S. P. SHOTTER CO.
FEB
8
1902
Sav'h. Ga.
I didn't know the naval stores industry existed until I started to unpack a pile of bills of exchange and came upon one for Antwerp Naval Stores, which featured here on December 13. Now a quick scan of some of my unidentified material has turned up another naval stores firm, this time one belonging to Spencer P. Shotter, a Canadian who built one of the world's largest firms processing pine tree products into naval stores. Mr. Shotter built a grand mansion in Georgia that rivaled Biltmore, though it burned in 1923, 8 years after Shotter sold it.
The naval stores industry was rife with problems that we would not countenance today, including labor abuse, deforestation, and pollution. Naval stores are no longer contributing to these problems with the end of the age of wooden ships.
Growing up in south Louisiana and southern Mississippi, I was often surrounded by piney woods and their smells. It was those woods that made men like Shotter wealthy, catering to a shipping industry dependent on wooden vessels.
S. P. Shotter calling card for the firm's Boston office:
Advertisement in Savannah Weekly Naval Stores Review, August 15, 1905:
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