George Black (shipbuilder)
Encyclopedia
George Albert Black was a Canadian
politician
and businessman
and an important shipbuilder
in Quebec
during the earlier part of the 19th century.
in the port of Quebec
during the early 19th century. A ship’s carpenter in 1817, he went into business in 1819, and from then until 1846 he built at least 54 vessels for a total registered tonnage
of 23,645. His shipyard
was located at Cape Cove, below the monument to James Wolfe
on the Plains of Abraham
, and specialized in the building of full-rigged vessels
and, to a lesser extent, barque
s. The location was subsequently leased by his nephew, William Henry Baldwin
and his partner, Henry Dinning who continued, together and separately, to build first class ships out of the Port of Quebec
.
Black’s ships were of a high quality and of the larger class of contemporary shipping. Almost all were awarded the highest rating, A1, by Lloyd’s register of shipping
. Therefore, by virtue of the quality and quantity of his shipbuilding, Black is a notable figure in Canadian economic history.
He also engaged in ship-repairing, apparently an active sideline for shipbuilders at Quebec because of the hazards peculiar to the St. Lawrence
. Unlike his contemporaries, such as John Munn
, for whom five of Black’s first six vessels were built, he seldom built on his own account. With the exception of two steamers
, a schooner
, and a brigantine
, the vessels he built were destined for owners in the United Kingdom
, and the bulk of them were employed, at least initially, in the British trade to the West Indies
, Africa
, and Australia
.
He is said to have been a partner of John Saxton Campbell
, a Quebec merchant and shipowner. He has been awarded a measure of fame, singular for a Canadian shipbuilder, because of a vessel he built with Campbell in 1831, the 1,270-ton steamship
Royal William
. The vessel was constructed for the Quebec and Halifax Steam Navigation Company which included Black, Samuel Cunard
, and numerous prominent Lower Canadian
businessmen among its shareholders. As a steamer, the Royal William was atypical of Black’s production, but her steam voyage from Pictou, Nova Scotia
, to Cowes
, in late summer 1833 was widely and repeatedly claimed decades later by Canadians to have been the first across the Atlantic
.
Black capped his career with his largest ship, constructing the 1,278-ton Omega in 1846. On May 1 of that year he leased the shipyard to his son George Black Jr. for £800 per year and probably retired. An inventory taken three days later revealed that the shipyard contained building materials worth approximately £472, household furniture to the value of £35, as well as tools and other articles valued at £310. The business was carried on by Black Jr. until his death three years later. Black Sr. then leased the shipyard to another Quebec shipbuilder of note, William Henry Baldwin
.
for Saint-Laurent Ward in 1835. When the city reverted to a system of administration by justices of the peace
between 1836 and 1840, he served as one of the justices. After a new charter provided for the appointment of a mayor and councillors, Black was appointed city councillor for Champlain Ward for 1840–42. The positions on the city council again became elective in 1842 but he declined to stand for office although he continued to act as a justice of the peace until at least the late 1840s.
, he was also a member of the local St. Andrew’s Society.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and businessman
Businessperson
A businessperson is someone involved in a particular undertaking of activities for the purpose of generating revenue from a combination of human, financial, or physical capital. An entrepreneur is an example of a business person...
and an important shipbuilder
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
in Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
during the earlier part of the 19th century.
Shipbuilding career
George Black was a leading shipbuilderShipbuilding
Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to before recorded history.Shipbuilding and ship repairs, both...
in the port of Quebec
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
during the early 19th century. A ship’s carpenter in 1817, he went into business in 1819, and from then until 1846 he built at least 54 vessels for a total registered tonnage
Tonnage
Tonnage is a measure of the size or cargo carrying capacity of a ship. The term derives from the taxation paid on tuns or casks of wine, and was later used in reference to the weight of a ship's cargo; however, in modern maritime usage, "tonnage" specifically refers to a calculation of the volume...
of 23,645. His shipyard
Shipyard
Shipyards and dockyards are places which repair and build ships. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance and basing activities than shipyards, which are sometimes associated more with initial...
was located at Cape Cove, below the monument to James Wolfe
James Wolfe
Major General James P. Wolfe was a British Army officer, known for his training reforms but remembered chiefly for his victory over the French in Canada...
on the Plains of Abraham
Plains of Abraham
The Plains of Abraham is a historic area within The Battlefields Park in Quebec City, Quebec, that was originally grazing land, but became famous as the site of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, which took place on 13 September 1759. Though written into the history books, housing and minor...
, and specialized in the building of full-rigged vessels
Full rigged ship
A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square rigged. A full rigged ship is said to have a ship rig....
and, to a lesser extent, barque
Barque
A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts.- History of the term :The word barque appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca, Spanish barco, and the French barge and...
s. The location was subsequently leased by his nephew, William Henry Baldwin
William Henry Baldwin
William Henry Baldwin was a shipbuilder from Quebec who came from a ship building families on both sides of his family. He was raised by an uncle, George Black, a shipbuilder who apprenticed William to another uncle at the age of 14.By 1851, Baldwin had formed a partnership with Henry Dinning and...
and his partner, Henry Dinning who continued, together and separately, to build first class ships out of the Port of Quebec
Port of Quebec
The Port of Quebec is an inland port located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. It is the oldest port in Canada, and the second largest in Quebec after the Port of Montreal.-History:...
.
