USA > Massachusetts > Bristol County > Somerset > History of the town of Somerset Massachusetts : Shawomet purchase 1677, incorporated 1790 > Part 8
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In 1841, one Byron Morse, beginning with services in the sail loft on Burgess Wharf, organized a Methodist Epis- copal church, now merged in the Federated church, which began in 1842 to build the second church structure in the Village. In the same year, the First Christian Church, now the Christian Congregational Church on County Street in Pottersville, was formed.
Two railroads had come near enough to serve the town to some extent : in 1835, the line from Providence to Boston by way of Attleboro and Mansfield ; and in 1836, a road connect- ing this line with Taunton at Mansfield. In 1840, a line was opened between Taunton and New Bedford. And in 1845 trains from Fall River connected with this Taunton-New Bedford line at Myricks. A line from Providence to Fall River had been chartered, but it was 1866 before the first of its trains ran through Somerset territory.
With the opening of the Fall River-Myricks railroad a ferry began to operate at the Village, from a slip just north of the Tryworks wharf, to a slip, still to be seen, on the shore just south of the embankment at the Fall River end of the Somerset railroad bridge. This ferry, operated by Thomas Evans, made regular connection with trains until 1866 when the Fall River-Taunton "new road" began to cross Somerset bridge.
During this period the Chace family operated a ferry from the foot of Cusick's Lane (sometimes called Chace's Lane) to the opposite shore, using sail-boats. The landing was made at each side by running the boat up on the shore.
The depression of 1837 did not much affect the town except as it caused worry for its investors in the booming cotton industry of Fall River, which now had five large and several subsidiary mills and had passed the 5000 point in
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population. All the mills weathered the stress, however, and Somerset proceeded on its prosperous way towards the year 1847 which was to bring a coincidence of climaxes in its history.
In this year, the town's first business incorporation took place, launching the Somerset Pottery Company and the pottery era; Slade's Ferry turned to steam for its motive power; the Mexican War broke, with the California rush in its wake; and James M. Hood got ready to build clipper ships. One hundred and fifty years had been preparing Somerset enterprise, character and skill for the period that opened that year. No town ever had a more glowing era than the decade that followed.
CLIPPER SHIPS
THE outbreak of the Mexican War found 124 Somerset vessels of over 20 tons registered in coastal trade and 14 in foreign trade. During the next ten years 24 more vessels, including some of the greatest that ever sailed the seas, were built in Somerset, besides four revenue cutters of schooner rig for the United States government, and four lightships.
This grand total of 171 vessels of every type and size was for the most part sailed by Somerset masters, including some of the great clippers built in the Hood yard in the years 1848 to 1854.
The complete list of vessels registered from this port, in each of the several periods with the masters that sailed them both in domestic and foreign trade, together with their owners where recorded, is given at the end of this history.
It needs only a study of these lists to perceive that Somerset, in vessels and men, was one of the great New England ports, surpassed perhaps only by Boston, Salem and Providence, and possibly by New Haven. Certainly Somerset belongs with the foremost among the ports of the great tradition.
This third great era of sail in Somerset's history was the climax of a century and a half of shipbuilders and ship- masters. In the foreign trade, Captains William and Enoch T. Bowers were following Bowers captains, Jonathan, David, Philip, Lloyd, Perry, and others of the name who had sailed large ships out of this port from before the town's beginning. At the beginning and the end of this period, a Robert Gibbs and a Benjamin Gibbs were masters as their family had been for five generations, though their schooners were now three and four times the size of those in which they took Somerset farm and forest products to market in the early 1700's.
A Brown, Captain James N., was sailing large schoon-
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ers in the foreign trade now. So were John Peirce and David Pierce, 2nd. Collins and Stephen Chase, Joseph Gray, Jerathmel Swazey, Joseph Blethens (Bliffins) and David Cummings had brigs; William B. Pettis a schooner; regis- tered in round-the world commerce. All of them were of families which had built and sailed Somerset coastal carriers since before the Revolution.
Philip Enoch Bowers, Daniel Brayton Eddy, John H. Luther, Baylies Davis were names known to the whole ship- ping world. New names were appearing: John A. Cotton, David B. Hood, Surbinas Marble, Henry Eddy, Joshua Elwell, H. B. Major, Elisha Burgess; and the famed John A. Burgess, master of the Virginia now, but soon to captain the great Somerset-built clipper, Governor Morton.
