USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 48
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powers, or at the Dutch and Spanish ports on the main. It was a com- mon remark that American commerce was made the prey of all nations.
The risks were often accepted. The merchants, rather than have their vessels idle at the wharves, chose the hazardous alternative of keeping them afloat, and continued to send out their ventures. Advertisements like the following were however becoming rare :
" The beautiful staunch ship Thames, Jonathan Lester, will take a freight of thirty horses, cattle or mules, and 400 barrels inboard. Apply to S. Woodbridge or M. Ben. jamin." Oct. 7, 1806.
Dr. Dwight, in his travels, written in the early part of the century, says of Norwich :
" Within the last twenty years the trade has suffered severely from several causes ; particularly from fires and French depredations. From the latter source no town within my knowledge has experienced greater losses, in proportion to its trading cap- ital. Its commerce, however, is still considerable."
In 1808 the embargo was in force, but during the months of May, June and July, by special permission, vessels were allowed to depart. Seven brigs and two schooners, belonging to Norwich, took advantage of this license, and cleared, all for Martinico.
The trade of Norwich from this period rapidly declined. The mer- cantile interest ceased to be productive; many were impoverished by their risks ; the most sanguine were discouraged, and failures were fre- quent. The following is a sample of an issue less disastrous than that of many of the voyages undertaken at that time.
Arrived in New York, May, 1810, the brig Sally, Bingley, of Norwich, 27 days from Antigua. She had been taken by the French, retaken by the English, carried into Antigua, paid one-eighth for salvage and costs, and was then allowed to return home.
In 1811, cargoes of considerable value were brought into Norwich from Cayenne, Demerara, St. Michael, and St. Bartholomew ; in all there were eight or ten arrivals that year, but in 1812 only three entries are found.
26 Feb. arr. slp. Windham, John Doane, from St. Bartholomew with goods to D. Ripley, J. H. Strong, T. M. and Joseph Huntington.
19 June, arr. sch. Harriet, Alexander Allyn ; goods to D. Lathrop, C. Eells, and Lyman Brewer.
25 June, arr. brig Park, Joseph Bingley, from Angustura ; goods to D. Ripley, An- gustus Perkins, &c.
These were the last arrivals before the war, and with these the palmy days of the West India trade terminate.
During the six or eight years that preceded the war of 1812, more than a thousand merchant vessels had been captured and carried into British
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ports for adjudication, and either wholly confiscated or compelled to pay large sums for salvage or redemption.
But the greatest indignity offered to Americans was the practice of impressment and search which the British claimed and maintained as a right. Many a fine American sailor was clutched and forced into invol- untary service on board of a British war vessel in this way. Two instan- ces in which the Norwich marine was compelled to yield a victim to these arrogant demands will be briefly noticed.
In 1797, Avery Tinker of Norwich was impressed from on board the merchant ship Hope. At a foreign port he contrived to escape, and ulti- mately obtained refuge in an American vessel, but on the passage home was accidentally knocked overboard and drowned.
In 1798, Charles, son of Stephen Barker of Norwich, enlisted in the armed schooner Galiot, which sailed from New York for some foreign port under Capt. Hudson. On the voyage the schooner was upset in a squall, and the people taken from the wreck by a New York brig bound to Cadiz. They found that port blockaded by an English squadron, the commander of which overhauled the American brig, and impressed the whole of the crew that had been shipwrecked, except Capt. Hudson, transferring them to the Edgar, 74.
Several of these seamen were probably never heard from by their rel- atives. Three years afterward the father of young Barker received a letter from him dated on board the Edgar in the Baltic Sea, June 8, 1801. This was shortly after the terrific battle of Copenhagen, of which the writer gave some details, but the burden of his epistle was, that the doc- uments necessary to procure his release should be sent to him, that he might return to his country and his friends. The papers were forwarded, and repeated applications afterward made in his behalf, but in vain.
The names of vessels are very suggestive. Some of those that we find on the Norwich roll sound well, and are indicative of good taste. Such are, the Rising Sun, the Lady Washington, the Young Eagle, the Minerva, the Ariel, the Lark, the Olive, and the Dove. Others less euphonious,- Chloe, Nabby, Patty, Peggy, Deborah, and the like,-were doubtless de- signed to commemorate familiar names in the families of the owners. The brig Little Joe, and the sloop Little Nat, refer to two young members of the Howland family. The brig Josephus indicates that Joseph Wil- liams, a large ship-owner, was interested in its success. The brig Esse- quibo Packet, and the ship Stabrock, point to the commercial intercourse with Dutch Guiana. Negotiator, Enterpriser, Regulator, give an impres- sion of stability in their owners. The ship "Three Friends" probably originated from the amicable relations of three owners, Coit, Lanman and
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Huntington. The ship Eleven Sons, of this period, owned in New Lon- don, and the schooner Nine Sisters, belonging to Connecticut river, were probably founded on fact, perpetuating rare instances of household rela- tion.
