USA > Pennsylvania > Encyclopedia of contemporary biography of Pennsylvania, Vol. II > Part 33
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sis, which, in addition to his increased years, caused the termination of his long, honorable and useful career.
JOHN B. ROACH.
JOHN B. ROACH, President of the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works, at Chester, Pennsylvania, and Vice-President of the Morgan Iron Works in New York City, was born in the City of New York, December 7, 1839. He is the second and eldest surviving son of the late John Roach, of New York City, and Emeline (Johnson) Roach. Mr. Roach has been connected with the work of iron ship-building since his nineteenth year, and was the close associate of his distinguished father-one of the great captains of American in- dustry-from the fall of 1871 until his death in Jan- uary, 1887. His present position at the head of one of the great aud thriving industries of the country is so directly the outcome of this association, and his eminent fitness for its duties, demands and re- sponsibilities is so clearly the result of inherited tastes and qualities, which descended to him from his energetic and capable ancestor, that a brief ac- count of the life of the latter may be presented here as a fitting prelude to a sketch of his own. John Roach, who has been aptly called "the father of iron ship building in America," was an American citizen who developed such ability in his chosen calling that he rose from the humblest position in it, to become its acknowledged head in the country of his love and adoption ; and of such eminent per- sonal worth, that he numbered among his admiring and appreciative friends, representatives in every walk in life, from patriots and statesmen occupying the exalted position of President of the United States, down to honest workingmen, whose greatest wealth and honor lay in their brawn and industry. The son of Patrick Roach, a merchant of character and good business, John Roach was born in Mitch- ellstown, County Cork, Ireland, on Christmas day in 1813. When he was thirteen years of age, his father's entire property was sacrificed to an act of generosity and honor-the payment of notes which he had endorsed to help friends-and at sixteen he found himself an orphan, the sensitive nature of his high-miuded parent not enabling him long to snr- vive this unlooked-for result. He was too spirited himself to remain a burden upon his bereaved mother, and having by personal labor earned and saved sufficient to enable him to take the step, he emigrated to America, landing in New York City
John B. Reach
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
with a capital which consisted solcly of exuberant health and high hopes. After a series of disappoint- ments, he found employment at twenty-five cents a day at the Howell Iron Works, in New Jersey. About a year later, having by the hardest kind of labor and self-denial saved fifty dollars, he bought the privilege of a higher place in the "Works." After holding this new position-on piece work-a
little over three years, during which " by industry, long hours, and rigid economy," he had saved fif- teen hundred dollars, he found himself out of work through the sudden suspension of the iron works in which he was employed. Drawing the sum of five hundred dollars from his employer, he started with his young wife-to whom he had just been married -for the West, and finding the country to his lik- ing, invested his money there, in land now covered by the city of Peoria, Illinois. Through the failure of his late employer, Mr. Allaire, he lost the tlious- and dollars of his savings which he had left in the latter's possession, and being unable to make the additional payments on the land he had purchased when they became due, lost or forfeited the original payment, and was obliged to return to New York in order to resume labor at his trade. Sustained and aided by his worthy wife, he persevered until he had again saved a thousand dollars, when he took the step which led him to fame and fortune. This was in joining with threc fellow-workmen in purchasing the Etna Iron Works, a small foundry in Goerck Street, then in the hands of a receiver and for sale. The price was four thousand seven hun- dred dollars, of which one thousand three hundred was paid in cash. The prospects not meeting their expectation, his partners became discouraged, and in consequence he bought them out. His own posi- tion was now a most unenviable one, for besides having an unprofitable business on hand, not yet paid for, he had neither capital nor credit. But lack of courage was never a failing of his, and after considerable effort he gained a promise of a little credit, and on the mere strength of this engaged in a transaction from which he speedily reaped a profit of about nine thousand dollars. Four years later he was worth thirty thousand, and then boldly as- sumed a number of important contracts which com- pelled him to enlarge his premises. In 1856 his foundry was wrecked by a boiler explosion followed by fire, but in a short time it was again in working order, and its facilities were gradually increased until they became adequate to the construction of
marine engines of greater size and power than any previously built in the country. Wide awake and enterprising, he improved his plant until it was equal in efficiency to that of the best European
foundries, even if not quite as extensive. His working force now ranged from one thousand to
fifteen hundred men. Among the products of his
"Works " were two immense engines for the steam
iron clad ram "Dunderberg," and engines for the
double-end gun-boat " Winooski," the steam frigate " Neshaminy," and the mammoth steamboats "Bris-
tol " and "Providence," all of which were the
largest of their respective kinds, ever built in this
country. In 1868, seeking additional facilities, he
bought the great establishment at the foot of Ninth
Street, East River, known as the Morgan Iron Works, and shortly afterwards, with the same object in view, he became the owner of the Neptune and the
Franklin Forgc, and also of the Allaire Works, where he had served his apprenticeship.
