Unofficial Clarenville Website

History of Clarenville Shipyard

Courtesy: Journey Through Time - Clarenville, Hub of the East Coast ©

Note: The Vessel shown above is the NEWFOUNDLANDER of 448 tons Built about 1948 or1949 Built by Capt John Blackmore and 2 sons and 8 men from Little Catalina. She was lost seal fishing off Flowers Cove in Straits of Bell Isle. in 1954 got caught in rafting ice She was owned by Capt John Blackmore I can remember of her being built at the ship yard. The builders stayed at the station hotel owned by the Stanley's just opposite the railway station.

Information Submitted by: Albert Noseworthy, Clarenville

The above three photos were taken in August 1978 by Mr. Rich Taylor at the Clarenville Shipyard during the construction of 5 Long liners. If anyone has more information on this project can you please let me know.

Photos Submitted by: Rich Taylor

Note: The Burry Group from Glovertown are the current owners the shipyard in Clarenville.

General Area Shipbuilding

Because Newfoundland has been primarily dependent on the fishery throughout its history, the building and repair of both ships (by convention large decked vessels) and undecked boats for the fishery and the trade in fish has been one of the Island's major industries. Further, until recent times ships and boats were the dominant means of transportation for both people and goods. The requirements of ship and boatbuilding have thus been a major factor in determining patterns of settlement. Throughout the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth virtually every large community had a ``Dock'', where vessels were being shaped, repaired or altered. The sites of these docks are preserved in many local place names.

The earliest boats were those constructed by aboriginal peoples -- for transportation in inland waters, the hunting of seals, whaling and gathering eggs from seabirds. As the earliest prehistoric inhabitants of Newfoundland and Labrador are presumed to have come from the north, it is likely that the earliest boats were made from sealskin on a bone or driftwood frame -- probably similar to the umiaks qv of recent Inuit, from which evolved the more versatile kayaks qv. The recent Indian inhabitants of both the Island and Labrador -- the Beothuk, Innu and Micmac qqv -- all relied primarily on the birchbark canoe. In later years, as large birch became scarce, the Micmac of the Island also made canoes of caribou skin and it is likely that this material was sometimes employed by the other aboriginal peoples as well.

The first Europeans in Newfoundland, the Norse, are presumed to have journeyed here from Greenland in a type of longboat known as a knarr: a clinker-built open craft powered by a single rectangular sail and by oars. The accidental discovery of a well-wooded land to the west of Greenland in 986 inspired the first attempt at settlement 15 years later, in part because the new land seemed to promise a supply of timber for boat construction. Although the sagas do not suggest that boats were built in the new lands, in 1002 Leif Eiriksson returned from ``Vinland'' with a cargo which consisted largely of timber. In 1003 Leif's brother, Thorvald, was driven ashore while coasting north of Vinland and made a camp to repair his keel -- some scholars have suggested that the Norse site at L'Anse aux Meadows was such a boat-repair station. Shortly thereafter Thorvald was killed by natives (``skraelings''), whose use of skin boats is noted in the sagas (see NORSE DISCOVERY).

EARLY FISHING BOATS AND SHIPS. It is presumed that from about 1500, and the earliest days of the European ship-fishery off Newfoundland, most small fishing boats were built on the Island. Many of the earliest were likely of the type later known in Newfoundland as punts -- keeled rowboats of about 20 feet, modelled on the common ships' boat or pinnace -- or flats (small clinker-built, flat-bottomed rowboats). In as much as early fishing boats are known, the preferred type among shore fishermen appears to have been the shallop -- a fairly large (up to 40 feet) partly-decked boat, often with one or two masts and powered by a lugsail in addition to oars. The shalloway (or French shallop) was a decked craft used in the offshore fishery, especially in collecting fish from smaller boats and taking it to shore for curing.

The building of fishing boats, and the necessity of leaving these boats on the Island over the winter, was one major impetus to settling Newfoundland. Indeed ship and boatbuilding has ever since been regarded as ``winter work'' -- ideally conducted in the off-fishery season. From John Guy's qv report on the first year's work at the Cuper's Cove (Cupids) colony in 1611 we have one of our earliest reports of shipbuilding in Newfoundland: ``A boat, about twelue tons big, with a deck, is almost finished to saile and row about the headlands: [also] six fishing boats and pinnesses'' (cited in Prowse). It is noteworthy that it was the intention of Guy's backers that the colonists would help to make the Cuper's Cove colony viable by building boats for sale to migratory fishermen. This venture did not succeed, as the custom was already established that fishing boats were constructed either in the spring (before the fishing season commenced in earnest) or by winter men.

