USA > New York > New York City > The story of the city of New York > Part 25
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27
As fine specimens of naval architecture, however, the packet ships were quite thrown in the shade by the Canton and California clippers of 1840-55. The clipper ships originated in Baltimore * about 1840, in answer to the demands of the China tea trade. Merchants found that tea deteriorated in quality with every day spent on the ocean-besides a cargo was of such great value that every day saved repre- sented quite an item in interest and insurance- hence the demand for swift ships. The first clippers
So states Mr. F. C. Sanford, of Nantucket, an authority on American ships and shipbuilding. Mr. Sheldon, in his article on "The Old Packet and Clipper Service " (Harper's, January, 1884), says that the first clipper was William H. Aspinwall's Rainbow, built about 1843 by Smith and Dimon.
"THE DREADNOUGHT."
423
424
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
built in New York were for those . famous China merchants, William H. Aspinwall, N. L. & G. Griswold, and A. A. Low & Brother, and were small, swift vessels of from 600 to 900 tons burthen. In 1849, however, came the California gold excite- ment and brought at once the golden age of the clipper service. For one half the distance to China -San Francisco-a return cargo could be secured. This comprised bulky articles, passengers' baggage, provisions, machinery of the mines, etc., and created a demand for larger ships. This brought into exist- ence those triumphs of the shipbuilder's art-the Challenge, of 2,000 tons, built by William Webb in 1851 for N. L. & G. Griswold; the Invincible, of 2,150 tons; the Comet, of 1,209 tons; and the Sword Fish, of 1, 150 tons. Other famous sea rovers followed : the Tornado, the Flying Cloud, the Black Squall, the Sovereign of the Seas, and others, so that of the 157 vessels of all grades that entered San Francisco in 1852, 70 were clippers. Mr. Sheldon, in his article before referred to, has given so spirited an account of the exploits of the clippers that we copy it as the best that can be said on the subject :
"That clipper epoch was an epoch to be proud of. And we were proud of it. The New York newspapers abounded in such head lines in large type as these : 'Quickest Trip on Record,' 'Shortest Passage to San Francisco,' 'Unparalleled Speed,' 'Quickest Voyage Yet,' 'A Clipper as Is a Clipper,' 'Extraordinary De- spatch,' 'The Quickest Voyage to China,' ' The Contest of the Clippers,' 'Great Passage from San Francisco, 'Race Round the World.' The clipper ship Surprise,
425
SHIPS AND SAILORS.
built in East Boston by Mr. Hall, and owned by A. A. Low & Bro., having sailed to San Francisco in ninety- six days-then the shortest time on record (Mr. W. H. Aspinwall's Sea Witch had run the course in ninety-seven days)-a San Francisco journal said : 'One of our most distinguished merchants made a bet with a friend some weeks since that the Surprise would make the passage in ninety-six days-just the time she has consumed to a day. Yesterday morning, full of confidence. he mounted his old nag, and rode over to the north beach to get the first glimpse of the looked-for clipper. The fog, how- ever, was rather thick outside, and after looking awhile he turned back to town, but had not arrived at his count- ing-room before he heard that the Surprise had passed the Golden Gate, and by eleven o'clock Captain Dumar- esq was in his old friend's counting-room on Sansome Street. She has brought 1,800 tons of cargo, which may be estimated at a value of $200,coo. Her manifest is twenty-five feet long.' Her greatest run was 284 miles in twenty-four hours, and she reefed her topsails but twice during the voyage of 16,308 miles. She soon left San Francisco for London, by way of Canton, and on reaching the English capital her receipts for freights had entirely paid her cost and running expenses, besides net- ting her owners a clear profit of $50,000. At Canton her freight for London was engaged at £6 sterling a ton, while the English ships were taking their freight at £3 and £4 a ton ; and this was the second season that the preference had been given to American ships at advanced rates, their shorter passages enabling shippers to receive prompt returns from their investments, to save interest, and to secure an early market. 'If ships,' said a Cali- fornia newspaper, 'can be built to make such trips as this, steamers for long passages will be at a discount. Cali-
426
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
fornia has done much toward the commencement of a new era in shipbuilding when the heavy, clumsy models of past days have given way to the new and beautiful one of the Surprise and others of the same build.' 'The Californians,' said a New York newspaper, 'are in ecsta- sies over our clipper ships, which come and depart like so many winged Pegasuses. There are now on the way to the Pacific, and ready to start for that portion of the world, as splendid vessels as the eye ever rested upon, and commanded by men whose knowledge of their pro- fession cannot be excelled, and each determined to do his utmost to be first in this clipper contest.'
