Joshua Slocum

Joshua Slocum (February 20, 1844 – on or shortly after November 14, 1909) was the first man to sail single-handedly around the world. He was a Nova Scotian born, naturalised American seaman and adventurer, and a noted writer. In 1900 he wrote a book about his journey Sailing Alone Around the World, which became an international best-seller. He disappeared in November 1909 while aboard his boat, the Spray.

Nova Scotian childhood

Joshua Slocum was born on 20 February 1844 in Mount Hanley, Annapolis County, Nova Scotia (officially recorded as Wilmot Station), a community on the North Mountain within sight of the Bay of Fundy. The fifth of eleven children of John Slocombe and Sarah Jane Slocombe née Southern, Joshua descended, on his father’s side, from a Quaker, known as “John the Exile” who left the United States shortly after 1780 because of his opposition to the American War for Independence. Part of the Loyalist migration to Nova Scotia, the Slocombes were granted 500 acres (2.0 km²) of farmland in Nova Scotia’s Annapolis County.

Joshua Slocum was born in the family’s farm house in Mount Hanley and learned to read and write at the nearby Mount Hanley School. His earliest ventures on the water were made on coastal schooners operating out of the small ports such as Port George and Cottage Cove near Mount Hanley along the Bay of Fundy. When Joshua was eight years old, the Slocombe family moved from Mount Hanley to Brier Island in Digby County, at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy. Slocum’s maternal grandfather was the keeper of the lighthouse at Southwest Point there. His father, a stern man and strict disciplinarian, took up making leather boots for the local fishermen, and Joshua helped in the shop. However, the boy found the scent of salt air much more alluring than the smell of shoe leather. He yearned for a life of adventure at sea, away from his demanding father and his increasingly chaotic life at home among so many brothers and sisters.

He made several attempts to run away from home, finally succeeding, at age fourteen, by hiring on as a cabin boy and cook on a fishing schooner, but he soon returned home. In 1860, after the birth of the eleventh Slocombe (Joshua changed the spelling of his last name later in his life) child and the subsequent death of his kindly mother, Joshua, then sixteen, left home for good. He and a friend signed on at Halifax as ordinary seamen on a merchant ship bound for Dublin, Ireland.

Early life at sea

From Dublin, he crossed to Liverpool to become an ordinary seaman on the British merchant ship Tangier (also recorded as Tanjore), bound for China. During two years as a seaman, he rounded Cape Horn twice, landed at Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, and visited the Maluku Islands, Manila, Hong Kong, Saigon, Singapore, and San Francisco. While at sea, he studied for the Board of Trade examination, and, at the age of eighteen, he received his certificate as a fully qualified Second Mate. Slocum quickly rose through the ranks to become a Chief Mate on British ships transporting coal and grain between the British Isles and San Francisco.

In 1865, he settled in San Francisco, became an American citizen, and, after a period of salmon fishing and fur trading in the Oregon Territory of the northwest, he returned to the sea to pilot a schooner in the coastal trade between San Francisco and Seattle. His first blue-water command, in 1869, was the barque Washington, which he took across the Pacific, from San Francisco to Australia, and home via Alaska.

He sailed for thirteen years out of the port of San Francisco, transporting mixed cargo to China, Australia, the Spice Islands, and Japan. Between 1869 and 1889, he was the master of eight vessels, the first four of which (the Washington, the Constitution, the Benjamin Aymar and the Amethyst) he commanded in the employ of others. Later, there would be four others that he himself owned, in whole or in part.

Family at sea

Shortly before Christmas 1870, Slocum and the Washington put in at Sydney, Australia. There, in about a month’s time, he met, courted, and married a young woman named Virginia Albertina Walker. Their marriage took place on 31 January 1871. Miss Walker, quite coincidentally, was an American whose New York family had migrated west to California at the time of the 1849 gold rush and eventually continued on, by ship, to settle in Australia. She sailed with Slocum, and, over the next thirteen years, bore him seven children, all at sea or foreign ports. Four children, sons Victor, Benjamin Aymar, and Garfield, and daughter Jessie, survived to adulthood.

In Alaska, the Washington was wrecked when she dragged her anchor during a gale, ran ashore, and broke up. Slocum, however, at considerable risk to himself, managed to save his wife, the crew, and much of the cargo, bringing all back to port safely in the ship’s open boats. The owners of the shipping company that had employed Slocum were so impressed by this feat of ingenuity and leadership, they gave him the command of the Constitution which he sailed to Hawaii and the west coast of Mexico.

His next command was the Benjamin Aymar, a merchant vessel in the South Seas trade. However, the owner, strapped for cash, sold the vessel out from under Slocum, and he and Virginia found themselves stranded in the Philippines without a ship.

The Pato

While in the Philippines, in 1874, under a commission from a British architect, Slocum organized native workers to build a 150-ton steamer in the shipyard at Subic Bay. In partial payment for the work, he was given the ninety-ton schooner, Pato, the first ship he could call his own.

Ownership of the Pato afforded Slocum the kind of freedom and autonomy he had never experienced before. Hiring a crew, he contracted to deliver a cargo to Vancouver in British Columbia. Thereafter, he used the Pato as a general freight carrier along the west coast of North America and in voyages back and forth between San Francisco and Hawaii. During this period, Slocum also fulfilled a long-held ambition to become a writer; he became a temporary correspondent for the San Francisco Bee.

The Slocums sold the Pato in Honolulu in the spring of 1878. Returning to San Francisco, they purchased the Amethyst. He worked this ship until June 23, 1881.

The Slocums next bought a third share in the Northern Light 2. This large clipper was 233 feet in length, 44 feet beam, 28 feet in the hold. It was capable of carrying 2000 tons on three decks. Although Joshua Slocum called this ship “my best command”, it was a command plagued with mutinies and mechanical problems. Under troubling legal circumstances (caused by his alleged treatment of the chief mutineer) he sold his share in the Northern Light 2 in 1883.

The Aquidneck

The Slocum family continued on their next ship, the 326-ton Aquidneck. In 1884, Slocum’s wife Virginia became ill aboard the Aquidneck in Buenos Aires and died. After sailing to Massachusetts, Slocum left his three youngest children, Benjamin Aymar, Jessie, and Garfield in the care of his sisters; his oldest son Victor continued as his first mate.

In 1886, at age 42, Slocum married his 24-year-old cousin, Henrietta “Hettie” Elliott. The Slocum family, with the exception of Jessie and Benjamin Aymar, again took to the sea aboard the Aquidneck, bound for Montevideo, Uruguay. Slocum’s second wife would find life at sea much less appealing than his first. A few days into Henrietta’s first voyage, the Aquidneck sailed through a hurricane. By the end of this first year, the crew had contracted cholera, and they were quarantined for six months. Later, Slocum was forced to defend his ship from pirates, one of whom he shot and killed; he was tried and acquitted of murder. Next, the Aquidneck was infected with smallpox, leading to the death of three of the crew. Disinfecting of the ship was performed at considerable cost. Shortly afterward, near the end of 1887, the unlucky Aquidneck was wrecked in southern Brazil.

