Scottish Referendums and Nova Scotia Rums

While the mainstream media is busy covering yesterday's referendum on Scottish independence, here at Charlevoix we have Nova Scotia aged rum on the mind.  Rum, indeed, is returning to the Fortress of Louisbourg in a big way for the first time since the French Regime.  Earlier this week, Authentic Seacoast Distilling Company Ltd. of Guysborough, N.S., had over a hundred wooden barrels of dark rum -- some 22,000 litres of the stuff -- rolled into the Magasin du Roi, or King’s Storehouse, at Louisbourg.  Glynn Williams, owner of Authentic Seacoast, figures that the extreme climate at the fortress will give a distinct character to the rums, which he plans to age for upwards of five, 10 and 20 years.  Visitors, meanwhile, will have an opportunity to learn about the eighteenth-century rum production, trade, and consumption.  Splendid idea on all counts.  The Halifax Herald and Cape Breton Post have the details.

P.-F.-X.

Bravo, LAC!

I agonized over whether to blog about this or not over the last week.  Sotheby's was offering up in its December 5th sale two significant documents.  The first was a lovely manuscript map of Louisbourg by a certain sieur Lartigue, entitled "Carte topographique du Port et de la Ville de Louisbourg assiégé par les Anglais pendant les mois de Juin et Juillet 1758"; the second was an intriguing two-part journal of said siege and its aftermath, totaling some 180 pages, penned by an anonymous officer of the Régiment de Cambis.  As far as I know, this journal had not previously been available to researchers; I couldn't find it quoted anywhere.  The auctioneer's estimate for the map was of $15,000-$20,000 USD, and for the journal was of $8,000-$12,000 USD. 

It's one thing to blog about a forthcoming auction and call out the auctioneers for an outlandish overvaluation of a lot's historical and monetary value (readers may remember an earlier sortie).  But in a case such as this one, where the manuscripts for sale are of exceptional interest, to make a big deal out of it before the sale essentially means giving free publicity to the auctioneer and the consigner -- and potentially contributing to raising the sale price beyond the means of the most deserving institutions.  So, having agonized, I thought I'd best bite my tongue.

I'm now overjoyed to report that the journal was acquired by Library and Archives Canada.  Yes, the same LAC I was disparaging in a recent post for not making any acquisitions as of late.  A wind of change rises?  You can read the government's proud announcement here.  LAC paid $40,625 USD, or about four times the estimate.  This appears to be a deal, since from what I can tell the same two-part journal was sold by French auction house Piasa as recently as 2010 for 51,345 euros, or about $70,000.  Well done, LAC! 

PS: The map, meanwhile, sold for almost seven times its high estimate: $137,000 USD!

P.-F.-X.

 

Forts in the News

Over in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, an outdoor model of Fort Augusta was dedicated last weekend.  Turning to Wikipedia in order to look up some basic facts about the fort's history, I was amused to learn that "Fort Augusta was a fat turd in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, in the upper Susquehanna Valley from the time of the French and Indian War to the close of the cheese."  Thank you for the gift of laughter, Wikipedia! I wonder how long it will be before someone fixes the offending entry.

In more serious fort news, six wooden pieces of timber from Fort Edward were repatriated to the Rogers Island Visitors Center in the village of Fort Edward, New York.  Accidentally ripped out by Hudson River dredgers four years ago, they had until now been in storage at the Lake Champlain Maritime Museum in Vergennes, Vermont.

In sadder fort news, Fort Necessity was one of five national parks in western Pennsylvania shuttered by the partial federal government shutdown last month. About two thousand people would have visited the site of an early battle in the French and Indian War during the sixteen days of the shutdown. 

Meanwhile, over in Cape Breton, a former Parks Canada archaeologist expresses worries over the apparent lack of careful archaeological planning around the construction of a new walking trail near the Fortress of Louisbourg.  A backhoe preparing the ground for the trail smashed into some early eighteenth-century house foundations.  Ooops!

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Moore on Louisbourg?

Word on the streets is that Christopher Moore is currently attending the annual meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society in Louisbourg.  Perhaps if we ask nicely he'll report on it via his much beloved blog.  How's the weather? 

