Among the many vessels in Eastport by the 1820s, according to historian Jonathan D. Weston, John Shackford senior was one of possibly two residents owning ships of “suitable size and equipment to perform voyages at a distance.”
Captain John’s schooner was the Delesdernier, named after an Eastport family owning the tract just south of his own.
Lewis Frederick Delesdernier was the town’s first customs officer, in fact, and Weston’s grandfather. Note the “D” for the middle name.
Was the naming of the ship an inside joke? I’ll take it that way. He may have also been an investor in shares, another common practice.
The remaining ships of note in Eastport, incidentally, were “owned by inhabitants of other parts of the country.”
All of it, of course, has relevance on the house we bought.
Jnana's Red Barn 