While it seems that most shallops and shalloways (estimated at more than 200 in number by 1676) were built in Newfoundland from the earliest days of the French and English fisheries, it is not known to what extent these migratory fisheries also relied on locally-built ships. Prior to 1700 it is probable that virtually all of the larger decked vessels were still built in Europe, although boats and shallops were being built for local trading and travel between the various fishing stations. After the French were excluded from settlement and the south coast fishery in 1713 the number of ships built in Newfoundland by the English increased. A parliamentary report in 1718 had it that ``nearly all'' the vessels engaged in the Newfoundland fishery out of the West Country port of Poole had been built in the colony. This may well have been an exaggeration, but it is known that by this time a number of ships had been built at Burin, Carbonear and Trinity qqv.

As the fishery expanded, the numbers of both ships and boats being built in Newfoundland kept pace. One of the earliest shipbuilding centres was Trinity. In 1764 the Rev. James Balfour qv observed that at Trinity the merchant class returned to England for the winter, while the ``rest dissipate through the woods, building boats'' (cited in Handcock: 1981). Six years later Balfour estimated that there were 70 men engaged in winter ship and boatbuilding at Trinity. As the Newfoundland establishments of the West Country merchants grew, so did the frequency of shipbuilding. Trinity-Poole merchant Benjamin Lester qv directed the construction of several ships in the 1760s and 1770s and, after he returned to permanent residence in Poole in 1776, brought out a master shipbuilder, Charles Newhook qv. By 1788 Lester's firm was the largest shipowner at Trinity, having 20 vessels with a total displacement of 3100 tons -- half built at the firm's shipyards at Trinity Harbour and New Harbour qv. The chief rival to the Lester firm, Jeffrey and Street, had 15 ships, with a similar proportion having been built in that firm's yards at Trinity and Heart's Content qv. At that time the other noted shipbuilding ports were mostly in Conception Bay (Carbonear, Harbour Grace, Cupids and Brigus), but there were also vessels built at St. John's, Placentia and Mortier. From the 1770s and the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and picking up during the Napoleonic Wars (1789-1814), shipbuilding was a continuous activity in Trinity and Conception bays. In the 1990s Trinity Bay was still the prime area in Newfoundland for ship and boatbuilding. Over more than two centuries well-known Trinity Bay shipbuilding families have included the Newhooks of New Harbour, the Pittmans of New Perlican, the Stones of Monroe and (since the 1960s) the Vokeys of Trinity.

In 1804 craft engaged in the Newfoundland fishery included 82 fishing ships (21 English and the remainder Newfoundland) and more than 2000 boats. In that year the ``sack ships'' (which collected the catch, took the majority of fish to European markets and were usually of European build) numbered 249. For that year we also have a list of the 30 vessels of over 30 tons built in Newfoundland. The largest, at 232 tons, was the Alicia, a full-rigged ship built at Placentia. Another ship, of 196 tons, was built in the Bay of Islands, and there were five brigs built at Trinity and New Harbour. Most of the remaining vessels were schooners, of 30 to 70 tons.

THE RISE OF THE SCHOONERS. Although ``ship'' has come to refer to any large, decked vessel, by a narrower definition the term refers specifically to a vessel with three masts, all of which are fitted with square-rigged sails (two-masted square-riggers were known as brigs). While square-rigged sails offered maximum propulsion in the open ocean and were preferred for long-distance trading ships, for near-shore fishing and coasting the fore-and-aft rig common to the smaller boats made for greater manoeuvrability -- especially when sailing into the wind. The schooner was a two-masted vessel with both masts carrying sails rigged fore-and-aft. Developed in New England early in the eighteenth century, by the end of the century these small ``weatherly'' vessels were growing in popularity in Newfoundland, most especially in the *Labrador fishery qv, for coastal trading and for hunting seals. They could be sailed with fewer hands than square-rigged ships and brigs, could be quickly manoeuvered to take wind from either side, were easier to sail in cold weather and (of particular importance for fishing vessels) did not require as much deck space for the handling and stowage of sails and rigging. In the winter of 1809-10 four vessels were built for Trinity merchants: three schooners and a brigantine (a variation on the brig, with square sails on the foremast and a fore-and-aft rig on the mainmast). That winter the inhabitants of Trinity also built 25 boats: six fishing skiffs, three bait skiffs and 16 punts.