River at Chester, Pennsylvania, occupied and opera- bought the extensive shipyards on the Delaware In 1871 he
ted till then by Messrs. Reaney, Son, and Archbold. He added heavily to the Chester plant, erccting a rolling-mill and blast furnaces, and providing every
American flag. It was at the time that his father large percentage of iron vessels now flying the the timber. And at this place he constructed a facility for building a ship right out of the ore and
became the proprietor of the Chester establishment that Mr. John B. Roach-the subject of this sketch,
had acquired his early education in its public tered it. Born and reared in New York City, he now its widely known and able President-first en-,
schools, upon graduating from which he had en-
tered the Ashland Collegiate Institute in Greene County, New York, where he completed the course. At the suggestion of his father, he then entered the counting-room of a wholesale house in New York City, and devoted two years to acquiring a practi- cal knowledge of book-keeping, and the routine of
general business. When he was nineteen years of
owner, his father, placed under his care with a view farm in Dutchess County, New York, which its age he quitted desk work to assume charge of a
to keeping him, for a time, at least, in the country,
as his health was then very poor. He acquitted
himself so well of his agricultural duties on this
farm, that his father shortly afterwards bought two adjoining farms, which were also placed under his
fraught with great benefit to his health, Mr. Roach charge. Finding the occupation congenial and and occupying the winter season each year by com- continued in it ten years, latterly varying his labors at the Morgan Iron Works until the spring. The ing to New York in the fall, and spending his time
experience gained in this latter position, and the aptitude he displayed for the peculiar demands it made upon him intellectually, led his father to in-
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
vite him to connect himself with the newly acquired establishment at Chester, and, accepting the invita- tion, he has shared in all the gigantic labors and grand triumphs at that place, which have earned for his honored parent the proud title of " the father of iron ship-building in America," and for the name of Roach a world-wide fame. Mr. Roach took his place in the Chester establishment, as the General Manager, in October, 1871, at the time thic keel for the first ship built by his father was laid. This ves- sel, the " San Antonio," of over sixtcen hundred tons burden, was built for Messrs. C. H. Mallory & Co., of New York City, and led off in a list of one hundred and fifteen vessels constructed at the Roach yards previous to the death of the founder. Prin- cipal among the firms and companies for which this large number of vessels was constructed, were the firm named above, and James E. Ward & Co., Alexandre & Co., the Pacific Mail Steamship Com- pany, the Old Dominion Steamship Company, the Ocean Steamship Company, the Oregon Navigation Company, the United States and Brazil 'Steamship Company, the Iron Steamboat Company, the Read- ing Coal Company and the Fall River Line of Sound steamers. Several of the vessels were built for the United States Government, as follows : The " Hu- ron" and "Alert," each of over twelve hundred tons burden, launched in September, 1874; the "Miantonomoh," of over two thousand tons bur- den, launched in December, 1876; the " Puritan," of about twenty-nine hundred tons burden, launched in December, 1882; and the famous dispatch-boat " Dolphin," and the cruisers "Atlanta," "Boston " and " Chicago." In the biographical sketch of Mr. Roach's father, published in the Encyclopedia of Contemporary Biography of New York, (Vol. V., pp. 231-238) it is stated that "in 1883 the construction of these last named vessels, which have become his- toric through forming the nucleus of the new American navy, was begun in the Roach yards un- der the immediate direction of the Naval Advisory Board, authorized by resolutions of Congress and appointed by the President, consisting of two civil- ian engineers and several naval officers. This Board drew plans, models and specifications for the cruisers and advertised for bids. Mr. Roach's bid was just $315,000 less than the next lowest bid- der, and as this was the cost of the ' Dolphin,' the Government practically secured her for nothing." Although the vessel was built in strict conformity with the contract and the Advisory Board's plans, and was accepted by the Board after a fair trial, the new Secretary of the Navy, under President Cleve- land, refused to accept her and appointed another Board to put her to special tests which he indicated.