" The whole country, indeed, was stirred by the beauty, the speed, and the triumphs of these American clippers. The Houqua, Captain Daniel Mckenzie, built by Brown, & Bell for A. A. Low & Bro., made the trip from Shang- hai to New York, in 1850, in eighty-eight days, then the shortest ever made between these ports. The Samuel Russell, Captain N. B. Palmer, owned by the same firm, sailed in one day in 1851, on her voyage home from Whampoa, China, 318 miles, or thirteen and a quarter miles an hour,-a speed greater than had been obtained by any ocean steamer. For thirty days in succession, from the 8th of November to the 7th of December, she averaged 226 miles a day, covering in that period 6,722 miles, or one half the entire distance between China and New York. On another occasion, while going to Canton, she sailed 328 miles in one day. 'Now, sir,' wrote one of her skippers, 'I humbly submit if that is not a feat to boast of-if that is not an achievement to entitle a ship to be classed among clippers ?' On her return voyage she had the honor of reporting in New York the news of her own arrival at Canton. The Flying Cloud, 1,782 tons, built by Donald McKay, of East Boston, commanded by
427
SHIPS AND SAILORS.
Captain Josiah P. Creesy, of Marblehead; went, in 1851, to San Francisco from New York in eighty-four days- the fastest trip ever made by a sailing vessel, and twelve days shorter than that of the Surprise. Lieutenant Maury, of the United States Naval Observatory at Wash- ington, reported that the greatest distance 'ever per- formed from noon to noon on the ocean was 43314 stat- ute miles, by the clipper ship Flying Cloud, in her cele- brated passage' of eighty-four days from New York to San Francisco, 'which yet stands unequalled.' The Northern Light, of Boston, left San Francisco on the 13th of March, 1853, and reached Boston on the 29th of May following, thus sailing more than 16,oco miles in seventy- seven days, an average of over 200 miles a day. Splen- did is the record of the Sovereign of the Seas, commanded by Captain L. McKay, and built by his brother Donald Mckay. This noble vessel left New York for San Fran- cisco in August, 1851, with freight, for carrying which she would receive $84,000-a marvellous sum to-day-a barrel of flour on her arrival selling for $44, and when off Valparaiso in a storm was dismasted, every thing above the mast-heads of her fore- and main-masts being carried away. In fourteen days she was rigged at sea, and proceeding on her way to California, reached her des- tination in 102 days from New York, in spite of the acci- dent and detention-the best passage ever made at that season of the year. Seventy feet of her fore-mast and main-mast were gone, and also four sails on each mast. Having discharged her cargo, the clipper sailed for Hon- olulu, and loaded with oil for New York, which she reached in eighty-two days-a passage never equalled. For 10,000 miles she sailed without tacking or wearing, and in ten consecutive days she made 3,300 miles. Load- ing again immediately for Liverpool, she left on a Satur-
428
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
day, the 18th of June, 1852. On Sunday, the 26th, she was becalmed on the Banks of Newfoundland ; but at mid- night a breeze sprung up, and on the following Saturday, at 5 o'clock P.M., she dropped anchor in the Mersey- another passage never equalled. She had sailed from the Banks to Liverpool in about five days and a half, and from New York to Liverpool in the unprecedented time of thirteen days and nineteen hours. One day she sailed 340 miles ; on the same day the Cunard steamer Canada, which had left Boston almost simultaneously with the Sovereign of the Seas, made only 306 miles. To-day, thirty years afterward, it is enlivening to read in the newspapers of that time the editorial articles on the splen- did performances of that splendid ship. But her story is not told yet. On the roth of May, 1853, Lieutenant M. F. Maury reported to the Hon. James C. Dobbin, Secre- tary of the Navy, that the clipper-ship Sovereign of the Seas,' 2,421 tons, on a voyage from San Francisco, had made 'the enormous run of 6,245 miles ' in twenty-two days, a daily average of 238.9 miles, and that the greatest distance traversed from noon of one day to the noon of the next day was 419 miles. After his illustrious per- formances on the ocean, Captain Mckay is now a ship- ping merchant in South Street, New York City. His brother, Donald McKay, the builder, died some time since in Boston. For the meritorious work of rigging his vessel at sea when dismasted off Valparaiso, Captain Mc- Kay was presented by Walter R. Jones, president of the Atlantic Mutual Insurance Company, on behalf of the underwriters, with a massive and costly silver dinner service.
