ting on the stocks.' In 1852 Lloyd's sent out its own
surveyor, Menzies, who would guarantee work done under his own eye for
twenty-five cents a ton; while Lloyd's, for its part, would give
preferential rates to any vessels thus 'built under special survey.'
Perhaps Canadian timber is not as lasting as the best European.
Certainly it has no such records of longevity; though there is no reason
why Canadian records should not be better than they are in this respect.
Few {79} people know how long a well-built and well-cared-for ship can
live. Lloyd's register for 1913 contains vessels launched before Queen
Victoria began to reign. Merchantmen have often outlived their century.
Nelson's _Victory_ still flies the flag at Portsmouth, though she was
laid down the year before Wolfe took Quebec. And the _Konstanz_, a
thirty-five-ton sloop, still plies along the Danish coast, although her
launch took place in 1723--a hundred and ninety years ago.

A third drawback for Canadian builders was the lack of capital.
Shipbuilding fluctuates more than most kinds of business, and requires
great initial outlay as well; so failures were naturally frequent. The
firm of Ross at Quebec did much to steady the business by sound finance.
But the smaller yards were always in difficulties, and no shipbuilder
ever made a fortune.

Excellent craft, however, came out of Canadian yards: notable craft
wherever they sailed. One of the best builders at Quebec was a French
Canadian, whose beautiful clipper ship _Brunelle_, named after himself,
logged over fourteen knots an hour and left many a smart sailer, and
steamer too, hull down astern. Mackenzie of Pictou was builder and {80}
skipper both. With the help of a friend he began by cutting down the
trees and doing all the rest of the work of building a forty-five-ton
schooner. By 1850 he had built a fourteen-hundred-tonner, the famous
_Hamilton Campbell Kidston_, which greatly astonished Glasgow, for she
was then the biggest ship the Clyde had ever seen. His last ship was
launched in the 'record' year of 1865. The Salter Brothers did some fine
work at the 'Bend,' as Moncton was then called. Their first vessel, a
barque of eight hundred tons, was sold at once in England. Next year
they built a clipper ship called the _Jemsetgee Cursetgee_ for an East
Indian potentate, who sent out an Oriental figurehead supposed to be a
likeness of himself. A peculiar feat of theirs was rigging as a schooner