Enos Collins

Enos Collins

Enos Collins, merchant, privateer, banker (b at Liverpool, NS 5 Sept 1774; d at Halifax 18 Nov 1871). Enos went to sea as a cabin boy on one of his father's fishing vessels, becoming master of a trading ship before he was 19. He sailed on privateers to the West Indies and in 1811 he bought the Liverpool Packet, one of the most famous privateers, which may have captured prizes worth a million dollars in the WAR OF 1812 (seePRIVATEERING). He sent ships loaded with provisions to Spain for Wellington's army during the Peninsular War and sold their cargoes at a handsome profit. In Halifax Collins bought ships and cargoes at auction; he stored the cargoes in a stone warehouse on the waterfront, one end of which became the Halifax Banking Company, a private bank nicknamed Collins's Bank, which still stands as part of Historic Properties. A shrewd businessman, he was reputedly "the wealthiest man in the Lower Provinces."