After the end of the Napoleonic Wars local shipbuilding took another leap forward, as the growing Labrador fishery increased the demand for schooners. It would seem that there were at least 30 schooners built each year. These vessels had an estimated average life of nine years in the early 1800s and there were more than 250 being used on the Labrador by 1823. Most of the smaller schooners were built by fishermen -- soon merchants were complaining that they were short of shore crew, such was the ``rage for becoming planters''. However, the merchants saw the benefits of the schooner rig for local trade between their fishing plantations and also for the spring seal hunt. In 1819 Brigus merchant William Munden qv had the Four Brothers built -- the first Newfoundland schooner of over 100 tons, built specifically for sealing. The success of this vessel inspired imitators, helping to account for the large seal harvests of the 1830s and a further boom in schooner-building. It is estimated that nearly 10,000 ships of 30 tons or more were built in Newfoundland in the century between 1820 and 1920. More than 80% of these were schooners.

A typical Labrador schooner was constructed for the most part of local softwood: spruce or fir for the planking, black spruce for the spars, a frame of ``juniper'' (larch) and birch for the keel. As the old headland ``fishing capitals'' were not usually favoured with a luxuriant growth of forest (or had been denuded by fishermen for boats, rinds and fuel) the growth of the Labrador fishery encouraged winterhousing qv and ultimately settlement in the ``bottoms'' of Trinity and Bonavista bays as well as the spread of settlement into Notre Dame Bay. On the south coast, generally devoid of forests, the major area for shipbuilding was the Head of Bay d'Espoir, while noted areas for boatbuilding included the Head of Fortune Bay (Terrenceville qv) and Paradise Sound (Monkstown qv) in Placentia Bay.

The spread of settlement was also encouraged by the development of new types of more seaworthy boats and small schooners for the shore fishery. Some terms for such boats, such as punt and skiff, acquired local meanings which might include anything from rowboats to partially-decked sail boats and small schooners -- although in most areas a punt was a small open boat and a skiff somewhat larger and partly-decked. On the northeast coast the preferred vessel for the shore fisherman was the ``bully'' -- generally decked and about 15 tons, its two masts schooner-rigged. On the south coast the preferred small schooner was the ``jack'' and later the slightly larger ``western boat'' -- known by its square stern and the rudder hung ``out o' doors''. For the hand-line fishery (particularly on the south coast) the preferred craft was the dory -- a clinker-built, flat-bottomed boat with flaring sides and a sharp bow and stern. On the northeast coast a small, round-bottomed boat known as a rodney or ``gunning punt'' also came into common use -- as a tender for a schooner or bully, but also useful for hunting seals in that it could be hauled over the ice between leads of open water.

In areas where wood was plentiful the majority of fishermen were their own boat-builders, many turning their hand as boys to building rodneys. On the south coast, however, dory-building became largely the province of local craftsmen, who modified the basic design and often remained on shore year-round, selecting and sawing the planking and frame, and becoming known far and wide for their skills. This was particularly true after ``banking'' schooners came into vogue in the 1880s and the western boat fishery began its expansion. Both types of vessels usually did the actual fishing from dories which ``nested'' on the deck of the vessel as it made its way to the grounds. While not every man might be able to build a Labrador schooner, at times it seemed as though ``every young man had hopes of becoming a schooner owner'' (Lawton and Devine), particularly on the northeast coast. And there were many, as Dr. Wilfred Grenfell observed of Will Hopkins of Canada Bay, who could ``take an axe and a few tools into the green woods in the fall and sail down the bay in a new schooner in the spring when the ice goes.''

THE GOLDEN AGE. Meanwhile, there was also an emerging class of professional shipwrights and sailmakers, building and rigging ships for the larger merchants who, by the mid-nineteenth century, were mostly resident in Newfoundland rather than England. A class of resident shipowners developed, with some large firms going so far as to equip shipyards to build vessels both to carry their own cargoes and ``on speculation'', for sale to others. While most transatlantic fish-carriers were still built elsewhere (and much Newfoundland fish was carried to market in vessels chartered for that purpose rather than being owned and registered in Newfoundland), the later part of the nineteenth century might be considered the ``golden age'' of Newfoundland shipbuilding. Many of these vessels were brigs or brigantines, designed for the seal hunt but also employed in the Indies and Brazil trade or to supply a merchant's ``big room'' on the Labrador coast.

