A Ship Beyond Compare

The Nonsuch replica at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg has long been a favourite for people of all ages. The original ketch sailed into Hudson Bay in 1668, kick-starting an enterprise that two years later would be known as the Hudson’s Bay Company.

A replica of the ship was commissioned as part of the HBC’s 1970 tercentennial. The Nonsuch was constructed in England by artisans using seventeenth-century methods and hand tools.

After its completion, the ship was transported from England and sailed down the Atlantic and Pacific coasts before being trucked to Winnipeg, where it was placed on permanent display in the museum in 1973.

The museum gallery where the Nonsuch resides was constructed around the reassembled ship. The name means “unequalled, as in “none such.”

To learn more about the Nonsuch, watch our video interview with Dr. Jamie Morton.