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The last recorded frame on each microfiche shall contain the symbol — ► (meaning "CON- TINUED"), or the symbol V (meaning "END"), whichever applies. iVlap, and on the do - nfall of Sir Robert Peel, he became one of tiie leaders of the Conservative party. His popularity grew rapidly, and at the date when this vessel was launched, no man was more talked abuut in the newspapers than Disraeli. The Koh-i-noor. This famous diamond has an interesting history. If we are to credit East- ern legend, it was" well known in India five thousand vears ago. It was brought to Dehli in the 14t*h century, and later on, fell into the possession of the Grand Mogul. At the sack of [9] Delhi (1730) it was carried off to Afglmnis^^an and tlience became the property of the East India Company. This Company presented it to Queen Victoria in 18,50, just at the time that Ca])t. INlcKenzie was about to launch a barque o^ 314 tons. It would seem to be the proper thing to call her "l^he Koh-i-nocr." But it would occupy too much space to pursue this subject. Sn,iie of these ships embarked in the carrying trade imder the management of local owners, and were officered and manned by local seamen. Others when completed were loaded with timber and sent across to Cireat Britain where both shi])s and cargo were sold, thus furnishing the builder with capital to undertake new ventures. Prior to 1830, shipbuilding in Nova Scotia was an infant industry. The trade was largely con- fined to small coasters and fishing vessels. Ac- cording to a tabulated statement published in Haliburton's History, written in 1829, only three small vessels were launched in the ports of Pictou County in the year 1821. The "James William" would be one of the three. The total tonnage of these three vessels is placed at 151 tons. By the same authority only 228 vessels were built in the Province between 1807 and 1828 inclusive, with a total tonnage of 15,149 tons. Most of these v/ere small ci'afts of owe hundred tons or less the one exception according to Haliburton's fig- ures, being a ship built in CornwaUis in 1814 of 1021 tons. An examination of the registry kept in the customs at Pictou will show that the ship yards in this vicinity were speciall}'' active in the "fifties." [10] V Various circumstances contributed to bring about tliis result. The timber trade with Great Britain had grown to large proportions, furnishing ample cargoes for out going sliips. The Crimean War also gave a decided impetus to the industry. The coal trade between Pictou and United States ports was then active, and a immber of vessels were built ex})ressly for this purpose. The reciprocity treaty was then in force and con- sidei-able quantities of An)erican manufactured goods were available for return cargoes, all these cavjses contributed. By reference to the foregoing list, it will be seen that Captain McKenzie alone had no less than four vessels under construction in the year 1854, and it is said that at one time during this period there were as many as fourteen square rigged ships under construction in New Glasgow in one year. The same activity also prevailed at Pictou, River John and other places. The Eastern Chronice of January 3rd, 1853, states thot in that year forty-four new vessels were lauiiched in Pictou County alone. In the issue of the same paper of January 2'4th, 1854, I find the following paragraph: Enterprise in New Glasgow — "On visiting "New Glasgow yesterday we were impressed "with the thrifty and business-like appearance "of the place. The town seems at the present "time to be a perfect hive of industry; the "streets crowded with country people disposing "of then- timber or produce, and the shop- "keepers equally busy in disposing of their "wares. Tliis activity in trade is evidently to [11] "be attributed to the amount of ship building "going on, which, besides giving employment "to several hundred men — carpenters, riggers, "blacksmiths, &c., also gives work to a large "number of persons from the country who "supply the ship yards with timber, or the "merchants with ton timber for exportation "thus causing the circulation of a large amount "of capital. All the vessels at present building "there, except one, we believe, are for use in "the coal trade, and apparently of a very su- "perior class, real clipper models, and varying "from ab ut 300 to 400 tons burthen. If there "is any virtue in "Models*' some of these ves- "sels will outsail anything that has yet been "produced in Nova Scotia. But the principle "object of interest in the ship yard? is Cap- "tain McKenzie's "big ship" for to such a "distinctive appelation her great length (21.5 "feet keel) entitles her, when compared with "any other ship built in