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  • Thanks to state-sponsored dredging operations, Montreal had become a true seaport by the second half of the 19e century. Transatlantic ships regularly visited the harbour during the seven-month shipping season. Hence, from May to November, a large number of seamen set foot in the city. The purpose of this paper will be to study these merchant seamen ashore. The sailors, forming a group distinct from the colonial population, though physically close to the heart of the old city, were marginalised, drawing attention to themselves mostly when they transgressed some social norm. Their doings on land will be described using mainly three different spaces belonging to the harbour front as starting points for our investigation. We will look at the harbour basins, witness to both drownings and salvage operations; the docks, where the stealing of cargo was more or less standard fare; and the nearby watering hole, where sailors quenched their thirst and looked for companionship. Their inclination to fight and to drink significant quantities of alcohol, their proximity to the indigenous laboring poor marked them as suspect. To keep an eye on them and impose order on the docks, a special force, The Montreal Water Police, was set up during the boating season. Sailors were considered potential treats to maritime trade, since conflicts between the lower and upper-decks sometimes ended in desertion, thus disrupting the flow of commerce. For much of the period, the federal authorities tried to repress crimping, since crimps, acting as illegal recruiters basically controlled the sailor’s labour market. Amidst the violence and instability which characterised the labour market, sailors were both victims and benefactors of the standoff between crimps and government officials. To conclude, we will argue the presence of sailors in the second half of the 19th century had an influence on the development of the Montreal harbour front; making this neighbourhood something akin to a “sailortown”, a place both physical and spiritual where the maritime culture found its expression ashore.

Dernière mise à jour depuis la base de données : 20/07/2025 13:00 (EDT)

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