"Captain Samuel Samuels became famous in the clipper Dreadnought, and it used to be said that with a strong wind nothing ever passed her,-not even a steamer.
-
SOUTH STREET IN THE CLIPPER PERIOD.
429
430
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
Built in Newburyport for Governor E. D. Morgan, Cap- tain Samuels, and others, she was named after the famous vessel in Admiral Nelson's fleet. her owners sending to England to get the right spelling of the name, which they found to be Dreadnought, and not Dreadnaught. Her keel was laid in June, 1853, and her first return trip from Liverpool made in February, 1854. On that voyage she scudded into celebrity by reaching Sandy Hook as soon as the Cunard steamer Canada, which had left Liverpool one day earlier, reached Boston. In 1859 she made the 3,000 miles from Sandy Hook to Rock Light, Liverpool, in thirteen days and eight hours ; and in 1860 went from Sandy Hook to Queenstown, 2,760 miles, in the unequal- led sailing time of nine days and seventeen hours. How often a first-class steamship has been longer in going the same distance ! "
Such were some of the triumphs of our early ma- rine ; and how galling to national pride the contrast between that day and this! In 1853, American ships securing cargoes in English home ports amid the fiercest competition. In 1888, almost every pound of America's exports afloat in British bottoms, and scarcely an American vessel in commission in the foreign trade.
75
XXII. -
MINOR EVENTS-1784-1860.
SOME minor events of interest in the period passed over remain to be noticed.
Soon after the close of the war, in May, 1784, King's College was re-chartered by the State of New York, under the title Columbia. It cannot be said to have been fairly reorganized, however, until 1787, when the first president under the new régime, Will- iam Samuel Johnson, was elected. He was a son of Dr. Johnson, the first president of King's, an able and scholarly man. De Witt Clinton, later famous in the annals of the State, was the first student. The college buildings continued on the original site until 1857, when they were found to be too far down town, and the present site, between Madison and Fourth Avenues and Forty-Ninth and Fiftieth streets, was chosen.
In 1790, the new Trinity Church, built on the site of the one burned in 1776, was dedicated with 'ap- propriate ceremonies. Washington and his family were present in the pew set apart for the President's use ; many other high officers of government were also present.
The city treasurer at this time was Daniel Pho-
431
432
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
nix, an eminent merchant and shrewd financier. During his term of office, the city issued the paper- money shown below-the first instance, we believe,
?0 NE PENN
Ore Perry.
~One 11+13+813 -? [ Penny. Printed by HUCK UnINE, New-York
ONE PENNTIY
+HOINTE & P'TENANTY!M
I Premife to pay the Bearer, on. Demand, One Penny, by Order of the Corporation of the City of New-York. February 20 1790.
Id. D Phoenix,
City Treafure"-
SIONE PENNY.1
« One Penny. KONE PENNY. [Id.
