Harbour Prince Edward Island, Canada C0A 1V0
This story starts at the Montague Antique Car Show in early July
of 1998, where some of the members of the P.E.I. Antique Engine,
Tractor and Machinery Association go to show engines.
While talking to many interested onlookers, a man asked if I was
interested in old marine engines. I said yes, and that I had a
couple at home. He said he knew of a single cylinder
Fairbanks-Morse and gave me a name and a phone number. I phoned the
man about a week later and found out the engine was not for
sale.
While on a trip to eastern Nova Scotia later, I decided to go
and have a look at the Fairbanks-Morse and see if he might have
changed his mind. As we talked, I found out he hadn’t changed
his mind, but he told me about a sawmill that might still be there
and the name of the man who lived next to it. We went to see Roy
Warner and he took me over in the woods where the old mill was.
There sat three Gilson engines, one about 4 HP, one 10 HP, and one
15 HP.
When I saw that big 15 HP, I told Roy I was going to have that.
Roy said, ‘What would you want that for.?!’ I told Roy I
would take it home, get it going and paint it. Roy said ‘Get it
going? It has been lying there for 30 years or more!’ I told
him all three engines had a lot of potential and asked Roy for some
information on finding the owner, as I would be back.
Starting with the name of who owned and operated the mill, I
tracked down Wilfred Carter in Amherst, Nova Scotia, who inherited
the property and was told the engines were going to a museum and
they were coming to get them. I asked him to find out for sure,
because I didn’t think a museum would cut the trees, etc.,
etc., to get them out of there.
I called back two weeks later, and Wilfred told me they
couldn’t take things out of there, and neither could he, so all
of a sudden they were for sale and the price was right.
I called Roy and told him we were coming for the engines, but
hadn’t decided how we were going to get them out of there.
My wife and I showed up with my old ’78 Ford 4×4 and a home
rig I have for lifting engines, fishing equipment etc., and armed
with chain saw, ropes, chains, come-alongs, wrenches, torches
etc.
I told Roy I had decided to take the big one apart and take it
out of the woods piece by piece, then load it on the truck. Roy
said, ‘I will go over and give you a hand, but I don’t
think you will ever get the bolts out of those old things.’
The first obstacle was two big deep tracks along the edge of the
woods where they were logging with a big skidder. With a little
chainsaw work and some mud flying, we were backed into the big one.
I got out some wrenches and tackled the water hopper, loosened the
bolts and turned them out with my fingers. Roy just shook his head.
We removed the rod cap, hoisted off the tank, took it out in the
field, unhooked the crankshaft and took it with flywheels 46 inches
out in the field, and went back for the hose.
We loaded hose and hopper on the truck by chaining the hoist to
a tree, put the hoist back behind the truck, put the flywheels with
crankshaft on it, chained them down and away we go!
Two days later, my dad and I went back for the other two. Took
the crank and flywheels off the 10, took them out, loaded the 10 HP
and the 4 HP. We thanked Roy for all his help, and we were off
again.
The trip is a one-hour ferry-boat ride and a two-hour drive each
way, so we had two full days in. The 15 HP is restored and running.
It was taken to three shows on the island in the summer of 1999.
The interest people showed made it all worthwhile. The others are
still waiting their turns.
This winter I restored a 4 HP Bruce Stewart ‘Imperial’
that originally belonged to my great-great-grandfather. But,
that’s another story.
Ken found out after writing this story that paint
information, serial numbers and original purchasers of
‘Atlantic’ marine engines is available to collectors.
Contact Janice Sampson at Lunenburg Foundry, Lunenburg, Nova
Scotia, via e-mail: life@TALLSHIPS.CA