On decks laid down in Somerset, in the closing decades of this period would come, along with Somerset's own Burgess, the glamorous names of Hy Wakeman, Charles Cheever, William Henry, J. Madison Hill, James Reed, Francis and David Bursley, Whittlesey, James Johnston, Stetson and Martin Thompson.
At the opening of the Mexican War, Captain Baylies Davis, who though just turned twenty-one was a full-fledged master ; Captain Philip E. Bowers, Captain Daniel Brayton Eddy and Captain James M. Hood, chartered their vessels for the carrying of supplies to Mexico for the United States government. Captain Bowers, "as fine a man as ever stepped on a deck," was sailing his own brig Excelsior. Cap- tain Daniel Brayton Eddy, father of Daniel Bowers Eddy, was sailing his beautiful two-masted schooner Louisiana. And Captain James M. Hood the Eddy brig Virginia.
Captain Davis' run was to Corpus Christi with supplies for the army base there. He came through the war without recorded mishap and lived to operate a charter for the government again during the Civil War and finally to become captain of the Fall River Line steamer Puritan, retiring in 1897 and dying in 1900. Captain Eddy ran to various points on the Louisiana, Texas and Mexican coasts ; and it fell to his lot to be the man to bring back to this
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country the news of the army's victory at Palo Alto. Driving the Louisiana across the Gulf he docked at New Orleans, and without stopping to change his tropical clothes mounted a horse and rode through a driving storm to bring to the army post at Baton Rouge the vital despatches he carried. Captain Eddy also sailed for the government again in the Civil War, with the schooner Jessie A. Woodhouse. He was the master who took the great ship William Nelson on her first trip out of Somerset for delivery to her New York owners.
After several voyages to Vera Cruz in the Virginia, Captain James M. Hood was wrecked on the Mexican coast and was forced to land his boats in the enemy country, 200 miles from General Scott's army. In the landing, George Luther of Somerset, a nephew, was drowned in the surf. With nothing but their language to identify them, Hood and his men convinced the Mexican authorities that they were from an English vessel and they were released and given trans- portation to New Orleans from which they made their way to Somerset.
The revelation which Hood had received of the demand for vessels for the Mexican and California trade, and the rise of the American clipper ship era on all the oceans, determined him to go into shipbuilding. For the location of his yard he chose the site previously occupied by Nathan Davis, Sr., and Joseph Simmons, north of the early Bowers Shore yard. The Hood yard is, therefore, the wide and extensive flat area made by building up the shore and cutting deep into the hill just south of the old nail mill, and later used by the "upper mill" for its rolling mill.
Here, in the spring of 1849, James M. Hood launched his first vessel, the schooner Empire State, of 100 tons, built for Captain Surbinas P. Marble. While the Empire State was making ready to launch the Somerset, a brig of 180 tons, was laid down. This was the first of the boats designed by Stephen L. Dickinson, who was also its master carpenter or superintendent of construction. Dickinson remained with the Hood yard from then on to its close. The Somerset was
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rigged in the stocks and launched ready to sail. She drew only four and a half feet, being intended for the shoal waters of southern cotton ports.
The place of the Somerset in the yard was taken by the ship Milford, 424 tons, built for Southport owners and cap- tained during her career by the famous Hy Wakeman. She appears to have made no outstanding record among the clippers, being, like the Somerset, of shallow draft for the southern cotton trade. But she added to the reputation of the Hood yard. Captain Hood himself sailed the Milford to New York, taking Captain Edward B. Chace as pilot.
The schooner Fountain, 110 tons, for Captain Henry Eddy, was next launched from the Empire State's space and a large ship of 600 tons, intended for New York purchasers, was laid down. In the fall of the year 1850, fire broke out in the hold of this vessel on the stocks. There was no fire engine in Somerset at that time. The flames spread from the ship to the mold loft. Patterns, models, and a great quantity of material were destroyed. The fire then spread to the Old Tavern house and the residence of Baylies Davis, Sr., father of the captain, destroying both. It was finally checked by blowing up a house in its path.
The yard and its buildings were restored and a new ship, the Rosario, 528 tons, was built for Amos and Mulford Howes of New York. The owners assigned the Rosario to Captain Caleb Sprague, who is later found sailing the clipper Gravina, and finally the Neptune's Car which made the New Yerk-San Francisco trip in 115 days. While not one of the record making ships the Rosario and her first master belonged to the clipper class, which deserves definition.
