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The Creamery Square location in Tatamagouche added to its heritage-related facilities by establishing a Boatshop on site. It was decided that the opening project should be a Chaloupe, a type of workboat much used in colonial North America and favoured by the coastal Acadians, for both fishing and transportation. In the latter role the Tatamagouche chaloupes had been significant, being handy, burdensome craft for the supply of farm produce to the Fortress of Louisbourg during the Anglo-French tensions and conflicts of the period. A replica chaloupe build had been started at the Avon River Heritage Museum a few years before the Tricentenary, but had been discontinued; the backbone, molds and basic structural lumber were made available to the Tatamagouche volunteer boatbuilders and were purchased for the Boatshop by a concerned and generous local Acadian businessman. With initial funding from a consortium of government organizations and a crew of interested and involved. amateurs the job was started.
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The first year was spent mainly in arranging the boat’s structure: determining its shape by half-model, lofting, or drawing its lines full size, and then rebuilding the molds and setting them up on the backbone. With an experienced boat carpenter hired into the crew the work went faster, and the following year saw ribs steamed in and planking started. Later still the boat was shifted on to a farm trailer which had been adapted to serve as a mobile building platform, for convenience within the Creamery Square site. Subsequently the work was interrupted due to shortage of funds, but there is still optimism that the project may continue with enthusiastic support and participation. Our new website has been produced to enable a wider awareness of the Chaloupe and its raison d’etre.
While the Acadian Chaloupe project currently resides in Tatamagouche, whose Acadian history is not widely known, we hope that it can become a focus for Acadians everywhere who wish to see their original lifestyle celebrated. Chaloupes played an important role in resisting the British military strategy in New France, but had an even greater one in the everyday life of the people. Because of this, it is our hope that the Acadian community will embrace this Chaloupe and others that will follow, as part of a sustained effort to create a site on the North Shore where people can celebrate the vessel and its place in history. A boat shop, or chantier, can act as a base for reenactment voyages to Louisbourg, as well as a source of chaloupes for Acadian communities across the region.
While the Acadian Chaloupe project currently resides in Tatamagouche, whose Acadian history is not widely known, we hope that it can become a focus for Acadians everywhere who wish to see their original lifestyle celebrated. Chaloupes played an important role in resisting the British military strategy in New France, but had an even greater one in the everyday life of the people. Because of this, it is our hope that the Acadian community will embrace this Chaloupe and others that will follow, as part of a sustained effort to create a site on the North Shore where people can celebrate the vessel and its place in history. A boat shop, or chantier, can act as a base for reenactment voyages to Louisbourg, as well as a source of chaloupes for Acadian communities across the region.