The schooner Turn-of-times, built during the Revolutionary war, indi- cated the desire of the people for the return of peace ; but unfortunately it was captured before that blessed Turn-of-times came. One of the flour- ishing light sloops of New London was aptly named the Nimble-Ninepence. This also fell a prey to the enemy.
Capt. Christopher Colver is now the oldest ship-master in Norwich, and the only one whose voyages reach back to the last century. Capt. Sylvester Bill, of nearly equal age, who commanded the armed ship Hope in 1797, died at New York in 1861, aged 91 years.
Capt. Colver is a native of New London, but came to Norwich in 1790, and became master of a ship in 1802. After the war with Great Britain, he went into the European carrying trade, sailing principally from south- ern ports, and was constantly engaged for nearly thirty years.
In the course of his voyages he has visited all the noted West India ports, and those on the northern coast of South America ; the Western and Madeira Islands ; Tangier, Cadiz, Gibraltar, Alicant, St. Ubes, Lis- bon, Havre, Bayonne, London, Liverpool ; several Irish ports, and Arch- angel in the Arctic ocean. He now enjoys a green old age, furnishing occasional marine reports for the newspapers, and occupying the same house in Franklin street which he purchased in November, 1800, June 8th, 1865, he celebrated his 90th birthday.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
EUROPEAN AND OTHER FOREIGN TRADE.
IT has been heretofore observed that the merchants before the war had made direet importations from England. Two or three times in a year, a vessel sent out from this western Thames would accomplish its mission and work its way back again with assorted goods and the freshest advices from London. It seems to have been a point of honor to maintain an open communication between these granite hill-sides and the old world.
After the peace was well established, this trade was renewed, but with diminished enterprise. It never became of much note or importance ; yet a few notices respecting it having been collected, may be worth preserving as personal incidents connected with the history of the times. They will be introduced here as an episode from the rushing tide of traffic that after the Revolutionary war set with steady current toward the tropics.
The small size of the vessels employed in the European trade, and the length of the voyages, contrasted with the majestic march over the deep of an ocean steamer at the present day, exhibits in strong relief the ad- vantage of steam in facilitating intercourse with Europe.
Memoranda of European Voyages after the Peace of Versailles.
The brig Hancock, Capt. Hezekiah Perkins, sailed for Amsterdam in April, 1783; left that port on her return, August 18, but meeting with a heavy gale, put back to Deal to repair damages, and came from thence in 48 days, arriving at New London Nov. 4.
In 1784, the brig Ranger, Capt. Robert MeKown, made a voyage to London, where she arrived Sept. 24. Outward passage, 44 days ; return, 60.
In November of that year, Howland & Coit sent to London "the strong- built double-deck brigantine Little Joe, Gurdon Bill, master."
In 1785, Capt. Bill made two voyages to Europe in the Centurion, a ship of 160 tons, which was afterwards sent to Richmond, and there sold in April, 1786.
Capt. Timothy Parker made several trips to Europe in the brig Kath- erine. June 19, 1788, he arrived from the Isle of May ; July 22, cleared
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for Dublin with a cargo of pot and pearl ashes, timber, &c., and arrived again after eight weeks passage, Nov. 15.
Voyages to Liverpool were also made before the year 1790, by Capt. Robert Niles and Capt. John Howland. In 1791, the sloop Success, I. Glover, went on a trading adventure to Copenhagen.
A list of several successive voyages made by Captain Pride in the brigs Charlotte and Friendship, will serve as a fair sample of the nature and amount of the Irish trade at this period.
BRIG CHARLOTTE, ABSALOM PRIDE, JR.
1791. Entered from Liverpool 3 Nov : duties on the cargo 464.04.
1792. Cleared for Dublin 10 January, with flax-seed, pearl-ash, timber, trunnels, 3} tons sassafras, and 20 lbs. sarsaparilla.
Entered, 5 July, with goods to Uriah Tracy, Simeon Thomas, &e. Duties 1186.87.
Cleared 11 Aug. for Dublin.
Entered 17 Dec ; duties 577.74.
1793. Cleared for Dublin 21 Jan. with 600 Ibs. myrtle wax, 20 cords of wood, pot- ash, &c.
Entered from Liverpool 18 July ; duties 432.57.
