USA > Connecticut > New London County > Groton > Groton, Conn. 1705-1905 > Part 28
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At the close of the Revolutionary War ship building flour- ished and our shipping rapidly increased. We read ** of "the ship "Jenny,' that was launched at Groton, October 30, 1784. She was engaged in the European trade." Judge Potter in a manuscript history of the First Baptist Church in Groton states that in the pastorate of Rev. Timothy Wightman there was a shipyard on each side of the river at the Head of Mystic.
Eldredge Packer was a noted builder of small craft at Packer's Ferry prior to the war of 1812. One of the notable local events of that war was the recapture of the sloop "Fox" by the "Hero" -- two vessels built by him. The site of this shipyard was occupied by D. O. Richmond dur- ing the last quarter of the nineteenth century and here he built a large number of yachts and small craft, many of them celebrated for their beauty and speed.
In the summer of 1853 Captains N. G. Fish and William Clift, together with Messrs. William E. Maxson, Benjamin F. Hoxie, Simeon Fish and Isaae D. Clift, formed a copart- nership under the name of Maxson, Fish & Co. for the building of ships at Old Field-West Mystic. The Mystic Pioneer of February 16, 1861, records the fact that Messrs. B. F. Hoxie and William Clift had sold their interest to Captain N. G. Fish and that "the owners are now Messrs. Maxson & Fish." The ships built by them with the dates of launching are as follows, viz.
* History of the Fanning Family, p. 297.
** History of New London, Caullins, p. 575.
344
GROTON, CONN. 1705-1905
Brig
"E. Remington"
October 1853
Schooner
"Stampede"
August
1854
Ship
"B. F. Hoxie"
November 21, 1854
Brig
"G. T. Ward"
September 18,
1855
Ship
"Aspasia"
May
1856
Brig
"A. Hopkins"
October 7, 1857
Ship
"Garabaldi"
October 1, 1860
Ironclad Steamer
"Galena"
February 14,
1862
Steam tug
"Vim"
May 20, 1862
Lighter
"Daphne"
August 21, 1862
Steam tug
"J. D. Billard"
September 3,
1862
Steam tug
"S. Thomas"
September 4,
1862
Steamer
"Sea Gull"
November 6,
1862
Steamer
"Kingfisher"
February 17,
1863
Lighter
"Jewel"
February 20,
1863
Ship
"Cremorne"
March 19,
1863
Steamer
"Nightingale"
June 18,
1863
Gunboat
"Vicksburg"
August 27,
1863
Steamer
"Fannie"
October 2,
1863
Steamer
"Cassandra"
December 19,
1863
Steamer
"Aphrodite"
May 6,
1864
Steamer
"California"
May 20,
1864
Steamer
"Ulysses"
June 16,
1864
Lighter
"Echo"
July 7,
1864
Lighter
"Hebe"
July 13,
1864
Steamer
"Nevada"
September 5,
1864
Bark
"Silas Fish"
December 20,
1864
Ship
"Seminole"
July 11, ,
1865
Brig
"Hail Columbia"
September 21,
1865
Bark
"Caleb Haley"
February 22,
1866
Schooner
"Abbie E. Campbell"
July 20,
1866
Schooner
"John K. Mundell"
March 1,
1867
Schooner
"Alaska"
November 1,
1867
Ship
"Helicon"
December 1,
1868
Ship
"Dauntless"
November 4,
1869
Probably the most celebrated ship built by Messrs. Max- son, Fish & Co. was the iron clad gunboat "Galena." She was one of the three ordered by the Government on recom- mendation of Commodores Joseph Smith and H. Paulding and Captain C. H. Davis, the other two being the "Monitor" and "New Ironsides." In their report made September 16, 1861, she was to be "a vessel to be iron-clad on the rail and plate principle, and to obtain high speed. The objection to this vessel is the fear that she will not float her armour and load sufficiently high and have stability enough for a sea vessel. With a guarantee that she shall do these we recommend on that basis a contract. Price $235,250.00, length of vessel 180 ft., breadth of beam 36 ft., depth of
345
SHIP BUILDING, ETC.
hold 12 2-3 ft. Time 4 months, draught of water 10 ft., displacement-tons, speed per hour 12 knots."