The best-known master shipwright of this age was Michael Kearney qv, a native of Ferryland who went to Ireland as an apprentice shipwright in 1827. He returned to Newfoundland in 1838, an experienced construction foreman, in time for the boom in sealing. Merchants such as John Munn of Harbour Grace, John Rorke of Carbonear and Charles F. Bennett qqv of St. John's established shipyards, where some of the best-known Newfoundland-built vessels of all time were built. The brig Thomas Ridley qv was built by Kearney for Rorke in 1852 -- at 260 tons the largest vessel to that time built for sealing. In 1855 Kearney built the brigantine Ida at Bennett's Riverhead shipyard in St. John's, at the time the largest vessel to have been constructed in St. John's.

Although the Ida later made a round trip between St. John's and Bristol in 26 days -- considered a remarkable feat -- few Newfoundland-built ships were constructed as ``clippers'' (a term for any ship built and rigged for speed). One exception was the Rothesay qv, built by Kearney at Harbour Grace for John Munn. This barque (a three masted vessel, square-rigged on the fore and mainmasts and fore-and-aft rigged on the mizzen) was chiefly employed in the provisions trade, but also took cargoes of fish to South America. In 1856 the Rothesay and another Newfoundland-built clipper barque -- Stabb, Row and Holmwood's Tasso -- were both loading their return cargoes of sugar at Demerara. The captains decided on a wager as to which vessel would be the first to make Cape Spear -- a race won by the Rothesay by mere minutes after 14 days sail ``down from the Brazils''.

The builder of the Tasso had had an apprenticeship in shipbuilding that was seemingly the equal of Kearney's Irish training, with the difference that it had been conducted in Trinity Bay. By 1856 Jonas Newhook qv (a grandson of Charles, above) had moved to western Notre Dame Bay, which had become a prime shipbuilding area. It was at Halls Bay that Newhook built the barque Fleetwing, considered by some to have been the finest vessel ever built in Newfoundland. Large for a locally-built ship (at 248 tons and 130 feet in length), the Fleetwing made its maiden voyage to Pernambuco, after which the captain reported that he ``saw nothing on the whole trip that he didn't catch up with and pass''. When offered for sale in 1858 it was advertised as ``without exception, the fastest vessel in the trade''. After being purchased by Munn the Fleetwing also made many voyages in the provisions trade. In 1872, when she was already past the 15-year mark (by this time the average lifespan of a Newfoundland-built ship), the Fleetwing was still able to make a passage from New York to Harbour Grace in just over six days. The vessel was condemned the next year, however, after a long and stormy voyage carrying fish to Lisbon.

STEAMERS AND BANKERS. Both Kearney and Newhook were still in their prime in 1863, when the first steamships were brought out from Scotland for the seal hunt. The steamers had soon demonstrated their superiority for sealing and thereafter fewer of the large sealers/fish carriers were built in Newfoundland. Although some steamers were built in Newfoundland (the earliest being the Isabella, built by Kearney's son-in-law Daniel Condon for Ambrose Shea qv in 1870), most shipowners preferred Scottish-built vessels for sealing. Sailing vessels continued to be preferred as fish carriers, in part because it was felt engine oil would impair the taste of the cargo. Yet, it was felt that apart from Kearney, Newhook and a few others there was more expertise in building square-riggers in nearby Nova Scotia. Kearney died in 1885, while building the Shamrock for John Rorke. The brigantine was finished by a local builder, Richard Horwood, but this was the last square-rigger to be built at Carbonear.

