USA > New Jersey > The New Jersey coast in three centuries; history of the New Jersey coast with genealogical and historic-biographical appendix, Vol. I > Part 47
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The beginning of iron mining led to the building of what was called the Durham boat, which differed from the scow in being larger, flat-bot- tomed and rounded at bow and stern, and was used for transporting ore to Philadelphia. It was in these two classes of boats that Washington made his famous passage across the Delaware river.
Before the days of steamboats, what were known as market sloops were sailed between the Raritan Bay ports and New York. These ves- sels carried what produce the farmers had to sell, such as hay, potatoes, . apples and cider : also may a pail of butter made by the farmers' wives. in oak pails of ten to fifteen pounds, the handle of which had their initials carved upon it. Some of this butter was equal to the creamery produc- tions of the present day, and was eagerly sought for by the city purchasers.
The market or sailing day was quite a lively time. The landing was. crowded with the wagons and carts of the farmers bringing their products for shipment, and the stores did a thriving business. Many people availed themselves of these vessels to visit the city. The time of sailing was always at night, at such hour as wind and tide favored. The accommodations on these boats were very small. There were only four berths on each side of the main cabin, and as many in the after cabin for women. It was expected to make the trip in the night, and to arrive at the dock in the morning, but on many occasions the sloops had not accomplished more than half the distance when morning came.
In the later colonial days large numbers of open boats designed for fishing purposes were built at various coast points from Raritan Bay to Cape May and were known as whale-boats. During the Revolutionary war, craft of this description but of larger build came into vogue, and nearly every coast neighborhood where was an inland stream had its asso- ciation of men who owned and manned such a vessel. The boat was usually about thirty feet in length, pointed at bow and stern to facilitate readiness of movement by avoidance of turning, and with high gunwales in order to admit of carrying large loads. The material was /cedar, and the boat was so light that a few men could conveniently carry it into the woods for concealment. The necessity for thus ensuring its safety lay in the fact that, particularly in Raritan Bay, the British armed boats kept the
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coast industriously patrolled. The crew of the whaleboat usually con- sisted of fifteen men, selected for their physical strength, endurance and courage. They were trained to row noiselessly, and were able to drive their boat at a speed of twelve miles an hour. Each man was armed with a cutlass and pistols. The command was vested in one who was at once helmsman aboard the boat and captain ashore. Many daring feats were performed by such crews.
In 1778 a crew of thirteen men whose homes were near Middletown Point (now Matawan) in Monmouth county, launched their boat about midnight on June 14th, and in dense darkness, with every indication of an impending storm, rowed to Staten Island, and thence to a point near where is now Fort Hamilton. Two men were left in charge of the boat, and the remainder of the party went over to Flatbush, and to the residence of Mayor Matthews, who was absent, and thus escaped capture. However, they took four of his negro slaves. The crew then captured Major Mon- crieffe, of the British army, and a Mr. Bache. With their six prisoners they returned to their boat, and rowed back to their rendezvous, where they arrived by daylight, having traveled more than fifty miles.
In May, 1778, Captain Peter Anderson, in an armed boat manned by sixteen men, captured and brought into Toms River the British sloop "Hazard," laden with beef and pork.
Captain Baker Hendricks and Luther Baldwin ( March 15, 1781) with a small whale-boat crew went to Staten Island, where they surprised "a sloop armed with two three pounders, two blunderbusses, and manned with five hands," and as the vessel was aground stripped her of arms, sails, rig- ging, cable, anchor and long boat.
January 3, 1782, William Green and Joseph Edwards, with the whale- boat "Unity" recaptured the merchant vessel "Betsy," which had been taken by a British cruiser.
Sich instances could be multiplied, but these suffice to indicate the usefulness of the whale-boats to the patriot cause, and the constant dismay and fear which they occasioned in the British camps.
