Glooscap (ship)

History
Canada
Name: Glooscap
Port of registry: Parrsboro, Nova Scotia
Builder: Spencers Island Company, Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia
Launched: August 5, 1891
Identification:
  • Code Letters JCNL
Fate: Converted to Gypsum barge 1914
Notes: Official Number 100108
General characteristics
Tonnage: 1721 gross tons
Length: 238 ft (73 m)
Beam: 42.9 ft (13.1 m)
Depth: 23.9 ft
Decks: 2
Propulsion: Sail
Sail plan: Full-rigged ship
Notes: Specifications from Glooscap 1914 Registry Form[1]

Glooscap was a full-rigged sailing ship built in 1891 at Spencer's Island, Nova Scotia in the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy. The ship was named after Glooscap, the spiritual hero figure of the Mi'kmaq people. Glooscap was the culmination of several decades of large-scale ship building in the small village of Spencers Island. She was the last square rigger built along the Parrsboro Shore and the largest ship ever built in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.[2] She circled the world in her first year of operation, carrying freight to Liverpool, Cape Town, Australia, and New York. She made frequent subsequent voyages to the Pacific. Although built in the twilight period of the Age of Sail, Glooscap earned good profits for her owners shipping freight around the world for two decades under the command of two noted captains, the brothers George T. Spicer and Dewis Spicer of Spencers Island. Glooscap was converted to a gypsum barge in 1914. The ship is featured in exhibits at the lighthouse museum in Spencer's Island and at the Age of Sail Heritage Centre in Port Greville.

References

  1. Glooscap Registry Form, 1914, Official Number 100108, Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management
  2. Stanley Spicer Sails of Fundy: The Schooners and Square-riggers of the Parrsboro Shore (Hantsport, NS: Lancelot Press, 1984), p. 15

External links

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