Halifax and Its People / 1749-1999

Stage coaches travelled the rough Eastern Shore post road and vessels sailed along the coast in the nineteenth century. Steamer service to Sheet Harbour began about 1890 and in subsequent years the City of Ghent, Wilfrid C, Strathcona, Dufferin, Margaret, Scotia, Chedabucto and various other steamers called at Eastern Shore ports. The 211-ton Dufferin began service in 1905; the steamer left Halifax every Thursday at 10 p.m. and arrived in Port Dufferin the next morning at 5:30 a.m., weather permitting. It then called at Moser River, Ecum Secum and Guysborough County ports. The Dufferin carried passengers and a general cargo usually consisting of feed, hay, kerosene and groceries. On the return trip to Halifax, it called at the same ports, collecting quantities of lumber and lobsters in the spring. On arrival in Halifax, the crates of lobsters were dumped into the water until the next morning, when they were transported by the Dominion Atlantic Railway to Yarmouth and then on to Boston.

Date: ca. 1910

Reference: Nova Scotia Archives  Mines & Resources 321627 (courtesy National Archives of Canada PA-020753)