Prior to the Revolutionary war the forks of Egg Harbor was a chief place of maritime industry. One who visited Tuckerton in 1823 is quoted in "Watson's Annals" as "saying that in the time of his grandfather the river was filled with masted vessels. It was a place rich in money. As farming was but little attended to, taverns and boarding-houses were filled with comers and goers. Hundreds of men were engaged in the swamps cutting cedar, and saw mills were numerous, always cutting cedar and pine boards. Many shipyards were there, where vessels were built and loaded out to the West Indies. New York, Philadelphia and the southern and
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eastern cities received their chief supplies of shingles, boards and iron from this place. The trade in iron castings was very great. The numerous workmen, all without dependence on the soil, required constant supplies of beef, pork, flour, groceries, etc., from abroad. Even the women wore more imported apparel than in any other country places. Merchants from New York and Philadelphia went there occasionally in such numbers that the inns and boarding-houses could not contain them, and they had to be distributed among private houses. On such occasions they would club and have a general dance, and other like entertainments. The vessels from New York and New England on trading voyages were numerous before the Revolution. The inlet was formerly the best on the coast, and many ves- sels destined for Philadelphia, in the winter, because of the ice in the Delaware, made into Egg Harbor River, and there sold out their cargoes to traders from New York and Philadelphia.
Many of the vessels built on the coast, sloops and schooners, which were engaged in peaceable commerce prior to the Revolutionary war, were transformed into privateers when the struggle for liberty began, and others were hurriedly constructed for a similar purpose. In both instances, as a rule, the builder and commander was the same person. In some cases, doubtless, the desire for gain was the more powerful incentive, but the greater number of the seamen who engaged in these undertakings were as worthy of praise as were their fellows in the regular service. As a matter of fact, these privateers were invaluable to the embryo American government, which was destitute of means for the creation of a regular navy. In the necessity of the case, through the British occupation of New York and the strict surveillance of the adjacent waters maintained by the British fleet, the privateersmen of the New Jersey coast were a most efficient marine force, and they continually harrassed British commerce, bringing their prizes into Toms River and Little Egg Harbor, and from these ports the captured merchandise was wagoned into the interior for use by the patriot army and for sale to the people. In these undertakings the privateersmen displayed the greatest daring and superb courage, and many of their deeds were worthy the glowing pen of a Marryat or a Cooper. Full record of their achievements is not within the province of this work, and the instances narrated hereafter are simply given by way of illustration.
Little Egg Harbor was called by the British "a nest of rebel pirates." At one time as many as thirty American privateer sloops were there or near by, laying in wait for prizes. On August 29, 1778, the eight-gun sloop "Susannah," of Egg Harbor, commanded by Captain Stoeker, with thirty-five men. attacked the British ten-gun sloop "Emerald." The "En- erald" suffered the loss of her commander and several of her crew, but
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succeeded in covering the safe retreat of two merchant convoy vessels, and then effected her own escape. One man was killed and several were wounded on the "Susannah."
This and other daring feats brought down upon Egg Harbor a fleet of twenty British vessels in October following. The ships were unable to cross the bar, and sent inshore a number of their boats, and effected the burning of the fort and shipping at Chestnut Neck, as related elsewhere in this work.
The privateersmen were in nowise discouraged by this event, but rather redoubled their efforts. Six weeks later a vessel commanded by Captain Stevens captured the British schooner "Two Friends," of six guns and twelve swivels, manned by a crew of twenty-two men.
April 25, 1779, Captain Taylor, commanding the schooner "Mars," boarded and captured a British packet mounting fourteen guns, and bring- ing a large mail from England. He fell in with a fleet of twenty-three sail convoyed by two war vessels, which gave him chase and recaptured his prize. The "Mars," however, escaped.
June 23, 1779, an open sailing boat, the "Skunk," of Egg Harbor, mounting two guns and having a crew of twelve men, captured her nine- teenth prize, a vessel laden with a valuable cargo. This same daring little vessel, under Captain Snell, on one occasion bore down on what appeared to be a large merchantman, and discharged into her a gun. In an instant the strange ship opened her ports, revealing herself as a seventy-four gun man of war. She discharged a broadside, and, in the language of John Golden, who was aboard the "Skunk," "the water flew around us like ten thousand whale spouts." The sails and rigging of the boat were badly cut up, but by dint of hard rowing she escaped, and, marvelously, without loss of life.
