"With the Queen Mary 2 providing a magnificent backdrop, a large crowd gathered on the Halifax waterfront on October 7, 2006 to witness the unveiling of a 10' bronze statue of Halifax native and company founder, Sir Samuel Cunard. Just two years from its inception, the Samuel Cunard Memorial Committee (of the Halifax Foundation), with Commodore Ronald W. Warwick as its Honorary Chairman, brought to fruition the long held dream for the construction of a suitable memorial to Samuel Cunard. This Halifax native, the ‘Steam Lion’, revolutionized transportation and communication between the Old and New Worlds with the introduction of his steamships to the North Atlantic beginning with the Cunard Line flag ship Britannia, in 1840.
The statue was designed by Halifax sculptor Peter Bustin and cast by Artcast Foundry in Georgetown, Ontario. Nova Scotia Lieutenant-Governor Mayann Francis, aided by Samuel and Benjamin Paton, Cunard descendants, formally unveiled the statue with hundreds of spectators, including a large contingent of officers from the QM2 looking on." (
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The inscription reads:
"This monument was dedicated on the 7th day of October 2006 by Her Honour The Honourable Mayann E. Francis, O.N.S., Lieutenant-Governor of Nova Scotia"
From Wikipedia: "Sir Samuel Cunard, 1st Baronet (21 November 1787 – 28 April 1865), was a British-Canadian shipping magnate, born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, who founded the Cunard Line. He was the son of a master carpenter and timber merchant who had fled the American Revolution and settled in Halifax.
During the War of 1812, Cunard volunteered for service in the 2nd Battalion of the Halifax Regiment militia and rose to the rank of captain. He held many public offices, such as volunteer fireman and lighthouse commissioner, and maintained a reputation as not only a shrewd businessman, but also an honest and generous citizen.
Cunard was a highly successful entrepreneur in Halifax shipping and one of a group of twelve individuals who dominated the affairs of Nova Scotia. He secured mail packet contracts and provided a fisheries patrol vessel for the province. Cunard diversified his family's timber and shipping business with investments in whaling, tea imports and coal mining, as well as the Halifax Banking Company and the Shubenacadie Canal. The whaling ships, sent far into the Southern Atlantic, seldom if ever turned a profit. He purchased large amounts of land in Prince Edward Island, at one point owning a seventh of the province, which involved him in the protracted disputes between tenants on the island and the absentee landlords who owned most of it."
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From Wikipedia: "Mayann Elizabeth Francis, ONS (born February 18, 1946) was the 31st Lieutenant Governor of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Francis is the first Black Nova Scotian and the second woman to serve as Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia.
In May 2008, Lieutenant Governor Francis was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters from Mount Saint Vincent University." (
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