Nova Scotia. She is "not so deep as the large vessels formerly built "by this gentleman, but has more beam and is "very sharp forward and aft. She is being "constructed entirely of pitch pine and juniper "and will be in all respects a very superior "vessel. About one hundred men are at work "in the Captain's ship yard alone." The "big ship" above referred to was probably the "Magna Carta," 1465 tons, then under con- struction in JMcKenzie's yard. The fate of this shij) is one of the mysteries of the sea. In the winter of 1856-7 she sailed from Liverpool bound for the West Coast of South America with a [12] iu fl '/ J cargo made up largely o^^ paving stones and other heavy material. No tidings of her ever reached her owners. She may have foundered at sea, or like many another good ship, she may have been lost rounding the "Horn." No one knows. Among those who went down with her was Forest, eldest son of the late James Graham, and brother of Captain Peter Graham. Forest Graham was second officer on this ill fated vessel. McKenzie's nephew, James W. Carmichael, then in active business in New Glasgow was associated with him in many of his ventures. There was no formal partnership, but always the closest and most cordial business and family re- lations. Carmichael purchased the timber and other material from the country people, generally paying for same with goods from the store. He also advanced wages and supphes to the men employed in the ship yard. The work was car- ried on by McKenzie, and when the ship was launched and sold a settlement was made, and each got a share of the profits. About the year 1848, on the occasion of one of his voyages to Britain, McKenzie was given up by all his friends for lost. He had a good passage over. His ship arrived safely in Glas- gow with the usual cargo of ton timber. He sold both sliip and cargo and took passage home in a steamboat belonging to the Collins line called the "Atlantic" plying between Liverpool and Halifax. When more then half way across, the ship met with an accident to her machinery and became disabled. It was the beginning of winter and the weather was stormy. The prevadmg wind was westerly. The '' Atlantic" was one of [13] j^i^ the old fashioned paddle boats and made little or no progress under sail against head winds. For days she stubbornly maintained the unequal struggle, but she was only drifting. The captain of the steamer became alarmed at the situation of his ship. There were a number of other sea captains among the passengers besides McKen- zie. A consultation was held and a variety of opinions expressed as to what should be done. The captain of the "Atlantic" appealed to Mc- Kenzie. The latter, without any hesitation, ad- vised that they should take advantage of the prevailing westerly wind and put back to Liver- pool. Some of the others protested vigorously and characterized this as insane advice as they were then much nearer Halifax than Liverpool. After several additional days were lost vainly battling with the gales, McKenzie's advice was accepted, and he was, by common consent, put in charge of the ship. His first step was to order her paddles to be chopped off to make her more manageable. Her course was then promptly reversed and she was headed for Liverpool, where she arrived after a long and stormy passage. This was before the days of the Atlantic cable, and the ship being long overdue, was finally given up for lost, but to the surprise of everybody, several weeks later, McKenzie suddenly arrived in Halifax. The report reached Pictou first, and the late A. J. Patterson skated up the river to cerry the news to Nt.w Glasgow. When it was spread around, it gave rise to the wildest re- joicing. Work in the shipyard was suspended. The next day was by common consent declared a holiday. The hero was to arrive by the coach [14] '< ^< ! that came by way of Mount Thorn. A proces- sion was formed with a piper at its head. When the crowd met the coach, somewhere near West River, they set up a rousing cheer. McKenzie at first in the confusion could scarcely realize what it was all about, but when he took in the situation he was annoyed at them for making so much fuss about nothing and ordered them off home, bluntly teUing them they were "a lot of d d fools?' They took no offence, as it was well known to them all that in his heart he was well pleased at the general rejoicing over his safe return. Captain McKenzie was vnthout doubt a re- markable man. He loved adventure. One of his old friends who knew him well, remarked to the writer that if he had been born four hundred and fifty years ago in some European port and could have 'secured the necessary backing, he might have headed off Christopher Columbus. No Xova Scota seaman that I ever