1794. Entered 10 Feb. after a passage home of 95 days.
1795. 25 March cleared for Dublin, brig Friendship, A. Pride Jr. with potash, planks, hides, staves, trunnels and horn-tips.
These notices of lading show what articles found a market in Great Britain. One invoice had among its items 419 tierces of sumach.
In 1796 a small ship was built in Norwich for the Irish trade, called the Ceres. She was commanded by Roswell Roath, and her first voyage was unusually prosperous, being absent only a week over three months, and bringing in a valuable cargo. But in her second or third voyage she was taken 23 days out by a French armed vessel, carried into a French port, and both vessel and cargo condemned.
The Young Eagle was another small ship employed in this trade. She is first noticed as arriving at New London in November, 1793, from Os- tend, Elias Lord, master. She came in again under the same commander June 2, 1794, in 53 days from Liverpool, and continued for two or three years longer in this line of trade, Jedidiah Perkins, master.
In 1798 the Irish trade was prosecuted by the brig Neptune, Perkins ; sloop Endeavor, James Harlowe; and schooner Eliza, B. Freeman. The Neptune in a return voyage was boarded, July 17, by a French privateer of 16 gnns, called the Tiger, and plundered of several bales of dry-goods and crates of crockery. Letters were opened, and other enormities com- mitted. She arrived Sept. 2d, 71 days from Liverpool, with nothing left of her cargo but salt.
In June, 1799, the schooner Victory, Harlowe, from Liverpool, con- signed to Thomas Mumford and Jabez Perkins, paid a duty of $2798.46:
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a very large amount, as the charges then ranged on European goods. The schooner Mary, Solomon Stewart, came from Liverpool the same season, with goods to Alpheus Dunham, Lathrop & Eells, Ebenezer and Erastus Huntington, and others.
July 15, 1800, arrived ship Three Friends, Wm. Coit, Jr., 64 days from Liverpool, with goods to Jabez Huntington, Peter Lanman, and others. In April, 1801, arrived schooner Eliza, Benajah Leffingwell, in 65 days from Liverpool.
The brig Ceres, so called in remembrance of the lost ship of that name, was built at Norwich in 1804 for the Irish trade, Roswell Roath, com- mander. Her first voyage was to Cork, from whence she arrived at New York with ten passengers, which was then considered a large company of emigrants, Jan. 25, 1805. She came a few days later to New London, and reported "a tedious passage of 100 days from Newry."
Vessels going to Spain and Portugal carried chiefly provisions and sil- ver dollars ; bringing back wines, fruits, brandy, drugs, and silks.
21 Feb. 1794, arrived sloop Honor, William Pollard, from Cadiz, with goods con- signed to Joseph Howland ; duties 159.06. Left at Cadiz, sch. Patty, Ames, of Nor- wich.
28 Oct. 1790, arrived brig Recovery, John Webb, from Lisbon with goods to Joseph Williams ; duties 500.07.
11 March, 1796, entered from the Isle of May, Portugal, ship Mercury, Hezekiah Perkins; duties 851.40.
These examples are sufficient to serve as illustrations of this trade. The brigs Neptune, Atalanta and Despatch were engaged in it. Captains Whiting, Loring and Boswell were popular commanders.
The experience of Norwich ship-masters was often employed in the service of other ports. In 1801, we find Capt. Rockwell at Amsterdam in the ship Commerce, and Roswell Roath at London in the Juliana, New York vessels. Capt. Tracy commanded the ship Eugenia in voyages to Bordeaux. Other instances might be mentioned, and they became more numerous in later years. A New England ship-master, when business at home failed, was sure to find honorable employment either at New York or in some of the southern ports. Moreover the merchants of Norwich, New London, and other ports in Connecticut, were largely interested in New York shipping, and the imports made by them directly were often received via New York.
In planning a eommereial adventure, it was not uncommon to combine a fishing voyage with European trade. It saved the drain of silver to pay for imported goods. A license for fishing and a foreign passport were obtained, and the vessel cleared for the eod-fisheries and a market. Sev- eral Norwich schooners entered into this line of traffic, particularly be- tween 1802 and 1808.
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The schooner Mechanic, Capt. Berry, arrived at New London March 5, 1805, in 92 days from Barcelona, with a cargo of brandy to N. How- land and J. Brown ; duties $2198.14. Capt. Berry sailed the next month for " Green Island and Europe," in the brig Dolphin.
