Author: Brian H. Bishop

Captain Fred Whitney Folker A quaint home, owned by a former sea captain, stands on Avon Street in Hantsport overlooking the river. It is situated halfway between the former shipyards of J.B. North and Ezra Churchill & Sons.  Captain's Cabin Years ago the captain added a room to the house resembling a ship’s cabin. Through the porthole, and using a little imagination, one can see the barque Stadacona sailing on the incoming tide to Windsor. Watching from the riverbank is a woman. The captain of the ship, with his son by his side, is waving to his wife as the vessel passes their home.  The imagery is actually more truth than fiction. Captain William Folker took his youngest son Fred with him on numerous voyages aboard the Stadacona in the mid 1890's. Avon River Sunset It could be stated that William and Almira Folker's son cut his nautical teeth on the belaying pins and spars of his father’s barque. And, like his father, his life at sea...

A SERIES ABOUT HANTSPORT MARINERS  Captain William Folker 1837-1921 “His life, spent mainly at sea, sailing to every port in the world, with all its risks and dangers and adventures, abounded with interest, and were the incidents published in a book would be eagerly read.” The above quotation from William Folker’s obituary was obviously written by someone familiar with his life story. Ship logs, newspaper articles, historical records, and family scrapbooks all substantiate that Folker’s nearly forty years at sea were filled with extraordinary adventures. As a risk-taker he reaped astonishing rewards but in some scenarios suffered dire consequences. William Folker was born on July 13th, 1837 in Snettisham, a village in Norfolk County, England; five miles from the North Sea. He took his first risk when he set sail as a cabin boy on a vessel bound for America from King’s Lynn, a nearby seaport. Boys aged 14–16 were often sent to sea by their parents to learn the skills necessary to becoming a master...

A SERIES ABOUT HANTSPORT MARINERS Robert “Bob” Carter Clayton 1916 - 1987 Wireless Operator Bob Clayton was born in Saint John, N.B. His family later moved to Parker’s Cove, N.S. and in 1935 settled in Hantsport.  He was the fourth of seven sons born to Capt. Delbert and Laura (Hudson) Clayton.  The family moved to Hantsport, in part, because of Bob’s health.  Bob had contracted tuberculosis and spent a year in the Kentville Sanatorium. Hantsport, being a seaport, brought employment opportunities for his father who was a tugboat captain. Clayton became engaged to Jennie Doris Ells in 1942.  Doris, a 24 year old stenographer was a Willow Street neighbour but not the only lady Bob was infatuated with at the time. The other was Lady Hawkins, a magnificent luxury ocean liner owned by the Canadian National Steamship lines that called on ports in Montréal, Boston, Bermuda and other Caribbean islands. Officially the vessel was a Royal Mail Ship, but could carry cargo as well as...