heard of, had the reputation among his contemporaries for doing things that McKenzie had. If there were dis- cGuragem.cnts he brushed them aside; if there were difficulties he met them; if there were ob- stacles that appeared to everybody else to be insurmountable, he overcame them. It was his delight to undertake some task that others re- garded as hopeless. He was especially success- ful in recovering wrecks. If a stranded vessel was high and dry on the rocks, he managed to pull her off. If she was on the bottom, he con- trived some way to float her. On one occasion, a ship when being launched, stuck fast in the mud. The spectators all regarded the accident [ 15 ] as a calamity. Nothing daunted, he secures a gang of men, digs her out, sets her afloat and sends her on her way. Another ship is launched and rigged and about ready to be towed to Pictou when she turns over on her side, and her yard arms stick fast in the mud flats below new Glas- gow bridge. It was only a question of a few days when she was righted and trinmied and ready for sea. He was a born leader of men in anything he undertook. When anything was going on, he was on the spot, saw to everything, and as much as possible directed everything himself. He was the first man to advocate the dredging of the Ease River. He appealed to the government at Halifax for assistance. The response was a grant of £1000. The late John Marshall was appointed foreman, A "digger" driven by horses was constructed, and a channel was soon made deep enough to float ships to sea partly laden with timber. The officers of the govern- ment were nominally in charge of this work, but "The Captain" was the man behind the "digger." In the year 1845, in one of the many voyages made across the Atlantic by the good ship "Sesos- tres," John McKenzie, a brother of the Captain, was a passenger. The Captain himself was mas- ter, and Captain William Dand was first officer. On the return passage, when the ship was some ten days out from Liverpool, his brother, John, died. Instead of burying him at sea, the Captain decided to take the body home. Tliis was no easy task as the voyage might extend over a month, accordingly, under the Cajjtain's direction, Peter Shields, the ship's carpenter, constructed a coffin which was lined with lead in which the body was [16] placed, and embalmed in rum, and brought honie for internment. John McKenzie was buried in the old cemetery near the "Iron Bridge." The following year the Captain perpetuated his brother's memory by calhng his next ship "John McKenzie" His pluck and perseverence is illustrated by the story of "The Georner The George was the Ca])tain's first square rigged ship. She proved to be a good sailor and he was very proud of her and commanded her himself on a voyage to Brit- ain. On her return trip, she left Glasgow for Pictou in company with a Scotch ship about the same size, also bound for Pictou, and there was the usual speculation as to which would arrive first. After "The George" was out several days from Glasgow she was overtaken by a terrific storm, and after a couple of days of wild weather, in which neither sun nor star appeared, her masts were blown out. McKenzie, nothing daunted, proceeded at once to erect temporary masts. He rigged her up as best he could, spread such sails as remained to the breeze, and arrived in Pictou ahead of the Scotch vessel, although the latter had met with no damage. McKenzie was not only an energetic man. He was capable of enduring great fatigue. Work that would wear out an ordinary man was nothing to him. He was a good sleeper, and not at all particular about when and where he slept. He was often seen sleeping in his carriage on the road while his horse was going at a good steady gait. He frequently took a good nap in the cor- ner of his pew in old "Primitive" Church, when [17] the neighbors thought he should he hstening to the sermon. He was a very impulsive man. He made up his mind quickly and acted on the spur of the moment. It would fill a volume to reproduce even a tithe of the stories that are told of him. On one occasion in the harbor of Savannah, a man fell overboard. The "Captain" who was on the deck at the time, did not wait to throw the man a line or lower a boat. Although he could not swim a stroke, he at once jumped overboard himself and caught the drowning man and managed to keep afloat until both were rescued. McKenzie's energy in pushing forward any work he understood is well illustrated by the building of the "Koh-i-noor." This vessel was commenced late in the season of 1850. When her keel was laid in the latter part of August, everybody said that it would be impossible to launch before winter. But when the "Captain" made up his mind that a thing was to be