Nonsuch celebrates 40th anniversary

WINNIPEG — More than four million people have walked across her deck in the four decades the Nonsuch has been docked at the Manitoba Museum.

This month, her voyage through history is being celebrated with “Love Thy Nonsuch.”

“It’s the Nonsuch that played a basic part in the start of the Hudson Bay Company,” said Manitoba Museum animator Gary Peak. “The Hudson Bay Company, in turn, had a big impact on Canadian history.”

It’s been 40 years since the seaworthy replica of a 17th-century ketch arrived in a parking lot beside the museum in 1973. A building was constructed around the vessel, which sailed 14,000 kilometres before finding a home in Winnipeg.

Every day, a first-timer steps on board.

“It’s fabulous,” said tourist Helen Kearny. “I am glad I live now, not then, but to have a replica like this, I think it’s great.”

For the celebration, the public can navigate down the narrow stairways and catch a glimpse of the ship’s hold, an experience not available since 2007.

“It’s an empty room at the bottom of a ship, but it’s that mystery of how would it be to live down there for a month or two or three, crossing the ocean as they did back in the 1600s,” said Robert Malo, another museum animator.

For more information on touring the ship’s hold, visit the museum website here.