James Moran.

About James Moran

James Moran was a shipbuilder from St. Martins in the Colony, later the province of New Brunswick, Canada, who pioneered shipbuilding in the Bay of Fundy. Moran was one of the two leading families in the shipbuilding era of St. Martins from 1803 to 1919. During this period a number of different families built ships of all sizes along the beaches of St. Martins, building about 517 ships. He was the son of Matthias (Matthew) Moran. In order for a shipbuilding family to function the support of a wife was needed. James married Mary Hamilton; they had two sons, Robert and James H. Robert went on to be a master mariner, while James H. became a junior shipbuilder and later worked alongside his father, eventually taking over the business. In 1805 James, at the age of 24, built and launched his first small ship, a 59-ton schooner named Thistle. The ship that Moran is best known for is Waterloo, a 392-ton ship built in 1815 and the first three-masted square-rigged ship built in the Bay of Fundy.