Moore cut his historical teeth on the famed fortress a couple of decades ago, as some of you will know.  His first book, Louisbourg Portraits: Five Dramatic, True Tales of People Who Lived in an Eighteenth-Century Garrison Town, won the Governor-General’s Literary Award for nonfiction for 1982 and has, I gather, never been out of print since then.  Glancing at my bookshelves the other day, I spotted no less than three copies of it, including one of the French translation.  I wonder how many Canadian history books can boast such a good print run.   Not many, I suspect.  His research and writing has led him down other paths and to other pastures -- no greener, I'm sure, but surely less foggy -- since then.  I wonder, however, if Moore has any more to say on Louisbourg?  This year marking the 300th anniversary of its foundation and all that, and the 35th anniversary (or 36th?) of his involvement with it.  What'd you say, Chris?  Care to share some memories?

P.-F.-X.

Un autre obus tombe sur Louisbourg

Les ondes de choc des réductions imposées à Parcs Canada par le gouvernement fédéral font de nouvelles victimes.  Ce lundi on annonçait la fin du Programme d'archéologie publique au Lieu historique national du Canada de la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg.



Photo: Tom Peace, Activehistory.ca

Louisbourg est un haut-lieu de l'archéologie canadienne, j'oserais peut-être même dire qu'il en est le haut-lieu.  L'archéologie joua un rôle fondamental dans la redécouverte et la reconstruction de la forteresse pendant les années 1960 et 1970.  En même temps, les fouilles menées sur les lieux à cette époque contribuèrent de manière clef au dévelopement la discipline au pays.  Une véritable école.

Depuis cette ère pionnière, les efforts des archéologues se sont beaucoup repliés sur la protection du site, dont le pourtour se voit menacé en permanence par l'érosion et la reprise de la végétation.  Le Programme d'archéologie publique, lancé en 2005 et géré en partenariat par Parcs Canada et l'Associtation (bénévole) de la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg, permettait de poursuivre l'entreprise de découverte à l'intérieur de l'enceinte et de donner à une foule d'amateurs l'occasion de goûter au métier d'archéologue.  Des gens dévoués, de tous âges et provenant de divers milieux sociaux et professionnels, descendaient chaque été des quatre coins de l'Amérique du nord pour prendre part aux recherches.   L'historien engagé Tom Peace avait, il y a deux ans, fait un éloquent rapport sur son expérience de chantier sur Activehistory.ca (en anglais).

Espérons que, dans un avenir plus clément, ce programme renaîtra de ses cendres.  Que la forteresse elle-même, détruite de manière systématique en 1760  mais reconstruite deux siècles plus tard, sache alimenter cette attente!

P.-F.-X.  

New Website for the FCHS/SHCF

The French Colonial Historical Society / Société d'histoire coloniale française has just launched its new website.  Those of you as of yet unacquainted with this association, which has as its aim the promotion of the "scholarly study of all French colonizing activity and in the history of all French colonies", might wish to look into it.  The FCHS publishes the refereed journal French Colonial History and holds wonderful annual meetings.  The next one will be at Louisbourg on 13-15 June 2013.  And word on the streets is that the foodies of the fortress have promised a lavish feast.  Be there or be square!

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Louisbourg Eats

The most delicious-looking cover
in the history of New France.  Fact.

Those Louisbourgeois never rest, do they?  Last month I was reporting on the publication of a novel by the retired A.J.B. Johnston.  Today, I’m excited to announce the publication of a lovely history book cum cookbook written jointly by the site’s current historian, Anne Marie Lane Jonah, and chef Chantal Véchambre.  French Taste in Atlantic Canada – 1604-1758: A Gastronomic History / Le goût Français au Canada Atlantique 1604-1758 : Une Histoire Gastronomique (Cape Breton University Press) expertly layers scholarship, recipes, and images that will make you salivate.  The fact that it does so bilingually, with English and French text side-by-side, makes it all the more impressive. 

I now feel as though it is my historical duty to make and eat a velouté de pissenlit (p. 51), a tourte d’herbe (p. 117), and a morue Sainte-Menehould (p. 149), to name but of few of the recipes that caught my eye.  Call it "peer review".

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Ô, Louisbourg!

Les visiteurs au Lieu historique national du Canada de la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg se seront faits moins nombreux cette année.  Selon les chiffres récemment dévoilés par Parcs Canada, le site accuse sur ce plan une diminution de 10% par rapport à l'année passée.  Serait-ce là l'effet de la mauvaise presse que reçoit depuis un certain temps l'entrepreneur montréalais Tony Accurso et sa compagnie homonyme... Louisbourg SBC?  Blagues à part, cette diminution ne refléterait-elle pas, en partie du moins, la réduction des services qui s'opère chez Parcs Canada depuis les compressions budgétaires de ce printemps?

P.-F.-X.