‘Pioneers of Unionville’

The Pioneers Of Unionville

– By Errol Jones

 

They sailed away one day in ‘fifty six

To trade the seas with stars to give a fix

They’d lived on Prince Edward Island five and twenty years

Through a time of toil and laughter

And…………….. A time of scalding tears

Kate and James had brought up seven strapping sons

In brooding fog, salt-caked breeze and watery suns

Where they’d felled tall trees on mountains as old as time

On Prince Edward Island

Land of spruce and pine

For stately ships the towering trees were felled

They worked from early dawn while fog-horns belled

They steamed and caulked ‘til daylight fully passed

And, of the ships launched at three rivers

The ‘ Union ’ was the last

They left for southern climes in ‘fifty eight

John wouldn’t sail, now wedded to his mate

The lass he chose was of the Douglas clan

Cordelia Charlotte Alley but oft times

Was known as Auntie John

Their first Enzed ship was named the ‘Pioneer’

(and twenty more to follow sailed from here)

Her burden was of three and twenty tons

And, in ‘sixty the ruby followed

Clad with cannon guns

The next three years ‘Victoria’ and ‘Excelsior’

And ‘Success’ each one bigger than the one before

Two more were launched in Eighteen Sixty Four

The ‘Queen’ and the sorry ‘Rapid’

(here unknown fate was yet in store)

This was the ship in which young brother Lemuel drowned

Fierce raging seas and winds the gulf did pound

Those tragic days in March in ‘sixty four

When only three could make

Their frightful way to shore

The Meiklejohn’s had lost young ‘rob’ in ‘sixty one

A tree had fallen killing the fifth son

Only twenty three he was – a bonny brawny man

A blithsome Scottish laddie

And a credit to his clan

One brother, Will’, had yearned to see some more

Of a lass he’d left on Nova Scotia shore

And he had sailed to meet her once again

But was sorely disillusioned

And the long trip was all in vain

For several years Will’ sailed the wide blue ocean seas

But came home, still single, and remained so down the years

At home, his father and his brothers carried on

And from sixty five to ninety one

Fourteen more ships were done

The largest was the ‘Omaha’ brigantine

Eighty three feet she measured, bow to stern

But Captain Sandy was not there to give a hand

For, since the ‘Rapid’ wreck

He grieved, henceforth on land

Within the space of three short tragic years

He’d joined his younger brothers, freed of cares

Only three of the seven sons were then to wed

For Captain William stayed a bachelor

And Captain Sandy, Rob and Lem’ were dead!

James junior had found a wife not far from home

And baby ‘Sept, did not even have to roam

For Jane, his bride, was kin to Mistress Anna

Whose parents were a little south

Of lower Matakana

John’s wife was Canadian- born, as said

And these three girls to Meiklejohns were wed

Each brought a Scotian-Enzed clan to life

To please the days of Catherine

The aging Captain’s wife

Descendants have spread far and wide

Though some, there are, who locally reside

Who till the soil and gather up there babes

And show to them the places where

Last century the old folks stayed

Where James and Catherine settled down in Unionville

And the old Ra-iti pah upon the hill

And where the yards beside the river once were busy

Before such memories with father time

Recede to dim and hazy

The first yard was founded next to Ruxton’s bridge

So, from Unionville, not far for them to trudge

And, was from there, they went in ‘fifty nine

To salvage precious fittings

From ‘Orpheus’ of the line

Their scows nosed up every tidal waterway

Their shallow draught a boon in every way

They lay on beaches waiting for the tide

Holds packed with shingle-sand

As around the gulf they plied

Logs were lashed, and lay along the deck

Bales of flax and cords of wood were checked

Their vessels worked the coast each single day

Packhorses of the river

And the Harbours and the bays

They worked ’s coastlines south to north

And some pacific islands did set forth

Their work was requisite to everyone

Their service valued keenly

On every cargo run

Then ……… came the death of coastal sailing craft

And engines were installed in ships abaft

The plodding scow gave up its daily task

Canvas was reefed

On every kauri mast

Each vessel found a quiet resting place

No more the sunkist wavelets did they grace

They sat and watched ribbons of black smoke billow high

And, as they died,

They heaved a fulfilled sigh