Ile also decided that the Roachs contracts with the Government would not hold good. It has been de- clared, and the allegation has been made repeatedly in the public press, that this course was prompted, from first to last, by the bitterest partisan feeling. Nevertheless, as the capital of the builders was in- volved in these contracts, it became necessary for them to stop business to ascertain how their affairs stood. An assignment was made on Jnly 18, 1885, to George W. Quintard and George E. Weed, for the benefit of the creditors. The strain proved too much for Mr. Roach, Senior ; his hitherto powerful constitution gave way under it, and, broken in spirit as well as in body, he closed his long and useful life on January 10, 1887, universally regretted in the large business world in which he had made his name known and honored, and specially memorial- ized by several of the leading societies of merchants in the country. His business, reorganized, de- scended to his sons-Mr. John B. Roach, Mr. Gar- ret Roach (now deceased) and Mr. Stephen W. Roach, the two last named connecting themselves with the Morgan Iron Works in New York City, as Secretary and Treasurer respectively, with Mr. George E. Weed as President and General Manager, and the first and eldest, the subject of this sketch, continu- ing in charge of the ship yard at Chester, as Presi- dent of the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works. Mr. Roach has recently had the supreme satisfaction of seeing the memory of his father vindicated and the honor and trust worthiness of his establishment upheld after a series of the most crucial tests. The "Dolphin," rejected by the for- mer Secretary of the Navy, on the ground of "in- herent structural weakness," and whose build and construction in general and particular were villified to an extent unknown till then in the annals of the American Navy, has successfully made a trip around the world and has behaved under the most extraor- dinary tests in a manner which completely vindi- cates her builders. The report of the United States Board of Inspection and Survey, of which the distin- guished naval expert, Rear Admiral James E. Jouett is senior member, not only refutes every criticism that has been passed upon the " Dolphin," but pays a well-deserved tribute to her builders. Admiral Jouett in speaking of the " Dolphin," conversation- ally said :
"Never in my experience as a naval officer have I known a ship-of-war to make such an admirable record as the "Dolphin." Three years and nine months has she been on a tour of. the globe. After submitting to more severe tests, in my belief, than any ship that ever sailed, she has returned in as ex- cellent trim as when she started on her voyage. She has been under steam for nine thousand hours. She
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
has traveled fifty-eight thousand knots, the longest distance, I believe, that any vessel ever traveled in a single voyage. At times she developed a speed of sixteen and seventeen knots. From England she came at the rate of fourteen knots. She has been subjected to the heat of the torrid, the changeable weather of the temperate and the piercing atmos- phere of the frigid .zones. Her engines have been put to a more crucial test than ever have been before those of any ship that sails the sea. She comes back fit to make another tour of the world at ten days' notice. There is not a strain, there is not a blemish or a weak spot of any kind in her from bow to stern. Almost invariably after a man-of-war has endured a long voyage, pits are to be found in her steel. The most rigid examination has failed to dis- cover anything of the kind in the " Dolphin." For a vessel of her size she surpasses any that the world has ever produced. If ever the memory of a builder was vindicated that of John Roach is."
In his report, December 1, 1889, the Hon. Benj. F. Tracy, Secretary of the Navy in President Harri- son's Cabinet, says of this vessel :
"In the course of her cruise the "Dolphin " has run 58,000 miles in twenty months, and has been un- der steam 9,000 hours. In this prolonged run she has been stopped for repairs but once, and then for only two hours. This performance is probably without a parallel in the history of naval vessels, and bears conclusive testimony to the high skill of American artisans and the excellence of their work. Nor is it the less remarkable, in view of the confi- dent predictions with which at the outset of her career, the official condemnation of the vessel was somewhat prematurely pronounced by expert and inexpert judges."