Work was rushed on the vessel night and day, a shed being built over her that work might be carried on in all weathers. Her sides above the water line "tumbled in" at an angle of 321/2 degrees, her broadside armor being laid on in horizontal strips, while her ends were covered with heavy plates forged to shape. She so far exceeded the expectations of her designers and builders that when she was launched the red lead water line placed on her by the naval constructor was nearly a foot out of water.
She was hurried to the James River and her service there has been described by Professor James Russell Soley, U. S. N., in his article on "The Navy in the Civil War."* She was with the squadron in Hampton Roads in April and covered the movement of the wooden fleet up the James River. Professor Soley says: "The light armour of the 'Galena' had not as yet been seriously tested, and Rodgers had no great confidence in her ability to stand a severe fire: nevertheless he decided to make the test. In a private letter written shortly after, he said, 'I was convinced as soon as I came on board that she would be riddled under fire, but the public thought differently and I resolved to give the matter a fair trial.'
"Accordingly he ran the 'Galena' up to a point opposite the battery where the width of the stream was not more than double the ship's length. According to an officer in the fort the 'Galena' steamed up to within seven or eight hundred yards of the bluff, let go her starboard anchor, ran out the chain, put her head inshore, backed astern, let go her stream anchor from the starboard quarter, hove ahead and made ready for action without firing a gun. Nothing could have been more beautiful than the neatness and pre- cision of movement with which Rodgers placed the 'Galena' as if at target practice, directly under the enemy's fire.
"In the words of the officer already referred to 'it was one of the most masterly pieces of seamanship of the whole * Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. II, pp. 268-10.
--
346
GROTON, CONN. 1705-1905
war.' In this position the 'Galena' remained for three hours and twenty minutes until she had expended all her ammu- nition. (She was the only ship that could elevate her guns sufficiently to reach the fort on the bluff .-- C. R. S.)
"She came out of the action badly shattered, having been struck twenty-eight times and perforated in eighteen places. The 'Monitor' passed for a short time above the 'Galena,' but, being unable to elevate her guns sufficiently to reach the bluff, she again dropped below." All the ad- vantage derived from the sloping sides of the "Galena" was completely over-balanced by the plunging fire of the fort on the bluffs. After this exceedingly fair trial the ship was sent to Philadelphia to refit, but she never again figured as an ironclad during the war.
The "Vicksburg" was another gunboat built in this yard. The "Nightingale" saw service as a naval supply ship in the Gulf of Mexico during the last year of the war and was wrecked at Vera Cruz not long after its close. The "Aphro- dite" was another naval supply ship and was lost on Cape Lookout on her second voyage.
The ship "B. F. Hoxie," Captain Crary, burned by the Confederate privateer "Florida" June 16, 1863, was one of the most valuable prizes taken by the Confederates during the war. The ship and freight were valued at $100,000 and the cargo, consisting of logwood, hides, silver ore with silver bars and gold of great value, was the property of English owners. So confident were the ship owners that her English cargo would protect the ship that no insurance was carried, so the property loss was the heaviest that Mystic sustained during the war.
The month of June was particularly unfortunate for Mystic shipping. On June 10, 1863, the Bark "Texana," Captain Thomas E. Wolfe, was captured and burned by the tug "Boston" off the mouth of the Mississippi River. The "Boston," a tug in the United States Government service, had been captured by a raiding party from Mobile, who started on a career of adventure, flying the United States flag. Captain Wolfe mistook the approaching vessel
347
SHIP BUILDING, ETC.
for a Government tug come to tow him up the river, until she was within hailing distance, when she hauled down the United States flag and displayed the Confederate flag, at the same time demanding his surrender.