The Liberdade

After being stranded in Brazil with his wife and sons Garfield and Victor, he started building a boat that could sail them home. He used local materials, salvaged materials from the Aquidneck and local workers. The boat was launched on May 13, 1888, the very day slavery was abolished in Brazil, and therefore the ship was given the Portuguese name Liberdade. It was an unusual 35-foot (11 m) junk-rigged design which he described as “half Cape Ann dory and half Japanese sampan “. He and his family began their voyage back to the United States, his son Victor (15) being the mate. After fifty-five days at sea and 5510 miles, the Slocums reached Cape Roman, South Carolina and continued inland to Washington D.C. for winter and finally reaching Boston via New York in 1889. This was the last time Henrietta sailed with the family. In 1890, Slocum published the accounts of these adventures in Voyage of the Liberdade.

The Spray: First solo circumnavigation of the earth

In Fairhaven, Massachusetts, he rebuilt the 36′ 9″ (11.2 m) gaff rigged sloop oyster boat named Spray.

On April 24, 1895, he set sail from Boston, Massachusetts. In his famous book, Sailing Alone Around the World, now considered a classic of travel literature, he described his departure in the following manner:

“I had resolved on a voyage around the world, and as the wind on the morning of April 24, 1895 was fair, at noon I weighed anchor, set sail, and filled away from Boston, where the Spray had been moored snugly all winter. The twelve o’clock whistles were blowing just as the sloop shot ahead under full sail. A short board was made up the harbor on the port tack, then coming about she stood to seaward, with her boom well off to port, and swung past the ferries with lively heels. A photographer on the outer pier of East Boston got a picture of her as she swept by, her flag at the peak throwing her folds clear. A thrilling pulse beat high in me. My step was light on deck in the crisp air. I felt there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.”

After an extended visit to his boyhood home at Brier Island and visiting old haunts on the coast of Nova Scotia, Slocum took his departure from North America at Sambro Island Lighthouse near Halifax, Nova Scotia on July 3, 1895.

Slocum navigated without a chronometer, instead relying on the traditional method of dead reckoning for longitude, which required only a cheap tin clock for approximate time, and noon-sun sights for latitude. On one long passage in the Pacific, Slocum also famously shot a lunar distance observation, decades after these observations had ceased to be commonly employed, which allowed him to check his longitude independently. However, Slocum’s primary method for finding longitude was still dead reckoning; he recorded only one lunar observation during the entire circumnavigation.

Slocum normally sailed the Spray without touching the helm. Due to the length of the sail plan relative to the hull, and the long keel, the Spray was capable of self-steering (unlike faster modern craft), and balanced stably on any course relative to the wind by adjusting or reefing the sails and by lashing the helm fast. He sailed 2,000 miles (3,200 km) west across the Pacific without once touching the helm.

More than three years later, on June 27, 1898, he returned to Newport, Rhode Island, having circumnavigated the world, a distance of more than 46,000 miles (74,000 km). Slocum’s return went almost unnoticed. The Spanish-American War which had begun two months earlier dominated the headlines. After the end of major hostilities, many American newspapers published articles describing Slocum’s amazing adventure.

Sailing Alone Around the World

In 1899 he published his account of the epic voyage in Sailing Alone Around the World, first serialized in The Century Magazine and then in several book-length editions. Reviewers received the slightly anachronistic age-of-sail adventure story enthusiastically. Arthur Ransome went so far as to declare, “Boys who do not like this book ought to be drowned at once.” In his review, Sir Edwin Arnold wrote, “I do not hesitate to call it the most extraordinary book ever published.”

Slocum’s book deal was an integral part of his journey: his publisher had provided Slocum with an extensive on-board library, and Slocum wrote several letters to his editor from distant points around the globe.

Slocum’s Sailing Alone won him widespread fame in the English-speaking world. He was one of eight invited speakers at a dinner in honor of Mark Twain in December, 1900. Slocum hauled the Spray up the Erie Canal to Buffalo, New York for the Pan-American Exposition in the summer of 1901, and he was well compensated for participating in the fair.

Later life

In 1901, Slocum’s book revenues and income from public lectures provided him enough financial security to purchase a small farm in West Tisbury, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, in Massachusetts. After a year and a half, he found he could not adapt to a settled life and Slocum sailed the Spray from port to port in the northeastern US during the summer and the West Indies during the winter, lecturing and selling books wherever he could. Slocum spent little time with his wife on the Vineyard and preferred life aboard the Spray, usually wintering in the Caribbean.

Slocum’s mental health deteriorated during his later years. Visiting Riverton, New Jersey in May, 1906, Slocum was charged with raping a 12-year-old girl. After further investigation and questioning, it became apparent that the crime was indecent exposure, but Slocum claimed to have no memory of any wrong-doing and that, if anything had happened, it must have occurred during one of his mental lapses. Slocum spent 42 days in jail awaiting trial. At his trial he pleaded “no contest” and was released for time-served. The judge at his trial told him, “upon request of the family, I can deal leniently with you”.

A few weeks after his conviction in New Jersey, Slocum and the Spray visited Sagamore Hill, the estate of US President Theodore Roosevelt on the north shore of Long Island, New York. Roosevelt and his family were interested in the tales of Slocum’s solo circumnavigation. The President’s young son, Archie, along with a guardian, spent the next few days sailing with Slocum up to Newport aboard the Spray, which, by then, was a decrepit, weather-worn vessel. Slocum again met with President Roosevelt in May 1907, this time at the White House in Washington. Supposedly, Roosevelt said to him, “Captain, our adventures have been a little different.” Slocum answered, “That is true, Mr. President, but I see you got here first.”

By 1909, Slocum’s funds were running low; book revenues had tailed off. He prepared to sell his farm on Martha’s Vineyard and began to make plans for a new adventure in South America. He had hopes of another book deal.

Disappearance

On November 14, 1909, Slocum set sail for the West Indies on one of his usual winter voyages. He had also expressed interest in starting his next adventure, exploring the Orinoco, Rio Negro and Amazon Rivers. Slocum was never heard from again. In July 1910, his wife informed the newspapers that she believed he was lost at sea.

At the time, most who knew Slocum believed that the Spray had been run down by a steamer or struck by a whale, the Spray being too sound a craft and Slocum too experienced a mariner for any other cause to be considered likely.

Years later, an analysis by Howard I. Chapelle, curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution and a noted expert on small sailing-craft, demonstrated that the Spray was stable under most circumstances but could easily capsize if heeled beyond a relatively shallow angle. He felt that Slocum was merely lucky that his unstable vessel had not killed him earlier.