Vessels built of Nova Scotia hardwood were also generally preferred for the bank fishery (which began a revival on the south coast after 1880) despite a government bounty introduced in 1876. Initially the $6/ton bounty was to be paid to each vessel of over 25 tons built in Newfoundland and outfitted for banking. In 1880 the bounty was extended (at $3/ton) to all fishing vessels over 30 tons, with an extra $2/ton for bankers. By 1889 the bounties had had effect: in that year more than 300 vessels sailed to the banks out of Catalina, St. John's, Conception Bay, the Southern Shore of the Avalon Peninsula and the Burin Peninsula ports. Ten years later the number of bankers had declined to 89 schooners -- most out of Grand Bank, Fortune, Burin or Catalina. Bankers were generally larger than Labrador schooners and typically carried two topmasts, three jibs and a gaff topsail -- while the classic Labrador schooner had only one topmast (on the main), two jibs and no gaff topsail. By 1900 some Nova Scotian-built tern schooners (larger schooners with three masts, many with auxiliary engines, generally used for cargo) were employed by local bank-fishing firms such as Harvey & Co. In that year the first locally-built tern schooners were launched: the Nellie M. at Lewisporte for R.K. Bishop qv and the Duchess of Cornwall at Burgeo for Robert Moulton qv.

THE WORLD WAR I BOOM. The once-flourishing shipbuilding industry in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had begun to decline in the face of competition from steamers from about 1880 and by 1900 most Maritimers considered the ``age of sail'' to have passed. Yet, in Newfoundland the banking and Labrador fleets were holding their own. The bank fishery increasingly relied on local resources, while the Labrador fishery continued in full swing. Indeed it may be that, despite problems in marketing the Labrador cure and the collapse of some of the largest Labrador firms in the Bank Crash of 1894, the number of small schooners fishing on the Labrador coast actually increased. The use of locally-built schooners as fish carriers also appears to have increased as the use of sail declined elsewhere, to the point where, according to maritime historian Keith Matthews, the period from 1900 to 1920 ``quite possibly saw the greatest involvement of Newfoundland shipping in the carriage of its own products ever'' (in Roberts).

During World War I a number of factors combined to produce an unprecedented boom in Newfoundland shipbuilding. With wartime demand the price of fish increased. Meanwhile, virtually the entire fleet of steel steamers were either pressed into wartime service or sold to the Russian government. By 1917 the shortage of shipping was such that a Ministry of Shipping was created for the first time, while an unprecedented number of large tern schooners (most with auxiliary engines) were built. In 1917 Bay of Islands herring packer John Fleet had the 467-ton Arnish built at St. George's and the Horwood *Lumber Co. qv had the Attainment built at Thwart Island in the Bay of Exploits as a timber carrier. Meanwhile, Norwegian and local interests established the Newfoundland Shipbuilding Co. at Harbour Grace. This firm built six tern schooners, beginning with the 379-ton Armoreal, between 1917 and 1919 when the yard burned. In the four years from 1917 to 1920 about 10 tern schooners were built each year. Other notable shipbuilding centres in this boom period included Charlottetown, Bonavista Bay (the home of master builder Adam Chaulk), Port Blandford (where Daniel Pelley qv built several tern schooners), Port Union and Placentia (at the Fearn & Co. shipyard, under the direction of Thomas Palfrey). Grand Bank businessmen Samuel and George Harris qqv had several tern schooners (including the six ``Generals'' -- the General Allenby, General Byng, General Ironsides etc.) built by John Forsey at Marystown and Grand Bank. During this period there were three tern schooners of over 600 tons built in Newfoundland, the Dellenac at Harbour Grace and the Belle Scott and Sordello qv in the Bay of Exploits. Both the Belle Scott and the Sordello were built by Adam Chaulk for the A.N.D. Co., to serve as pulp carriers.

These large cargo schooners were not, for the most part, successful. In the rush to complete the ships ``it was general that the wood was not of good quality'' (Parker), and within three or four years of launching most had either sunk or had been otherwise disabled. The Sordello, for instance, was grounded near Carmanville while being towed to St. John's to be fitted with her engines, then carried a very few cargoes of pulp and pulpwood for the A.N.D. Co. before being sold to Ashbourne's of Twillingate as a fish carrier. She soon proved uneconomic for this trade and ended her days at Twillingate as a storage area for fishery salt.

THE HARD TIMES OF THE 1920s AND 1930s. In 1920 there were 33 vessels of over 30 tons built in Newfoundland, while the total sailing fleet stood at 831 schooners between 20 and 60 tons (including some of the larger bullys and western boats, but mostly Labrador schooners and coasters) and 278 sailing vessels over 60 tons. Meanwhile, from about 1900 the use of marine engines had increased, to the point that there were nearly 700 motorboats in use by 1920 and a number of the larger schooners had been fitted with auxiliary engines. However, the early 1920s saw a dramatic downturn in the price of fish. By 1923 it might be said that, for Newfoundland, the Great Depression was already well underway. Meanwhile, the Labrador fishery in particular was in rapid decline. Shipbuilding not only entered a pronounced slump, but the skills of schooner-building might be said to have disappeared in a generation. Large Newfoundland-built tern schooners had been found wanting, there was little demand for the Labrador schooners and the best of the woodsmen and carpenters of the northeast coast were among those who had prospects of leaving fishery-related work. The banks fishery also entered a profound slump (the Harris firm of Grand Bank went bankrupt in 1923), while those firms remaining were more likely to purchase vessels from Nova Scotia than to build locally.

