The Markland Shipping Company Monument was dedicated on September 7, 2002. The Markland Shipping Company was a steamship company located in Liverpool from 1929 until 1959. Markland Shipping was a subsidiary of the Mersey Paper Company which employed seamen from Queens, Lunenburg and Shelburne counties. During the Second World War, five ships of the Markland Shipping Company and crew were used by the Canadian government to carry cargo. The location of the monument looks out to the wharf where the vessels once docked.
After the death of Izaak Walton Killam, a major shareholder of Mersey Paper, in August 1955, the company and its subsidiary, the Markland Shipping Company, were sold to the Bowater Paper Company. Bowater already had its own steamship company and transferred Captain Charles Copelin to Bowater's England affiliate in 1957. He was named the managing director of the Bowater Steamship Company.
David Chandler and Greg Copelin, son of Captain Copelin, who were involved in a Markland Shipping Company reunion which took place in 2000, spearheaded a campaign to raise money to purchase a monument and dedicate it to the men who sailed on the vessels. They raised about $10,000 from former seamen and their friends and relatives who sailed on the vessels. At that time, the monument was dedicated to the sailors.
The event began with music from the Mersey Band followed by the unveiling of the memorial, placement of wreaths, inscriptions reading, tolling of the Awenisbe bell and flowers were thrown in the harbour in memory of the men that were killed in the Second World War. Speakers included Mayor John Leefe, whose father sailed with the company, and Tom Raddall II, who sailed for five summers while he was attending university. Mr. Raddall recapped the company's history.
