Former Shepherd and Trojan Employee
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:05 pm
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.
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.