The brig "Fame," commanded by Captain William Treen, of Egg Harbor, was among the vessels of that time which were fitted out to protect the home coast and to prey upon British commerce. The vessel effected numerous captures, and brought into port several of greater size and value than herself. February 22, 1781, she had returned from such a successful expedition, and lay at anchor in Great Egg Harbor, all but four of her crew of thirty-two men being aboard. The men were gleefully celebrat- ing their achievement, when a sudden gale arose, capsizing the vessel, and twenty of the number came to death by drowning or exposure to the intense cold. Captain Treen was ashore at the time of this disaster, and lived to acquit himself gallantly in various daring enterprises, and to cap- ture many valuable prizes. On one occasion he was rin down by two British frigates, both of which passed immediately over his vessel. The
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sinking sailors grasped the rigging of the passing ships, but their hands were hacked at by the cutlasses of their foes, and they went to their deaths in the sea. Treen and a boy escaped, but only to be confined in the dread- ful New Jersey prison ship.
During the war with Great Britain in 1812, another generation of privateersmen came out from the same and adjacent ports, in home built vessels. and worked great injury to the enemy. These hardy sailors were curiously resourceful in time of necessity. On returning to port, in order to escape the eye of the British commander off the shore, they would fasten pine tree branches into their rigging, and thus lose themselves to sight against the foliage of the forest.
After the Revolutionary war a better class of vessels came to be con- structed for the coasting and West Indies trades. Tuckerton, then a port of entry, was one of the principal shipbuilding points, and there probably originated the brig, which became a favorite build. The first large vessel of this rig there built was the "Loranier," which was fitted out for the for- eign trade by the Shrouds family, and sailed by Captain Hammond, who was a son-in-law of the senior Joseph Shrouds. Ebenezer Tucker, the Bart- letts, the Pharos and other maritime men of Tuckerton, built many ves- sels in these times and made shipbuilding the principal industry of the place. Many vessels, but nearly all for the coasting trade, were also con- structed at Waretown, Forked River, Barnegat and Toms River, under the Falkinburgs, Birdsalls, Holmes, Gulicks, Grants, Jeffreys and Rogers, and other early builders. The size of vessels was gradually increased from three hundred to eight hundred tons, costing from $6,000 to $7,000.
At Mays Landing not less than one hundred vessels were built from native forests and local iron foundries during the half century beginning with 1830. There were two shipyards, and in one year four ships of no incon- siderable size were built. The hulk of one of these, the "Weymouth," built by Richard S. Colwell, about 1870, now lies in the river at Catawba, a few miles below the spot where she was built. One of the last ships built at Weymouth Was the barkentine "Jennie Sweeney," yet owned and sailed by Captain S. S. Hudson, who was the builder.
Ship building at Red Bank began in so early a day that dates are not of record. Esek White and others ran the sloop "Fair Play" in the New York trade in 1809. In 1832 Charles G. Allen built the "Catherine Al- len," a schooner of thirty tons, the "Mary Emma," of seventy tons, in 1835, and the "Margaret Klotz," of forty-five tons, in 1837. Vessels were also built by John Pintard and Joseph Parker about 1833. In 1845 William Remsen built two schooners, the "Henry Remsen," of one hundred and. forty tons, and the "Sarah Elizabeth," of eighty tons, and these vessels
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were run in the interests of his milling and mercantile enterprises. In 1837 James P. Allaire began running the steamboat "Isis" in the New York traffic, and prior to 1850 Thomas Hunt sailed the steamboat "Con- fidence." In 1852 the Red Bank Steamboat Company built the "Thomas Hunt," and later the "Thomas Haight" and the "Alice Price," while the Middletown and Shrewsbury Transportion Company built the steam- boats "Golden Gate" and "Ocean Wave." These companies retired from business four years later.
About 1808, at Eatontown, Joseph Parker built a schooner, the "Eaton- town," of thirty tons, at a place well inshore. When finished it was drawn by oxen and horses a distance of one mile to the stream, three days being consumed in the labor, which was witnessed by great throngs of people who were attracted by the novel sight.
Vessel building was one of the first industries at Keyport. In 1831 John Cottrell began in yards on Brown's Point, and the business was con- tinued by his son after his death. Shortly afterward shipyards were es- tablished by B. C. Terry, first at Brown's Point and then at Lockport, where the business was afterwards carried on by his widow. At one time he had on the stocks three first class ferry boats and two steamboats.
