Ebenezer Moseley (February 14, 1813 – June 18, 1903) was a Boston-born ship builder in 19th century

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

. His best known ship is the barque ''

Stag A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) a ...

''.

Early life

Ebenezer Moseley was born in

Dorchester, Massachusetts Dorchester () is a Neighborhoods in Boston, neighborhood comprising more than in the city of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Originally, Dorchester was a separate town, founded by Puritans who emigrated in 1630 from Dorchester, Dorset, E ...

to shipbuilder Phineas Moseley and his wife Sarah (née Tilton). When Ebenezer, known as Eben, was five years old, the family moved to

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and most populous municipality of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the most populous municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of 2024, it is estimated that the population of the H ...

and set up a

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are shipbuilding, built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Compared to shipyards, which are sometimes m ...

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

in the north of Halifax. After attending school, Moseley worked at his father's ship yard. One of his first ships, ''Falcon'' won the Halifax Harbour regatta prize for first class yachts in 1837. In 1839, Moseley's father died.

La Have Shipyard

On 16 May 1840, Ebenezer married Anne Jane Cummings. Their first son, Ebenezer Tilton Moseley, was born in 1844. In 1853, the Richmond shipyard was sold to the provincial government and Eben and Henry decided to sail to Australia. After leaving Halifax, bad weather forced them to land near the

LaHave river The LaHave River is a river in Nova Scotia, Canada, running from its source in Annapolis County to the Atlantic Ocean.

, and the quality of trees there convinced the Moseley's to abandon their trip to Australia and open a shipyard on the spot. It was here that Moseley built the barque ''Stag'' for a Halifax merchant. The yard operated until Henry's death in 1864, whereupon Eben and his family returned to Halifax and settled in Dartmouth.

Dartmouth Shipyard

In Dartmouth, Moseley continued to build ships in a yard in Dartmouth Cove, including the military transport steamer, ''Lily''. He also built the racing yacht ''Whisper'', which would capture the Prince of Wales Cup of the Halifax yacht Club two years in a row, in 1865 and 1866. Moseley left the club in a dispute over his loss of the cup in 1867. As the golden age of sail began its decline, Moseley diversified his operations and began marketing an anti-fouling paint to protect wooden hulls from rot. The product was marketed locally under the Dominion Copper Paint company. Moseley was known as an innovator in ship design, both for his use of blueprints in a time when wooden half-models were the norm, and for testing the hydrodynamics of models of his designs in a tub. He submitted designs to the Paris Exhibition of 1867 and the Columbian Exposition of 1893, winning a prize for his submissions to the latter. Moseley's shipyard in Dartmouth was destroyed by fire in 1890, and Moseley died in his home in Dartmouth in 1903 at the age of 90.

Ships built

The following is a partial list of ships designed by Moseley. * ''Falcon'' * ''Sir Peter Hachett'' * ''Stag'' * ''Whisper'' * ''Lilly'' * ''Nymphia'' * ''Blanche''

References

Selected books

*Chapman, Harry. ''The Dartmouthians: Footprints in the Sands of Time''. Dartmouth Historical Association, 2005. *Erhard, Nancie. ''First in its class: the story of the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron''. Halifax, 1986. *N.S., Provincial Museum and Science Library, Report, Halifax, 1928–29.

External links

Ebenezer Moseley in the Canadian Dictionary of Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moseley, Ebenzer 1813 births 1903 deaths American yacht designers Boat and ship designers Businesspeople from Boston 19th-century American businesspeople American emigrants to pre-Confederation Nova Scotia Colony of Nova Scotia people