"Clean, long, smooth as a smelt," is the classic defini- tion. "Sharp, arching head. Thin hollow bow; convex sides ; light, round and graceful stern. A genuine East Indiaman or Californian. Aloft, large built, iron-banded lower masts; taut tapering smaller masts, long-proportioned spars from lower to skysails yards. Above board she towers up with strong, fibrous arms spreading a cloud of canvas to the gale."
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But it took a clipper captain to make a ship a clipper ship. "It took a hundred years to build the clippers. It took a generation of undiluted hell to develop the men to sail them. Out of the storm and stress and terrible drive came the fine gold of the sea-quiet-spoken, self-possessed men, under whose unruffled surface played panther sinews and whip- cord muscles, and in whose hearts the thought of fear never wakened-men who, by sheer vital force, could cow a score of the most desperate characters that ever wasted good salt horse. Such were the men who sailed the clipper ships."
After the Rosario the Hood yard built the 229-ton bark Fanny Major for Captain H. B. Major. This was followed by the ship William Nelson, 1000 tons, the largest vessel up to that time laid down in Somerset. She was built for the New York and Liverpool trade under the supervision of the famous Charles Cheever who was to sail her.
Then came the Raven. Nearly finished when the Rip Van Winkle was launched in 1851, the Raven was of 712 tons, 158 feet in length and 32.8 feet beam, drawing 17 feet; and one of the smartest ships that ever sailed. In her first year, Captain William H. Henry sailed her from Boston on August 5 and arrived in San Francisco in 106 days. It does not appear that the Flying Cloud while in the San Francisco trade ever beat this but once. After reaching San Francisco on various trips from New York in 113 days, 106 days, and 112 days, the Flying Cloud made its high record of 89 days and eight hours. Captain J. E. Williams in the Andrew Jackson, made the trip in 89 days, four hours. And in 1854, according to the same authority, the Raven under Captain Henry Hanson cleared New York on February 23, stopped at Rio De Janeiro, cleared from Rio to San Francisco and arrived there in a net sailing time of 84 days. Perhaps it is because Somerset has never had story-tellers of ability equal to its shipbuilders that the fame of this record has never been spread. It appears to be unequalled.
What would have happened if the Raven and the Flying Cloud or the Andrew Jackson had sailed side by side with the same weather and the same winds cannot be known. But the
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records show that the Raven was the winner in one of the hardest-fought, closest and most interesting of the many races between New York and San Francisco.
To quote from Carl G. Cutler's account of this race in his splendid book, Greyhounds of the Sea :-
"By all odds the closest and most interesting race to California during the year 1851 was that of the Sea Witch, Typhoon and Raven. The Sea Witch under Fraser sailed from New York on the 1st of August, followed the next day by the 1600-ton Typhoon commanded by Charles H. Salter of Portsmouth. The Raven, smallest of the three, sailed from Boston on the 5th in charge of Captain William H. Henry.
"It was a hard-fought contest in which first one ship and then another had the advantage. On the 28th of August, off the Brazils, the Typhoon came dead into the wake of the Raven. Both ships made all possible sail and the Typhoon gradually drew ahead. As they closed in on Cape Horn the Raven and Sea Witch were sailing on even terms with the Typhoon two days astern. Off the Horn the two little clip- pers fought it out tack by tack, with the Typhoon, helped by her greater size, slowly drawing up to them. Up the Pacific they went, both ships gaining again on the Typhoon, and the Sea Witch increasing her lead over both. They crossed the Equator with the Sea Witch two days ahead of the Raven and four days ahead of the Typhoon.
"On the long close-hauled stretch from the Line to the Golden Gate the Raven and Typhoon began to overhaul the Sea Witch. Nevertheless it was a race right up to San Fran- cisco Heads. Five hundred miles from port the luck of the Sea Witch deserted her. She ran into a belt of calms and light airs which resulted in her taking five days to cover a distance she should have made in two. At the last moment both her competitors slipped by her, the Typhoon entering the harbor on the 18th, the Raven on the 19th and the Sea Witch on the 20th of November.
"By virtue of her later start the Raven emerged the winner, her time being 106 days, as against the 107 and 110 days of the Typhoon and Sea Witch respectively. It was a
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notable victory, since the Typhoon was not only double the Raven's size but had already proved herself to be of cham- pionship calibre, as her record run from Liverpool testified, while it seems to have been the only instance where the Sea Witch was ever headed by a ship approaching her own tonnage.
