Author: Dr. Roy Bishop

In the early 1820s Ezra Churchill (1804-1874), a young man from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, arrived in what was known as the Halfway River settlement, Falmouth District, Hants County, on the west shore of the Avon River estuary. The Halfway River was so-named because it was halfway between the older communities of Grand Pré and Windsor. Ezra Churchill Ezra Churchill began to build ships c. 1840 on the bank of the Halfway River. By 1850 he had established the Churchill Shipyard on the Avon River estuary immediately north of the mouth of the Halfway River. The nearby forest and the vertical range of Fundy tides at that site were ideal for building, launching, and carrying out maintenance on the more than 80 wooden sailing vessels (barques, brigs, schooners, and full-rigged ships) that saw service in the Churchill fleet during the 19th century. Shipyards existed at several other communities around Minas Basin, but the Churchill Shipyard was one of the most active, and the...