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This chapter explores the business of shipbuilding and documents a social turning point in labour history when Salter grants his men a 10 hour working day in April 1853. This decision marks Salter as an outstanding exception to businessmen who cared very little about the welfare of their employees. The chapter also includes the announcement of the birth of Salter’s third child, Maggie, born in 1853 and Salter’s mayoral election in 1855.

This final chapter documents Salter’s last move, to North Sydney, in 1878. It describes the eventual stability and success found by Salter in his late 70s as a ship’s broker and reports his death in 1901.

This chapter sees Salter sell the Brigantine Emily and fall into partnership with his brother, George Salter, as they begin a business selling stocks of goods, ship stores, flour and fish. The chapter concludes with Salter’s marriage to his wife, Margaret Shaw.

This chapter describes important changes in Salter’s life; personal changes include the births of two of his children, Sidney and Bessie, and professional changes include the purchase of a shipyard in Moncton in 1846. Many extracts are devoted to recalling time spent in Liverpool. The chapter conveys the pressures and responsibilities involved in contracting large numbers of ships and vessels and portrays the necessary correspondence, recruitment and transactions of a shipyard manager.

This chapter provides an insight into the differences and similarities between the mining and mariner trades and follows Salter to the Rockland Gold Mining Company in Waverly 1864. The chapter also examines Salter’s attempt to purchase and sustain land in Porto Bello, Nova Scotia in 1862. It concludes with Salter’s departure from the Rockland Gold Mining Company.

This chapter details the beginning of the end for the Salter shipping business and explores the contributing factors involved in its downfall. Despite initially believing that the company’s assets were greater than its liabilities, after a combination of bad weather; ill health; lack of knowledge; debt; loss of profit and confidence, the chapter concludes with the failure of the business and sees Salter being freed of all liabilities.

This chapter explores Salter’s period of career uncertainty towards the end of his life and provides a reflection on the job security and discontent of both a miner and a mariner. Salter provides a summary of the speed of which a Company can rise and fall and documents his own experience of wage cuts and salary negotiations. Salter ends Chapter 14 with his unemployment, in 1870.

In this first chapter, Salter addresses his own children and introduces them to descriptions of his early life. He discusses familial relationships and recollects his hometown, childhood, youth, adolescence and first job as a clerk.

This chapter describes the journeys of three voyages in two Brigantines, Victory and George Henry, from New York to British Guiana and Jamaica, spanning July 1836 to May 1837. Salter’s brief diary extracts range from the factual to the emotive. Some extracts present descriptions of purchases, nautical terms, and the weather and wind speed, while others provide a colourful depiction of what it means to travel at sea, with detailed accounts of friendships, homesickness and stories of fracas with other ships.

This chapter accounts three journeys taken by Salter aboard the Brigantine Coquette, departing from Halifax to Sierra Leone, Demerary, Grenada, Bermuda, Barbados, St. Thomas, Berbice and Liverpool, spanning November 1838 to November 1839. Salter provides a summary of wind speeds and currents, while reporting successful sales in each port. Also discussed in this chapter is the issue of slavery and the abolition of slavery, as well as a seamen’s burial at sea.

This chapter depicts the journey taken by Salter aboard the Brigantine Emily and Brigantine Margaret from Halifax to Sierra Leone, spanning November1839 to May 1840. Within the diary extracts, Salter reports the purchase of a vessel necessary to convey troops to the West Indies and describes, in detail, the troop recruitment process.

This chapter details Salter’s second attempt to enter the business of shipbuilding, in order to rectify his mistakes and do good to those who were harmed by his previous failure. It also examines the process of acquiring and selling stocks and shares in the 19^th Century.

This chapter describes the journey of Salter’s fourth voyage aboard the Brigantine Emily from Halifax to Barbados, Columbia, Jamaica, and back to Halifax, spanning August 1837 to October 1838. Salter dedicates most of the chapter to highlighting the danger involved in his journey travelling across rough seas with huge gales and hurricanes and describes the damage to both the ship’s structure and travelling cargo.

This chapter details Salter’s journey from Halifax to Sierra Leone via the Brigantine Emily from June 1840 to July 1841. Described within it are cargo transactions, including palm oil; timber; ground nuts; and camwood, and the resulting loss or profit. Salter expresses the difficulties of travelling at sea and recounts issues resulting from bad weather and tornados, and conveys the unpleasantness of sea sickness, fever and illness. Dedicated extracts to Sierra Leone provide an insight into the country’s setting and also adds to the characterisation of its natives.

This chapter focuses on Salter’s employment as Paymaster and Clerk for the Victoria Coal Mines near Sydney in early 1870. An air of uncertainty is prevalent throughout the chapter, concerning the pressure of providing adequate lodging for his large family, and anxiety over insufficient quantities of coal supply. The chapter’s bittersweet ending informs us of the death of brother Robert and daughter Bessie, and Salter’s promotion to take control of the Mine in December 1873.

This chapter provides an insight into the bleak difficulties of working within the coal trade in the 1870s, and discusses the issues that arise when faced with the underselling and overproducing of coal. Again, Salter’s life is uncertain and unstable, with no secure profession or home to his name. The chapter concludes with control over the mine being transferred and let to a Mr Thomas Routledge in March 1878.