Spotlight on our Heritage #11: James H. Moran

EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is part of a series of features prepared for Heritage Week 2017 (February 13 – 20), entitled Spotlight on our Heritage. This particular "spotlight" highlights the Prince Victor figurehead recently repatriated to the Quaco Historical and Library Society in St. Martins. 

James H. Moran (1816-1879)
Quaco Historical& Library
Society

James H. Moran
(1816 – 1879) 

Mathias Moran was one of the original settlers of St Martins (then Quaco). He arrived in October 1783 after the war ended and the King’s Orange Rangers were disbanded. He was given a grant of land for his years of loyal service to King George III, a portion of which the Moran Family Shipyard was located is still in possession of his direct descendants.

Mathias Moran’s son, James Moran Senior, born in 1781, inherited his father’s property and continued the business of farming and building small vessels. He built his first ship in 1805. James Moran Sr died in 1860 at the age of 79.


James Moran Sr’s son, James Hamilton Moran, born in 1816, stayed in St. Martins and continued the family shipbuilding business. His older brother, Robert Greer Moran had already moved to Liverpool, England in 1852 to set-up the Moran Galloway Shipping Company.

Credit: Cutty Sark Trust

James H Moran built the Prince Victor ship in St Martins in 1870. In 1874, he moved to the city of Saint John looking for larger timber and manpower. He continued with shipbuilding at Marsh Creek with J K Dunlop as foreman. He died in September 1879 at the age of 62 years.

The Prince Victor as named after Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence and Avondale. The Prince Victor had a registered tonnage of 1221 with a length of 188 feet, 6 inches. The ship set sail in 1870 and was later sold in 1887. That same year it was run aground on the Severn River in the United Kingdom.

The figurehead of the Prince Victor has been recently repatriated to Quaco Historical and Library Society in St. Martins. It now resides not a quarter mile from where the Prince Victor was originally built. May 17th, 2017 will mark the 147th anniversary of its launch.