CGS La Canadienne, government schooner.

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Item	ship_canadienne_1855_wood_472
Artist	Carved Wood
Made in	Canada

Canadian Coast Guard and Marine Services

Description

CGS La Canadienne, government schooner

Condition*

very nice condition (year 1900?)

Measurements

36 inch X 26 H

Photography

Provided by Antique, collectibles & Vintage Interchange

Location

Montréal, Canada

Price & taxes if applicable

$575.00 cdn

Shipping rates & taxes if applicable

CGS La Canadienne Sailing fast to windward on the starboard tack, the government schooner is helped by her boom less foresail which overlaps the main. This arrangement predates by some 70 years the advent of the Genoa jib in yachts. Note the commission pendant, worn at the main masthead by armed vessels on enforcement duties. (Public Archives) Unrecognized as a hawk among the doves, this schooner, La Canadienne, was a successful fisheries cruiser and became, in time, one of the best loved ships in our service. One of the lesser tragedies connected with the accidental burning of the Parliament Buildings in Ottawa in 1916 was the destruction of a fine model of this schooner, which had adorned the Parliamentary Library. Today, only a stereotyped and mediocre picture remains, but there is pride in the way she is shown, hard on the wind, working against a slop of a sea under full sail. She was a smart vessel, carried a crew of twenty-four, and for many years was commanded by Captain N. Lavoie. Dr. Fortin, himself a sailor at heart, had many adventures in her and scoured every inch of the Gulf, year after year, in all weathers, defending the rights of Canadian fishermen and upholding the law in countless civil disputes and criminal cases. Dr. Fortin resigned from the service on Confederation, served subsequently in the Legislature of Quebec, and was called to the Dominion Senate in 1887. He died in 1888. Dr. Fortin outlived his ship. After twenty years patrolling the lower St. Lawrence, La Canadienne was sent to Halifax to work out her approaching old age in laying buoys in the harbour. In 1875, under the command of Captain Browne, a former naval navigating officer, she was sent on one last trip with light station supplies. Unfortunately it was her last and, on August 20 of that year, she drove ashore on the Island of St. Paul's. Nova Scotia commissioned the schooner Daring for the protection of her fisheries, about the same time as La Canadienne, and many more were subsequently built or chartered for this work. It was a hard service which exacted a cruel toll on fishermen and cruisers alike, working in and out of bays and coves in all seasons, always subject to the hazards of weather and the danger of becoming embayed on a lee shore. The Daring was wrecked in a terrible snowstorm at Herring Cove in December 1867. The last fishery protection schooner to be purchased for use in Nova Scotia was the Kingfisher, the last, in fact, of the government sailing cruisers. A half model of her may be seen in the Maritime Museum at Halifax.

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