"Moreover the Raven's margin of victory would have been even greater if she had not lost her maintopmast three days before reaching her destination. It was estimated that this accident cost her two full days."
The Raven shares with two other Somerset-built ships, the Archer and the Governor Morton, the honor of top rank among the great clippers of the greatest clipper period. John A. Burgess made the San Francisco run in the Morton in 104 days, including a 12-day setback off the Horn. Captain George Thomas got the Archer there in 106 days and made the amazing time of 127 days from Shanghai to London in the Archer in 1852. But the Raven was Somerset's best.
Crocker and Warren of New York owned the Archer and the Raven. The Raven was condemned at Rio De Janeiro in 1863, sold, and repaired as a bark. She was last traced as the bark Bessie under Spanish register in 1875.
THE CLIPPER GOV. MORTON -- From Painting in The Burgess House
CLIPPER SHIPS II
F "OLLOWING the Raven down the ways at the Hood yard came the Greenfield, also sailed by Hy Wakeman for New York owners. She was 562 tons; and the Pathfinder, 378 tons, Captain James N. Reed, for New York owners was even smaller. The Pathfinder's first trip to San Francisco was 151 days, but she suited Captain Reed who on his arrival there joined the firm of Ogden and Haynes in buying her for operation in Pacific waters.
The great Governor Morton, 1430 tons, was next. The Governor Morton, was a Somerset enterprise in other ways than in her building. Although one-half owned in New York by Silas K. Everett and E. B. Brown, the balance was owned in Somerset and vicinity : in Somerset, John A. Burgess 1-16; James M. Hood 18-80; in Taunton, Marcus Morton 1-16, Nathaniel Morton 1-16; in Fall River Jonathan W. Lindsey 1-80; in Providence Nathan B. Hall 1-80, and in Newport, William H. King 1-16.
Captain John A. Burgess was signed as her master from the time the contract was let and was her superintendent of construction. She was launched on a bright October morning of 1852. It was a gala occasion, later described by Henry T. Buffington, who was present, as follows:
"She was launched before being rigged. It was a notable event. Preparations had been made for a large number of people and a huge clambake was prepared for the invited guests. The steamer Bradford Durfee was chartered by Fall River people to take them to the launching. Fully 5000 people, in all, were present.
"All the morning the sounds were heard of mauls clear- ing away staging or driving home wedges and of the shouts of men giving the necessary orders. At length the last wedges were driven home. Then silence. Then the final order to split out the last block was given.
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" The noble ship, scarcely moving at first, gathered speed and slid down the ways until her element was reached with a bound as if she were a mighty thing of life. Startled at first by the mighty shout of the spectators she was lulled to quiet by the steamers' whistles which welcomed her to her proper element."
The dinner. was spread in the steam mill. Speeches were made by ex-Governor Morton and by John S. Brayton, at that time a member of the governor's council. The Governor Morton was sparred and rigged at Eddy's wharf, then towed to New York and sailed in December under Captain Burgess on her first voyage to San Francisco. This first run began on February 7. of 1853 and required 123 days. The next year she made her phenomenal trip of 104 days, including 12 days delayed by headwinds off Cape Horn. In 1856, when she had been transferred to the command of Captain John Charles Berry the Governor Morton made a passage between Melbourne, Australia and Callao, the port of Lima, Peru, in 311/2 days, considered to be the all-time sailing record for that run. In that year Captain Burgess was sailing the Challenger in the tea trade and made a famous run of 109 days from Hong Kong to Deal, England, though this record was several times surpassed.
: As the Governor Morton approached completion the smart clipper Archer was begun being laid down so close to the Morton that the equipment to service one vessel was handy for the other. She was built for the East India trade and her building supervised by Captain David Bursley who had been selected as her master. She was launched in 1852 and towed to New York where her owners had her sparred and rigged. Some of her trips from New York to San Fran- cisco were 146 days, in 1853; 106 days in 1854; 135 days in 1856; 127 days in 1857, and 110 days in 1859. She was a standard for clippers of her tonnage, which was 1096, and a figure on the sea for 27 years until she foundered, February 12, 1880, on the way from New York to Havre.
The Rip Van Winkle, 1095 tons, followed. The model of this ship as it came from the hands of Stephen Dickinson
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is now in the possession of Charles Simmons. She was built for Eagle and Hazard of New York and captained by Elisha Baker. Her launching was celebrated by a grand ball, held in the hall over the old School Street school. "The floor man- agers for this ball were Captain James M. Hood, John Bowers, William Lawton Slade, Avery P. Slade, Cyrus M. Wheaton and F. Oliver Smith. The year was 1853.
