The Era of the Clipper Ships

By Donald Gunn Ross III

Fog surrounded the little lumber schooner much of the time during the stormy passage across the Bay of Fundy and down the New England coast in the spring of 1826. The rains, when they came, fell heavily upon the lumber-laden decks as the schooner made its way through the rolling seas, battling against the weather and the tides. Below deck in his stuffy cabin a young Donald McKay bided his time in his spare moments lost to his own thoughts, no doubt about his home and family, as well as becoming a master builder of ships. He felt the movement of a large vessel tossing on a stormy ocean and heard the creaking of the timbers as they strained against the elements . He was eager to lend a hand to the seamen scurrying about at their various tasks , working off part of his passage fare from Halifax to save his family expenses, as an able-bodied seaman.

All the activity aboard the schooner fascinated him, and fanned his young imagination to lofty thoughts of ships and the sea. Donald McKay was bound for the East River shipyards of New York City, where his grandfather, Sergeant Donald McKay, a grenadier in the 76th Regiment of Macdonald Highlanders, had sailed from in the Loyalist exodus to Shelburne, Nova Scotia, forty-three years before in 1783 following the conclusion of the Revolutionary War.

The schooner arrived off Sandy Hook to await the morning tide, along with other vessels of all descriptions, to enter New York Port.

Once past Sandy Hook, the schooner rode the tide up the East River to the South Street waterfront and secured a narrow berth at one of the piers to unload her cargo. For the first time, sixteen-year-old Donald McKay gazed upon the "Street of Ships," a forest of lofty masts and spars that went on as far as the eye could see. He walked down the gangplank wearing his homespun suit carrying all his belongings in a duffel bag.

South Street in 1826 had just become the most important commercial maritime center in the United States with the recent opening of the Erie Canal. Late in October 1825, a flotilla of boats gathered in Lake Erie off Buffalo. At 10 a.m. on the morning of October 26, 1825, Governor DeWitt Clinton and other distinguished guests came aboard the Seneca Chief. They soon led the flotilla into the canal and began the 500-mile passage to New York City to the sound of cannon fire that relayed down the canal and Hudson River and reached New York City 90 minutes later.

Erie Canal Celebration

The flotilla made obligatory stops along the way at the communities it passed through on the journey to Albany, where an official ceremony took place at the State Capitol. This was followed by an afternoon and evening of festivities at a canal basin bridge, decorated and set up for the occasion, where 600 dinner guests celebrated the opening of the canal and the prosperity that was sure to come.

Steamboats towed the canal boats down the Hudson River. On November 4th they arrived in New York Harbor to great fanfare and festivities.

Off Sandy Hook at a naval ceremony, Governor Clinton poured Lake Erie water from a keg into the Atlantic Ocean as a symbolic gesture of the "marriage of the waters."

A grand fireworks display lit up the evening sky that night and the festivities went on for days.

The building of the Erie Canal opened the door of commercial revolution and ushered in a golden age of prosperity for the merchants of New York City, and established the main route of commerce to the American west. Raw materials, manufactured goods, and grains from the Northwest Territories (today the Mid-West) that had once been transported down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, now came through the Erie Canal by barge and down the Hudson River by cargo sloops, barges, and steamboats to New York City destined for the South Street piers.

Erie Canal Lock

Warehouses and counting houses ran all along South Street where the upper story windows faced the bowsprits of the great ships at their berths alongside long piers that extended out into the river. Where cargoes arrived on vessels from all over the world. Then their holds were filled with American goods bound for other ports of call.

Gangs of stevedores using block and tackle slowly hoisted cargoes from the "tween decks." Aromatic chests of tea from China that had come by ship all the way across the Pacific and Indian oceans and around the Cape of Good Hope were carted away by horse-drawn drays to slips and warehouses. Indiamen back from the East Indies were always a remarkable sight. Stevedores unloaded cinnamon, cloves, cassia, and pepper as the sweet fragrance of spices wafted along the wharf. Casks of wine came ashore, along with olive oil, dried figs, and dates from Mediterranean frigates. Sacks of coffee beans came off fast sailing barques arriving from Brazil. Other ships unloaded ivory and wool from Africa. Packet ships that had sailed across the North Atlantic to Liverpool and back in less than six weeks delivered the mail and government dispatches, as their emigrant passengers disembark in a new land.

South Street was the business heart of New York City, as well as the center of all its vices. It was a noisy and smelly place. The lofty spars overshadowed the bustling street scene taking place on the cluttered cobblestones below. Barrels, boxes, and bales were stacked in every available space along the slips, wharves, and piers.

With every turning of the tide, ships and vessels of every description would depart in the company of a tugboat and pilot and ride the tide down the East River. That was actually a narrow tidal strait that connected Long Island Sound with New York Bay. The pilot would accompany the vessel out past the bar at Sandy Hook, where the captain, upon discharging the pilot, would then hoist sail for distant ports.

Despite the fast-flowing currents that ran through the strait, shippers preferred the East River over the Hudson River, known in the city as the North River, as their major site of commerce.

