Homeport: Campobello - Saint John - St Martins, 1780-2000

Richard Wilbur is the author of The Rise of French New Brunswick and
H.H. Stevens, 1878–1973, and the coauthor of Silver Harvest: The Fundy
Weirmen’s Story.

Homeport is the most recent volume in a series aimed at the New
Brunswick summer tourist trade. It is a fascinating and informative
pictorial survey of Canada’s oldest incorporated city and until
recently one of its busiest east coast ports. (The title is misleading
insofar as the book is essentially a history of the port of Saint John,
with only a few references to and photographs of the other two
destinations.) The author, a well-known and respected Saint John
historian, has made excellent use of his fund of local lore, with
chapters on the city’s earliest shipbuilding era; navigation aids,
shipwrecks, and salvage; and ship movements.

Deborah Stilwell, a computer specialist, has used her technical skills
to reproduce the scores of photographs accompanying Wright’s text. For
the most part, the reproductions are excellent, but some of the
buildings and figures referred to are too small and indistinct. My only
other criticism is Wright’s frequent references to specific buildings
and features of the city’s geography. Since there is just one map
(done in 1780) outlining the harbor’s complicated configuration, only
those who were born and raised in the city (like Wright) would be
familiar with some of the specific place names.

Ships are the stars of this study, but we also learn much about the
city’s changing society over the last century—specifically, how
citizens earned their living and followed “pleasurable pursuits,”
from picnicking to yachting to fishing. Of the several in this series I
have reviewed in recent years, this is my favorite.