered Bridges; Creation Myths; Discoveries and Recoveries of North America; druidheachd illustrated; Galeic Calendar; mics and macs in Gaeldom; Mythology & Etymology of Scottish Family Names; The Utopia Monster; Nollaig; Orolog; St. Columba; Santa Claus; Travel and Travail; Uktamkoo; Voluspa; Halifax Explosion; McDougall's Diary; Men & Things on the St, Croix

In progress: A Neo Victorian Childhood

Various lengths up to 1000 pages. Some edited and spell checked; some as is where is! If the above link fails try entering from that above my photo!