The cobblestone streets bustled with yelling men and horse drawn drays laden with barrels, casks, and bales en route to new destinations, all under the watchful eyes of merchants, agents, and ship owners clutching their manifests and other important documents as they rushed back and forth between the warehouses and the counting houses and back to the piers again. The distinct manner of dress, top hats, and frock coats of the merchants, agents, and ship owners made their importance known to the crowds in the streets. They were at the top of the social hierarchy and projected their presence to the maritime world that they had built around them.

The merchant ship owners were a tight-knit group of transplanted New England Yankees that had migrated to New York after the American Revolution. They had shrewdly deduced that New York City, by simple geography, was strategically destined to become the commercial capital of the United States. Soon they dominated the shipping business and branched out into other areas of commerce. They took great pride in their New England roots and formed their own New England Society in the City of New York to promote Yankee solidarity. They believed that Yankee industry and enterprise were the real wealth of nations. It was this group of merchant ship owners that would make the most significant contributions to the evolution of steam and sailing ships.

The race to get goods to market was of the utmost importance. Whoever got there first got the best price. Ship owners who had the fastest ships and employed the most competent captains would become wealthy men.

Sailors from all the foreign ports of the world mingled with American seamen from every port of the coastal United States. All sorts of peddlers and hucksters hawked their wares in the streets. Fishmongers sold the catch of the day at the Fulton Fish Market. Raucous sea gulls competed for every scrap and handout.

Auctioneers sold off goods from makeshift platforms. Newsboys worked the crowds selling newspapers for pennies. Evangelists berated the crowds for their sinfulness. Lodging-house keepers tried to lure sailors to their establishments with gifts of rum and cigars. Taverns offered all kinds of spirituous refreshments. Women and girls lingered in the street corners and alleys eager to entice lonely sailors just back from many weeks at sea, far from their homes, and in dire need of companionship.

The first things that a sailor did upon arriving in port was to get a good meal, get drunk, buy some new clothes, and seek out a woman to take the edge off all those long, lonely nights at sea, and not necessarily in that order. In their haste to make up for deprivations on the high seas, sailors often woke up in their lodging-house after a night of merriment with a hangover, a sore head, and an empty pocket, with little choice except to ship out to sea again. The behavior of sailors in port was as predictable as the tides and just as impossible to change.

Underneath the forest of masts Donald McKay walked along the cobblestones of South Street heading north along the East River for the shipyard of Webb & Allen between 5th and 7th Street.

A Short History of the New York Shipyards

Henry Eckford

The East River waterfront from Corlaers to about East 13th street was the busiest shipyard center in the western world.

Isaac Webb was the most eminent ship builder of his time. A man of sterling qualities, his name was honored in every maritime center of the United States, as not only a builder of fine ships, but also as "the father of shipbuilders." At the Webb & Allen shipyard, Isaac Webb trained young men to artfully design and construct ships using the latest scientific methods. Isaac Webb trained his apprentices in much the same fashion that he had learned the "mystery" of the shipbuilding trade from Henry Eckford, as had the shipbuilders of the other leading shipyards along the East River, who would extend Eckford's legacy in the era of the clipper ships to come.

Henry Eckford was a Scottish emigrant. He was born in 1775 in Kilwinning, Scotland and left when he turned sixteen for Canada, where he served a shipbuilding apprenticeship under his uncle, a shipwright of Quebec. Five years later his apprenticeship was over and he left Quebec for New York, arriving there in 1796. Henry Eckford soon began establishing a fine reputation for himself working at various shipyards along the East River for the first few years after his arrival. He married in 1799, and in 1801 opened his own small yard near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. The navy yard gave Eckford orders for a number of ships. One of those ships was the 400-ton packet Beaver, that he built for John Jacob Astor who was about to enter the China trade.

Eckford then moved on to the shipyard of Christian Bergh, where he accepted a position as foreman and developed a close relationship with Bergh that lasted for many years.

It was 1804 and over this period Isaac Webb's father, Wilse Webb, the eldest son of Epenetus Webb, Jr., a prosperous mill owner from Stamford, Connecticut, went to work at Bergh's shipyard as a carpenter. A year later Wilse Webb followed Eckford when Eckford again decided to open up his own shipyard at the end of Jefferson Street. This time Eckford was in partnership with Edward Beebe who supplied the capital for the venture.

Eckford was establishing quite a reputation for himself as a shipbuilder. But by 1807 the conflict between France and England was having a devastating effect upon American shipbuilders, as President Thomas Jefferson, wary of the United States being sucked into war, had declared an embargo act banning all trade with France and England, and soon shipbuilders along the East River were all put out of business.

As the political situation got worse, Christian Bergh was asked by the government to build an 85-foot naval brig Onieda on the shore of Lake Ontario. With his yard idle, Bergh accepted the challenge and talked Henry Eckford into joining him, along with a number of other shipwrights and carpenters, and departed for the long 36-hour journey up the Hudson River, and then through the wilderness to Lake Ontario. Wilse Webb did not accompany them on this venture and remained at New York. The Onieda was built and launched, and with their patriotic mission completed, the shipwrights returned to New York.

