Tall Ships and Tankers: The History of the Davie Shipbuilders

Gordon Turner is the author of Empress of Britain: Canadian Pacific’s
Greatest Ship and the editor of SeaFare, a quarterly newsletter on sea
travel.

Tall Ships and Tankers is a history of the various companies that have
been part of the Davie shipbuilding empire over the last 170 years.
Based at Lauzon, just across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City,
Davie nowadays faces strong competition from government-subsidized
shipyards elsewhere in the world.

The author has done a thorough job of investigating the company’s
history. The Davie family, of Scottish origins, built up the company
gradually, moving from sail to steam to diesel. Even in the early years,
the Davies knew the value of diversification: shipbuilding, ship
repairs, and salvaging stranded vessels formed the backbone of the
company’s work. Government contracts in times of war increased the
company’s fortunes, as did economic booms. But shipbuilding is
notoriously sensitive to trade conditions, and downturns came and went
regularly. Marcil discusses Davie’s relations with unions, government,
and shipowners, and provides anecdotes about company personnel, from the
sober and frugal George T. Davie to the mercurial Takis Veliotis.

Tall Ships and Tankers contains some 350 well-chosen illustrations.
Unfortunately, some of their captions provide incorrect information.
Nevertheless, this book is an important addition to Canada’s
industrial history.