In 1832 the sloop "New Jersey." of fifty tons, was built at Compton's Creek, eight miles below Keyport, and sailed in the New York trade under command of James Hopping. About the same time the Keyport Dock Company built a number of sloops and other vessels for the same trade, and added others as business increased. In 1839 the same company built the steamship "Wave," and in 1851 another steamship, the "Minnie Cor- nell," which carried passengers as well as freight. In 1846 the Chinga- rora Dock Company built the "Golden Rule" sloop and other vessels. In 1865 the Farmers' Transportation Company was organized, and the steamboat "Holmdel" was built.
New Brunswick, which was considered the head of navigation on the Raritan River, was from the earliest day of water traffic, and for many years, a building place for small coasting vessels.
By 1860 wooden shipbuilding had practically ceased, owing to the exhaustion of suitable timber, and the substitution of iron for wood in hull construction.
In 1890 there were in the entire State of New Jersey, according to the report of the State Board of Labor and Industries, only twelve ship- building yards, employing an aggregate number of 526 men. These were mostly located in Camden and Elizabeth. In the latter named place are the yards of the Crescent Shipbuilding Company (Lewis Nixon) : al- though not as large as some other shipbuilding plants in the country, their
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reputation for good work and promptness in carrying out contracts is of the very best. It was here the "Bancroft" and "Annapolis," both fine gunboats, were built, and the wonderful submarine torpedo boat "Hol- land" was also constructed at this yard. More than one hundred craft, large and small, have been launched within ten years. The Crescent Com- pany have recently completed one monitor and several torpedo boats and destroyers. About 500 men are at present employed in the yard. Three shipbuilding yards were in Perth Amboy engaged in boat building, and employing in all about 400 people. In the coast region proper there was preserved only a faint suggestion of one of its earliest as well as one of its most important industries, in the existence of a single shipbuilding yard -one at Keyport, employing only ten people. At various points, however, there are individuals who build a small style of pleasure craft and fishing boats, but on so unimportant a scale as to make no appearance in statisti- cal works.
To Cape May shipbuilders belong the honor of designing and putting to practical use the famous centre-board, which made American yachts the superior of every pleasure craft afloat, and enabled them for during a period of forty years to bear off the honors in every international yacht race.
It was deemed a notable achievement when the lee-board was de- signed. This was a heavy board, or two thicknesses of board laid together, attached to the side of the vessel, made fast at one end, and the other end lowered by tackle into the water as necessity might demand for preserv- ing an equilibrium. The device was awkward and inefficient. In 1811 what is now known as the centre-board was designed by Jacocks Swain and his two sons, Henry and Joshua Swain. They retained, however, the name of lee-board, and under this name they were granted letters patent April 10, 1811. Unfortunately, the inventors reaped little benefit from their device, for their application covered only a lee-board to be built through the keel, and this was evaded by other makers who built the lee- board between the keel and a keelson.
Joseph Francis, of Toms River, was perhaps the most notable boat builder of his day. In 1830 he built a row-boat, which was subsequently presented to the Czar of Russia, and on its being put in the water at Cowes it was pronounced by British sailors to be the handsomest and swiftest of its class afloat. He afterward designed and built a wooden life-boat pat- terned somewhat after the whale-boat, but which afforded buoyancy and immunity against capsizing by masses of cork permanently fixed in the bow and stern, and by air chambers laid along the gunwales and under the thwarts. In 1843 he built the first corrugated metal life-boat, and
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he formed a company for its manufacture in Brooklyn, and gave his atten- tion to this business during the remainder of his life. In 1844 he invented his life-car, which had its first and successful practical test at the wreck of the "Ayrshire." The two last named inventions were fittingly recognized by various European governments and by benevolent and commercial or- ganizations at home and abroad, while the Congress of the United States struck in his honor and presented to him the most massive gold medal ever awarded by that body to any individual. This medal was presented to the Smithsonian Institution by the venerable inventor shortly before his death.
CHAPTER XVII.
THE WRECKS OFF THE COAST.
The Atlantic coast of New Jersey has ever been famous in maritime annals as the most dangerous and fatal on American waters to shipping and seafaring men, even surpassing in this respect the reefs of Florida.
