HENDERSON, JAMES (1822-1894)

HENDERSON, JAMES, ship carpenter and master builder; b. Scotland, c1822; m. 1845, Mary Ingram, d/o George Ingram and Mary Russell, of Newcastle, natives of Ireland; d. Douglastown, 8 Dec 1894.

Documentation is lacking, but James Henderson is perceived to have been a son of William Henderson, a native of Thurso, Caithness, Scotland, who came to the Miramichi in the 1830s with his wife, Isabella, and three or more of their children, and settled in Derby (then part of Nelson) parish. Members of the family who had connections with the shipbuilding industry included Isabella Henderson, the wife of the Douglastown shipwright William Yorston, and Jane Henderson, the first wife of the sailmaker John Wilson.

The James Henderson and William Sinclair families, both formerly of Derby parish, were enumerated in the census of 1851 as occupying a single dwelling in Chatham. Soon afterwards, Henderson and Sinclair entered into partnership with Thomas Phillips, an immigrant from England, to build ships at the former Cunard yard in Chatham. Phillips, Henderson & Sinclair built the ship Grand Trianon in 1854 and the barque Summer Cloud in 1855. Before the Summer Cloud was launched, however, they had assigned and advertised their remaining stock of materials for sale.

Henderson and Sinclair were subsequently engaged by Gilmour, Rankin & Co. to build their 'ABC' ships, a series of vessels which they proposed to name in alphabetical order. They built "A," the ship Annie Laurie, which was launched in 1857. They were not the builders of "B," which was launched the same year, but they built "C," the ship Cycla (1858), and "D," the schooner Doria (1859), before Sinclair withdrew from partnership. Henderson stayed on as master builder for the series all the way to "R," the brig Rolling Wave (1867), in one year constructing no fewer than four vessels. He did not build "S," but he built "T," the steam ferry Teazer (1868), which was later owned and operated by Thomas Haviland. No master builder's name shows in the records for "U," the Unicorn, or "V," the Vigilant, which was the last to be completed.

There were many notable vessels among the ABC ships, such as the Cycla and the Lenore (1865), which were among the speediest full-size vessels on the Atlantic. One of a kind was the "screw barque" Panther (1866), which was rigged and sent to Greenock to be fitted out as a screw steamer. It was said that this vessel did "much credit to the marine architectural skill of Mr Henderson."

In 1878 Henderson oversaw the construction of the barque Premier Mackenzie, "one of the finest ships ever built on the river," for Charles C. Watt, and in 1880 he and William Yorston were the master builders of the barque Richard Hutchison for the same owner. He was later engaged in the growing field of steamship construction. In 1885 he was inspector for the building of the steam ferries Nelson and Miramichi. In 1886 he built a steam tug for Ernest Hutchison and in 1887 a pleasure steamer, or yacht, for James Yeoman, the manager of the Merchants Bank of Halifax at Newcastle. The steamer Sarcelle, which he built for Hutchison in 1890, was a combination pleasure and business craft. At the time of his death he had a steamer under construction for the A. & R. Loggie Co.

The Miramichi Advance stated that Henderson's "integrity and consistency in life won him the respect of all who knew him." He was an elder of St Mark's Presbyterian Church at Douglastown, superintendent of the Sunday school, and teacher of the Bible class. He and his wife, Mary Ingram, had at least ten children, including George Henderson, the steamboat builder; Mary I. Henderson, the wife of Hugh H. Lamont; Joseph J. Henderson, a merchant in Bathurst; Hedley V. Henderson, a Miramichi teacher who died at age twenty-six; and Albert Henderson, who came back from British Columbia after his father died, bringing with him "seven gold medals and a silver cup won in rowing contests in which he maintained the honor of the Miramichi." The next year, Albert Henderson built the yacht Avis, which was an object of much admiration, and with which he handily won a race sponsored by the Miramichi Yachting Club in 1896.