Ships of Canada - 1977 12c

Date of Issue: November 18, 1977

Scott #: 744 - 747

Third set in the series, Ships of Canada - depicted here are sail ships.

Pinky - Emerging around 1815 as a fishing schooner, the pinky quickly achieved popularity because of her carrying capacity, comfort and seaworthiness. Two such boats were among the few smacks to withstand a ferocious gale in Chaleur Bay in October 1851. The craft was also particularly adept at mackerel fishing, since it could pursue schools of these creatures as they swam windward.

Tern Schooner - A North American 3-masted or "tern" schooner, which generally had a high carrying capacity but a low speed. The First World War stimulated demands for faster models. Nova Scotia boat-builders combined the modern fishing schooner's hull with the 3-masted fore and aft rig to produce a streamlined type of craft. They had a high attrition rate, several being lost on their maiden voyages. They were originally built in the 19th century, and over the years, terns pried the South American, West Indian, Mediterranean and coastal routes, trading in salt, fish, gypsum, lumber, and sugar.

Mackinaw - Sometime in the 1870s a man from the Atlantic coast of Canada named Carmichael turned up in Collingwood, Ontario, and ordered a boat to be built to his specifications: ketch rigged, double-ended, clincher-built, in the 25 to 35ft. range. It was a new type of craft to the Georgian Bay area. The Mackinaw boat, as it came to be known, impressed the locals and became popular in the remote fishing camps of Lakes Huron, Michigan, and Superior and even Lake Winnipeg, Hudson Bay and the Fraser River.

Five-masted schooner - The name of the ship on this stamp is unknown. In 1917-18, 12 five-masted auxiliary schooners were ordered, and six came from the Wallace Shipyard in North Vancouver, six more from the Cameron Genoa Mills at Victoria, while Lyall Shipbuilding of North Vancouver laid down a batch to their own account for sale on speculation. Some had top masts and upper sails, but most became 'bald headed' and were left with stump masts. The last one to survive among the 12 was The Malahat, which became highly successful as a rum-runner in the 1920's and when she was wrecked in 1944, the five-masted Canadian schooner became another extinct species in the long history of sail.

Text Source: Ships of Canada by Thomas Appleton and shipstamps.co.uk