done, obstacles disappeared. The materials were quickly assembled. An extra force of workmen were engaged. The chips began to fly. The frame work arose like magic. The "Captain" was everywhere directing everybody, and in less time than the ordinary man would require to think about embarking in a venture of this kind, the vessel was built and launched and rigged and ready for sea. To save time, he began to load her with a cargo of birch timber before she was launched and in less than ninety days from the time the first blow was struck, she passed the Pictou light on her way to Scotland, carrying a full cargo of timber. [18] Among the sea-faring people of Nova Scotia, McKenzie's name was a household word. He was also well and favorably known in Great Britain. In 1855, on the occasion of one of his voyages to Scotland, his portrait was painted by a celebrated Scotch painter, Norman McBeth. This picture for a number of years was in the possession of the late Mr. A. G. Kidston of the well known firm of A. G. Kidston & Sons, Glas- gow. After the death of the senior partner, the portrait was taken to Nova Scotia by the Hon. William Stairs of Halifax, and for many years it adorned the office of M ssrs. Stairs, Son & Mor- row. It has recently come to New Glasgow and is now on exhibition in the office of Messrs. J. W. Carmichael & Co., Limited. The foregoing pic- ture is a copy taken from tliis portrait. In politics McKenzie was a liberal. In his day, his influence with the rank and file wms as great as that of any man in the constituency. In the general election of 1855, his friends pre- vailed on him to offer as a candidate for the Legis- lature. He was duly elected. His successful colleagues on that occasion were A. C. McDonald and M. I. Willdns. The latter was elected for the township of Pictou. Between 1855 and 185t), a redistribution took place giving Pictou County four seats. The election of 1859 was one of great excitement, not only in Pictou County but throughout the Province. In that contest, A. C. McDonald and R. P. Grant were elected for the west riding, whereas Captain McKenzie and James McDonald were the successful candidates in the east. McKenzie held the seat until 1863 when he was defeated in the general election of [19] that year. His defeat made no difference to him. Up to the end he was found working and fighting for the cause he espoused, true to his leaders and his party, fertile in suggestion and never betraying any resentment on account of his defeat or because his views were not accepted. In looking through the proceedings of the legis- lature for those eight years, I find his name men- tioned in the divisions and on such committees as "Navigation Securities" and "Trade." He was a man of a few words, but his views always car- ried great weight with his colleagues. He was a staunch supporter of Howe all through his great struggle for ])opular control and respon- sible government. Howe always had a great admiration for INlcKenzie. On the 11th JVlarch, 18.54, Howe delivered his great speech in the Local Legislature on "The Organization of the Empire." Comparing the Ship-building of the Maritime Provinces with that of Scotland, he said: "Scotland maintains upon the Clyde the great- est manufactory of ships in the world. Vessels glide up and dov;n that beautiful stream like swallows round a barn. Scarcely a day passes but richly laden vessels arrive or depart with domestic manufactures or the products of foreign climes. Go into the factories where the mighty engines for her steamers are wrought and the noise of the fabled Cyclops cave is realized. The roar of waters behind Niagara Falls is scarcely more incessant or deafening, and yet Sir, the tonnage of Scotland is only a trifle more than that of the North American Provinces. Her whole commercial marine include but 522,222 [20] I II I tons, while in these Provinces, our shipping o'nounts to the splendid total of 453,000 tons. At the time of the Spanish Armada (1588) we read in old chronicles that England then owned but one hundred and thirty-five merchant ships. But then some were of great size, some four hundred tons and a few reaching five hundred tons. If my friend George McKenzie of New Gasgow had dashed into the midst of the maiden Queen's navy with his one thousand four hundred and forty ton ships, I fear that he would have shaken her nerves and astonished our forefathers of whose exploits we are so enamoured that we never think of our own." It may not be out of place to remark that if the Hon. Joseph Howe himself was alive today, he would be just as much astonished at our feats of naval architecture as Queen Elizabeth could have been at the sight of George McKenzie's big ships. But this is only working out the well known doctrine