James Duke, the officer in command, proved to be an old schoolmate of Captain Wolfe, so the latter was courteously treated and given the option of taking the ship's boat and trying to reach safety in the river or remaining on the tug and returning to Mobile. A part of the crew chose the former alternative and arrived in safety at New Orleans.
Wolfe with two or three others chose the latter, being assured that as non-combatants they would have no diffi- culty in passing through the lines to their homes. They fell on evil times, however, as they arrived in Richmond just when the Confederate Government was much exer- cised over the execution by General Burnside of two men convicted of recruiting within the Union lines for the Con- federate army.
Captain Wolfe was seized and thrown into Castle Thun- der and afterwards into Libby Prison, where for a time he was held as a hostage. Still later he was sent to Salisbury prison, from which place he made his escape with Richard- son and Browne, Tribune correspondents. The sufferings and narrow escapes of the party were graphically described by Richardson in his book entitled "Field, Dungeon and Escape." Wolfe spent about a year and a half in prison, one of his crew, Ambrose Wolfe, a Mystic boy, dying in Salisbury.
In this same month of June the smack "L. A. Macomber," Captain James Potter, Jr., of Noank was taken by the "Tacony" and burned off Nantucket Shoals. The crew were allowed to seek safety in their small boat.
The death of Captain N. G. Fish in 1870 caused a sus- pension of ship building at Old Field and the yard was idle for several years. Then Mr. Maxson formed a copart- nership with Alexander Irving and under the firm name of Maxson & Irving they built several small coasting vessels. Subsequently Mr. Maxson withdrew and on January 13,
348
GROTON, CONN. 1705-1905
1883, Alexander Irving purchased the yard and with Cap- tain Robert P. Wilbur engaged in building several barges for the Thames Tow Boat Company. "Messrs. Irving & Wilbur* this week completed their contracts for the three barges with the Thames Tow Boat Co. They are about twelve hundred tons burthen and fine specimens of their class. The first, the 'Hornet,' was launched two weeks ago, the "Cricket' on Monday and the 'Wasp' on Wednes- day of this week." But the blight that had struck the ship- ping industry was of too serious a nature, and ship build- ing had been dealt a death blow, so the business was given up.
The yard lay idle until 1901, when the Holmes Shipbuild- ing Company purchased it and proceeded to build the five- masted schooner "Jennie R. Dubois," the largest vessel ever built on the river. She was a beautiful craft of 2800 tons burthen, launched on February 11, 1902, but after a short and successful career she was sunk in collision with a steamship off Block Island. The Holmes Company never built another large vessel, but gave their attention to the development of gasoline launches, in which line they be- came very efficient.
On December 6, 1853, Charles H. Mallory bought land at Appelman's Point and established a ship yard. He built two vessels there, the ship "E. F. Willets" and bark "Mustang," but, engaging in business with his father on the east side of the river, ship building at this yard was aban- doned for a time. In July 1866 the property passed into the hands of Jolin A. Forsyth, who the same year built the pilot boat "J. W. Elwell," but the yard was not operated continuously. In 1874 Messrs. Haynes & Mckenzie built the schooner "Rodney Parker" at this yard and several small craft were also built there.
The village of Noank is in many respects a remarkable New England production. A self-contained community, it has always maintained a high moral and religious standard,
* Mystic Press, January 17, 1884.
1
349
SHIP BUILDING, ETC.
the open sale of intoxicants has never been tolerated, pov- erty is almost unknown and the neighborly friendship existing is ideal. Its physical features compare favorably with its moral. Built upon a hill, with a commanding view of the water, the hill crowned with the white village church whose towering spire is a landmark from all directions, and the district school in close proximity, we have here the typical New England community.
For many years fishing was the principal industry and at the present time it is largely carried on. In the first division of the lands formerly belonging to the Pequots in 1712, Lot No. 1 at the extreme end was allotted to Deacon James Morgan* and from him received the name Morgan's Point. The lighthouse of that name occupied a portion of this land and the beacon near by is Morgan's Beacon. Part of this land is still in the possession of the family, having never been alienated.