Despite being an experienced mariner, Slocum never learned to swim and considered learning to swim to be useless.

In 1924, Joshua Slocum was declared legally dead.

Legacy

Joshua Slocum’s achievements have been well publicised and honoured. The name Spray has become a choice for cruising yachts ever since the publication of Slocum’s account of his circumnavigation. Over the years, many versions of Spray have been built from the plans in Slocum’s book, more or less reconstructing the sloop with various degrees of success.

Similarly, the French long-distance sailor Bernard Moitessier christened his 39-foot (12 m) ketch-rigged boat Joshua in honor of Slocum. It was this boat that Moitessier sailed from Tahiti to France, and he also sailed Joshua in the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race around the world, making great time, only to abandon the race near the end and sail on to the Polynesian Islands.

Ferries named in Slocum’s honour (Joshua Slocum and Spray) served the two Digby Neck runs in Nova Scotia between 1973 and 2004.  The Joshua Slocum was featured in the film version of Dolores Claiborne.

An underwater glider — an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), designed by the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, was named after Slocum’s ship Spray. It became the first AUV to cross the Gulf Stream, while operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. Another AUV has been named after Slocum himself: the Slocum Electric Glider, designed by Douglas Webb of Webb Research (since 2008, Teledyne Webb Research). In 2009, a Slocum glider, modified by Rutgers University, crossed the Atlantic in 221 days. The RU27 traveled from Tuckerton, New Jersey, to Baiona, Spain — the port where Christopher Columbus landed on his return from his first voyage to the New World. Like Slocum himself, the Slocum glider is capable of traveling over thousands of kilometers. These gliders continue to be used by various research institutions, including Texas A&M University’s Department of Oceanography and Geochemical and Environmental Research Group (GERG), to explore the Gulf of Mexico and other bodies of water.

A monument to Slocum exists on Brier Island, Nova Scotia, not far from his family’s boot shop. Slocum is commemorated in museum exhibits at the New Bedford Whaling Museum in Massachusetts, the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and the Mount Hanley Schoolhouse Museum near his birthplace. The sculptor Daniel Chester French created a memorial to Joshua Slocum in Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts; because he disappeared at sea, almost certainly, his remains are not at Forest Hills. Several biographies about Slocum are published.

The Slocum River in Dartmouth, Massachusetts was named for him, as was a newly discovered plant in Mauritius while he was there: Returning to the Spray by way of the great flower conservatory near Moka, the proprietor, having only that morning discovered a new and hardy plant, to my great honor named it “Slocum”. Slocum himself discovered an island by accident, and named it Alan Erric Island.

Simeon Perkins

Simeon Perkins (February 24, 1735 – May 9, 1812) was a Nova Scotia merchant, diarist and politician.

Colonel Simeon Perkins was born in Norwich, Connecticut, one of sixteen children of Jacob Perkins and Jemima Leonard. He came to Liverpool, Nova Scotia, in May 1762 as part of the New England Planter migration to Nova Scotia. In Liverpool, Perkins immediately began trading in fish and lumber and forged trading ties with New England, Newfoundland, Europe and the West Indies.

During the American Revolution, Perkins was at first neutral, but became increasingly loyal to the British cause. His diary, which he began in 1766, remains a vital source for historians studying colonial Canada and the battle for identity and loyalty. After relentless American privateer attacks on shipping and an attempted American looting of Liverpool itself, Perkins led the outfitting of several privateer ships against the Americans. Perkins also invested in privateering during the Napoleonic Wars, earning substantial returns from vessels such as the ships Charles Mary Wentworth, Duke of Kent and the famous brig Rover

A born leader, he held public office for a long period representing Queens County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1765 to 1768 and from 1770 to 1799. He held twenty-seven government positions in his lifetime, none of which paid, including justice of the peace, colonel of the militia, and judge in the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and the Court of Quarter Sessions.

He had nine children from two marriages. His first wife, Abigail Backus, died four weeks after the birth of his first son Roger. He married again in 1775 to Mrs. Elizabeth Headley (Young) who had been widowed two months before the birth of her daughter Ruth.

One of his diary entries, for October 12, 1786 allegedly contains the first report of a UFO sighting in modern North America. Perkins reports the tale circulating at the time of a young lady and two men living on the shores of the Bay of Fundy, who, during a recent sunrise, saw as many as fifteen “ships in the air … and a man forward with his hand stretched out.” Perkins continues, “the story did not obtain universal credit but some people believed it.”

Perkins House Museum

Perkins’ home in Liverpool, Nova Scotia is open to the public and guided tours are given from June until October. It was purchased by the Province of Nova Scotia and opened as part of the Nova Scotia Museum system at the suggestion of the author Thomas Raddall who lived in Liverpool.

William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling

William Alexander, 1st Earl of Stirling (c. 1567 in Menstrie, Clackmannanshire – 12 September 1640) was a Scotsman who was an early developer of Scottish colonisation of Port Royal, Nova Scotia and Long Island, New York. He was the son of Alexander of Menstrie and Marion, daughter of an Allan Couttie.

Early life

As a young man William Alexander became tutor to the Earl of Argyll and accompanied him abroad. At a later date he received the place of Gentleman Usher to Prince Charles, son of James VI of Scotland, and continued in favour at court after Prince Charles became Charles I of England in 1625. He built a reputation as a poet and writer of rhymed tragedies, and assisted King James I and VI in preparing the metrical version known as “The Psalms of King David, translated by King James” and published by authority of Charles I. James knighted him in 1609 and appointed him the Master of Requests for Scotland in 1614, effectively his private secretary. In 1615 he was made a member of the Scottish Privy Council.

Nova Scotia

In 1621 King James the first, granted him a royal charter appointing him mayor of a vast territory which was enlarged into a lordship and barony of Nova Scotia (New Scotland); the area now known as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and part of the northern United States. The creation of Baronets of Nova Scotia was used to settle the plantation of the new province.

He was appointed Secretary for Scotland in 1626 and held that office for the rest of his life.

Lord Stirling’s efforts at colonisation were less successful, at least in monetary terms. He briefly established a Scottish settlement at Port Royal, Nova Scotia, led by his son William Alexander (the younger). However the effort cost him most of his fortune, and when the region—now Canada’s three Maritime Provinces and the state of Maine—was returned to France in 1632, it was lost. He spent his later years with limited means, and died in London on 12 September 1640. However Alexander’s settlement provided the basis for British claims to Nova Scotia and his baronets provided the Coat of arms of Nova Scotia and Flag of Nova Scotia which are still in use today.

Long Island

In 1630, King Charles rewarded his service by creating him Viscount of Stirling and in 1633 he became Earl of Stirling.