The William Mason, 200 tons, for Captain N. S. Staples of Taunton, was next from the Hood yard; followed by the schooner Mary and Susan for Captain Surbinas P. Marble of Somerset. This Surbinas was a man of great enterprise, founder of a steamboat line to Albany, and brother of Joseph G. Marble, merchant and coastal trade who was a leading figure of the town in these and following years. Joseph was a silent partner of James M. Hood in the financing of the ship-yard and in respect of some of its contracts an active one.
The yard now secured contracts for four United States Revenue Cutters of 150 tons each, which were: christened the James C. Campbell. the Robert Mcclellan, the J. C. Dobbing and the Caleb Cushing. These were followed by five lightships of 232 tons each, the Rough and Ready, the Minot's Ledge, the Sandy Hook, the Rattlesnake Shoal; and the Suckernessett Shoal, 150 tons.
Two ships were launched at the Hood yard in 1853. One was the Skylark, 1029 tons, built for Crocker and Warren of New York for their Hamburg line and captained by William W. Henry. She was sold at Hamburg in 1865, and went under German registry with a name not known. The other was the Mischief, 560 tons.
The Mischief was prophetically named.[. She was unusually narrow in design and heavily sparred. Observers commented on this. She was built of hard pine instead of oak. Critics said that made her too heavy. As she approached the date of her launching the comment of wiseacres had effect and they delayed the day to put sixty tons of ballast in her. Finally on a bright morning, full sparred and rigged, she was started down the ways. In the water she moved
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just far enough into the river to have room, and capsized, spilling her deckload of men and women guests into the water. Her hatches being open, in half an hour she had sunk in the deep water just off the flats.
Captain Surbinas P. Marble took charge of the salvage using the yard's earliest schooner, the Empire State. He dumped a large load of ballast in her hold, then rigged tackles to her topmast head and volunteers worked all night to haul her upright where morning found her, roped between two smaller vessels. More ballast was put in and she was towed to New York where she was conditioned for the San Francisco service. Hopes that the Mischief would prove fast were never realized. She made a creditable record, however, with 130 days from New York to San Francisco. and was there sold. W. H. Merrill and Martin Townshend were her masters.
One more vessel came from the Hood ways in early 1854: the bark Escort, 575 tons, built for Captain Talman B. Wakeman of Southport, Connecticut, and sailed by him, but not reckoned among the clippers. Beside her as she started down the ways was growing a mighty ship of 1940 tons. This vessel was so large that while her stern was close to the water's edge on the eastern boundary of the yard her bowsprit reached out over Main Street where the old Mt. Hope office now is, with carriages and persons on the side- walk passing to and fro beneath it. On September 21, 1854, this unfinished ship took fire and the resulting conflagration wiped out the Hood shipyard, all surrounding buildings, including the James M. Hood home, and the James M. Hood business.
The decline of the clipper and other changes in ocean trade, together with the approaching depression of 1857, were already evident and Hood never rebuilt. S. F. Dick- inson, who had been Hood's designer and master carpenter, endeavored to carry on for a while on his own account. He built the schooner Martha Wrightington, 166 tons, for Cpatain George E. Thatcher of Dennis and a schooner Mina Sheffers for New York owners. But Somerset's day of the clipper ships was done.
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Stephenson F. Dickinson was the most gifted builder of ships the town has known. It was to him that the brilliance of the Somerset clippers must be credited. His method of designing a clipper's hull is still remembered. When he had put together with screws the number of layers or lamina- tions of thin wood necessary for the carving out of a hull model, it is said he would lay it on the floor and with a sharp axe hew the pattern with no guide but hand and eye until it was perfect.
Working under him or beside him as assistant master carpenter was another ship designer of rare ability, Joseph C. Terry of Fall River. Terry retired from the Hood works to set up for himself in Fall River where he built the famous schooners David A. Brayton, D. M. Anthony, Carrie S. Hart, William T. Hart and others. Following the Civil War, Joseph C. Terry returned to Somerset, with his son Walter, to become a member of the firm of Terry and Bealky. Later, he retired from this firm and opened the last of several ship- yards he operated in Fall River, near the east end of Brightman Street bridge where the ferryboat Weetamoe ended her days, as told in the chapter on Slade's Ferry.
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