Joshua Morgan, a great grandson of Deacon James, was a seafaring man living in Noank, and his son, Roswell Avery Morgan, commenced the boat building business in the old Morgan boat shop just north of the shipyard, which is a prominent landmark as one approaches Noank by water. Here for three generations, father, son and grand- son have carried on the business.
Just when the building of fishing smacks was begun is uncertain. Possibly some of the early vessels were the work of the Morgans, as Roswell A. was classed as a shipbuilder.
As early as 1832 Deacon John Palmer, who had been engaged in the business of boat building, associated him- self with James A. Latham, and about 1836 they com- menced the building of fishing smacks .; About 1845 Deacon Palmer retired from active labor and his two sons, John and Robert, succeeded to his interest. The partner- ship with Mr. Latham was terminated soon after by his withdrawal, he engaging in a similar kind of business with
* See map in History of the Fanring Family, Brooks, Vol. I.
** Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County, 1905, p. 278.
+ History of New London County, 1882, p. 471.
350
GROTON, CONN. 1705-1905
his brother, John D. Latham. They became noted builders of fishing craft.
John and Robert Palmer continued business at the upper yard and in 1855 Robert in company with a cousin, Daniel E. Clark, purchased the lower yard. They remained to- gether but a short time, Mr. Clark disposing of his interest to Mr. Palmer's brother John and the two brothers, under the firm name of R. & J. Palmer, operated both yards until the death of John in 1876. In 1860 they laid down a set of marine railways which for the times were considered very large and which brought to them much repair work. Among the vessels rebuilt were the Baltimore clippers "Mary Whitridge" and "Grey Eagle" and the schooner yacht "Dauntless," formerly "L'Hirondelle," which was owned by James Gordon Bennett, Jr. She was lengthened in 1869 previous to her race across the Atlantic with the "Cambria."
They soon became interested in the building of larger vessels and the following is an approximate list of sailing vessels and steamers built in these yards to the close of 1905 :*
Schooner
"Sarah Clark"
1853
Bark
"Mary Coe"
1856
Schooner
"Robert Palmer"
1857
Schooner
"Oakes Ames"
1862
Brig
"Mystic"
date uncertain
Yacht
"Foam"
1863
Schooner
"Stephen Morgan"
1864
Schooner
"Margaret & Lucy"
1865
Brig
"Florence"
Schooner
"William O. Irish"
1865
Schooner
"Agnes"
1865
Schooner
"Wm. C. Bee"
1869
Yacht
"L'Hirondelle"
rebuilt 1869
Bark
"Sappho"
1869
Schooner
"Charmer"
1872
Steamer
"Frightlight"
Schooner
"J. N. Colby"
1873
Schooner
"E. L. Dow"
1874
Schooner
"Theresa"
1874
Steamer
"Herman S. Caswell"
1878
Yacht
"Ruth"
1881
Brig
"Wm. Mallory, Jr."
1866
* From a list compiled by Deacon Robert Palmer in possession of Professor William A. Wilbur.
351
SHIP BUILDING, ETC.
Steamer
"Block Island"
1882
Steamer
"Rhode Island"
1882
Yacht
"Vanina" 1882
Yacht
"Mohican"
1884
Pilot Boat
"Gracie"
1884
Steamer
"Nashua"
1884
Steam Yacht "Narwhal"
1887
Steamer
"Connecticut"
1889
Ferryboat
"Col. Ledyard"
1891
Steamer
"Nutmeg State"
1892
Ferryboat
"Menantic"
1893
Ferryboat
"John G. Carlisle"
1896
Steamer
"Postmaster General"
1898
Steamer
"Old Glory"
1898
Steamer
"Richmond"
1902
Steamer
"Robert Palmer"
1902
Schooner
"A. J. Pierce"
1904
Steamer
"John Arbuckle"
1905
Ferryboat
"Gov. Winthrop"
1905
Steamer
"Beatrice Bush"
1905
Steamer
"Wm. V. R. Smith"
1905
The above with fishing smacks, small steamers, yachts, dredges, lighters and barges make a total of more than 550 vessels turned out at these yards.
