Dalhousie to Dublin SHORT

Dalhousie to Dublin

Schooner Days LXXXV (85)

Resuming the history of the Muir Brothers, whose famous drydock at Port Dalhousie, built in 1850, is still a going concern, we come to their "barque" Niagara, a lake pitcher which went once too often to the well of the ocean, but cleared thousands of dollars for her owners.

UNDETERRED by the adverse experience of their Alexander, when that schooner’s venture across the Atlantic from Port Dalhousie was marred by her dismasting on the Banks of Newfoundland, the Muir brothers, of Port Dalhousie laid the keel of another and larger vessel while the Alexander was on the high seas, in 1859, ana launched her before the Alexander got back to fresh water.

This was the "barque" Niagara, only one of the long line of Muir sailers to break the rule of beginning her name with "A."

The Niagara was definitely designed for "foreign consumption," so she was deliberately given a name that would call attention to the wilds of America whence she came. She was registered at Montreal, as was the custom for most inland vessels of British North America at this time. A very fine craft she was with the roof of her cabin carried out to the rails, forming a poop deck, with covered approaches on each side to the wheel.

The Niagara was definitely designed for "foreign consumption," so she was deliberately given a name that would call attention to the wilds of America whence she came. She was registered at Montreal, as was the custom for most inland vessels of British North America at this time. A very fine craft she was with the roof of her cabin carried out to the rails, forming a poop deck, with covered approaches on each side to the wheel.