USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 46
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Hunter, Benja Gaston, owner.
New Orleans, Richmond Bullock, owner.
Beaver, Richmond Bullock, owner.
" Mary Ann, Benj. Clifford, owner.
James, Benj. Clifford, owner.
Ship George Washington, Whalen Martin, owner.
Brig Abcona, Carpenter & Hodges, owners.
Brig Union, Carpenter & Hodges, owners.
Commerce, H. P. Franklin, owner.
" Dover, Benj. Clifford, owner.
Amelia, Capt. Munroe & others, owners.
Ann, Jere. Munro and others, owners.
Antelope, G. Taft and others, owners.
Aoiz, Capt. Jones, owner.
66 Pocahontas, Capt. Snow, owner.
Argus, Capt. Snow, owner.
The author of this list remarks: "No schooners or sloops were thought of enough consequence to put down at that time, I suppose."
The ship Governor Tompkins arrived at Providence in October, 1819, with a cargo of 1,981 bushels of coal from Newcastle, England, on which a duty of $99.20 was paid. During the early years of the century and until 1831, nearly every Liverpool ship brought coal as part of its cargo. In July, 1831, a vessel arrived from Sidney, Nova Scotia, with a cargo of coal, and from that time forth all the coal received in Providence from outside the United States came from Nova Scotia, principally from the port of Pictou. Since the develop-
474
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
ment of the Pennsylvania coal mines the Nova Scotia coal has been crowded out by protective duties.
It has been generally assumed that the commerce of Newport did not revive after the Revolution, and more or less explicit statements to that effect have been made and repeated.1 The facts, however, secm to be that she developed a great deal of her former vigor and was, up to 1820, a busy and important seaport. This is in a measure proved by the statement that in 1800 the tonnage of the Newport customs district, which then included Bristol and Warren, was 15,598 tons, while Providence in the same year is only credited with 9,788.2 This statement, however, can hardly be accurate as to Providence, since the list of vessels belonging to that port, as printed in the preceding pages, shows that, in 1791, she had nearly 12,000 tons, and between that year and 1800 it was hardly probable, in view of the development of the East India trade, that her shipping had decreased. Still the only vessel "deducted" from that list was the ship Union, which was sold to Newport merchants and thereafter sailed from that port. In 1810, according to the same authority, the tonnage of Providence was 15,864 ; Newport, 12,517; Bristol, 7,777. In 1820 the figures were, Providence, 20,575 ; Newport, 10,702; Bristol, 8,037. It is known that between 1800 and 1810 many vessels belonging to Newport and Bristol were engaged in trade that kept them away constantly from their home ports, so that in this decade that fact would explain the greater ton- nage of the Newport district, while Providence at the same time had much the greater commerce coming to her wharves. Newport un- doubtedly had considerable commerce from the close of the Revolution until the time of the Embargo Acts and the War of 1812, but the duties paid on the imports into the port of Providence would indicate that that port was greatly in the lead. From 1795 to 1829 the average duties paid on foreign merchandise imported into Providence amounted to considerably more than $200,000 annually. In 1804 and 1819 the duties were over $400,000 ; in 1822, nearly $500,000; in 1805, 1806, 1810 and 1826 they exceeded $300,000; a few years went below $200,000, and the lean years were those of the Embargo, 1807, 1808, 1809, and of the War, 1812 to 1815.
At the beginning of the nineteenth century much of Newport's old time commerce had been revived with the West Indies and a consider- able trade with ports in the Southern States had grown up. Follow- ing the example of the Providence merchants, ships were sent out to
1Arnold, His. of R. I., vol. 2, p. 447.
2R. I. State Census, 1885, page 79, table compiled by Wm. F. Sirtzlet, Chief of U. S. Bureau of Statistics.