On 22 April 1636 Charles told that the Plymouth Colony which had laid claim to the Long Island but had not settled it give the island to Alexander. Through his agent James Farret (who personally received Shelter Island and Robins Island) in turn sold most of the eastern island to the New Haven Colony and Connecticut Colony.

Farret arrived in New Amsterdam in 1637 to present his claim of English sovereignty and was arrested and sent to prison in Holland where he escaped. English attempted to settle at Cow Bay at what today is Port Washington, New York in 1640 but were arrested and released after saying they were mistaken about the title. Following Alexander’s death in 1640 eastern Long Island was quickly settled by the English while the western portion waited 40 years until the Dutch left.

Author

Stirling also wrote closet dramas: classical tragedies titled Croesus, Darius, The Alexandrean, and Julius Caesar. His plays were published in several editions (1604, 1607, 1616, 1637).

Family

According to Memorials of the Earl of Stirling and of the house of Alexander, Charles Rogers, Edinburgh, W. Paterson, 1877, pages 38, 253 and 254, John Alexander, the 4th son of William Alexander, Earl of Stirling, was born about 1612, and died 1641 in Scotland. John was matriculated a student in the University of Glasgow in 1630 (Reg. Col. Glasg.) He was roughly 18 years old at that point.

About 1633/1634, John Alexander married Agnes, the only daughter of Robert Graham of Gartmore, Perthshire. Agnes was married to John when her father died in 1634 and was described in estate documents as “lawful dochter of . . . Robert Graham of Gartmoir, and with consent of John Alexander, lawful son to ane noble and potent erle, William, Erle of Stirling, Lord Alexander, her spouse.” Agnes Graham Alexander died some time prior to 23 January 1636, when her husband, John Alexander, was “invested in that portion of the lands of Gartmore which had passed to her at her father’s death.” There is no evidence that John Alexander married for a second time after the death of Agnes Graham Alexander.

Agnes Graham Alexander had a brother Gilbert Graham who also inherited a portion of Gartmore, on the death of their father Robert Graham. Gilbert died in 1641 without children or siblings to inherit. As a result, his niece “Janet Alexander, only daughter of John Alexander and the deceased Agnes Graham” received her uncle’s share in the lands of Gartmore (Sheriff Court Book, Stirling). If John and Agnes Graham Alexander had other children, they were dead by 1641, otherwise they would have inherited from their Uncle Gilbert along with Janet Alexander.

“On 20 April 1635, [John Alexander] was, conjointly with his father, appointed Master of Minerals and Metals in Scotland (Reg. Mag. Sig., vol. iv., p. 60, Paper Register). He was afterwards nominated General of the Mint, an office which yielded his successor £500 per annum, with perquisites (Reg. Mag. Sig, lib. iv., No. 237).” John served as General of the Mint until 1641, shortly before his death in Scotland.

Another Viewpoint

The account of the family of Sir William Alexander 1st Earl of Stirling presented by the above mentioned “Memorials” may be challenged. The statement that Janet Alexander was the only daughter does not mean during this period that she was the only child. In fact in this period an only child would be referred to as the ‘only child and heir’ of her parents. It is thus likely that Janet had at least one brother. The dating of the birth and marriage of Lord John Alexander is highly speculative. There is also a story that Lord John Alexander did not die in 1641 but that he escaped from his prison by faking his death with the help of Mackenzie and with his son the Honourable John Alexander they fled firstly to Ireland and then to France. They were given permission to return to Novo Scotia and eventually moved to Virginia. It is from this John that General William Alexander descended not from an uncle John of the 1st Earl. Due to the rights of Novo Scotia the British Government could not afford to acknowledge any descendants of the 1st Earl.

The Irish Earls of Caledon and their cousins the Baronets of Alexander of Belcamp also claimed to descend from the family of the Earl of Stirling. Their ancestor John Alexander (1667-1747)was not the son of Captain Andrew Alexander (of a different Alexander family descended from John Alexander of Eredy) but his maternal relative (uncle or grandfather). John the grandson of the Honourable John Alexander (grandson of 1st Earl of Stirling) had returned to Europe from Virginia to participate in the Jacobite cause and eventually settled in Ireland.

William Dawson Lawrence

William Dawson Lawrence (16 July 1817 – 8 December 1886) was a successful shipbuilder, businessman and politician. He built the William D. Lawrence, which is reported to be the largest wooden ship ever built in Canada.

In 1874, W.D. Lawrence’s great ship was reported to have been the largest wooden sailing ship in the world. The William D. Lawrence represents the pinnacle of W.D.’s career as a marine architect, businessman, and politician. He built the ship in Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia. The vessel was 263 feet long.

Renowned historian Frederick William Wallace writes,

“It was a memorable event in Canadian ship-building annals when his big ship took the water, and had it been elsewhere but in a quiet little Nova Scotia town on the banks of the Shubenacadie River, there would have been a great furor, and Lawrence’s genius and skill would have been proclaimed to the four corners of the earth.”

Ship builder

Lawrence began his ship building career at the John Chappell shipyard in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, where he designed his first ship (1849). He also worked at the Alexander Lyle shipyard in Dartmouth. Lawrence also had the opportunity to study in Boston under the great Nova Scotian ship builder Donald McKay.

He returned to Nova Scotia and built two vessels close to his childhood home in Maple Grove, Nova Scotia. Then Lawrence built six more vessels opposite his home in Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia. Lawrence was very successful in business.

The three-year maiden voyage of the William D. Lawrence involved Lawrence being towed from Maitland to Saint John, New Brunswick. Upon the ship being fitted, Lawrence then traveled to Liverpool, England; Aden, British India (present day Yemen); Callao, Peru; Le Havre, France; St. John’s, Newfoundland, and then returned home. While in France, Lawrence successfully sued in French supreme court those who owed him money from an unexpected delay in Peru.

During his voyage he recorded the life of sailors at sea and in port. While at sea, Lawrence records events such as catching a shark. In terms of a sailors life in port, he recorded a significant amount of their lives being intimately linked with sex trade workers. Lawrence makes significant observations about the plight of women around the world.

Lawrence built eight vessels which were very profitable for him. The two last vessels he built, the Pegusus (1867) and the William D. Lawrence (1874) were the most profitable. From the first four years at sea, W.D. earned from the Pegusus a profit of $1.4 million. From the first three years at sea, W.D. earned from the William D. Lawrence a profit of $1 million. After profiting from the vessel for five more years, W.D. sold the William D. Lawrence for $2.4 million.

