Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century.
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| Relatively few of the thousands of shipwrecks
strewn along both shores of the lower Saint Lawrence River during the early
part of the 19th century were ever catalogued. An abundance of newspaper
articles, notary deeds, private letters and correspondance between commercial
houses exists, but were neither collected or compiled. While the main thrust
of this project is to publish the several volumes of documented reference
material from "Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century",
the internet isn't the place. Unfortunately, in condensing these documents,
we loose both the subtle meaning and values of that period. Consequently,
I've condensed a few of the longer articles, leaving you to choose if you
wish to read the complete file.
While I'd prefer uploading our entire maritime history chronlogically, starting from 1800, more than six thousand five hundred shipwrecks spread over more than 16,000 pages would take a bit more time than I have in this lifetime. Instead, I'll upload an article, notary deed, Vice-Admiralty Court case or other types of material as I go along. I've just started uploading a few of the early chapters, which will be very similar to the CD-ROM. However, due to the wide variety of linked subjects which takes too much bandwidth, there will be no global index; only an index for each individual chapter. Originally, I had intended covering only from Quebec City eastward into the gulf, but some incidents just couldn't be stopped by mere geographic limits. Never fear if you find yourself struggling for your life, wrecked on the south coast of Newfoundland or fighting the pirates off the east coast of Africa; the lure of the Lower Saint Lawrence always draws you back. This work does not lend itself to grammatical correctness or current popular English. The main purpose is to promote our maritime history in the numerous forms which it has been preserved from the time it was published. In most cases, any errors you notice are typo's that slipped passed my rudimentary proof-reading. Have you documented evidence of maritime incidents or shipwrecks that should be here. Any readable and/or useable photocopies you are interested in sharing with us would be included either chronolgically in the text or as an annex, depending on content, period, source reliability and area, with all due credits mentioned. You can reach me at: This is the land of CD-ROM, where I do all research, transcriptions, editing, burning, graphics, etc. It's surprising how well an early 1980 hand-cranked microfilm reader can do the job, since I go over every page line-by-line in newspapers, Notary Public deeds, etc.
By the way, I wouldn't refuse anyone wanting to get rid of an old microfilm reader with a 26X or 28X lens. | ||
| G.R. Bossé©1998-03. | Posted: Nov. 1st, 1998. |
Updated: Aug. 02, 2006. |
I'd like to thank you, especially,
and the other
visitors
since March 21st, 1999,
for your interest in our
Lower Saint Lawrence Maritime History.
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