475
THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
the East Indies and China. The George and Mary, Capt. Samuel Law- ton, arrived from Russia October 22, 1798. Her owners were Gibbs & Channing. In 1799 there arrived in the port fourteen ships and brigs, nearly all from foreign ports, besides many schooners and sloops en- gaged in the coastwise trade. June 9, 1799, the ship Semiramis, Capt. Jacob Smith, arrived from China; June 4, 1800, the ship Hope ar- rived from Canton; July 27, 1800, the brig John arrived from the East Indies, and on August 16, the ship Russell came in from Batavia. The Russell was owned by Gibbs & Channing, George Champlin, Caleb Gardner, Peleg Clark, James Robinson, and the captain, William Wood. She had sailed from Newport March 10, 1799, but was cap- tured by a French privateer on August 8, off the coast of Java, and carried to the Isle of France. After a number of trials she was re- leased, but the voyage resulted in a considerable loss to her owners. The ship Ann and Hope, belonging to Brown & Ives of Providence, entered the port of Newport on her return from her second voyage to the East Indies, August 16, 1800. She probably discharged at Newport because part of her cargo was for Gibbs & Channing. These merchants seem to have been leaders in the East India trade, as besides the vessels already mentioned that they owned or were interested in, they sent out on November 24, 1800, the ship Hercules Courtney, bound for Malaga, Barcelona and Leghorn, with a cargo of codfish and sugar ; she was captured by a French privateer, carried into Al- geria, but was finally released. The Mount Hope, a ship of five hun- dred and seventy tons, was built at Newport for Gibbs & Channing and sailed for Batavia, July, 1801. She was a very successful vessel and returned to Newport October 12, 1806, from her fifth voyage to the East Indies. The ship Semiramis made a number of successful voyages to the East Indies, but finally, when almost at her home port, she was wrecked March 2, 1804, on Long Shoal at the east end of Vine- yard Sound, and the greater part of her valuable cargo of teas, sugars, nankeens and silks was lost.1
Christopher and George Champlain were among the most enter- prising of the Newport merchants at this period. They had vessels trading to Savannah and Charleston and to the West Indies. Prob- ably some of their vessels traded between the West Indies and the Southern ports and seldom came to Newport. They were also evi- dently engaged in trade to the East Indies and Europe and had ex- tensive dealings with Brown & Francis in 1792. Capt. Samuel Lawton wrote, June 4, 1792, from Cronstadt to the Champlains, notifying them of his arrival in seven days from St. Petersburg; that he had "got
1George C. Mason's Reminiscences of Newport, pp. 149-153.
476
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
all his iron on board"; and that there were no less than fourteen sail of vessels in port and many more expected. The existence of a trade to Europe and the East Indies is made evident by an invoice of goods, dated March 15, 1805, which shows that Ebenezer Burrill, of New York, John L. Boss, Jonathan Bowen, Christopher C. Champlin, Gil- bert Chase, Edward Easton, Earle & Whitehouse, John Price and Benjamin Sexas, of Newport, sent on the ship Union, John Johnson, master, from Newport to Antwerp, 1,471 bales Bourbon coffee, 3,300 North Carolina white oak barrel staves, 10 tons St. Domingo logwood, all valued at $52,559.74. These same men shipped, January 8, 1804, by the same vessel from Newport to Batavia, Island of Java, sixty- four boxes of Spanish milled dollars, containing $30,000.
Capt. Robert Robinson wrote the Champlins from Liverpool, July 3, 1798, that he had contracted "for a charter for our ship from this port to City Point, James River, Virginia, to sail positively with Con- voy which is appointed and is to sail from Cork on the 25th inst. I have chartered the ship for nine hundred pound sterling for the run". Under date of Charleston, August 12, 1797, Robert Robinson wrote Christopher and George Champlin, Newport, that he had on board the vessel seventy hogsheads tobacco, bought at Savannah at $5.75 per hundred, and forty-five casks of rice at nine shillings, etc.
November, 1809, Simpson & Barker, Newport, furnished supplies to brig Hornet, including beef at six cents a pound, vegetables, fish hooks and "2 Barrels Rhode Island Coal" at $2.50.1
Newport was likewise still interested in the slave trade in the years between 1804 and 1807, although she then occupied a secondary posi- tion to Bristol in this traffic. Of the slaves brought into Charleston, South Carolina, in those years 3,488 were on vessels belonging to New- port merchants. With the general change in economic conditions brought about by the introduction of manufactures in the early years of the nineteenth century and the building of railroads about 1840, Newport's foreign commerce disappeared almost completely, but she still retained a considerable coastwise traffic.
Next to Newport and Providence, Bristol was the most important of the Rhode Island ports. The first commercial venture was a ship- ment by Nathaniel Byfield, November 6, 1686, of a number of horses on board the Bristol Merchant, bound for Surinam. In 1690 fifteen ves- sels from Bristol were engaged in the trade to the West Indies and the Spanish main. The cargoes sent out were fish, horses, sheep, tim- ber and produce, and the return cargoes were coffee, molasses, sugar,
1George C. Mason papers, R. I. Historical Society Cabinet.
