Captain Scott's Scrapbook

Book excerpt: Amongst the family albums her mother had kept, Margot Dixon found something very curious—Captain Samuel F. Scott’s old scrapbook. Who was this man? And why did her family have his scrapbook? As she read through the book, full of one-of-a-kind documents, she soon realized this intriguing scrapbook was much more than a family curiosity. From the items within the scrapbook and Margot’s own research, a fascinating story emerged, one of a life on the high seas in the late nineteenth century, sailing across some of the most dangerous waters, facing storms, shipwrecks, illness, war, mutiny, and tragedy. Born in New Brunswick, Captain Scott, along with his family, sailed across the world for various shipping companies. While sailing from England to India, his wife and two of his children tragically died. Returning to Canada, he remarried and, with his family in tow, sailed three times across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. But, after years at sea and another tragedy, Captain Scott turned to gold mining in British Columbia, then explored business opportunities along the west coast of Canada and the United States before his untimely death. Based on the documents in Captain Scott’s original scrapbook, collected during his lifetime, 1847–1905, and then transcribed by Margot, Captain Scott’s Scrapbook provides an intimate account of one of Canada’s most remarkable post-confederate shipmasters.