Jefferson left office in March 1809, and one of his last official acts was to repeal the unpopular trade embargo. Bergh, Eckford, and the others were already back in New York eager to take up their trade again. Eckford had by then earned enough money to buy out his partner, Beebe, and establish a new yard on his own. By chance another shipbuilder, Charles Brownne, was retiring, and sold his shipyard land to Eckford, that was located between North Street and Stanton Street next to the two other shipyards of Christian Bergh and the yard owned by Adam and Noah Brown.

Eckford lost little time in setting up his yard. Soon, many of his old crew from the former Jefferson Street yard had come to join him at his new location. Among them Wilse Webb, whose name from that point on was listed on the roster as "shipbuilder," and not as "laborer," as it was listed in the Jefferson Street yard before the embargo.

Around that same time Wilse Webb's only son, Isaac, had turned fifteen and was most desirous to leave school and enter into the shipbuilder's trade. His father, whose life had not been particularly prosperous following this trade, tried to talk his son out of it, but young Isaac's mind was set. Upon seeing this, the elder Webb turned to Henry Eckford, who told Webb to send the boy to talk to him.

Isaac Webb visited Henry Eckford at his shipyard office and the two had a long talk. Eckford agreed to take young Webb on as an apprentice when the lad turned sixteen, much to Isaac's joy. The prestige of being taken on as an apprentice to one of the leading shipwrights of the city was a great honor in Isaac's eye and it made his father proud. Soon, a contract was signed by all three parties and Isaac Webb became indentured to Henry Eckford for the next five years where he promised to always do his master's bidding and never betray the trade secrets that he learned. In return, Eckford was obliged to teach his young apprentice the "mystery" of the shipbuilder's trade. A deep and lasting friendship and a high level of mutual respect developed between the two as Eckford took on the responsibilities of a parent to young Isaac, even though the young man continued to live at his parent's home. Most apprentices were boarded at a nearby hotel at the shipmaster's expense.

In order to learn all aspects of the shipbuilding trade, apprentices were expected to do all the chores required in the yard. There was little specialization of labor in the yard at the time. Apprentices worked alongside "mechanics," as all experienced shipyard workers of the yard were called. They did whatever was required to do in the yard at the time; such tasks as sawing wood, carrying planks, setting up the ways, and erecting scaffolds. In addition they performed the more complicated ship carpentry at all stages.

They worked from sunup-to-sunset, six days a week. An hour was allowed for breakfast in the morning, and at midday an hour or two were allowed for dinner. In the late afternoon there was a break for grog, and the workday continued until sunset and sometime beyond if a special project needed to be completed. Then the work went on by whale oil lamps and candlelight into the late hours of the evening.

Young Isaac undoubtedly worked alongside his father and other apprentices on frequent occasions under the direction of Henry Eckford. Jacob Bell, Stephen Smith, and John Dimon also served apprenticeships at the same time as Isaac Webb. Bell and Smith also hailed from Stamford, Connecticut, Webb's hometown, and were most likely old family friends, The four young apprentices would remain fast friends throughout their shipbuilding years.

The War of 1812 and its impact on shipbuilding

The prosperity of the New York shipyards was not to last after President Madison and Congress declared war on the British in 1812. Soon, the British Navy blockaded New York and other harbors along the Atlantic coast. The government feared a British attack from Canada across the Great Lakes, as there was little American Naval presence on the lakes at that time. Ships were needed there in a hurry, and a plan was swiftly formulated to establish a shipyard at Sackett's Harbor, located at the northeast corner of Lake Ontario, right at the entrance of the St. Lawrence River.

Christian Bergh, who had answered the call in 1807 with the building of the Onieda, was called upon again on September 5, 1812, to discuss the matter with government leaders and the meeting was held at the East River home of Colonel Henry Rutgers. Bergh brought along Henry Eckford and Noah and Adam Brown as all three shipbuilders were idled at the time. Bergh was close to sixty years old, too old to endure another winter on Lake Ontario, but he agreed to do whatever he could from New York with the recruiting of carpenters and the arranging of needed supplies and shipments to the north. Bergh put forth Eckford to supervise the shipbuilding operation at Sackett's Harbor. The government agreed to this and Eckford accepted the task. Noah Brown, under Eckford's supervision but operating independently, would set up a shipyard at Lake Erie, and Adam Brown would do likewise at Lake Champlain.

By the next day, Eckford had hurriedly recruited forty ship's carpenters, mostly from his own yard, along with his apprentices, including Isaac Webb. On September 6th they all boarded one of Robert Fulton's Hudson River steamboats, the Paragon, and late that afternoon they steamed on up the Hudson River on their way to Albany, with Governor Tomkins also aboard. Henry Eckford and his apprentices spent much of their time on the voyage up the river observing the intricacies of this noisy mechanical marvel.