Politician

William D. Lawrence was elected to the 23rd General Assembly of Nova Scotia in 1863. He represented Hants County, Nova Scotia – North. He was elected on a platform that gave the right for every Nova Scotian to vote, not just property owners. Lawrence was also a great supporter of public education and saw it as a foundation for a healthy democracy. He joined Joseph Howe and the Anti-Confederation Party in fighting Charles Tupper’s campaign to have Nova Scotia join Confederation. While confederation was passed on July 1, 1867, Lawrence, along with most other “Anti-Confederate” campaigners, was successful in the election of September 1867 in defeating the pro-Confederates. Joseph Howe also won his election as the federal representative for Hants County. Eventually, Joseph Howe left the Anti-Confederation campaign and ran successfully in a bi-election in Hants (1869). The following provincial election, Lawrence continued to support the Anti-Confederation campaign and lost the election (1871). Lawrence retired for seven years from politics to build the William D. Lawrence. He again tried to run for the nomination of the liberal party seven years later but was defeated (1878).

Writer

Along with writing about the maiden voyage of the William D. Lawrence, he also published articles in the provincial papers on the opposition he experienced in building the ship, capitalism and labour, and his trips to Bermuda in the winter months. In Lawrence’s unpublished manuscript he also writes extensively about prostitution; differences among races of people; the supremacy of Christianity; the triumph of democracy over tyranny; and the success of capitalism. Lawrence’s ideas about prostitution were largely influenced by Dr. William Sanger, one of the foremost researchers on prostitution during the Victorian Age. In Lawrence’s travel writings he also wrote about visiting his birthplace of Lawrencetown, County Down, Ireland as well as hearing a sermon given by the famous Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He also writes about being mortified by a bull fight that he saw in Peru and enjoying the Masquerade ball he attended while in Paris.

Lawrence died in Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia at the age of 69.

Commemorations

In 1930, William D. Lawrence and his great ship were commemorated by the Bank of Nova Scotia, which placed a stone carving of the ship above the door of the head office building in Halifax, Nova Scotia (located on Hollis Street, directly across from Province House (Nova Scotia)). A monument dedicated to Lawrence’s ship as a national historic treasure was erected on the grounds of his home (1967) and his home became a provincial museum site opening to the public on August 11, 1971. The ship has also been commemorated by the Canada Post with a postage stamp (1975) and the Royal Canadian Mint with a coin (2002). There are numerous ship portraits of the vessel. One portrait by E. Petit hangs in Government House (Nova Scotia). The most famous portrait is by Edouard-Marie Adam and belongs to the Musée national de la Marine, Paris, France.

Hiram Blanchard

Hiram Blanchard (January 17, 1820 – December 17, 1874) was a Nova Scotia lawyer, politician, and the first Premier of the province of Nova Scotia. Blanchard won election to the Nova Scotia legislative assembly in Inverness in 1859 as a Liberal.

Early life

Hiram Blanchard was born in West River, Nova Scotia on January 17, 1820 to father Jonathan Blanchard and mother Sarah Goggins. Hiram attended the same school as his brother, Jotham Blanchard, Pictou Academy. After graduating, Blanchard began studying law at Guysborough, Nova Scotia with future Nova Scotia House of Assembly member William Frederick DesBarres and was admitted to the bar as an attorney at age 21 in November 1841. Marrying Eliza Cantrell in 1842, he was admitted to the bar as a barrister in April 1843. Shortly after his admission to the bar, Blanchard opened up a law office in the small seaside village of Port Hood, Nova Scotia, practising in the law courts of Antigonish and Guysborough. In a short time, Blanchard gained a reputation amongst those in the legal profession for his skill in examining witnesses and clear presentation of facts.

In 1860, Blanchard moved to Halifax and became engaged in a partnership with Jonathan McCully, then Solicitor General and railway commissioner in the government of Joseph Howe. There, he argued against characters such as James MacDonald, the future federal Minister of Justice and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. Charles James Townshend, a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, observed the courtroom encounters of McCully and Blanchard, commenting “… it was delightful and instructive to listen to [their] forensic battle. Both were men of high and honourable character, incapable of any unworthy schemes to win their cases.” In 1870, Blanchard became partners with Nicholas Meagher, future Justice of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.

Political career

In 1860, William Young left politics to become chief justice of Nova Scotia. Blanchard had been very reluctant to become involved in politics until up to just before this time. The 1859 Nova Scotia election was largely influenced between the ongoing squabbles between Roman Catholic and Protestant populations, but Hiram Blanchard’s election win for the Liberals in his constituency of Inverness was based on a platform of “equal rights to all, proscription of none, favouritism to none”. Blanchard rose above religious quarrels and managed to win in a Roman Catholic community, even though he was a Presbyterian himself. In the Nova Scotia House of Assembly, Blanchard drew particular attention to the plight of the insane and the deaf, two disadvantaged groups in Nova Scotia at the time. Although he supported the free schooling initiative of Premier Charles Tupper, Blanchard objected to the idea that schools should be governed by a council made up of members of the Executive Council of Nova Scotia.

Blanchard supported the idea of confederation, and after Nova Scotia became a part of Canada in 1867, he became attorney-general and leader of the Conservative Party government, as the position of leader of the government had been vacated by Charles Tupper following his run for federal politics. However, Blanchard was in his new-found position for less than three months. In the September 1867 provincial election, the issue of Nova Scotia’s entry to the confederation led to the government’s demise in favour of William Annand’s Anti-Confederation Party, and in the newly-elected Assembly, only two members, Blanchard included, supported the idea of confederation. In 1868, Blanchard’s re-election to his constituency of Inverness was declared invalid as he had recently been appointed the legal advisor for the federal government in his province. In the subsequent by-election, Blanchard was defeated. In the 1871 election, he was once again elected, serving as leader of the opposition until his death on December 17, 1874 at Halifax. Blanchard was succeeded by his four daughters and wife.

Sir Frederick William Borden

Sir Frederick William Borden, (May 14, 1847 – January 6, 1917) was a Canadian politician. While he was the Minister for Militia and Defence, he was the father of the most famous Canadian casualty of the Second Boer War Harold Lothrop Borden. Historians credit him with creating and financing a modernized Canadian army with a staff and medical, transport, and signals that proved as vital in war as the infantry, cavalry, and artillery they served. He thus created the foundation for the Canadian armies of 1914-1918 and 1939-1945.

Career

Born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, the son of Dr. Jonathan Borden and Maria Frances Brown. Borden received a Bachelor of Arts degree from University of King’s College in Windsor, Nova Scotia in 1866. He joined the militia as a cadet at King’s College and then as an assistant surgeon in the 68th (Kings) Battalion of Infantry in 1869. He earned a M.D. in 1868 from Harvard Medical School and practiced as a physician in Canning, Nova Scotia.

He entered politics in 1874 with election as a Liberal member from Kings County, Nova Scotia; aside from an interruption 1882–1887, he represented this constituency until 1911.

Minister of militia and defence

He was Minister of militia and defence from 1896–1911, and was instrumental in raising the services from appendages of Britain to forces in their own right.

