'Every picture has a story': Blogs explore Island's shipping and sailing past

Harry Holman sits in the provincial archives and takes a close look at a photograph. Often, this is how he finds his stories.

The retired historian and sailing enthusiast brings his interests together on an online blog called Sailstrait.

"Me sailing wasn't interesting, but people had a real interest in the harbour, so it's become much more," he said. "It's a great opportunity to communicate."

'An extremely busy place'

Holman said the harbour captured his imagination.

"It was an extremely busy place, the harbour was the centre of town," he said.

"We were dependant totally on it. Yes, we get excited when a cruise ship comes to town. In the good old days that was an every day occurrence. Boats loaded up at the wharves like tractor trailers do today."

'It's fascinating and it's forgotten'

To Holman's surprise, his readers aren't just interested in the things that did happen at the harbour, they're also interested in the things that didn't happen.

"At one time there was a plan to put a large dry dock in. Another time there was an active campaign for
the Brighton Bridge, those things never happened," he explained.

Another area Holman explores is steamer travel, which was very active.

"Steamers left Charlottetown Harbour daily for places like China Point, Haliday's Wharf and Pinette. It's fascinating and it's forgotten."

'Every picture has a story'

Holman gets most of his photographs through the P.E.I. Public Archives, but since starting the blog people have given him old photographs which then get passed onto the archives.

"Every picture has a story," he said.

Holman said he's had about 100,000 visits to the blog.

On his busiest day, the day he posted about a body that's alleged to be in the Hillsborough Bridge, Holman said he had 6,000 visits.

From photos to postcards

One thing begets another, so Holman recently started another blog called Straitpost.

"I have an interest in architecture and one of the best sources of information is postcards," he said. "I started researching postcards, and started sharing that information."

Holman said before the First World War there were almost 500 postcard views of P.E.I., and 20 post card publishers.

"Some postcards are not identified, so it's a mystery to solve, but they are beautiful statements of a perception of what Prince Edward Island meant to them at the time."

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