{"id":8373,"date":"1855-10-29T12:43:00","date_gmt":"1855-10-29T20:35:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/?p=8373"},"modified":"2026-10-29T12:45:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T19:45:44","slug":"when-the-shipyards-fell-silent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peipioneercemetery.com\/staging\/when-the-shipyards-fell-silent\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Shipyards Fell Silent"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shipbuilding on the Souris River and beyond\u2014and the search for a livelihood that carried Island families into another migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>On this page<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"#yards\">Our shipbuilding places<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#livelihoods\">A connected economy<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#decline\">The decline<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#migration\">Leaving again<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#dana\">Dana and the age of sail<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"#sources\">Sources<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The families who settled Prince Edward Island did not all remain here. For some of their children and grandchildren, building a better life meant leaving the communities their parents had worked to establish.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shipbuilding helps explain that second migration. Wooden vessels brought employment and trade to the Island\u2019s rivers and harbours. When demand weakened, the consequences reached well beyond the yards. A major outward movement developed around the 1880s, as families faced fewer opportunities at home and the promise of work elsewhere. <sup><a href=\"#s1\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ships built close to home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Souris River was a place of industry as well as a route to the sea. The local watershed history explicitly identifies shipbuilding along its banks as part of the area\u2019s economic heritage. Sheltered water, a place to launch a vessel, and access to timber made such river sites valuable. <sup><a href=\"#s2\">2<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Souris belonged to a much wider Island network. Across PEI, wooden vessels were built along sheltered rivers, bays, and inlets. A UPEI account explains how timber resources and overseas demand supported the trade, while also showing that the fortunes of individual shipbuilding districts could differ: activity declined along the North and West Rivers as investment shifted toward Charlottetown. <sup><a href=\"#s3\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Closer to St Margaret\u2019s, the recovered McQuaid comments describe shipbuilding in Hollow River and smaller builders around Goose River and McAskill River. Those local traditions place the parish within the industry\u2019s labour and family networks, even where a particular yard still needs to be located on a map. <sup><a href=\"#s4\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Contemporary launch notices give the neighbouring yards names and dates. The <em>Royal Gazette<\/em> of 4 October 1852 reported Daniel Flynn\u2019s brigantine <em>Mary<\/em> launched at Rollo Bay and the Dingwells\u2019 <em>Rosebud<\/em> at St Peter\u2019s Bay. Such notices let us move from a general account to particular builders and vessels. <sup><a href=\"#s9\">9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shipbuilding was skilled work. A vessel required sound timber, careful shaping and fitting, watertight seams, ironwork, and equipment before it could earn anything at sea. The completed ship represented the work of many hands, including people whose names never appeared as its owner or builder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A shipyard supported more than shipwrights<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The economic connection can be followed from the shoreline back into the countryside. Timber had to be cut and moved. Sawmills prepared material; smiths supplied and repaired ironwork; tradespeople fitted out the vessel. Workers and crews needed food, clothing, lodging, and supplies. Merchants helped bring materials, customers, and credit together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Woods and farms<\/strong> Timber cutting, hauling, horses, and provisions connected rural households with waterfront work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Mills and workshops<\/strong> Sawyers, carpenters, smiths, and other trades supplied materials and labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Merchants and transport<\/strong> Stores, wharves, shipping services, and credit supported construction and trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Households<\/strong> Income from the maritime economy helped sustain families, including those also farming or fishing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This is why a shipbuilding downturn could become a community crisis. Fewer orders meant less work at the yard, fewer purchases from suppliers, and less money circulating through shops and households. Debts did not disappear when wages or sales fell. A business that depended heavily on the yards might lose its customers even though its own workers had never built a hull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The consequences were uneven. Some suppliers found other markets; some workers transferred their skills; others faced