The Norwich Courier, May 1, 1805, gives notice that a fleet of five brigs and schooners had dropped down the river, bound to the Straits of Bellisle on fishing adventures, and that four others were nearly ready to follow. These were the brigs Hiram, Austin ; Iris, Chr. Stanton ; Dol- phin, Berry ; and the schooners Betsey, Loring; Amelia, Fitch ; Thetis, Hall; Chelsea, Doane; Jane, Berry ; and the Mechanic. These nine vessels were afterward reported safe at Green Island, and a part of them visited the Mediterranean before returning home.
In 1806, the schooner Jane, Berry, from the Straits of Belleisle, bound up the Mediterranean, was taken by the English, on pretence of her attempting to go into Cadiz, and sent into Gibraltar, where she was cleared and proceeded on her voyage; arrived late in the season at Bos- ton, 60 days from Alicant.
The ship Walter, Lord, was also taken by the British and ordered into Gibraltar, but was retaken by the captain, and went into Cadiz, from whence she returned to New York in safety.
June 6, 1806, arrived brig Dolphin, Farewell Coit, 60 days from Alge- siras, with goods to Jesse Brown, Jr., Levi Huntington, and E. Coit & Co., paying a duty of $6454.10, which we believe to be the highest duty assessed on any one consignment from Europe to Norwich merchants.
The Dolphin cleared in May, 1807, Saxton Berry, master, for Green Island and Europe, with license to trade, and came from Alicant in De- cember with goods to Jesse Brown & Son.
But this peculiar line of business soon declined. Other ports were more favorably situated for engaging in the fisheries, and the New Eng- land vessels were all more or less annoyed by British competitors, and sometimes driven from the ground.
The commercial interests of Norwich, in their long progress, have been impeded by so many sources of discouragement, that their continued pur- suit displays a more than ordinary spirit of enterprise in the community. Unsuccessful investments of talent and capital seem only to lead the way to greater exertions and a more active perseverance.
In 1799, a company was formed for prosecuting the sealing and whaling business. They fitted out the ship Susannah, and gave the command to Capt. James Munsell, an enterprising young navigator, who had made several prosperous West India voyages. The Susannah sailed from New London Oct. 15, going out under convoy of the U. S. ship Connecticut. She spent the next summer in sealing upon the coast of Patagonia, but being at last driven out to sea by heavy gales, she went into the river
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La Plata, and from thence to Rio Janeiro, where Capt. Munsell died of the small pox. The ship was subsequently wrecked on the coast of Bra- zil, and vessel and cargo totally lost. Charles Fitch, the supercargo, and most of the crew returned home in safety.
The schooner Oneco, fitted out by the same company, sailed only a week later than the Susannah. She wintered at the Falkland Islands ; took 5000 skins on the coast of Patagonia, ran up the border of Chili to Valparaiso for supplies, and was there seized and confiscated by the Spanish authorities.
The same company purchased the ship Miantonomo, and fitted her for whaling. She sailed 5th September, 1800, under Valentine Swain, Jr., clearing for Canton, with the design of whaling upon the north-west coast of North America, and circumnavigating the globe on the voyage home. She was at St. Mary's, Pacific ocean, in April, 1801, but afterward on the coast of Chili became involved in difficulties with the Spanish authorities, from which she was never extricated. The Mars, sent out by the same company, and commanded by another Captain Swain, met with a similar fate.
These vessels, all nearly new, well fitted, and with officers and crews carefully selected, after clearing at the custom-house, never again appear in our records. Most of the seamen returned, working from one point to another in various ways, but enduring many hardships before they reached home.
In 1798, an attempt was made to establish a direct intercourse with the East Indies. The ship Pacific, Solomon Ingraham, was sent out for the purpose of purchasing goods at Calcutta. She cleared at New London, May 14, "for Madeira and a market," and merely touching at Madeira, arrived at Calcutta in 200 days. She took out no cargo.
The East India trade was then arranged on a different basis from what it is at present. The homeward cargo, consisting chiefly of cotton goods, was paid for in current money. Spanish dollars were therefore carried out as the medium of exchange. Since that period, bales of cotton and bills on London have been used, and the goods imported are saltpetre, indigo, various gums and dyes, &c. Capt. Ingraham sailed from Calcutta on the homeward voyage, March 14, 1799. A few days out, even before leaving Bengal Bay, he was taken by a French privateer, a prize crew sent on board, and the vessel ordered to the Isle of France. Just before reaching that island, a British man-of-mar discovered her, and pursued so closely that the French commander ran the craft ashore, and escaped with his crew. The British took the cargo for their prey, and burnt the vessel.