In 1879 Robert Palmer purchased the interest of his deceased brother John and laid down the large marine rail- way at the lower yard. This railway was capable of haul- ing out the largest Sound steamers and the first job was the rebuilding of the steamer "Narragansett" in the winter of 1879-80. By a singular fate she was sunk by collision with her sister ship the "Stonington" in June 1880 and was brought to Noank and rebuilt a second time.
In September 1880 Mr. Palmer admitted to partnership his son, Robert Palmer, Jr., and his son-in-law, Simeon W. Ashbey, and the firm became the Robert Palmer & Son Ship-building and Marine Railway Company. Aside from the repair work the business of the yard in late years has been almost exclusively confined to the building of barges and railroad floats. The Palmer plant has turned out more than 550 vessels, varying in size from the ordinary fishing vessel to the palatial Sound steamer, and is one of the larg- est plants for wooden ship-building in this country, with a reputation second to none.
352
GROTON, CONN. 1705-1905
"The growth of the coasting service* can well be fol- lowed in the increased dimensions of the car floats con- structed by this company. Formerly they were from 160 to 180 feet long with a capacity for eight cars; to-day it is a common thing to build floats 330 feet long, having three tracks and a capacity for twenty-two cars. The size of barges, too, has been greatly increased until now the pop- ular size is one carrying thirty-three hundred tons with good freeboard."
The fishing industry reached its zenith about the time of the Civil War. A writer in "Historic Groton" says that from seventy-five to one hundred vessels went out and came in, making trips to New York for a market. On one April day in 1866 from twenty to thirty smacks sailed to the East to open the season's fishing. In the early days these smacks were built with wells in which the fish were carried to mar- ket alive, but in later years most of the vessels carried ice for the preservation of the catch.
Many of the captains that supplied the New York market during the summer made trips to the South in the winter, finding a market in Charleston, Savannah, Key West, Havana, Mobile or other Southern cities. The lobster busi- ness is carried on quite extensively, most of the boats en- gaged in this industry being fitted with gasoline engines so that their trips are not dependent upon wind.
The Connecticut lobster hatchery is located at Noank and under the superintendency of Captain Latham Rathbun turns out about fifty million young lobsters a year in an at- tempt to keep up the supply. The Mystic Press gives the following statistics of the Noank lobster business :**
"Employs ninety men, thirty-four sail boats, ten smacks, four schooners and one steamer; uses thirty-four hundred pots. Pots have thirty-five fathoms warp each, making one- hundred and nineteen thousand fathoms or seven-hundred, fourteen thousand feet, or something over one-hundred and
* Genealogical and Biographical Record of New London County, 1905, p. 117.
* February 22. 1883.
Ł
353
SHIP BUILDING, ETC.
thirty-five miles in all. Each pot has two buoys attached and costs one dollar and a half complete. Lobster ground from Fisher's Island Sound to Block Island."
In the year 1900 the Eastern Shipbuilding Company lo- cated in Groton and commenced the construction of two large steamships for the Great Northern Steamship Com- pany, under the management of James J. Hill. These steamers, "Minnesota" and "Dakota," were built for the Pacific trade and were the largest merchant vessels ever laid down in America, being 630 feet in length, 731/4 feet in breadth and 56 feet from keel to upper deck, with a dis- placement light of 33,000 tons. They were several years in construction and the town experienced quite a boom in consequence, but since the departure of the ships the yard has lain idle and depression has ensued.
We must not omit mention of the whaling industry, which reached its height during the twenty-five years pre- ceding the Civil War. The largest number of vessels of Groton ownership engaged in the whale fishery is found in Daboll's Almanac for 1850 as follows :
Bark "Alibree" "Congress" 280 346
Ship "Hellespont" "Meteor" 325 Bark "Shepherdess" 368 274 66 Ship "Hudson" Schooner "Washington" 190 tons 373 tons
Agents I. & W. P. Randall
16
66
66
6.