He reformed the Royal Military College of Canada, sending senior officers to Britain for advanced training. He increased pay and retirement benefits, equipped the militia with modern weapons, established rules regulating tenure of command, and decentralized command and administration. Miller (2010) presents evidence that that Borden saved himself from financial ruin by stationing three battalions of soldiers to Halifax in 1900 in order to make a profit for his faltering supply company.

Honours

CFB Borden was named in his honour when the air base was founded in 1916. He is the cousin of the eighth Prime Minister of Canada, Robert Borden. Borden was created a KCMG in 1902 and granted the honorary rank of Surgeon-General in the British Army in the 1911 Coronation Honours. He died in Canning in 1917.

Charles Fenerty

Charles Fenerty (January, 1821 – 10 June 1892), is a Canadian inventor who invented the wood pulp process for papermaking, which was first adapted into the production of newsprint. Fenerty was also a poet (writing over 32 known poems). He also did extensive travelling throughout Australia between the years 1858 to 1865 (living in the heart of the Australian gold rushes).

History of paper (before 1844)

Before wood pulp, paper was made from rags. Papermaking began in Egypt (see Papyrus) c.3000 B.C. In 105 AD, Ts’ai Lun a Chinese inventor, invented modern papermaking using rags, cotton, and other plant fibers by pulping it. Then in the 18th century a French scientist by the name of René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur suggested that paper could be made from trees. Though he never experimented himself, his theory caught the interest of others, namely Matthias Koops. In 1800 Koops published a book on papermaking made from straw. Its outer covers were made from trees. His method wasn’t like Fenerty’s (pulping wood); instead he simply ground the wood and adhered it together. His book does not mention anything to do with wood pulping.

Friedrich Gottlob Keller

Coincidentally, in around 1838 a German weaver by the name of Friedrich Gottlob Keller read Réaumur’s report and got curious. Unaware of Fenerty across the ocean, he experimented for a few years and, in 1845, filed for a patent in Germany for the ground wood pulp process for making modern paper. This was the beginning of a very large industry that exists to this day. In that same year Henry Voelter bought the patent for about five hundred dollars and started making paper. Keller did not have the funds to do it. At one point he did not have sufficient money to renew his patent. Keller died poor, but well remembered in Germany as being the first to discover the process.

Early life

As a youth, Charles worked for his father in the family he worked in a farm.(something Charles did not like it). It would then be transported from neighboring lakes to Springfield Lake (where their lumber mill was located). The lumber would then be hauled into the mill and cut up. The Fenerty’s would ship their lumber to the Halifax dockyards, where it was exported or used for local use (since Halifax was going through a “building boom” at the time). He had two brothers (he was the youngest boy), both of whom helped with the operations. Charles was also a farmer. The Fenerty’s had around 1,000 acres (4.0 km²) of farm land. They would ship most of their produce to the markets in Halifax. It was in his youth where he was inspired by both nature and poetry. His first (known) poem was titled *The Prince’s Lodge (later retitled as “Passing Away” and published in 1888). He was 17-years-old when he wrote it. It was about the decaying home (overlooking the Bedford Basin near Halifax) that was built decades prior by Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn. The lodge was in poor condition, and was not occupied as Prince Edward return to England in August 1800. He would have had passed this home every time he hauled his lumber and produce to Halifax. But he would pass the local paper mills too.

In those days paper was made from pulped rags. It was a technique used for nearly 2000 years. And suddenly demands reached their peak, while rag supplies reached its all time low. Charles was very curious of how paper was made, and often stopped at these paper mills. There were many similarities between paper mills and lumber mills; something young Fenerty saw and experimented with. Demand for paper was so high that eventually Europe starting cutting down their shipments of cotton to North America. After seeing how paper is made and comparing it to the saw mills, it is not difficult to imagine how Fenerty got the idea (since the process is very much the same: fibres are extracted from the cotton and used to make paper). And Charles knew very well that trees have fibres too (from his relationship with the naturalist Titus Smith.^[15] At the age of 17 (in c.1838) he began his experiments of making paper from wood. But 1844 he had perfected the process (including bleaching the pulp to a white colour). In a letter written by a family member circa 1915 it is mentioned that Charles Fenerty had shown a crude sample of his paper to a friend named Charles Hamilton in 1840 (a relative of his future wife).

Fenerty’s invention

Charles Fenerty began experimenting with wood pulp around 1838. And in 1844 he made his discovery. On October 26, 1844 Charles Fenerty took a sample of his paper to Halifax’s top newspaper, the Acadian Recorder, where he had written a letter on his newly invented paper saying:

“

Messrs. English & Blackadar, Enclosed is a small piece of PAPER, the result of an experiment I have made, in order to ascertain if that useful article might not be manufactured from WOOD. The result has proved that opinion to be correct, for- by the sample which I have sent you, Gentlemen- you will perceive the feasibility of it. The enclosed, which is as firm in its texture as white, and to all appearance as durable as the common wrapping paper made from hemp, cotton, or the ordinary materials of manufacture is ACTUALLY COMPOSED OF SPRUCE WOOD, reduced to a pulp, and subjected to the same treatment as paper is in course of being made, only with this exception, VIZ: my insufficient means of giving it the required pressure. I entertain an opinion that our common forest trees, either hard or soft wood, but more especially the fir, spruce, or poplar, on account of the fibrous quality of their wood, might easily be reduced by a chafing machine, and manufactured into paper of the finest kind. This opinion, Sirs, I think the experiment will justify, and leaving it to be prosecuted further by the scientific, or the curious. I remain, Gentlemen, your obdt. servant, CHARLES FENERTY. The Acadian Recorder Halifax, N.S. Saturday, October 26, 1844

”

Death and legacy

Little attention was given and even Fenerty himself never pursued the idea and he never took out a patent on his process. But it did mark the beginning to a new industry, although today most people attribute F. G. Keller as the original inventor.

Fenerty travelled to Australia then returned again to Halifax in 1865. He held several positions: Wood Measurer, Census Taker, Health Warden, Tax Collector for his community, and Overseer of the Poor. He was also very involved with the Church. Fenerty died on June 10, 1892 in his home in Upper Sackville, Nova Scotia, from a flu.

Fenerty was also a well-known poet of his time, publishing more than 35 (known) poems. Some popular titles were: “Betula Nigra” (about a Black Birch tree), “Essay on Progress” (published in 1866), and “The Prince’s Lodge” (about Prince Edward Augustus, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, written around 1838 and published in 1888). In October 1854, he won first prize for “Betula Nigra” at the Nova Scotia Industrial Exhibition.

