Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century.
Welcome! to The 19th Century Lower St. Lawrence River Maritime History Page. |
A few words about the author.
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After sailing five year foreign flag into South
America and Europe as communications officer, with a couple of balmy summer
trips into our eastern Canadian Arctic, I joined the Canadian Coast Guard.
For the next twenty five year, I worked at numerous marine radio stations
along the lower St. Lawrence as marine communications specialist.
Leaving the service was the easy part. Getting away from a lifetime of salt and sea was something else. Retirement meant shifting that salt and sea just a bit, as it never leaves you, nor can you get away from it. Nearly twenty years ago, I started researching our parish genealogy, and regularly came across numerous shipwrecks and maritime incidents that occurred in the Lower St. Lawrence during the 19th century. With several years experience gained researching our history at Les Archives Nationale at Rimouski, slipping into shipwreck research was easy. But notary deeds only give you part of the story. Newspapers were the principal source. While easy to access through microfilm, the scope is formidable. Add 225,000 pages of notary deeds at the Rimouski registry office alone, all the pages from the Quebec Gazette, Quebec Mercury and the Quebec Chronicle during the 19th century, plus whatever private correspondance that turn up, you get a round figure of three quarters of a millions pages. We have a fascinating and diverse maritime history that is known by few, and even fewer as the years slip by. With hardcopy newspapers covering the 19th century difficult to come by, pages on microfilm slowly fading away and government funds for replacement even harder to find, it was imparative to collect whatever could be recovered. The main thrust of this project is to present a hardcopy version of whatever I can find covering the Lower Saint Lawrence 19th century maritime history. However, preparing and publishing such a vast amount of information is slow and beyond my resources at present. In the meantime, I'll upload various incidents while not on research. While this web-site is recent and small, it'll grow in a somewhat linear fashion. Now that I've started a French version, I'll be able to develope complete chapters without having to leave significant aspects not published in English. Are you interested in participating in this project? You can reach me at: Now, if we want to finish this project, I'll have to get back to my normal activities. I hope to publish "Navigating the Lower Saint Lawrence in the 19th Century, version 3" on CD-ROM July 2005. It will cover from 1800 to 1870 in approximately 5,800 pages. After I prepare better coastal maps showing the numerous locations no longer identified in English, I'll have to re-edit the complete manuscript, since I've added dozens more articles and notary deeds since last summer (1998). Patience is a wonderful virtue!Our maritime history is shaping up nicely, but your assistance, participation and support will be greatly appreciated, speeding up the process. Gilbert R. Bossé |
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| G.R. Bossé©1998-03. | Posted: May 15, 1999. |
Updated: July 15, 2003. |
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