PENNY CURRENCY-1790.
of the issue of such currency by the corporation, although as early as 1771 the colony had issued ten-, five-, and two-pound notes, which became a cir- culating medium.
433
MINOR EVENTS.
The decade between 1800 and IS10 was marked by a growing interest in letters and in art. In 1804, the New York Historical Society was founded
WASHINGTON IRVING.
by Mayor De Witt Clinton, Judge Egbert Benson, and others. Four years later, in 1808, the American Academy of Fine Arts was incorporated, with Chan-
434
THIE STORY OF NEW YORK.
cellor Livingston as president, and the famous pain- ter, John Trumbull, as vice-president. In 1809, " The History of New York," by Diedrich Knick- erbocker, appeared, and was received with the great- est favor and enthusiasm. Busy merchants and lawyers read it by chapters in the pauses of busi- ness. Grave magistrates are even said to have taken it upon the bench with them. Sir Walter Scott, after reading it, wrote to a friend in New York that he had never seen any thing so closely re- sembling the style of Dean Swift as the annals of Diedrich Knickerbocker. Some pains were taken to preserve the secret of its authorship, but it soon leaked out that the author was a briefless barrister of the city-one Washington Irving-but twenty-six years of age, and who had never written any thing of note before, save some bright pieces in the Horn- ing Chronicle, and in a weekly journal called Salma- gundi, which made its appearance in 1807, and was edited and written chiefly by our author and his friend, James Kirke Paulding.
In 1812, the present City Hall, having been nine years in building, was completed. The same year war against Great Britain was declared, and the re- sources of the city were taxed to their utmost in raising troops, and fortifying her harbor against an expected attack by the British fleet. Within four months after the declaration of war, she also equipped and sent to sea twenty-six privateers, carrying 212 guns, and 2,239 men. In 1813, her harbor was blockaded by British war-vessels, and continued to be with more or less thoroughness until the treaty
PRESENT CITY HALL.
435
436
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
of peace at Ghent, December 24, 1814, put an end to the war.
Nearly all the victories of that war were gained on the ocean. On August 19, 1812, Commodore Isaac Hull, in the frigate Constitution, encoun- tered the British frigate Guerrière, off the mouth of the St. Lawrence River, and in a gallant action of fifteen minutes, captured his enemy. Six days before, Commodore David Porter, in the Essex, had captured the British sloop-of-war Alert, in an action lasting eight minutes. October 18th, of the same year, John Paul Jones, in the little Wasp, cap- tured the British sloop-of-war Frolic, and this was followed on the 25th by the capture of the British war frigate Macedonian by the frigate United States, under command of Commodore Decatur. New York honored the heroes of these victories. Her citizens presented swords to Commodore Hull and his officers. The corporation ordered for the Com- modore a richly embossed gold box, on which was engraved a picture of the action between the Consti- tution and Guerrière, and also asked him to sit for the portrait which now graces the Governor's Room ' in the City Hall. And on the 26th of December, at the moment that Commodore William Bain- bridge was adding another leaf to American naval laurels by his capture of the Java, off the Brazil coast, the citizens of New York gave a grand ban- quet in honor of the heroes, Hull, Jones, and Decatur. Five hundred guests sat down at the tables, which were spread in the City Hotel, on Broadway near Trinity Church, a famous hostelry of that day.
437
MINOR EVENTS.
Mayor De Witt Clinton presided, with Decatur on his right hand and Hull on his left. The room was " colonnaded round with the masts of ships entwined with laurel and bearing the flags of all the world." A miniature ship, flying the American flag at mast- head, was placed upon each table, and, covering one side of the room, was the main-sail of a ship, 33 x 16 feet, which was drawn back as the third toast, " Our Navy," was drunk, and revealed an immense trans- parency on which the three battles of Hull, Jones, and Decatur were depicted. Many patriotic toasts were drunken after this, and many patriotic speeches made in reply to them. Banquet songs, praising the achievements of American sailors, were also sung. A few weeks later-January 7, 1813,-at the same place, Decatur's gallant crew were honored with a banquet. Another red-letter day of this period was that on which Decatur, in the victorious United States, with the conquered Macedonian in his train, came sweeping through the Sound and East River into port. Thousands covered the river banks, the docks, the buildings, and shipping, and cheer after cheer mingled with the thunder of cannon in greeting the victors.
