Launch of Boat for Millennium

A very special wooden boat is going to feel the lap of waves against her hull for the very first time. The Elson Perry, a 21 foot replica of a late 19th century fishing boat, will be launched at 1 p.m. on Saturday, June 24, at the wharves of the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.

On Dec. 13, 1998, staff at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic held a party in celebration of the museum's 50th birthday. The core event of the party was a laying of the keel of this "millennium boat". The project was the museum's way of preserving and promoting the centuries old Nova Scotian tradition of wooden boat building.

One of the aims of the project was to provide opportunities for museum staff to learn some of the skills and techniques which have been integral to Nova Scotia's marine heritage. The boat took shape under dozens of hands and most often in public view.

The Elson Perry is based on a Nova Scotia small craft that was used on the Medway River, Queens County around the turn of the 20th century. Known simply as a Port Medway boat, the museum has an example in its collection which is on display during the summer months in one of their boatsheds on the Halifax waterfront. It was from this particular boat that staff took lines for their Millennium Boat.

The museum's original Port Medway boat was built near the end of the 19th century by Elson Perry, a lightkeeper for Port Medway. In 1929, Elson Perry's boat was laid up in a shed and was left undisturbed until she was donated to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in 1985. In recognition of the builder and owner of this 19th century craft, museum staff named the replica Elson Perry. With the exception of mahogany for the sheer strakes, Elson Perry has been built using the same locally available materials as was used in building the original.

After the boat's launch on Saturday, she will be used as a training tool so that staff can gain first-hand experience in rowing and sailing. In this way, the true legacy of the project will be realized as museum staff have the opportunity to learn and practice skills that have been exercised by generations of Nova Scotians before them.