closure or departure. The evidence supports a severe shock to a connected economy, rather than a claim that every related enterprise failed at once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The change came after a final boom<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Island\u2019s wooden-ship industry did not simply end in the 1860s. PEI\u2019s provincial historical chronology records 1868 as its strongest shipbuilding year, with 120 vessels launched. It places the broader Atlantic Canadian collapse around 1880. These dates locate the major disruption after a late period of expansion. <sup><a href=\"#s1\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Iron hulls, steam propulsion, and later steel changed the competitive balance. They were related developments, but not the same invention: a ship\u2019s hull material and its means of propulsion were separate choices. The transition took decades, with wooden sailing vessels continuing to work alongside newer ships.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Dictionary of Canadian Biography\u2019s account of Canadian shipbuilding places the decline of many wooden-ship yards in the 1870s and the emergence of a new generation of steel-hulled steamships later in the century. It records the launch of the all-steel passenger vessel <em>Manitoba<\/em> in 1889. <sup><a href=\"#s5\">5<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For an established wooden-ship yard, changing technology meant more than buying different tools. It demanded new machinery, industrial facilities, expertise, and finance. Local timber depletion and shifting investment could also weaken a district\u2019s position, as the UPEI study of the North and West Rivers demonstrates. The decline was a combination of technological, commercial, and local pressures. <sup><a href=\"#s3\">3<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Large wooden merchant-ship construction contracted sharply; wooden boatbuilding and repair did not vanish everywhere on one date. For families whose livelihoods depended on the expanding trade, however, the loss of that growth could be decisive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The 1880s and the decision to leave<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The 1880s are a useful centre for this story. PEI\u2019s official historical overview connects the shipbuilding collapse with Islanders seeking factory and domestic-service work in the \u201cBoston States.\u201d That was part of a broader search for livelihoods, not a single organized departure. <sup><a href=\"#s1\">1<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Census figures show the demographic pressure: PEI\u2019s population was 108,891 in 1881 and 109,078 in 1891, then fell to 103,259 in 1901. The near standstill during the 1880s and the later fall help show the scale of change. They do not, by themselves, identify the decade of highest emigration or count every person who left. <sup><a href=\"#s6\">6<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For descendants of Scottish, Irish, Acadian, and other settlers, leaving could mean finding a new use for familiar skills. Construction, carpentry, maritime experience, business knowledge, and household labour could all matter elsewhere. A relative already established abroad might help with accommodation, information, or a first job. Some departures became permanent; other journeys were followed by returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">California and the wider United States<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The parish comments preserve examples of movement to California. Bernard B. Ryan is described as a blacksmith who established a forge, later sold it, and went to California. The archive records his death in 1870, so his journey belongs to an earlier phase of migration. Other comments describe John V. McDonald working as a carpenter in the United States, with California given provisionally, and Martin MacDonald working for a California lumber company. <sup><a href=\"#s4\">4<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These are useful examples of skilled and commercial lives extending beyond the parish. They do not establish that each person left because a shipyard closed. A family\u2019s departure date and circumstances must be checked before assigning that explanation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">New Zealand<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Movement to New Zealand was already underway before the later collapse. Archives PEI describes Henry Smith\u2019s diary of the voyage from Charlottetown in December 1858 to Auckland in May 1859. The National Library of New Zealand also holds the Morpeth family\u2019s papers, including a diary of the <em>Prince Edward<\/em> voyage. <sup><a href=\"#s7\">7<\/a><\/sup> <sup><a href=\"#s8\">8<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These records establish a real Island-to-New Zealand route. They also show why the chronology matters: an 1858 departure cannot be explained by a shipbuilding collapse in the 1880s. Earlier searches for land and opportunity and later responses to economic decline belong to a longer history of migration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Australia and other destinations<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia also attracted Islanders before the final downturn. Transcribed newspaper shipping notes from 1852 list people leaving for Australia, including John Haszard, W. C. Green, and others. These departures demonstrate the reach of the migration network without proving a St Margaret\u2019s relationship for every traveller. <sup><a href=\"#s9\">9<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Australia, New Zealand, California, New England, and other destinations should therefore be understood as different routes, taken at different times. The decline of shipbuilding intensified the pressure to leave; it did not begin every journey. The descendants of the settlers were responding both to difficulties at home and to opportunities they believed lay elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Dana and the world before steam<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Two Years Before the Mast<\/em> provides a valuable companion to this history. Its author was <strong>Richard Henry Dana Jr.