Former Shepherd and Trojan Employee

[rickalan35]

There is a man here in Smiths Falls (TJ) who used to work for both Shepherd and Trojan (at Niagara-On-The-Lake.) I was chatting with him briefly this morning at the grocery store. I had meant to corner him long before this but like many things, simply hadn't gotten around to it. Having once owned a Shepherd myself and now a Trojan, I plan to take this guy to lunch.

Today he mentioned that in 1978 a local boat builder here in Smiths Falls (Mason Boats) won a navy contract to build 68 lifeboats (I remember when they won this contract because it made[quote][/quote] the front page of our weekly newspaper.) The lifeboats were twenty-four footers.

The federal government subsequently advertised for an "inspector" of these boats as they came off the line. TJ applied for the job and was offered the position, so resigned from his job at Trojan. At the time he'd been working at the Niagara-On-The-Lake plant for over 14 years.

TJ laughed today when telling me why he decided to take the gov't job. It was because it paid much better plus there was the assurance of government security ....... NOT. He has continued to live here in Smiths Falls ever since and operates a home renovation company. My guess is he's now in his early seventies.

He told me this morning that both firms (Trojan and Shepherd) were good to work for. When TJ was hired, Shepherd was building with wood. One interesting point that he happened to mention was that when Trojan bought Shepherd, they got everything in the factory including all the Shepherd hulls, which were subsequently finished up as Trojans. Probably already common knowledge on this forum.

He mentioned that for Trojan he worked on thirty-six footers and various fifty footers plus a sixty-two custom order. He was involved in the tranfer of a couple of the fifty footers south to Florida via water and said that Trojan insisted that a crew of nine men accompany the boat on the trip subsequently flying back north (all paid for by the customer.)

If anyone has further questions that this guy might be able to answer, just send them this way and I'll try to get his response.

[Stripermann2]

Interesting story. I would love to hear more on this from Bob, here at Beacon, about these special ordered and built boats.. And perhaps he can join in and share some other fascinating history...

[aaronbocknek]

if he was at trojan canada in 1972, then he was there when my parents tri cabin was 'born'. i bet i met him when the family took the tour in march 1972, watching the hull of BUBALA 3 was removed from the mold. what a sight that was to see.

[larryeddington]

You know now that Aaron brought it up, it would be a nice thing to have Bob or John comment every once in a while, especially on historical stuff but not necessarily often but every now and then.

[prowlersfish]

John ? as in John Leeds ? That will never happen . Great guy and will talk to you about Trojans and knows a lot about them .But you won't find him on the internet or even on email . But do a rendezvous and he can be talked in to coming . Rumor has it he may have a cell phone now (good luck getting the number lol )

[larryeddington]

I know they are not in love with the net but just saying. Not an issue just an interest.

[larryeddington]

I know they are not in love with the net but just saying. Not an issue just an interest.