Black’s ships were of a high quality and of the larger class of contemporary shipping. Almost all were awarded the highest rating, A1, by Lloyd’s register of shipping
Lloyd's Register
The Lloyd's Register Group is a maritime classification society and independent risk management organisation providing risk assessment and mitigation services and management systems certification. Historically, as Lloyd's Register of Shipping, it was a specifically maritime organisation...
. Therefore, by virtue of the quality and quantity of his shipbuilding, Black is a notable figure in Canadian economic history.
He also engaged in ship-repairing, apparently an active sideline for shipbuilders at Quebec because of the hazards peculiar to the St. Lawrence
Saint Lawrence River
The Saint Lawrence is a large river flowing approximately from southwest to northeast in the middle latitudes of North America, connecting the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. It is the primary drainage conveyor of the Great Lakes Basin...
. Unlike his contemporaries, such as John Munn
John Munn (shipbuilder)
John Munn was a Scottish-born shipbuilder and political figure in Lower Canada.He was born in Irvine, Scotland in 1788, the son of a sailor, also named John Munn, and came to Quebec City in 1801, where he began his career as a shipbuilder. In 1814, he went to Montreal, where he manufactured ships...
, for whom five of Black’s first six vessels were built, he seldom built on his own account. With the exception of two steamers
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
, a schooner
Schooner
A schooner is a type of sailing vessel characterized by the use of fore-and-aft sails on two or more masts with the forward mast being no taller than the rear masts....
, and a brigantine
Brigantine
In sailing, a brigantine or hermaphrodite brig is a vessel with two masts, only the forward of which is square rigged.-Origins of the term:...
, the vessels he built were destined for owners in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, and the bulk of them were employed, at least initially, in the British trade to the West Indies
British West Indies
The British West Indies was a term used to describe the islands in and around the Caribbean that were part of the British Empire The term was sometimes used to include British Honduras and British Guiana, even though these territories are not geographically part of the Caribbean...
, Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, and Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
.
He is said to have been a partner of John Saxton Campbell
John Saxton Campbell
John Saxton Campbell was a seigneur and businessman in Lower Canada.He was the son of Archibald Campbell and Charlotte Saxton and the older brother of notary Archibald Campbell. He is believed to have come to the town of Quebec at a young age; his father was involved in the timber trade and came...
, a Quebec merchant and shipowner. He has been awarded a measure of fame, singular for a Canadian shipbuilder, because of a vessel he built with Campbell in 1831, the 1,270-ton steamship
Steamboat
A steamboat or steamship, sometimes called a steamer, is a ship in which the primary method of propulsion is steam power, typically driving propellers or paddlewheels...
Royal William
SS Royal William
SS Royal William was a Canadian steamship that is sometimes credited with achieving the first crossing of the Atlantic Ocean to be made almost entirely under steam power, using sails only during periods of boiler maintenance, though the British-built Dutch-owned Curaçao crossed in 1827.The...
. The vessel was constructed for the Quebec and Halifax Steam Navigation Company which included Black, Samuel Cunard
Samuel Cunard
Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet was a British shipping magnate, born at Halifax, Nova Scotia, who founded the Cunard Line...
, and numerous prominent Lower Canadian
Lower Canada
The Province of Lower Canada was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence...
businessmen among its shareholders. As a steamer, the Royal William was atypical of Black’s production, but her steam voyage from Pictou, Nova Scotia
Pictou, Nova Scotia
Pictou is a town in Pictou County, in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. Located on the north shore of Pictou Harbour, the town is approximately 10 km north of the larger town of New Glasgow....
, to Cowes
Cowes
Cowes is an English seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east Bank...
, in late summer 1833 was widely and repeatedly claimed decades later by Canadians to have been the first across the Atlantic
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
.
Black capped his career with his largest ship, constructing the 1,278-ton Omega in 1846. On May 1 of that year he leased the shipyard to his son George Black Jr. for £800 per year and probably retired. An inventory taken three days later revealed that the shipyard contained building materials worth approximately £472, household furniture to the value of £35, as well as tools and other articles valued at £310. The business was carried on by Black Jr. until his death three years later. Black Sr. then leased the shipyard to another Quebec shipbuilder of note, William Henry Baldwin
William Henry Baldwin
William Henry Baldwin was a shipbuilder from Quebec who came from a ship building families on both sides of his family. He was raised by an uncle, George Black, a shipbuilder who apprenticed William to another uncle at the age of 14.By 1851, Baldwin had formed a partnership with Henry Dinning and...
.
Political career
Black was elected councillorCouncillor
A councillor or councilor is a member of a local government council, such as a city council.Often in the United States, the title is councilman or councilwoman.-United Kingdom:...
for Saint-Laurent Ward in 1835. When the city reverted to a system of administration by justices of the peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
between 1836 and 1840, he served as one of the justices. After a new charter provided for the appointment of a mayor and councillors, Black was appointed city councillor for Champlain Ward for 1840–42. The positions on the city council again became elective in 1842 but he declined to stand for office although he continued to act as a justice of the peace until at least the late 1840s.
Personal life
He married Jane Gilley on July 26, 1817 at Quebec; they had nine children together. A PresbyterianPresbyterianism
Presbyterianism refers to a number of Christian churches adhering to the Calvinist theological tradition within Protestantism, which are organized according to a characteristic Presbyterian polity. Presbyterian theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures,...
, he was also a member of the local St. Andrew’s Society.