46
66
66
6.
6.
G. W. Ashbey & Co.
=
Many of the men who afterward achieved distinction in the merchant service commenced their careers on board whaling vessels. But with the discovery of petroleum and its adaptation to a great variety of uses, the demand for whale oil decreased and, as one old sailor expressed it, "when oil bubbled out of a hole in the ground whales couldn't compete."
The last of the Mystic ships were sold to the Government at the outbreak of the Civil War for use in the "stone blockade." The old ship "Meteor" planted her bones off the
354
GROTON, CONN. 1705-1905
port of Savannah; the fate of the others has not been discovered.
One of the most successful whaling voyages on record stands to the credit of a Groton man. Captain Ebenezer Morgan, in the ship "Pioneer" of New London, sailed from that port on June 4, 1864, and returned on September 18, 1865, with 1391 barrels of oil and 22,650 pounds of bone, which sold for $151,060. The cost of the outfit was but $35,800 ;* thus in the short space of fifteen and a half months over four hundred per cent. was cleared on the investment.
An incident quite out of the ordinary befell a Groton whaling captain in 1855. Captain James M. Buddington, in command of the New London ship "George and Henry," while on a cruise discovered a ship fast in the ice and drifting, apparently abandoned. Boarding her after much difficulty she was found to be Her Majesty's frigate "Reso- lute," one of three ships sent out the year before in search of Sir John Franklin. Becoming ice-bound in Baffin's Bay and running short of provisions, she was abandoned by her crew and had drifted nine hundred miles out into the At- lantic when she was discovered by Captain Buddington. By dint of the hard labor of himself and the crew she was finally cleared from the ice floe, and, with a prize crew on board, was brought safely into New London.
The United States Government paid the salvors the sum of $30,000 for the ship and she was taken to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where she was refitted and sent back to Eng- land as a present from the United States to the Queen. Al- though the ship had been drifting for sixteen months* "when first discovered, the lamps, bottles and wine glasses all stood upon the table in the officers' room just as they had been left when they drank their farewell to the ship, and books lay open in the cabin as if just laid aside. The epaulets of the captain were there; and many books and
* Story of New England Whalers, Spears, p. 325.
** History of New London, Caulkins, 1866, p. 684.
2
2
4 1
355
SHIP BUILDING, ETC.
tokens were discovered bearing inscriptions of tenderness and friendship, that must have been left behind by heavy hearts yielding to stern necessity."
An adventure of Captain Ambrose H. Burrows gives us a glimpse of conditions existing in the early part of the nineteenth century. On January 24, 1823, he sailed from New York in the brig "Frederick" bound for Lima, Peru, on a trading expedition. The vessel and cargo were owned by Captain George Haley, Enoch and Silas E. Burrows and the Captain.
Arriving at Callao after a stormy passage of one-hun- dred and fifty-eight days he found the city in a state of insurrection against the Spanish Government and all busi- ness suspended. Shortly after his arrival, however, came the noted General Bolivar with reenforcements from Colom- bia and quiet was restored. In about two months, having disposed of his cargo, he took on board another and sailed for Pisco on a trading voyage. Here he was succeessful and after a trip to Callao, from which port he shipped home in specie the proceeds of his voyage, he sailed for Quilca, the seaport of Arequipa, the capital of Upper Peru.
Arriving off the port late in the day he did not venture to enter but laid to until morning. At about ten in the evening he was fired upon by a strange vessel and soon after was boarded by a boat's crew from the pirate brig "Quintanelia," commanded by an Italian named Matalena. With the exception of the first officer, William L. Hill, all the officers and crew of the "Frederick" were transferred to the pirate brig. It was finally concluded to send the prize to the island of Chiloe, the pirates' rendezvous, but as navigators were scarce, Captain Burrows accepted the proposition to navigate the vessel with a crew of a prize- master and nine men from the pirate.
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