Its general direction is from the northeast to the southwest, a dis- tance of 1273g statute miles from the north point of Sandy Hook to the southern extremity of Cape May. Along the greater part of this ocean front, the shore shelves gradually at a rate of descent of about six feet to the mile. At a distance varying between three hundred and eight hun- dred feet from the visible beach, the depth of water rarely exceeds two feet. Hence, a vessel driven inland by stress of weather, must inevitably be stranded far from land, from which it is separated by an intervening stretch of water too shallow to float any but the lightest of boats ordinarily carried by ships. During the winter months, particularly, fierce north- easterly winds rage for long intervals, and are often accompanied by that thick heavy weather which is so deceiving to the sailor, obscuring land- marks by day and the glare of the lighthouse by night. These are the peril- ous conditions that confront a great proportion of the immense commerce, domestic and foreign, which seeks the metropolitan harbor of the United States.
Small cause for wonder is there, then, that the New Jersey shores, long known as "the graveyard of the sea," are strewn with the relics of ships scattered along the shore, embedded in the sands and lodged far up the in- lets, whither they have been borne by wind and tide. Statistics fail to convey an adequate idea of the aggregate of sea disasters. Such state- ments as exist, with reference to the earlier years, are certainly inexact in some particulars, and more probably understate rather than overstate the facts. Jacob W. Morris, of Long Branch, estimated that prior to the year 18.15 fifteen wrecks occurred annually between Sandy Hook and Squan Beach. Dr. Reed, of Atlantic City, reported sixty-four vessels as having come on shore on the ten-mile stretch of Absecon Beach between
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VESSELS ASHORE NEAR OCEAN GROVE-THE SHIP "WINDEMERE" AND THE STEAMER "ST PAUL."
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1847 and 1856. In 1878 the Rev. Mr. Brown, of Point Pleasant, made a list of one hundred and twenty-five vessels wrecked in the preceding forty years on the twenty-four miles of coast between Manasquan Beach and Barnegat, and stated that this did not include all the disasters in that re- gion. According to Hon. William A. Newell, in his speech before Con- gress, August 3, 1848, there were known to have been wrecked on the coast of New Jersey, between Sandy Hook and Little Egg Harbor, be- tween April 12, 1839, and July 31, 1848, 25 ships, 48 brigs, 73 schooners, 8 barques, 2 sloops and 2 pilot boats, an aggregate of 158 vessels, and the disasters had been more numerous in the last year than in the preceding years, presumably owing to the greater number of vessels afloat. As to- the sacrifice of life, Mr. Newell was unable to form an accurate opinion, but as an indication of the fearful mortality he referred to the facts that during a severe storm in the spring of 1846 fifty-five dead bodies were thrown on the shore at one time, and that, when the ill-fated "Mexico" was lost, nearly all of the sixty people on board came to their death by drowning or from the intensely cold weather. Mr. Heston says that be- tween September, 1847, and January, 1856, sixty-four vessels came ashore on Absecon Beach and five vessels were there wrecked one single night.
At Harvey Cedars, a well known fishing resort just above the Life Saving Station of that name, the current sets in strongly toward the shore, and has not only wooed many a vessel to its last resting place on the sands, but has brought in many strange bits of wreckage, which tell their own story of disaster. These have been gathered by Davis White, the pro- prietor of a hotel in the vicinity, and piled up in a conglomerate heap be- yond the reach of the storm tides that sometimes sweep across the beach with resistless force. Immense spars, all sorts of rigging, blocks, anchors, chains, sails, etc., are piled up on one side, while on the other part of the heap can be found all sorts of articles, from a medicine chest to a child's cradle. The carved figure of a Norwegian maiden, the figure-head of a. foreign vessel wrecked here several years ago, stands out in bold relief. It is life size, and the carving is especially fine. Relic hunters without num- ber have made all sorts of alluring offers for it, but Mr. White refuses to part with it. The 'longshoremen say the figure-head is "lucky" and if it is taken away from the beach disaster will surely follow.
The time will never come when shipwrecks attended by loss of life and destruction of property will be unknown. But disasters at sea have be- come relatively less numerous, and have been less costly in life and treasure during recent years, and particularly in the last quarter century. Iron hulls and steam propulsion more safely defy the elements than did the old sailing ship; the lighthouse service appears perfect, and the storm sig-
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