At the close of the War of 1812, New York con- tained about one hundred thousand people .* Her rapid progress northward toward Kingsbridge, level- ling the crags and filling the vales as she advanced, dates from this period. Then it was that old citi- zens, returning after a few years' residence abroad, found her transformed. Marble palaces and tempes stood on the site of former goat pastures. Crags
* The census of 1814 gave her ninety-two thousand.
438
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
and hills were levelled, ponds and marshes filled up. In the map of 1804, it will be seen that, at that time, Grand Street, west of Broadway, was far out of town, and that, on the east, the city was solidly built up but one block above it.
The Collect (marked 35 on the map) still lay in placid beauty, scene of boating parties in summer and of skating frolics in winter. As the city crept toward it (and, indeed, some time after it had leaped the low, flat marshes along the line of what is now Canal Street) many plans for removing the pond were broached and discussed. Some proposed draining it by a canal along the present Canal Street from the East to the North River ; others advocated filling its bed with rocks and clean earth exca- vated in the process of removing the crags above. The former expedient was at length adopted ; com- mencing in 1809 a drainage canal was dug through the marshes, and a street laid out on either side,. street and canal forming a spacious thoroughfare one hundred feet broad, and which naturally took the name of Canal Street. A double row of shade trees were set out along the canal, and the street was for years one of the finest in the city. But before this was accomplished, the city line had advanced far up the island, and by 1825 had reached Astor Place. I cannot better indicate the transformation since that day than by repeating the reminiscences of a gentle- man born nearly eighty years ago in this city, in- dulged in one mellow autumn day, as we rode slowly down Broadway from Astor Place :
"In 1825," he began, "all north of Astor Place was
REFERENCES
1 Federal Hall 2 St Paul's Church. 3 Trinity de + Old Presbyterian de 5.Exchange Market! 6 North Churche. T Vew Presbyterian de 8'St George's Chapel. 9 St Peters Church. 10 College
11 Seats Presbywck 12. Old Dutch_ 13.New. nº 0% 11. Jews Synagogue. 15 Bowling Green- 16 Methodist Ch 17 Baptist De 18 German Calvin De 19 Lutheran Dd 20 French 200 21 New Quaker Meet 22 Seceder DV 23 Moravian De 2+ Government. |Tags 25 Fly Marked 26 Oswego Da 27 Rear Do 28 Catharina DO 2 5 Bridewell 30 City i'llme Houfe 31. Prisen 32 Hospital 33 Theater
P
1.2.93
PLAN
3.79.
-of the
CITYof NEW-YORK
V
.3.7_Ł
-
- about-
Northi St
1804.
ZKAMM
·
CVinrch
C
Moor
uvineton Se
elancy
Bul
Grand.
KAmelander's
Dock
35
x anoy
S
10.11.1
Dey's Docx
GITH
4
Divisions
Harm.
Gull
Char
Rutgers
Union>
New Albany
$19
St
1
Crown It on Cortears
New St
OLIVER SP
Catharbu SP
New Z.z. Ferry
25
Pearl , St
Water S
From
Teck.Sn
ALOTES IS
Marconi: Why
Finnes WE
Luptons Ht
Butina SE
fachson's Pf
yarlar's wi
!Jones' we
WAIT!
Front
Litais Hi
Second Ward
Euchonoct
ndofields BY
albany Pier
Scale of 4000 Fren.
2000
3000
1000
3. Second Baptist ON 85.Fresh Water Porul 36 New Methodist Ch JT Bakers Tamony" Museum 38 Toiune Coffee House 39 Episcopal Charity Scheel 40 Belvedere # Chriflis Church 12 New Theater, 23 Custom House H Flin Staff 15 Bunker Hill
Bone's W !!
