Calvin Shipyard

Garden Island ON

Most recent update: September 9, 2017.

A truly remarkable shipyard operated in the 19th century on Garden Island, in the St. Lawrence River, between Wolfe Island and Kingston ON. Known as the Calvin Shipyard, it was established by and for the Calvin Company, which was a major player in the Canadian timber industry. The driving forces behind this enterprise were its owner, Dileno Dexter Calvin, and the man who ran the yard for most of its existence, Henry Roney. Calvin leased 15 of the island's 65 acres in 1836, purchased this property in 1848, then bought the rest of the island in 1852. The Calvin Company shipped in logs and shipped out finished timber, becoming, in addition, merchants, wharfingers, freight carriers, salvagers, wreckers and shipbuilders. Calvin died in 1884 and under his son's management the business declined, being gone by 1914. At its peak, 750 people lived on Garden Island: today the number is a single digit - although many of the cottages built by D. D. Calvin for his employees survive as summer rentals - and the ferry service was cut off in 1976. See the island from the air on Google here. Calvin's shipyard is believed to have built at least 60 ships - he level-loaded the yard by committing to a construction rate of one ship a year - but the records are sparse.

If you have an addition or correction for this page, please send it in.

O/N Name Customer Type GT LBP Built Notes
115350 Queen Victoria J. Flood schooner 133 95 1839 burned 1883
Prince Edward Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1840 City of Kingston 1847
Raftsman Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1840
Marion Cook Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1840
Minerva Cook Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1840
William Penn Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1840 wrecked 1856
Hannah Counter Calvin Co Ltd schooner 136 91 1845 wrecked 1851
Glasgow Calvin Co Ltd barge 116 90 1847
Liverpool Calvin Co Ltd barge
Caroline Calvin Co Ltd barge 1848
113491 Prescott Hooker, Jacques & Co. steamer 258 138 1849 scrapped 1870
Marion Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1849
London Calvin Co Ltd brigantine 1852
William Ford Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1853
Advance Calvin Co Ltd river barge 1854
Wellington Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1856 sank 1881
Hercules Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1858 burned 1891
Mary Beck Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1858
80878 Southampton Calvin Co Ltd barkentine 1860 sank 1904
157177 William Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 428 121 1860 scrapped 1878
Quebec Calvin Co Ltd barge 1862
M. L. Breck Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1863 wrecked 1907
13933 John Bredin Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1863
Laura E. Calvin Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1863 sank 1869
MacDonald Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1865
Plymouth Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1866
John A. McDonald Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 1866
Henry Roney Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1868 lost 1879
Hiram Calvin Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1868 burned 1895
Bella Calvin Co Ltd barge 1870
Sweden Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1870 sank 1877
Cayuga Calvin Co Ltd barge 1870
Oneida Calvin Co Ltd Schooner/barge 1870
Onondaga Calvin Co Ltd barge 1870
Jennie Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1871
71177 Seneca Calvin Co Ltd barge 1871
Mohawk Calvin Co Ltd Schooner/barge 1872
Norway Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1873 sank 1880
71178 Chieftain Calvin Co Ltd steamer 485 137 1874 scrapped 1912
Siberia Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1874 sank 1883
Traveller Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 1875
Cherokee Calvin Co Ltd barge 1876
Garden Island Calvin Co Ltd bark 169 1877 later Trio, wrecked in the UK 1907
Bavaria Calvin Co Ltd schooner 410 1878 wrecked off Cape Smith 1898
William Johnston Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 1878
Prussia Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1879 later Cyrenian
Hiawatha Calvin Co Ltd barge 1881
Huron Calvin Co Ltd barge 1881
83298 D. D. Calvin Calvin Co Ltd steamer 750 166 1883 burned at Garden Island 1910
88571 Dakota Calvin Co Ltd barge 535 170 1885 wrecked 1926
Denmark Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1888 wrecked
Oriental Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1888
92394 Valencia Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1888
Ceylon Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1891 scrapped 1943
Lapwing Calvin Co Ltd barge 1892 sank 1932
96919 Augustus Calvin Co Ltd schooner 1893
100654 Reginald Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 1894 burned 1941
100661 Jack Calvin Co Ltd steam barge 833 178 1895 Bothnia 1896, lost in collision in St Clair River 1912
Parthia Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 1896 abandoned 1914
107735 India Calvin Co Ltd steam barge 976 216 1899 burned at St Mary's Island 1928
Frontenac Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 111 1901 lost 1929
111765 Burma Calvin Co Ltd schooner 885 183 1901 foundered on Lake St. Peter 1929
112144 Simla Calvin Co Ltd steamer 1,490 226 1903 scuttled 1926, raised, rescuttled 1936
117129 Chieftain III Calvin Co Ltd tugboat 355 142 1906 collision and sank off St Antoine, Chicoutimi 1911

Printed from shipbuildinghistory.njscuba.net