Lunenburg by the Sea

The foundry prospered during the First World War when men worked double shifts to make equipment for the fishing industry. The Second World War once again saw the foundry involved in the war effort when its 500-plus workforce refitted more than 100 corvettes, minesweepers, frigates and auxiliary vessels. The foundry also made about 12,000 two-cycle engines which were sold under the Atlantic Engines brand. Lunenburg Foundry and Engineering Limited expanded and modernized its plant in 1962. A large steel and concrete building with modern machinery and services was erected at the head of Lunenburg Harbour at the company’s main plant near its wharves. When John Cunningham’s “A Famous Foundry” appeared in The Atlantic Advocate (July 1987), Lunenburg Foundry was experiencing a revival in wood burning stoves; Ford engines were adapted to the fishing fleet and other industrial uses, and about eighty employees poured metals, made molds and touched up fine brass ship fittings “that have made the foundry famous.”

Date: 1942

Photographer: E.A. Bollinger

Reference: E.A. Bollinger Nova Scotia Archives no. 1942-552c