Courtlande St Dock or Ferry to Poules Hook,
Liberty St DA
Chathams
Lantevelt
Nicholas S
Lagle
OTIP'T AZaMO !!
s Jopunsy
15
10
Fishers I S
YOMOST
P.F.
Rhinelanderr
Stupyards
son
conard
Sixth Ward
covost
$9.4
NO SONH NO HLMON
e.27
$2.9.2
Part of Nafrau or Long Island
First Ward
Jarkel
AB
Cranes NÉ
Farmer's Wi
Fifth
Frankten Tor
perryaber sept
Byvanu's Up
Schermer horn
RIVER
Cons Island
Front
Hàtu Vês TẾ
12
-
--
439
MINOR EVENTS.
open country, a region of farms and farm-houses, gar- dens, and apple orchards. An old high-peaked barn stood on the present site of Grace Church, and above, quite up to the powder-house (now Union Square), there were but two dwellings, as I remember, old stone farm- houses with attics. Lafayette Place was not, and near where the Astor Library now stands, extending through from the Bowery to Broadway, and south nearly to Bond Street, was the Vauxhall Garden, a delightful spot, with flowers, and lawns, and shade trees, where the New Yorkers of 1825 resorted to see the fireworks, partake of cakes and ale, and hear the band play on summer evenings. Nearly opposite, in the triangular-shaped park formed by the intersection of Third and Fourth Avenues, stood Peter Cooper's grocery store, and more than one quart of blackberries have I exchanged there for the seductive taffy or bunch of raisins.
"Bleecker Street was my great blackberry preserve when a boy," he said, as we came opposite that thorough- fare. "What luscious berries grew beside the walls on either side, and roses-no such roses bloom nowadays ! Upper Broadway was then a country road : by 1830,. however, lower Broadway had become almost as crowded and noisy as now. I remember that when the Broadway stages were first put on-about 1830 I think-they were very popular and multiplied beyond calculation. Rival stage companies were quickly organized, and the street was filled with their vehicles. Jams at the corner of Fulton and Broadway were frequent, and what with the shouting of the drivers and hoarse commands of the policemen were very amusing. The street venders then were quite as numerous as now, and, I think, more pic- turesque and interesting. Some bore trays containing baked pears swimming in molasses, which they offered for
5
. LOWEST!
CARPETING
BROADWAY STAGES,
440
THE STORY OF NEW YORK.
sale ; others sold hot corn. The sandman was a verity in those days. The bar-rooms, restaurants, and many of the kitchens had sanded floors, and men in long white frocks with two-wheeled carts, peddling Rockaway sand, were familiar objects on the streets. Then there were the darkeys who sold bundles of straw for filling the beds, and an old blind man who sold door-mats made of picked tar rope. I knew a man in those days who ac- quired quite a fortune by peddling pure spring water about the city at two cents a pail. Sometimes we crossed the ferry to visit friends in Brooklyn. You would laugh at the ferry-boats of my earlier years. They had open decks with an awning stretched over them, and benches around the sides, and were propelled by horse power. From four to sixteen horses were required, and they walked around a shaft in the centre of the boat, turn- ing it as sailors turn a capstan, and this shaft by gearing turned the paddle-wheels."
As we came to City Hall Park my friend's ani- mation and interest increased.
. "The City Hall," he said, "then only a few years built, stood between two prisons, the Bridewell and the Gaol. On the Chambers Street side of the park were three buildings, all under one roof. Nearest Broadway was the American Museum, a great favorite with the little people of that day ; then the Academy of Fine Arts, and last the Almshouse, the artist and showman of that day being not far from the almshouse in more senses than one. Next, still going east, you came to the Rotunda of John Vanderlyn. Vanderlyn, you remember, had been discovered by Colonel Burr in an interior town, covering his master's blacksmith shop with charcoal sketches, and had been sent by Burr to Paris and Rome for instruction
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.