Capt. Ingraham and John Hamilton, supercargo of the Pacific, with several other Americans that had been taken and carried to Mauritius,
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left the island in a cartel for Boston to be exchanged. The vessel on nearing the coast encountered a violent gale, and was wrecked upon Cape Cod. Happily no lives were lost, and Capt. Ingraham arrived in Nor- wich Dec. 24, 1799. We find him in 1800 advertising Chinese and India goods,-Madras long cloths, Pekin and sinchew silks, bandannas, santa- fours, and Nansouk muslins,-received by the Nancy, another East India ship, in which he had an interest.
Capt. Ingraham afterwards made two or more voyages to the East in the ship Virginia, sailing from New York. He died at Madras, Aug. 15, 1805, in the 40th year of his age.
Two of the sons of Thomas Hubbard, proprietor of the Norwich Courier, were for a considerable period residents in the East Indies. Thomas, the oldest, went to Calcutta in the early part of the century, and obtained a situation as printer, in connection with Dr. Hunter, who was the government printer and director of the Hindostanee press in that city. After his return home, he went into the commission business at Richmond, Va., of the firm of Hubbard & Lyman, but continued his correspondence with the East, and made in all four voyages to Calcutta and two to Batavia. He died at the latter place in 1817, in the 35th year of his age.
Amos H. Hubbard, at a very early age, followed his brother to Cal- cutta, and arriving there just as the latter left for home, took the place vacated by him in the printing office with Dr. Hunter. When the island of Java was taken by the British in 1811, the government press was removed to Batavia, by order of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, the Eng- lish Lieut. Governor. Mr. Hubbard went with it, and Dr. Hunter dying soon afterward, the management of the press devolved upon him. He continued in charge, and printed the "Java Government Gazette," till the island was restored to the Dutch, nearly five years. He returned to this country in 1817, in the ship America, which had been chartered in New York by his order and was furnished by him with its cargo.
A limited amount of trade with European ports, Lisbon, Bilboa, Liver- pool, &c., was kept up until broken off by the second war with England. A few more items will be given as specimens.
25 Feb. 1807 : arrived brig Maria, Moses Hillard, 60 days from Lisbon.
May 9 : cleared for Nantz, brig Traveller, Walter Lester; arrived, on the return voyage, 29 October, 46 days from Bilboa.
In 1809, the ship Stabroeck, Charles Rockwell, made a voyage to Cork and Liver- pool.
In Jan. 1810, arrived from Liverpool, brig Fox, John Parker, with salt, coal, crates of crockery, &c., consigned to Roger Huntington and E. & E. Huntington; duties,
* Capt. Ingraham married in 1798, Elizabeth, daughter of Andrew Perkins. His house in Norwich was on the Plain, next to that of Rev. Walter King. He left no children. His relict married Capt. John L. Boswell, being his second wife.
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$342.73. The Fox cleared for Cadiz the next July, and returned in November,-42 days passage.
The Chelsea, Chr. Colver, sailed for Alicant in January, 1810, Asa Fitch, passen- ger. On the return voyage, arrived 17 July, 106 days from Alicant, and 87 from Cen- ter, with goods consigned to Peter Lanman, Erastus Coit & Co., and others. The Chelsea sailed again in October, bound to Cadiz, under Farewell Coit.
Aug. 3, 1811, arrived brig Dove, Colver, 63 days from Liverpool, passenger Roger Huntington. The same year Capt. Walter Lester made a voyage to Lisbon in the schooner Betsey, and in April, 1812, the Chelsea, Jonathan Lester, cleared at the cus- tom house for the same port, returning safely in July.
After Goddard & Williams entered into the flouring business at Nor- wich Falls, their principal correspondence was with Richmond and other southern ports, but they sent one vessel to Europe, viz., the Ann & Mary, Robert N. Avery, whichi cleared at New London in November, 1812, with a cargo of flour.
These were the last undertakings before the war. The direct transit to Europe ceased, and no Norwich vessel was again fitted out for that coast till 1833, when the ship Boston was sent to Bremen by Lester & Co.
It has been already noticed that the vessels employed in this trade were of comparatively small capacity and measurement. But at that period the vessels of the larger ports, New York and Boston, were on the same lim- ited scale, insignificant in size and equipment, compared with the princely merchantmen of the present day.
In the advertisements of the old traders, we often find notices of goods received direct from London, Bristol, Dublin, and Liverpool. Examples :
Feb. 17, 1785. Thomas Fanning has just imported direct from London and now opened for sale at his store opposite his dwelling-house between the Town and Land- ing an assortment of European and India goods.
1787. John Moore has Irish linens and chintzes just from Dublin for sale.
1792. Woodbridge & Snow have for sale "teas direct from China ; fresh Bohea, Hyson and Hyson-skin."
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