Pulped wood paper slowly began to be adopted by paper mills throughout Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Then to the rest of the world. Charles would live to see the very first wood pulp paper mill erected near his home town (where some claim he worked part-time in his latter years). German newspapers were the first to adopt the process, then other newspaper made the painful switch from rags to wood pulp. By the end of the 19th century almost all newspapers in the western world were using pulp wood newsprint.

Anna Haining Swan

Anna Haining Bates, born Anna Haining Swan (August 6, 1846 – August 5, 1888), was a Canadian from Mill Brook, New Annan (near present-day Tatamagouche), Colchester County, Nova Scotia, famed for her great height, believed to be 2.27 m (7′ 5½”) at the peak of her stature. Her parents were of average height and were Scottish immigrants.

Her growth rates

At birth Anna weighed approximately 18 pounds. Anna was the third of 13 children, all of the others being around average height. From birth she grew very quickly. On her 4th birthday she was 4 feet 6 inches (137 centimetres) tall. On her 6th birthday she was measured again, and she stood 5 feet 2 inches (157.48 centimetres) tall, an inch or two (2.5–5 cm) shorter than her mother. On her 11th birthday she measured at 6 feet 1 inch (185 cm) and weighed 200 pounds (91 kg). By her 15th birthday Anna Swan was at just over 7 feet (210 cm) tall. She would reach her full height two years later. Anna’s feet measured 13 ¹⁄₂ inches (34 cm) long. Anna’s body was in proportion throughout her childhood.

Touring and marriage

Anna excelled at literature and music and was considered to be very intelligent. She also excelled at her studies of acting, piano and voice. She played Lady Macbeth in one play.

She had to be rescued from a fire at Barnum’s museum in July 1865. The stairs were in flames but she was too large to escape through a window. In her fear she bowled over the men sent to help her. Employees of the museum found a derrick nearby, smashed the wall around a window on the third floor, and lowered Anna by block and tackle with 18 men holding the end of the rope. At the time Anna weighed 394 pounds (179 kg). Usually however, her weight was around 350 pounds (159 kg). Her highest recorded weight was 413 pounds.

As part of her shows, Anna had a tape measure put around her waist and then had a lady from the audience put it around her own waist. The tape would go around the average woman’s waist three times. In 1869, whilst on a tour of Britain, one newspaper reporter said Anna “Towers above all men when stood up, and most women when sat down. She has an oval face, and is softly spoken, with a gentle voice”. She was also presented at court.

When visiting a circus in Halifax with which Martin Van Buren Bates — another enormously tall person — was travelling, Anna was spotted by the promoter and hired on the spot. The giant couple became a touring sensation and eventually fell in love and, on 17 June 1871 in St Martin-in-the-Fields in London, they married. Rev. Rupert Cochrane, a friend of Anna’s family who happened to be preaching in London at the time, agreed to conduct the ceremony. Despite his 6-foot-3-inch (1.91 m) stature, the Reverend looked small when standing next to the giant bride and groom.

In 1872, Anna and her husband purchased 130 acres (0.53 km²) of land and had furniture made to their specifications. Martin supervised the construction of the house. The main part of the house had 14-foot (4.3 m) high ceilings, while the doors were extra wide and were 8 and a 1/2 feet tall. The back part of the house was built an average size for servants and guests.

Children

Anna gave birth to two children, one of which was stillborn and one of which survived less than a day, with Martin. The first was a girl born on 19 May 1872; she was the same size her mother had been at her own birth. The Bates family moved to Seville, Ohio, in June 1874 on their return from the United Kingdom. While touring in the summer of 1878, Anna was pregnant for the second time. She went into labour on January 15, 1879. Anna continued in the first stages of labour for 36 hours. Their physician, Dr. Beach, realized that the birth was not going in a normal direction and tried using forceps, but the baby’s head was too large. He called another doctor who also tried using forceps. They put a strong bandage around the baby’s neck to assist with the delivery. The baby was born on 19 January, and survived only 11 hours. He was the largest newborn ever recorded, at 10.8 kg, or 23.12 pounds and nearly 30 inches (71 centimeters) tall and each of his feet were six inches (152 mm) long.

Final years

To help take their minds off their baby’s death, the Bateses rejoined touring with W.W. Cole in the summer of 1879, and again in the spring of 1880, but that was to be their final tour, after which they retired.

The remaining years of Anna’s life were spent quietly on the farm that she and her husband owned, mostly away from the limelight. She had joined the local Baptist Church in 1877, and attended services with her husband on a Sunday. The pew in which they sat had to be enlarged and modified so they could sit comfortably. Anna sometimes taught Sunday School there.

Death and funeral

Anna Swan died of consumption (tuberculosis) at her home on August 5, 1888 just one day before her 42nd birthday. She succumbed to heart failure after struggling with a thyroid goitre for some time previously.

After his wife’s death, Captain Bates wired Cleveland, Ohio, for a coffin. A standard size coffin was sent as they believed that the wire was a mistake. Furious about this, he contacted them again to say that his first wire was correct. The funeral had to be delayed as it took the coffin three further days to arrive.

Anna, Martin and their children are buried in Mound Hill Cemetery in Seville, Ohio. Nearby is Anna’s sister Maggie, who died from tuberculosis in the spring of 1875, aged 22.

 

Walter Harris Callow

Walter Harris Callow (1896-1958) was a Canadian veteran who invented the accessibility bus for people in wheelchairs (1947). He designed and managed the Walter Callow Wheelchair Bus, while he himself was blind, quadriplegic and, eventually had both legs amputated. Callow planned trips for disabled vetrans, tours of the countryside, picnics, sporting events, art classes and other activities. He was born in Parrsboro, Nova Scotia and became a resident the Camp Hill Military Hospital for twenty years.

As a member of the Royal Flying Corps in Camp Mohawk, Ontario, Callow crashed in a test flight in 1918. He received a serious back injury and a heart condition. He continued on in a lumber business in Advocate, Nova Scotia. He eventually became bed-ridden in 1931 because of his injuries, the same year his mother and wife died and left him with a young child. He continued business by selling real-estate.

In 1937 Callow became a full-time resident of the Camp Hill Hospital and two years later he was blind and quadriplegic. While at the Hospital he established a board of directors and hired two secretaries. He established the Callow Cigarette Fund to send cigarettes to soldiers serving over-seas during World War 2.

After the war, he turned his cigarette fund into a wheelchair coach service for disabled veterans (1947). He started by having two custom made buses built in Publico, Nova Scotia. He eventually garnered the support of General Motors and Ford to build the wheelchair coaches. He named the company the “Callow Veterans’ and Invalids’ Welfare League” and established an office in Halifax. He worked tirelessly to make facilities accessible and to make visible the needs of those with physical disabilities.

His funeral was conducted in Halifax with full military honours. The only time that Callow had the opportunity to ride on his bus is when his body was returned to Advocate to be buried.

