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The Roberts brothers weren't the only shipbuilders in Bay d'Espoir. The Kendell brothers had a sawmill and shipbuilding business in Morrisville. John W. Kendell came from Piccarie to Milltown when he was 17 or 18 years old. He was one of the first loggers that was employed by Lake's Mill. While living in Milltown he met and married Elizabeth Ann Roberts. He then went to work for his in-laws but a disagreement arose and John left the Roberts' business to start his own mill. In 1912, John and his two brothers, James and Albert, started their own mill in Morrisville, which was called Lynch's Cove at the time after a Jersey fisherman that drowned there. The sawmill was powered by a steam engine (a water boiler that produced steam to work the engine).At first the Kendell brothers lived in Milltown and operated the sawmill in the summer but later they settled permanently in Lynch's Cove. After settling, the Kendells renamed Lynch's Cove to Morrisville, named after the 12th Prime Minister of Newfoundland at the time, Sir Edward Patrick Morris.
During the period he spent working for the Roberts brothers, John learned from Morgan how to build schooners and in 1914, John and his two brothers started building their own two-masted schooners. Their shipbuilding business was on a smaller scale than the Roberts, but they did build a number of schooners that varied from 25-40 tons with the exception of one which was 91-92 tons. Most of the schooners were spoken for before they were built as was the case for most shipbuilders in the area. The last boat built by the Kendells was the A.L. Roy, which was named after three of John's grandchildren. The Kendells continued business until the mid to late 1940's.
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End of Shipbuilding |
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