<\/strong> He sailed as an ordinary merchant seaman from Boston to California in 1834\u20131836 and published his account in 1840. <sup><a href=\"#s10\">10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">His descriptions of watches, rigging, weather, labour, and the California hide trade help readers imagine the working world for which wooden merchant ships were built. The later section, <em>Twenty-Four Years After<\/em>, contrasts his earlier experience with the transformed California he revisited in 1859, including travel by steamer. <sup><a href=\"#s10\">10<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The book illuminates a world undergoing change. It is best used here as testimony to life under sail and to California\u2019s transformation, rather than as a prediction of PEI\u2019s industrial collapse. No connection between Dana and a particular parish family is claimed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What the departures left behind<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A lost shipbuilding order was an economic event. A household\u2019s departure was a family event as well. Over time, the effects reached community gatherings, the exchange of news, the care of older relatives, and the future of family properties. Letters and visits could keep a connection alive across great distances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The cemetery is one place where those journeys can be traced. A person might work abroad and return, remain overseas while relatives stayed on PEI, or belong to a family whose descendants spread across several countries. Shipbuilding and its decline help explain the conditions behind some of those journeys; the individual records tell us who travelled, when, and where life took them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sources and further reading<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Government of PEI, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.princeedwardisland.ca\/en\/information\/executive-council-office\/historic-milestones\">Historic Milestones<\/a>, entries for 1868 and 1880. A broad provincial chronology, not a parish migration count.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Souris River Watershed Management Committee, <a href=\"https:\/\/souriswl.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/souris_river_watershed_plan.pdf\">Souris River Watershed Plan<\/a>, December 2006, introduction.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>UPEI Island Narratives Program, <a href=\"https:\/\/inarratives.islandarchives.ca\/node\/66\">Shipbuilding in Cornwall<\/a>, drawing on Nicolas de Jong and Marven E. Moore, <em>Shipbuilding on Prince Edward Island<\/em>. Its local decline concerns the North and West Rivers, not an identical chronology for Souris.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jenny O\u2019Hanley McQuaid, <em>Genealogy of St Margaret\u2019s Parish<\/em> (2022), as preserved in the archive\u2019s recovered comments and narratives: Hollow River shipbuilding and the California occupations of Bernard Ryan, John V. McDonald, and Martin MacDonald. Individual migration motives remain unestablished.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dictionary of Canadian Biography, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biographi.ca\/en\/topics\/topic-match-list.php?id=1671\">Shipbuilding in Canada<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Statistics Canada, <a href=\"https:\/\/www150.statcan.gc.ca\/n1\/pub\/11-402-x\/2010000\/chap\/pop\/tbl\/tbl01-eng.htm\">Population by province and territory, selected years<\/a>.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Archives PEI, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.pe.ca\/atom\/index.php\/new-zealand-emigration-and-immigration\">New Zealand emigration and immigration<\/a>, catalogue description of Henry Smith\u2019s 1858\u20131859 diary.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>National Library of New Zealand, <a href=\"https:\/\/natlib.govt.nz\/records\/22389947\">Prince Edward ship records<\/a>, including Morpeth family papers, MS-Papers-2930.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Island Register, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.islandregister.com\/shippingnotes.html\">Shipping Notes from the 1800s<\/a>, transcribed 1852 departure notices.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Richard Henry Dana Jr., <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/2055\/2055-h\/2055-h.htm\">Two Years Before the Mast<\/a>, including <em>Twenty-Four Years After<\/em>, available through Project Gutenberg.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shipbuilding on the Souris River and beyond\u2014and the search for a livelihood that carried Island families into another migration. 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