''Nonsuch'' was the

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

that sailed into

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

in 1668-1669 under Zachariah Gillam, in the first trading voyage for what was to become the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trade, fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake b ...

two years later. Originally built as a

merchant ship A merchant ship, merchant vessel, trading vessel, or merchantman is a watercraft that transports cargo or carries passengers for hire. This is in contrast to pleasure craft, which are used for personal recreation, and naval ships, which are u ...

in 1650, and later the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...

HMS ''Nonsuch'', the vessel was sold to Sir William Warren in 1667. The name means "none such", i.e. "unequalled". The ship was at the time considered smaller than many others but was specifically selected because of her small size so that when she arrived in Hudson Bay and James Bay she could be sailed up-river and taken out of water so the thick ice of the bay wouldn't crush her.

Replica

A replica of the original ''Nonsuch'' was commissioned by the HBC to celebrate their tercentenary in 1970. She was crafted using tools and materials familiar to the seventeenth century. She was built by J. Hinks and Son shipyard, in Appledore, Devon, England and was crafted to be as close as possible to the original and featured many of the features ships of the time would have had such as "hiding cabins" (small bunks hidden within a cupboard). The vessel has peg board used for tracking position and speed, a charlie noble (a chimney with a mobile head). Like the original she was armed; the replica carries six 2-pounder muzzle-loading smoothbore guns. As with most ships of the era she was very ornate carrying many carvings that took months to complete. When completed, ''Nonsuch'' replica was placed on the MV ''Halifax City'', owned by Charles Hills of Bristol, and carried to Canada. There ''Nonsuch'' sailed down the Atlantic coast of Canada and the United States. She also sailed through the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

and then was placed on a semi-trailer and taken to

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of ...

for a voyage down the Pacific coast. She was presented by the HBC to the citizens of

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

and placed on permanent display in 1973 in the Nonsuch Gallery at the

Manitoba Museum The Manitoba Museum, previously the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature, is a human and natural history museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, as well as the province's largest, not-for-profit centre for heritage and science education. Located close to City ...

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749,60 ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

(then called the Manitoba Museum of Man and Nature). Built specifically for the ship, it is a 90-foot gallery giving the feel of a seventeenth-century scene to visitors and shows the ship at the English port of

Deptford Deptford is an area on the south bank of the River Thames in southeast London, within the London Borough of Lewisham. It is named after a ford of the River Ravensbourne. From the mid 16th century to the late 19th it was home to Deptford D ...

, just before embarking on her journey to Hudson Bay. *

Length overall __NOTOC__ Length overall (LOA, o/a, o.a. or oa) is the maximum length of a vessel's hull measured parallel to the waterline. This length is important while docking the ship. It is the most commonly used way of expressing the size of a ship, an ...

: * Draught:

References

Water transport in Manitoba Replica ships Individual sailing vessels Ships of England 1660s in Canada Hudson's Bay Company ships 1650s ships {{Merchantship-stub