477
THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
rum and tropical fruits. Onions as early as 1690 were a leading pro- duct of the town and were exported in large quantities down to quite recent times. Under the leadership of Capt. Simeon Potter, Bristol vessels engaged during the middle years of the eighteenth century in the slave trade, and also in privateering during the wars with the Spanish and French. His celebrated voyage in the Prince Charles of Lorraine, in which he was accompanied by Mark Anthony De Wolf, was made in 1744, and on that voyage, when the rich settlements were plundered in the West Indies and on the Spanish Main, was laid the
VIEW OF THE HARBOR OF BRISTOL.
foundation of the fortune afterward utilized by the DeWolfs, who inherited a part of it, as the basis of their extensive mercantile opera- tions.
An account of the career of James De Wolf has already been given. During the latter part of the eighteenth century and the early years of the nineteenth he was the leading merchant of Bristol, and his ships were actively engaged in the slave trade and during the War of 1812 in privateering. Other men of the DeWolf family followed in his footsteps and William, Charles and George DeWolf were each
478
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
enterprising merchants. The DeWolfs carried on mercantile opera- tions along the same lines as Brown & Francis and Brown & Ives of Providence. James DeWolf in his youth had been a sea captain in the employ of John Brown, and in the West Indian and African trades had acquired the experience that he afterwards utilized in his career as a merchant. Following the example of the pioneer Providence merchants, the De Wolfs engaged in the East India trade and their ship, the Juno, brought into Bristol, in 1804, the first cargo to enter that harbor from China. The ship sailed from Bristol in August, 1804, under command of John DeWolf, bound on a voyage to the north- west coast of America. After trading for a year with the Russian set- tlements, for furs principally, the ship and cargo were sold to a Rus- sian nobleman and Captain DeWolf returned overland through Siberia and Russia and arrived home in April, 1808, after an absence of three years and eight months. The owners, of whom James, Charles and George De Wolf were the principal ones, made a clear profit on this voyage of $100,000. Capt. John DeWolf was thereafter known on account of his exploits and the success of this voyage as "Norwest John".
Other prominent names in the commercial annals of Bristol are Shearjashub Bourne and Samuel Wardwell, who, as the firm of Bourne & Wardwell, in the years immediately following the close of the Revo- lution manufactured rum in Bristol and sent ships to the West Indies and Africa for merchandise and slaves. At one time this firm is said to have owned forty-two vessels.
Bristol and Warren were erected into an independent customs district in 1801, being set off from the Newport district, and the custom house was located at Bristol. The first vessel to enter the port under these new conditions, according to the invoice book, was the schooner Isaac, John Weir, master, from Port Antonio, Jamaica, consigned to the mas- ter and John W. Bourne. The following statistics show the amount of duties collected from 1801 to 1825 and the number of foreign ar- rivals :
Year.
No. of arrivals.
Duties.
1801
23
$29,375.10
1802
41
32,805.40
1803
48
41,989.15
1804
56
82,531.28
1805
56
94,301.86
1806
61
118,964.89
1807
43
61,743.23
479
THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
Year.
No. of arrivals.
Duties.
1808
48
91,349,95
1809
42
66,022.40
1810
96
152,380.92
1811
89
109,181.78
1812
55
100,137.61
1813
30
152,966.04
1814
19
72,468.42
1815
33
120,693.53
1816
48
78,543.97
1817
53
74,095.28
1818
68
103,665.69
1819
69
126,437.87
1820
50
121,570.40
1821
44
137,275.06
1822
48
95,561.42
1823
47
95,424.71
1824
53
111,116.64
1825
42
98,821.73
In common with the experience of the other ports, the commerce of Bristol began to decline after 1825. This was due to the general changes in economic conditions brought about by the increase in man- ufacturing and the building of railroads. Bristol, however, continued to have some foreign commerce until 1873, when the firm of A. T. & T. J. Usher, which had been engaged in the West India trade, was dis- solved. At the present time only a few hundred tons of shipping is owned in the district.1
Warren was at times a close second of Bristol in mercantile affairs, but the two ports were so near together-only four miles apart-and so closely related that they were not rivals, but associates. From the beginning of the nineteenth century they formed one customs district and it cannot now be determined how much of the business already given as transacted in that district should be allotted to each place. Warren was in the lead in shipbuilding and in the whale fishery, while Bristol took precedence in the slave trade, privateering, and in the East India trade. Warren and Bristol suffered very severely dur- ing the Revolutionary War, as they occupied a very exposed situation and the commerce of both places was almost annihilated. The extent of Warren's commerce at that time is indicated by the fact that up to January 1, 1783, the following vessels hailing from the port were lost :
'Munro's History of Bristol, pp. 178-185 ; 274-9 ; 322-5 ; 367-371.