that "the world moves on." The two families became allied in after years by the marriage of Sydenham Howe, Hon. Joseph Howe's grandson and Gene Mitchell, the grand- daughter of Captain McKenzie. Among I^IcKenzie's admirers was the late Hon. WilliarQ Stairs of Halifax. The "Captain" and Mr. Stairs were close personal friends for many years. Mr. Stairs always spoke of Cap- tain McKenzie as the father of ship building in Nova Scotia. But we must not infer that Mc- Kenzie was the first Nova Scctian to build ships, for many small ships were built in the Province before his time. In those early days the demand for wooden [21] i / vessels wus good. Priees were high, and tliey met with a ready market. They were eon- secjMeiitly hurriedly hiiilt, loaded with ton timher, and sent aeross and sold. After the elose of the Napoleonie wars, trade was very mueh de- pressed in (Jreat Britain and the demand for ships of the eheap elass almost eeased altogether and as a result, ship-huilding in Nova Seotia was in a state of collaj)se. At this crisis, Mc- Kerr/ie led the way in the construction of ships of a hetter elass and advocated and adopted the policy of owning and sailing them after they were huilt. In this sense Captain McKenzie might he called the father of ship-building in Nova Scotia. More than forty years ago and shortly prior to McKeir/ie's death, Hon. VV^illiam Stairs deliv- ered a public adress in the old Temperance Hall, Plalifux, on the "Great Men of Nova Scotia" in which he took occasion to refer to McKenzie in the following language : "Of George McKenzie of New Glasgow I would say his country owes him a debt of grat- itude. With native strength and force of char- acter he started as a young man in ship buiding and ship owning. He had of all the men I have known the greatest power of inspiring men with his force. It never troubled him to find a man; he made men. The stout young farmer's sons he would seize as relentlessly as would a recruiting sergeant, and before he knew where he was, he made him the master of a ship. They were known as the "Captain's \ Captains." He was a man who believed in [22] ■ • _ ■A u . ■ .., ■ .■:-■. ..r^.:. ... .-:-. :.\: ' men. He trusted them. He had {^reat talent for any extra work that was lieyond eommon men's a])])rehension. To liave hiunched the "Great Kastcrn" would have heen to him a deli^rht. I mean the "Great Eastern" in troul)lc, wheji she would fiot move for the en- gineers who had her in hand. Ship huilders and shif) owners of Pictou, should, as they do, esteem him as the father of their trade. He worked at a time when the facilities for huilding were very few com])ared to the present. He was some years in our Legislature. Our old friend ^Tr. Howe used to delight in George McKenzie — he was an admiral in his eyes. May he long he among us with his pleasant, cheery smile, so strong and so gentle." His last ship was the "County of Pictou/' She was built at the old yard, but he did little more than look on. His health was broken, and it was plain that his working days were over. However, he could not be kept away from the ship yard. He made daily visits, and when too tired or too ill to stand, he secured a seat on some log or convenient place where he could see the men at work, and if a mistake was made, there was a shout making it clear to the oC'ender that the Captain's eye was still upon him. The writer did not know him personally, and any estimate of his character must be second- hand. It is the universal testimony, however, of those who did know liim that he was n man of remarkable energy and force. He div things. He never advertised himself. He soui ^d no trumpet at the street corners. In business he [23] 4' was universally trusted. His spoken word was as good as his written bond. No one who had dealings vith him ever doubted that fact. His credit was good on both sides of the Atlantic. In all the ports of the world where his ships dropped anchor, the initial letters "G. K." on his house flag was a sufficient passport among the merchants. His family consisted of two daughters, Georg- ina, who became the wife of the late Andrew Walker, and Sarah, who married the late Dr. Wm. Mitchell. The only sui-viving descendants are Sarah WalKer, now Mrs. Edward McLeod, and Gene JMitchell, now Mrs. Sydenham Howe, also ihe following great-grandchildren: JNorman, Geo- rge McKenzie, Helen and Jean, sons and daugh- ters of Mr. and Mrs. Edward McLeod. Captain McKenzie departed this life at New Glasgow, on March 17th, 1876. His body rests in Riverside Cemetery and after a lapse of over forty years, his memory is still fresh among the survivors of that generation, v/ho remember him as a man of great force of character and one of our pioneer captains of industry. [24] H