There is no busier place in America to-day than the Chester ship-yards. When the brain that planned the mammoth establishment-which has already ac- quired more than a National fame-was stilled in death, the mantle laid down was taken up, and has since been worthily worn by the son who, for six- teen years preceding his father's death, was his trusted associate and assistant. To-day, both at the great iron-works in New York, and at the famous yard at Chester "from which more vessels have car- ried the American flag to foreign countries than any other one on the continent," the company is taxed to its utmost. Every available bit of space in either place is utilized to the fullest. In New York six hundred men are at work constantly, building marine engines and boilers, and generally in preparing work to facili- tate the demands of the Chester place or to perfect it. Orders are stacked up ahead and overtime is the or- der of the day. But great as the work is in the establishment of which Mr. Roach is Vice-Presi- dent, it is not to be compared with the activity which prevails at Chester, where day in and out, more than fourteen hundred men are engaged. No more busy scene can well be imagined than is there in reality presented. The yard is a little world in it-
self, with its different buildings and departments, in which men skilled in special branches of the art do their work. Near the entrance is a brick building occupied by a large draughting force. Farther on towards the stocks on which the vessels are being built are the various shops where the work goes on in a regular system of progression, the iron going in unwrought and then coming out down almost to the very spot where it will be utilized, finished and shaped and fitted to fill its place. While perhaps the fame of the yard at Chester is more widely known in the minds of the people because of the splendid specimens of naval architecture which it has pro- duced, yet, after all, the merchant fleet which it has sent out is equally on a par with the war flotilla. The genius which produces one is adequate to furn- ishing the other as occasion requires or necessity demands. Up to the close of 1889, two hundred and fifty-six vessels, representing a capital of many mil- lions of dollars, had already been launched from it. There is no line of consequence trading along either the North or South American coasts that has not shown its confidence by giving them contracts for vessels. The facilities of the establishment are per- fectly in keeping with its reputation. It has water-front uusurpassed for the demands. Its grounds, ample and healthful, are "gridironed". with railroad tracks. All that money and ingenuity can do toward perfecting the facilities and making work less a labor than ordinarily, has been done, and it stands to-day, an establishment that in itself is sufficient to every demand. The great steel-plates, the iron-work deftly fashioned, everything required in fact, is made within its precincts, and it is really not obliged to depend on any other " works " or fac- tory for any materials required, and in it a finished ship can be produced from the raw material, every- thing, from the manufacture of iron or steel to the finest detail of joiner-work, being done on the premises. Its machinery, much of which is exclu- sive and protected by patents, is of the best and most advanced type. Beginning the list with the "City of San Antonio,"-No. 119-launched April 10, 1872, and ending it with the " Orizaba," launched November 23, 1889, two hundred and fifty-six ves- sels, including repairs, have been successfully com- pleted at this yard. As previously stated, one hundred and fourteen vessels left the Chester yard during the late Mr. John Roach's activity. Several were completed and launched while he was ill, and the reorganized company began its work with only one vessel on the stocks. At the present writing, (1889) additional contracts are in hand which will bring the total in excess of two hundred and sixty. The Roaches liave in reality built a greater number
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CONTEMPORARY BIOGRAPHY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
of iron and stcel ships than all the ship-yards in the United States combined up to 1885, and have never lost a customer, in attest of which it is interesting to note that the contract for No. 253, the "Leona," is from the same firm for which the " San Antonio" was built. A gentleman who recently witnessed a launch at the yard, wrote of his visit as follows:
" We had heard of the works many times, and had passed them on the railway, but had never visited them before, and it was with surprise and pride as an American citizen that we looked around at the busy scene. In the stream lay the "Kansas City," a large and splendid steamcr, built for the New York aud Savannah line, nearly ready to sail. Alongside the wharf was the " Yumuri," for the New York and Havana line, which was launched a short time since and is now being finished. On the stocks was the "Orizaba," twin vessel to the " Yumuri," and for the same line, whose launch we were to witness. By her side was the "Plymouth," a long and sharp steel hull, almost ready for the water, and which is to go on the Fall River line of Sound steamers along with the magnificent " Pilgrim " and "Puritan." On other stocks, in less advanced stages of progress, were two gun-boats being built for the United States Government, for though the establishment has re- fused to bid for any more government contracts, since its disastrous experience with the "Dolphin" and other vessels under the Cleveland administra- tion, it is building the hulls of two ships contracted for by other parties. Six immense steel steamers in process of construction at once formed a scene of busy activity and thrift such as it did one's cyes good to witness, and when we were told that a seventh was to be immediatey begun on the stock vacated by the " Orizaba," we could well believe the statement made by Mr. Roach that the yard had never before been so busy or so prosperous. In such a presence the revival of the American merchant marine did not seem either distant or doubtful, and it appeared plain that with but a fair and equal chance in the competition for the world's trade, ships bearing the American flag might soon again find their way into every sea and opeu communica- tion with every land."