480
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Schooner Roby, Captain Kingsley, cargo oil
100 tons
Brig - , Mason, cargo oil 120 tons
Sloop United States, Coddington 45 tons
Schooner Weasel, Paine
15 tons
Brig Mauran
120 tons
Schooner Moses, Miller, cargo sugar, etc.
60 tons
Sloop Polly, Whiting
45 tons
Sloop Gen. Stark (privateer), Pearce
120 tons
Sloop George Champlin
60 tons
Brig Gen. Wayne, Pearce
120 tons
Sloop Abigail, Miller
45 tons
Schooner Swordfish, Collins
120 tons
Sloop Rebecca, Champlin .
60 tons
Schooner Hunter, Crawford
60 tons
1,090 tons
The merchants of Warren, however, did not allow their losses to dis- courage them and business was resumed quickly after the close of the war. According to a report of the surveyor of the port the following additions were made to the tonnage during the periods mentioned :
1790 to 1800, 62 vessels, 5,403 tons; 1800 to 1810, 45 vessels, 4,505 tons ; 1810 to 1820, 31 vessels, 4,533 tons ; 1820 to 1830, 39 vessels, 7,808 tons ; 1830 to 1840, 28 vessels, 4,727 tons ; 1840 to 1845, 14 vessels, 3,925 tons.
In 1845 Warren's fleet of vessels engaged in the West India trade and as coasters consisted of two ships, six brigs, three schooners and five sloops, of a total burden of 2,082 tons. At the same time the whaling fleet belonging in the port was more than three times the tonnage of the merchant vessels, and the total tonnage of both fleets was 9,243 tons.1
From the earliest times until the decline of the foreign commerce and the introduction of steam vessels, shipbuilding was a leading in- dustry on Narragansett Bay. The vessels used in the various mari- time enterprises, whether as merchantmen, slavers, or privateers, were built in the locality from which they sailed. Because their construc- tion was so much a matter of course, there are very few records of early shipbuilding. A ship was built on Rhode Island as early as 1646 for the New Haven Colony. Two vessels, the Grampus and the Dol- phin, were built at Bristol in 1696; Nathaniel Brown located his ship yard at Providence in 1711, but he had built vessels elsewhere on the bay previous to that time. Sylvester Bowers had a shipyard at Paw-
1Fessenden's History of Warren, pp. 101-5.
481
THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
tucket in 1750. Benjamin Tallman was a master shipbuilder at Providence at the same time, and subsequently he built many of Brown & Ives' ships used in the East India trade, at his shipyard on the west side of the river, between the old steam mill and the present Point street bridge. At the time of the Revolution the mer- chants of Providence built their own ships. Brown & Francis and Brown & Ives built at their yards at India Point the large vessels they employed in the East India trade, and Gibbs & Channing and the Champlins did the same at Newport. After the Revolution shipbuild- ing was carried on quite extensively at Warren. The frigate General Greene, of six hundred tons and carrying thirty-two guns, was built there in 1799 for the United States government by Cromwell & Child. The privateer Macdonough, of three hundred tons, was built by Capt. Caleb Carr at Warren in 1813 and sailed from Bristol. She was a very fast vessel and was subsequently used as a merchantman. Captain Carr, in 1814, also built the U. S. sloop of war Chippewa, of four hun- dred and eleven tons and carrying sixteen guns.
There were a number of shipyards about 1830 in Providence on the west side of the river, where many large vessels were turned out. At this period the American, a vessel of 600 tons, was built at the foot of Peck street, for S. & A. B. Arnold, and on Eddy's Point, foot of Point street, near the present bridge, the ship Eliza and Abbey, of 200 tons, and the Rhode Island of 400 tons, were constructed. There was also a large shipyard at India Point, where many ships and schooners were built. Eddy's Point was the scene of the construction of many large vessels up to and beyond the middle of the nineteenth century, among them being the steamers John W. Richmond and Kingston. The old Bowers shipyard at Pawtucket was also busily engaged in the con- struction of large vessels at this period.
