On the shores of the Avon River, 80 kilometres northwest of Halifax, Mother Nature has uncovered rich layers of 19th century maritime history.
“There are three ships that are buried here in the sand,” said 88-year-old Summerville, N.S., resident Wilfred Ogilvie, who has lived down the road all of his life.
About a hundred years ago, three wooden sailing ships were abandoned at a long-removed wharf and left to rot.
Ogilvie said the vessel called the Hamburg had a towering hull that loomed large on the beach.
“She was 200-feet long and 40-feet wide and about a 25-foot depth,” said Ogilvie, who added the three-mast Hamburg was built across the river in Hantsport, N.S., and was considered massive for that era. “That was a lot of ship.”
All three sailing ships, the Hamburg included, caught fire in 1936.
“All that’s left buried in the sand is the hull from the waterline down,” Ogilvie said.
The Hamburg. (Avon River Heritage Centre)
Over the decades, silt and sand, mixed with the ebb and flow of the tides, buried these ships and they were seemingly lost forever.
Then, after recent flash flooding, the sand eventually washed away, and the Hamburg slowly reappeared.
Her hull is now on display for all to see.
Pieces of the other ships are also popping along the beach.
“Those old vessels are getting close to 200 years old,” Ogilvie said. “Because they were built in the early 1800s.”
The reappearance of the Hamburg is more than just an uncovered historic treasure – it is a link to a time, when the towns along the Avon River rode the wave of the shipbuilding boom cycle of the 19th century.
“This province was a leader in shipping in the 1800s,” historian Blair Beed said. “People were known for building the boats, merchandise in the boats and sailing cargo all over the world.”
“They would take wood and something else from here and then coming back they would get a load of something to bring back,” Ogilvie added.
Beed said the Hamburg re-emerging from the sand is like a time machine. “History reveals itself when it wants to.”