The launch of the "Orizaba," referred to hereiu, was witnessed by a distinguished compauy, promi- nent iu it being the delegates to the Pan-American Congress, who came by special train from Washing- ton, many of them accompanied by their wives ; and twenty-six members of the International Maritime Congress, who came by special train from New York. On this occasion the ceremonies were con- ducted with more thau ordinary rejoicing and dis- play, a circumstance for which ample warrant was found in the increased activity of interest in extend- ing commercial relations with the countries of South America. After the launch, the party, numberiug nearly four hundred, sat down to a luncheon pro- vided for his guests by Mr. Roach, who presided. In the course of his address of welcome to the guests, the Hon. John B. Robinson paid the following tribute to the founder of the industry :
"The father of the man who entertains you to- clay, who is the captain of this industry, made the name of Chester the synonym for indomitable energy and skill around the world, and was the father of iron ship building in America. His life history here is intimately connected with this industry. His carcer was a history of American talent, American industry and American possibility under Republican institutions, self-government and civil liberty."
The next speaker, the Hon. William Ward, closed his remarks by presenting to Mr. Roach an auto- graph letter of regrets from the Hon. Secretary of State, Mr. Blaine, which, as being extremely perti- nent, is here reproduced, verbatim:
" DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON, November 25, 1889.5
JOHN B. ROACH, EsQ.,
Dear Sir :- I thank you for your urgent invitation to visit Chester to-morrow, to witness the launching of a steamship destined for the trade between the United States and South America. I regret sincerely that official duties will not permit me to leave Wash- ington at this time. It is ten years since I visited Chester on the invitation of your father to witness the launching of the first ship he built for the same commercial field. Despite the official malignity (as causeless as it was cruel), which saddened and em- bittered his last days, his name will always be hon- orably associated with the best efforts to restore prestige to the American flag in all the channels of commerce.
Very sincerely,
JAMES G. BLAINE."
The limits of a sketch of this nature do not permit of any detailed description of the vessels recently launched, although such could not fail to prove in- teresting and instructive. It must suffice to say that the " Orizaba" was fitted with triple expansion, surface condensing, direct acting engines of the most approved type. The "Plymouth," to be launched shortly, is also to have the triple expansion engines, and will be the first side-wheel steamer in this country so provided. The " Plymouth " is three hundred and sixty-five feet long and eighty- six feet wide over the guards, and is intended to ac- commodate one thousand passengers in comfortable and elegant quarters. Of the "Orizaba " it may be further stated that she is the eighth ship these works have built for the New York and Cuban Mail Steamship Company. The contract for the ninth, to be named the " Yucatan," has already been received. The other vessels in this fleet are the "Niagara," "Saratogo," "Santiago," "Saratoga" "Newport," and "Cienfuegos." Notable among the vessels now on the stocks at the yard are the two Brazilian mail ships, "Seguranca," and " Vigilancia," of thirty-four hundred tous gross register each. It is worthy of note that should any occasion arise demanding a suddeu increase of the navy "every one of these
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