There was a brief revival of Newfoundland schooner construction in the mid-1930s, in response to a $30/ton shipbuilding bounty introduced by the Commission of Government. In areas of the northeast coast where the Labrador fishery continued to be of importance a number of small schooners were built in the late 1930s and it was generally these vessels which remained in use through World War II. Meanwhile, in 1935, the last of the banking schooners was launched at Grand Bank, the D.J. Thornhill.

WORLD WAR II. Once again the outbreak of war encouraged a revival of shipbuilding -- most especially at Marystown and Clarenville. The Commission of Government had selected Marystown as a prime site for shipbuilding and the possible resettlement of fishing families from isolated communities in Placentia Bay, and in 1939 had encouraged the establishment of a shipbuilding cooperative. With the outbreak of war plans to produce modern fishing trawlers were suspended. The Marystown yard was able to produce four minesweepers (the Jude, Marticot, Merasheen and Oderin) before being destroyed by fire in the winter of 1941. At Monroe, Henry Stone also built minesweepers for the war effort, backed by St. John's businessman C.C. Pratt qv. In 1942 a shipyard was established at Clarenville to build diesel-powered, wooden minesweepers (although most were later used as cargo-carriers for local service). The first of the ten vessels which came to be known as the ``Splinter Fleet'' qv, the Clarenville, was launched in 1944.

THE RECENT ERA. World War II had given Newfoundlanders a glimpse of what the fishery of the future would look like -- based on fresh-frozen processing at large fish plants, with the product going to American markets. In the inshore sector most small boats have continued to be built by their owners -- in 1990 there were nearly 15,000 registered fishing vessels of less than 35 feet, the majority being open speedboats, powered by outboard motors. A few schooners were built between 1945 and 1949, including the Norma and Gladys qv, launched at Monroe by Henry Stone in 1945. The last Newfoundland schooner was the Alberto Wareham, completed by Thomas Hodder of Marystown in 1949.

Since Confederation the majority of decked craft built in Newfoundland have been of the type known as ``longliners''. In general, longliners are motor-powered, decked vessels which range from 35 to 65 feet in length -- the smaller vessels being of the ``combination'' type often used for the trap fishery. Longliners were introduced in the Bonavista area in the early 1950s, some of the earliest being built at Summerville, Bonavista Bay, by S.J. Humby. They soon came into common use along much of the northeast coast. By the early 1960s longliners had come into vogue on the south coast as well: 50 were built at a provincial government shipyard in Marystown between 1959 and 1966. The Fogo Island Shipbuilding and Producers Cooperative also built more than 30 longliners at Shoal Bay qv between 1968 and 1974. By 1980 the longliner fleet was estimated at 600 vessels, increasing to nearly 1000 by 1990, the majority of which were built in Newfoundland. Most longliners have been constructed of wood, although some steel longliners were built by a St. John's firm, E.F. Barnes Ltd., in the late 1950s. In the late 1980s and early 1990s a number of large steel longliners and ``small draggers'' were also built locally. Of 27 ship and boatbuilding firms listed in the 1991 Directory of Manufacturers, 17 concentrated on building wooden boats or longliners. Five firms were involved in constructing fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) vessels, or FRP-wood composite construction and repair. Two firms built aluminum pleasure boats and three were involved in steel shipbuilding and ship repair. These firms were Humber Arm Shipbuilding, Glovertown Shipyards and Marystown Shipyard.

