Fry Henry - A mind at sea : Henry Fry, and the glorious era of Quebecs sailing ships

By 1855, Canada ranked among the worlds great ship-owning and shipbuilding nations. A vast dispersed flotilla of 7,196 Canadian-constructed wooden ships sailed the oceans of both hemispheres.

At the time of two decisive battles that took place on the Plains of Abraham, Shipbuilding and owning, and timber commerce largely conducted by men like Henry through their British contacts dominated the economic life of Lower Canada, while the city served off and on as its capital.

At the time, shipping agents and brokers were not generally admired for their business ethics. Many were known for charging usurious fees in advancing money to shipbuilders. They overloaded unseaworthy ships with timber to enlarge their profits, endangering the lives of seamen. Henry Fry was a notable exception. Scrupulous, honest, and generous, he fought against human rights abuses, such as excessive deck loading and crimping. He was an outstanding figure in the maritime history of Canada, wrote Basil Greenhill, former director of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.

Canadas maritime record was enriched by Frys achievements, says Eileen Marcil, author of The Charley Man , the most complete and authoritative history of Quebecs great shipbuilding era. Marcil provided much of the research for this biography.

As Lloyds agent for the St. Lawrence River, Fry was a fountain of information about cargo rates, tariffs, ship insurance, hull and deck design, and the details of sails and rigging. No man had a better knowledge of Quebec shipping and shipbuilding, wrote the maritime historian Frederick William Wallace.

Canadian shipbuilders and owners like Fry captured a huge share of the worlds carrying trade, building up a reputation for smart ships that was a legend in nautical history, Wallace wrote. But then the industry vanished utterly into the mists of oblivion.

Replaced by steam-powered iron vessels, the great wooden square-riggers sailed off over the horizon. No museum exists to commemorate the vanished work of the men French, British, and Irish who built Quebecs million tons of sailing ships. After the industry collapsed, hundreds of skilled carpenters, smithies, block and mast makers, riggers, and rope and sail makers left the Quebec shipbuilding yards to seek manufacturing jobs in New England. Many in the English business class returned to England, or fled for Montreal, in an exodus comparable to that of a hundred years later when fears of the economic consequences of Separatism drove much of the anglophone business class out of Montreal.

That the author should be the great-grandson of the subject of this biography may raise suspicion that it is one of those whitewashed family hagiographies. I freely admit my admiration of Henry Fry. Yet Ive not failed to describe his blemishes for example, the racial superiority that he occasionally vented. He suffered from mental depression for a period in his life. It was not pleasant for me to describe with factual accuracy his episodic mental illness, previously concealed from our family.

In a few places in the biography, notably chapter 1, I have resorted to imaginary scenes. Ive done this with judicious care, fictionalizing for the reader only what I already know is likely to have been the true case of what happened. At worst, you can call it informed speculation.

My descriptions of Quebec are an unapologetically written anglophone perspective of nineteenth-century Canadian life. Admirers of Fernand Ouellets Economic and Social History of Quebec will find little to disagree with in my account of the dominant role played by the British merchant class in shaping Quebecs economy. Scholarly francophones, however ardent their biases, will nevertheless want to add my account to the historical record.

Henry Fry was a Victorian of bristling courage. He fought injustice strenuously. He gave copiously to the poor and defended the disenfranchised. He battled his illness with persistent courage, and against all odds overcame it and went on to write essays and reminiscences, and in 1896 the definitive History of North Atlantic Steam Navigation , a reference book employed by maritime historians to this day. His life is a window into a forgotten time of Canadian enterprise.