There was an unveiling of the Walter Callow Memorial Plaque at the Advocate cemetery on August 10, 2001.

The Walter Callow Wheelchair Bus continues today.

Mona Louise Parsons

Mona Louise Parsons (February 17, 1901 – November 28, 1976) was an actress, nurse, and member of an informal resistance network in Holland from 1940 to 1941 during the Nazi-occupation. She became the only Canadian female civilian to be imprisoned by the Nazis, and one of the first—and few—women to be tried by a Nazi military tribunal in Holland.

She received a commendation for her bravery in helping Allied airmen evade capture from both Air Chief Marshall Lord Arthur Tedder of the Royal Air Force on behalf of the British people, and from General Dwight Eisenhower, expressing the gratitude of the American people.

Early years

Parsons was born in Middleton, Nova Scotia. Upon graduating from the Acadia Ladies’ Seminary in Wolfville, Nova Scotia with a certificate in Elocution, Parsons attended the Currie School of Expression in Boston. She returned to Wolfville to attend Acadia University for a time, where she acted in several productions. Afterward leaving Acadia, Parsons briefly taught elocution at Conway Central College in Conway, Arkansas. She studied acting and moved to New York City in 1929, where she became a Ziegfeld Follies showgirl. She later became a nurse after attending the Jersey School of Medicine from which she graduated cum laude (i.e., “with honours”) in 1935. She was employed in the Park Avenue offices of an ex-patriate Nova Scotia otolaryngologist. In February 1937 Parsons brother introduced her to a millionaire Dutch businessman Willem Leonhardt. The couple married in Laren, Netherlands on September 1, 1937.

Second World War

Upon the invasion of Holland by the Nazis in May 1940, Parsons joined a network of resistance composed of people from diverse walks of life—farmers, teachers, business people. Similar to the famous Corrie ten Boom, Parsons sheltered downed allied airmen in her home, “Ingleside” near Laren. At the beginning of the Occupation, Parsons dismissed her servants so that the servants quarters on the top floor of Ingleside could be used to accommodate Allied airmen. A “hiding place” behind the closet in the master bedroom was available as a temporary emergency shelter for the airmen in the event that her home was searched by the Nazis. Once the pilots left Parsons’ home they were transported to Leiden, where fishing boats took them to rendezvous with British submarines for their return to England. The number of allied pilots she saved is unknown. The last airmen to hide at Ingleside remained for an unprecedented six days in September 1941. The network had been infiltrated, and contacts were unable to move the airmen as previously planned. Flight Engineer William ‘Jock’ Moir and Navigator Richard Pape were finally moved to Leiden, where they were caught and arrested by the Gestapo.

Based on information available at the Dutch Institute for War Documentation, Mona Parsons’ biographer Andria Hill learned that Parsons was arrested by the Gestapo at her home on September 29, 1941. She was first taken to Amstelveense Prison, then to the Weteringschan Prison in Amsterdam (present day Holland Casino). At her trial on December 22, 1941, Parsons was found guilty of treason and sentenced to death by firing squad. She is reported to have responded to her sentence with such dignified calm that the chief judge permitted her to appeal. The sentence was commuted to life with hard labour.

On March 6, 1942 Parsons was taken with several other prisoners for transport to the Anrath Prison in Nazi Germany. Parsons was transferred to Wiedenbruck, where she worked on an assembly line creating plywood wings for small craft, then on a line assembling igniters for bombs. She became ill with bronchitis several times, and when put in the infirmary, was tasked with knitting socks for German soldiers. On February 6, 1945, the prisoners at Wiedenbruck were herded onto a train bound for another prison in Vechta. Close by were two hospitals, an airfield and a major train junction. Parsons was put to work both in the prison and on occasional details outside, to take food from the prison kitchen to wounded soldiers and other patients in the hospitals. Parsons writes:

The first year I was ill a lot, weighed only about 94 pounds & was green – night sweats, coughing & diarrhoea every day for 3 ½ months & often vomiting. Tears have run down my cheeks for hunger. When the diarrhoea got better I was given a pint of soup extra – made from turnip & potato peelings – every day for 6 months & my vitamin tablets which I had been allowed to keep with me. There were no medicines to be had. We slept four in a tiny cell built for one. In all the years of imprisonment I slept always on a straw sack on the floor.

I was in solitary once for two weeks, for writing a letter in English. Fortunately no one could read English, otherwise another prisoner might have been involved. I got out of it by saying it was only a little story I was writing to amuse myself. We were not allowed to have pencil or paper. Practically 4 years of isolation. During my first contact with people – after throwing off my half-witted act – I felt only half conscious of all that went on about me. My body was shaky – my brain seemed quite numb – thoroughly incapable of absorbing what was said to me. My head spun. It just seemed too much, all of a sudden. We’d had literally no brain stimulation all these years – we were forbidden to talk during our 12 hour working day – at night too tired to do anything but crawl into bed. Even when we weren’t too tired to talk – we’d have little to talk about. We heard no news scarcely. We were not even allowed to have books.

On March 24, 1945, as the allied forces bombed the prison camp, Parsons escaped with a young Dutch baroness. Walking in frigid temperatures in short-sleeved prison garb, their shoes soon gave out. Although as a young woman Parsons spoke fluent German and knew the country well, she did not risk speaking German with a Canadian accent. Using her acting skills, she posed as the young woman’s mentally-challenged auntie who couldn’t speak because of a cleft palate. The pair walked and evaded capture for three weeks, exchanging labour for food and lodging—often in a barn. During that time they covered approximately 125 km through Nazi Germany. The two became separated at Rhede, near the Dutch/German border. Parsons continued her act alone. Eventually, after an Allied artillery bombardment, she was able to cross to Vlagtwedde, Holland. There Parsons told a Dutch farmer that she was Canadian and needed to find British troops. The farmer took her to British troops, the North Nova Scotia Highlanders.

Nova Scotia

Parsons and her husband Leonhardt were reunited after the war, but he never fully recovered from his imprisonment and died in 1956. Soon after Leonhardt’s death, Parsons learned that he had left one-quarter of his estate to his mistress. Shortly after the funeral, Parsons learned that Leonhardt had a biological son. Under Dutch law, he was entitled to three-quarters of Leonhardt’s multi-million guilder estate. Parsons was left with nothing. Although she launched a legal battle that would span several years and one ocean, she was unsuccessful.

Parsons returned to Nova Scotia in December 1957 with what had been deemed her possessions. There she became reacquainted with a childhood friend, Major General Harry Foster. They married in 1959 and lived in Lobster Point, Chester, Nova Scotia (near the Chester Golf Club). Foster died in 1964; Parsons eventually moved back to Wolfville, Nova Scotia in 1970, where she remained until her death. She is buried in the family plot at the Willowbank Cemetery, Wolfville, Nova Scotia.