MARYSTOWN SHIPYARD. In the mid-1960s a Quebec shipbuilding company, Canadian Vickers, expressed an interest in establishing a facility to repair steel ships at Marystown. The government persuaded the company to build on a larger scale -- a crown corporation was established to construct a shipyard with the capacity not only for repairs, but also to build steel trawlers for use in the offshore fishery. A subsidiary of Canadian Vickers was to operate the yard. Construction of the yard began in 1966 -- the same year in which federal subsidies for steel fishing vessel construction were reduced from 50% to 35%. With a work force largely unskilled in steel vessel construction and the near-collapse of the fishery in the early 1970s, the early days of the shipyard were troubled ones. By 1971, when Canadian Vickers was requested to relinquish management, only two trawlers had been completed. The next year the Marystown Shipyard crown corporation hired John Rannie to manage the yard. Within three years the experienced Rannie had operating losses reduced to a more manageable level, building four new trawlers for National Sea Products and refitting others.

By the mid-1970s the federal subsidy for the construction of fishing vessels had been reduced to 20% (and was later eliminated altogether). The shipyard continued to do some work in the construction of trawlers, but also built several supply vessels and tugs for the Norwegian oil industry, as well as a Canadian fisheries patrol vessel. Still, the losses in operating the crown corporation continued, such that a Royal Commission of inquiry into the yard's operations was established in 1980. In the early 1980s the shipyard built a number of offshore supply vessels on speculation and, with growing interest in the Hibernia oilfield, attempted to position itself to service oil rigs by establishing a repair and steel fabrication facility at nearby Cow Head. The Province also awarded the shipyard contracts to construct the passenger ferries Beaumont Hamel and Gallipoli. However, the emerging fisheries crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s brought a sharp reduction in demand for the construction and repair of fishing vessels, which had been a major part of the shipyard's business. In 1991-92 there were only 70-100 people employed at the yard (from peaks in excess of 750 workers). The prospects of work in construction related to the production of a drilling platform led the Province to invest money in upgrading of the Marystown and Cow Head facilities, and in November of 1991 an agreement in principle was reached to sell the shipyard to the Norwegian corporation Kvaerner, which had been involved in joint ventures with the shipyard in preparing bids for Hibernia-related work. Six months later, Kvaerner declined to consummate the agreement, as the withdrawal of Gulf from the Hibernia consortium had caused them to have second thoughts. In December 1992 Industry minister Chuck Furey announced that the Province was continuing in its efforts to sell the yard, but was also prepared to consider other options, including closure, stating that ``we're going to continue to maintain and operate the shipyard, not so much as a new construction facility... but we will continue to repair ships'' (ET Dec. 18, 1992).

In August of 1993 the Marystown Shipyard was unsuccessful in bidding on a $120 million Hibernia-related contract, despite the Province's having spent $40 million upgrading the Marystown and Cow Head facilities for such bids. However, the shipyard was successful soon thereafter in obtaining other steel-fabrication contracts related to construction of the Hibernia platform, including pontoon barges, drilling modules and temporary access towers. In February of 1994 it was also announced that the yard had new contracts to construct ships as well -- two offshore multi-function support vessels for Maersk Supply Service-Seabase. At 270 feet in length and more than 3500 tons displacement these vessels would be the largest ever built in Newfoundland.
 

Reference:
B.C. Bursey (1980), Victor Butler (1985), G.T. Cell (1969), M.E. Condon (1925), Calvin Evans (1992), John Feltham (1986), Garfield Fizzard (1987), E.M. Gosse (1988), W.G. Handcock (1981; 1989), M.F. Harrington (1986), C.G. Head (1976), Andrew Horwood (BN IV, 1967; 1971; BN VI, 1975), Otto Kelland (1984), Lawton and Devine (1944), John P. Parker (1960), Douglas Pike (1973), Arthur Pittman (NQ Dec. 1935), D.W. Prowse (1895), John Rannie (BN VI, 1975), H.D. Roberts (1982), Eric W. Sager (1981), Sager and Fischer (1986), Sager and Panting (1990), Ron Tobin (1973), Census (1869-1921), DCB XI (Charles J.F. Bennett), DNE (1990), Directory of Manufacturers (1991), ``The History of Shipbuilding in Newfoundland'' (n.d.), Lloyd's Register (passim), Statistical Overview of the Newfoundland Fisheries (1986), Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, Report of the Royal Commission of Enquiry into the financial losses of Marystown Shipyard Limited (1980), Visual Encyclopedia of Nautical Terms Under Sail (1978), Centre for Newfoundland Studies (Boats and Boatbuilding; Marystown; Ships and Shipping).

From: http://www.k12.nf.ca/discovery/Commmunities/acdrom/clarenville/shipbuilding.html