46 SCRAPS OF LOCAL HISTORY. 



red in 1847, but that could hardly have been, as that was the year 

 that the ship or bark Loostock arrived with typhus fever aboard 

 and Cunards owned the island then, and Jno. Brown's story tells 

 (see Bulletin No. 6) of Cunard's horses pasturing on the island five 

 years after. He probably errs on the other side, or these were 

 horses belonging to the estate after Cuntird had failed. I have no 

 way jusf at present to state positively the exact year, but I think 

 likely Wyse is right. The way that Cunards did business seems 

 to have been so loose that it is not much wonder they failed. 

 Stories are still in circulation here that seem to prove this. For 

 instance, a Napan man came in with a quarter of beef and sold it 

 to five different clerks, getting paid in each instance, before he 

 eventually delivered it at the storehouse. It would require a 

 good business to stand much of that kind of work. 



They assigned to Robt. McCalmont, Sir Samuel Cunard and 

 Thos. C. Allen, manager of the Commercial Bank, Newcastle. 



The late George Kerr was Cunard's lawyer, and all their busi- 

 ness was done through the Commercial Bank. George Kerr, be- 

 fore his death in 1871, paid off every dollar of their debt and 

 cleared the estate. I give below a paper from Thos. Currie, of 

 Mill Bank or Moorfields rather, which verifies a good deal of what 

 has been written above. Thos. Cnrrie is a very old man, but 

 smart and bright physically and mentally, and still does his daily 

 work . 



THOS. CURRIE 'S STATEMENT. 



I was 85 years of age on the 26th of May, 1911. Peabody used 

 to fish gaspereaux in Half Moon Cove at Mill Bank, where the 

 Dominion Pulp Mill now is, and other places along the shore 

 where nets could be conveniently hauled up. He had his ship- 

 yard where Snowball's mill now stands, and built his ships there. 

 He afterwards sold this shipyard to Joseph Russell, the father of 

 George Russell, of Blinkbonnie. This Joseph Russell taught the 

 shipbuilding craft to Wm. Sinclair, Thos. Stevenson, Jno, Harvey, 

 Andrew Mason, John Cochran, Donald McQuarry, &c. His wife 

 kept a boarding house for the men on the shipyard grounds, in a 

 long double-house that strood near the line of what was afterwards 

 Cunard's mill grounds. Robt. Brown was ship's blacksmith, he 

 that afterwards lived in Lower Newcastle . This boarding house 



