James Moran was a shipbuilder from St. Martins, New Brunswick who pioneered shipbuilding in the Bay of Fundy. Moran was one of the two leading families in the shipbuilding era of St. Martins from 1803 to 1919. During this period a number of different families built ships of all sizes along the beaches of St. Martins, which roughly producing 517 ships. He was the son of Matthias (Matthew) Moran. James married Mary Hamilton who gave him two sons, Robert and James H. Robert went on to be a master mariner, while James H. Became a junior shipbuilder who later worked alongside his father and took over the business. In 1805 James, at the age of 24, built and launched his first small ship, a 59-ton schooner named Thistle. The ship that Moran is best known for is Waterloo, a 392-ton ship built in 1815. It was the first three-masted square-rigged ship built in the Bay of Fundy.
In order for a shipbuilding family to function the support of a wife was needed. James built ships and operated a shipyard for over four decades. During his life span he produced at least 20 ships, with the firsts being on the smaller end of tonnage. Between 1840 and the late 1850s James was one of the leading shipbuilders in the Fundy area. In 1856 his son James H. took over the shipyard which later expanded to Saint John, New Brunswick. The Morans had one of Atlantic Canada's largest fleets during the 1870s. By 1874 roughly 88 ships had been built, mostly over 1000 tons.