Not Your Grandfathers Mining Industry, Nova Scotia, Canada

Hussey’s Prospectus

William Hussey’s former coal mine is now the world-famous Cabot Links golf course, an example of how reclaimed mines and quarries can serve communities after mining is done. But in 1894, the Canadian Mining Review took serious issue with Hussey’s exaggerations about the mine.

Willian Penn Hussey was a colourful, larger-than-life character. He was described as a man of “excessive weight,” who rode around on a white horse wearing a six-gallon hat and wore pistols at his sides.

He bought the Broad Cove coal mine in Inverness, Cape Breton, in 1888 and established the Broad Cove Coal Company in 1894. It is said that he had Inverness’ cliffs painted black to impress a potential Swiss investor – from a boat, it looked like the cliff was solid coal!

In 1894, Hussey was trying to raise $600,000 for the Broad Cove Coal Company and he issued a prospectus – a document detailing the investment opportunity – that the Canadian Mining Review criticized bluntly and sarcastically.

The Review’s March 1894 article about the prospectus started by sarcastically thanking Hussey for making himself the centre of attention: “The pamphlet opens with a portrait of the great Mr. Hussey himself, the promoter in chief of the enterprise. Mr. Hussey, who is described as a coal merchant of Davensport, Mass., might be unknown to 999 out of every 1,000 investors, and it was, therefore, very thoughtful of him to adopt this way of making his features familiar to those to whom he offers such an unrivalled chance of getting rapidly rich.” (The portrait of Hussey is below.)

It went on to criticize a map in the prospectus that was drawn inaccurately to mislead potential investors: “Incidentally we may point out that the company’s property (which consists, we understand, of 2 square miles) is painted in black on a pink ground and is made to dwarf into insignificance by comparison the whole adjacent island of Prince Edward!”

The map, below, also tried to create false impressions the mine’s logistics: “A study of this map, by people unacquainted with this part of the world, is calculated to leave the no doubt desired impression that, as a shipping point Broad Cove is easily first, with Sydney and other shipping ports in Cape Breton, simply nowhere. For instance, the distance from Broad Cove to Montreal is shewn by this map to be less than the distance from Sydney to Broad Cove! Ergo, what an overpowering advantage will Mr. Hussey's Company possess over other mines in supplying the principal market in Canada.”

The Review was understated with its reaction to Hussey’s claims about the mine’s coal reserves: “The quantity of coal possessed by the company is briefly given as over one hundred million tons. This is rather a large quantity for two square miles…”

The Review mocked the prospectus’ calculations of the mine’s expenses and potential profits: “We finally come to what is perhaps the ‘bonne bouche’ of this delectable prospectus, viz., the ‘estimated profits.’”

For example, it said this about Hussey’s calculation of the mine’s shipping costs: “the method by which this average is arrived at is one of the most ingenious and at the same time most charmingly simple processes we have met with in our experience to date.”

The prospectus claimed that the mine could produce 300,000 tons of coal in its first year at an unrealistically low cost: “Ye Gods! Was the like ever seen or heard? And this, Mr. Hussey is careful to point out, is regarded as ‘a conservative estimate’ and he adds ‘this output can be easily doubled the second year’!”

So, why was the Canadian Mining Review, a publication that supported mining, so critical of Hussey’s prospectus? The article concluded with this explanation:

“From the tenor of our foregoing remarks in notice of the Broad Cove Coal Company, our readers may have concluded that we don't ‘take much stock’ in it. Well, honestly, whatever opinion we may have of their property (and we want it to be distinctly understood that we do not seek to impugn for a moment the value of their coal area, either as regards the quantity or quality of coal therein) we have a very poor opinion of their prospectus. From a great deal of silly bombast and fudge, some reliable truths can doubtless be picked, but the whole thing is an aggravation in style, so to speak, of Mr. Hussey's favorite habit of flourishing $500 and $1000 bills in the faces of the farmers of Inverness County -presumably as evidence of his limitless wealth. Both are very bad form. While we desire to encourage to the utmost legitimate enterprise in mining by whomsoever it may be started, we feel it our duty to raise our voice in protest against the use of any illegitimate means that may be taken to induce investors to embark their money in mining ventures, and we certainly think we are justified in using the term illegitimate in respect to this prospectus, which plays battledore and shuttlecock with millions, and which teems with reckless and misleading statements. When the Broad Cove Coal Company withdraws or modifies its Hussey pamphlet, we shall be glad to say and do all we can in favor of an enterprise which, with proper handling, deserves and no doubt will command success.”

(Battledore and shuttlecock was a children’s game similar to badminton.)

Despite Hussey’s bravado, or perhaps because of it, Inverness boomed during the years he owned the mine, as he invested in it, miners’ houses and building proper wharf facilities to ship coal. He sold the mine in 1899.

Today, Cabot Links, one of the best golf courses in the world, is on the site of the former mine. The course has served as an economic engine for the town and the region, much like the coal mine did a century earlier – creating jobs, opportunity and investment that have reinvigorated the area. It illustrates how former mines and quarries can continue to serve communities after mining is done.

See the story of the Inverness coal mine at https://notyourgrandfathersmining.ca/inverness-cabot-links