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 John Langley turned the front room of his Duffus House Inn in Baddeck, N.S., into a museum honouring Samuel Cunard. -- Photos by Diane Slawych. |
Sir Samuel Cunard is getting some long overdue public recognition. By this time next year, a commemorative monument honouring the founder of the Cunard Line will be erected on the Halifax Harbourfront. The announcement was made during a ceremony in Halifax last week aboard the Cunard Line's flagship, Queen Mary 2.
Cunard's achievements were many. A visionary who foresaw the day when steam power would replace sailing on the North Atlantic, Cunard's ships were long associated with many maritime firsts including the first to use navigation lights and the first ship to be lit by electricity.
Samuel Cunard was also a Canadian.
BURIED IN BRITAIN
"A lot of people think he was from Britain because he died there and was buried there but in actual fact he's Nova Scotian." says John Langley, chairman of the Cunard Steamship Society. "This is where Cunard was born, this is where he spent the first 50 years of his life."
Cunard was a prominent businessman involved in the development of the coal and timber industries, and ship building in the Maritimes. He was one of the largest land owners in the region and as an agent of the East India Company, brought the first large shipments of tea into Nova Scotia in the 1800s.
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I learned all this at the Duffus House Inn, in the village of Baddeck in Cape Breton. John Langley purchased the historic house and named it after one of Baddeck's founders. But it wasn't until later that he learned that James Duffus and Samuel Cunard were brothers-in-law. The connection prompted the opening of the tiny Cunard Museum which occupies the front room at the Inn.
"I'm trying to repatriate a number of pieces from around the world back to Nova Scotia," says Langley, a retired lawyer, who has one of the largest collections of Cunard artifacts and memorabilia.
The very first item he ever acquired was a model of the Britannia, the first steamer built by Cunard in 1840. It was given to him by a family friend when he as a child.
"I've kept it ever since," Langley says.
Most of the items in the museum come to him from referrals, or through friends. He admits he could also find items on eBay but that would be too easy and expensive. Langley prefers the old fashioned method of collecting and has a knack for uncovering Cunard memorabilia.
At an antique store in Florida, for example, he once discovered a commemorative brass plate of the Cunard Princess that had been hidden for years under an ashtray in a display case.
A few days earlier, at an antiquarian book store near Sarasota he found a package that contained a plaque with an image of the Cunard liner QEII. He calmly asked if the item was for sale. "Give me a couple of bucks and it's yours," the vendor told him.
That's not the only coincidence Langley has encountered. He once received an e-mail from a woman in the U.S. who wondered if a postage stamp of Cunard had ever been issued.
"It just so happened that I was in the process of making a pitch to Canada Post at that time to have a stamp produced for Cunard." The stamps were eventually issued on May 28, 2004, and are among the items on display in the museum.
"Every piece here has a story," explains Langley, who hopes to eventually establish a permanent exhibit of his Cunard collection in Halifax.
As long as he has the Inn, however, he says he'll maintain the museum in Baddeck. And you don't have to be a guest at the Inn to visit.
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CARPATHIA
Everyone has heard of the Titanic. But what about the Carpathia? The Cunard Line ship was responsible for rescuing over 700 people found drifting in lifeboats. "I think it's one of the most understated stories of the Titanic tragedy," says Langley.
"What if the Carpathia had not come to the rescue of those people who were all saved because of her? You learn of the great rush in the darkness of night by the Carpathia through the ice fields which claimed the lives of all the other people lost in the Titanic."
The museum displays newspaper clippings which recount the daring rescue as well as a painting of the Cunard ship on its lifesaving mission.