HMS Nancy (1789) - Construction

Construction

The Nancy was built by the fur trading company Forsyth, Richardson and Company of Montreal, at Detroit. (Although Detroit was by rights on American territory, it was not handed over to the United States until the Jay Treaty was signed in 1796.) At this time the company was one of the several merchant firms based in Montreal that made up the loose partnership known as the North West Company. The Indian trade on the Great Lakes was conducted by larger sailing vessels whereas birchbark canoes remained the principal means of transport in the fur trade of the Canadian north-west via the Ottawa River.

John Richardson, one of the partners in the company, travelled to the trading post at Detroit to begin construction, accompanied by a master carpenter and six other carpenters. Construction began in late June 1789. On 23 September 1789, Richardson wrote:

The schooner will be a perfect masterpiece of workmanship and beauty. The expense to us will be great, but there will be the satisfaction of her being strong and very durable. Her floor-timbers, keel, keel-son, stem and lower futtocks are oak. The transom, stern-post, upper futtocks, top-timbers, beams and knees are all red cedar. She will carry 350 barrels.

The schooner, named after Richardson's eldest daughter, was launched on 24 November that year. The following spring, she made her maiden voyage to Fort Erie, under the command of Captain William Mills, and in June 1790, went to Grand Portage at Sault Ste. Marie with a full cargo. For the next twenty-two years, the Nancy was engaged in the fur trade. The ship changed owners several times, being sold first to George Leith and Company in 1793, and later to the North West Company. She changed commanders in 1805, when Captain Alexander MacIntosh replaced Captain Mills.