At present no large vessels are built at any Rhode Island port, but a few sailboats and small crafts are turned out in the local yards. At Bristol are the shops of the Herreshoff Manufacturing Company, where the highest class of steam and sailing yachts are constructed. The Herreshoffs began building yachts and sailboats here in 1863; ten years later they began to build steam yachts, and during the last score of years they have built many racing yachts, including all the notable and successful defenders of the America's cup in the international yacht races. An interesting fact in connection with the Herreshoffs is that they are descendants of John Brown, the eminent Providence merchant, who built his own ships at India Point a hundred years ago. 31
.
482
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
John Brown Herreshoff and Nathaniel Greene Herreshoff are great- grandsons of John Brown.
The whale fishery at various periods was an important branch of the maritime enterprise of the Rhode Island people. In the early days of the colonies whales were caught "off shore" from small boats and with very primitive apparatus. During the first half of the eighteenth century they were frequently captured in Narragansett Bay. A bounty of five shillings was offered by the General Assembly, in 1731, for every barrel of whale oil and one penny a pound for bone, taken by Rhode Island vessels and brought into the Colony. The first regu- larly equipped whaling vessel of which there is any account was the
OLD WHALERS AND CASKS OF WHALE OIL.
sloop Pelican of Newport, owned by Benjamin Thurston, which brought into Newport, in June, 1733, one hundred and fourteen bar- rels of oil and two hundred pounds of bone, on which the bounty was paid.
Previous to the Revolution the Jewish merchants of Newport had a number of vessels engaged in the whale fishery. In 1775 it has been estimated there were about fifty whaling vessels belonging to the four Rhode Island ports of Newport, Providence, Bristol and Warren. The war of the Revolution seriously interfered with the fishery, but soon after peace was declared, in 1785, record is found in the "Book of
483
THE SEA TRADE AND ITS DEVELOPMENT.
Manifest" in the Providence custom house of the arrival of six vessels at that port from whaling voyages. The amount of oil the vessels brought was small, but with one or two exceptions they also brought cargoes from the West Indies and other foreign ports. May 30, 1787, the brigantines Happy Return and Ranger, belonging to Joseph and William Russell, arrived in Providence from whaling voyages and each had a cargo of two hundred barrels of "oyl"; June 15, of the same year, the brig Rebecca, belonging to Welcome Arnold, ar- rived with fourteen "casks oyl" and a cargo of general merchandise. In 1789 a number of whaling vessels were owned in Providence, ac- cording to the report of the shipping made in that year to Congress. From that time very few vessels were fitted out until about the year 1820, when a slight revival occurred. Between 1830 and 1840 a more marked revival took place, and in the year 1841 seven ships cleared from Providence on whaling voyages. For a number of years there- after there were nine vessels licensed to engage in the whale fishery, belonging to Providence, but the number gradually diminished, most of the vessels being sold to New Bedford and the remainder lost or burned at sea until not one remained. The last Providence whaler was the ship Lion, which sailed July 17, 1854, for the Pacific Ocean and was lost at sea November 10, 1856. The ship South America, which cleared at Providence November 10, 1843, for the northwest coast and arrived home March 5, 1846, made the best whaling voyage on record up to that date. She had sent home 800 barrels of whale oil, 100 barrels of sperm, 36,000 pounds of bone and had sold at Bahia, Brazil, 1,000 barrels of whale oil.
Before the Revolution Warren had some vessels engaged in the whale fishery, but these, fourteen in all, were lost during the war. The fishery was not revived until 1821, when the ship Rosalie was fitted out for a whaling voyage to the Pacific Ocean. From that time up to 1845 Warren sent out twenty-one ships, six barks and three brigs, amounting to 9,000 tons, on whaling voyages, and in that year her whaling fleet consisted of seventeen ships and five barks, of a total of 7,161 tons. Warren continued to carry on the whale fishery longer and on a more extensive scale than any other Rhode Island port, but her vessels were finally either lost or transferred to New Bedford. Bristol also had a number of vessels engaged in whaling previous to the Revolution, but she did not re-engage in the fishery until 1825, when a ship was fitted out and made a very successful cruise. In 1837 sixteen whalers arrived in the port, and in that year Bristol's whaling fleet numbered nineteen vessels, as follows:
484
STATE OF RHODE ISLAND AND PROVIDENCE PLANTATIONS.
Vessel.
Tonnage.
Ganges
380
Milton
388
Gen. Jackson
329
America
258
Bowditch
399
Canton Packet
312
Corinthian
503
Anne.
223
Roger William
285
Leonidas
353
Balance
322
Essex
201
L. C. Richmond
341
Gov. Fenner
376
Fama
363
Gov. Hopkins
111
Sarah Lee
236
Golconda.
360
Troy
156
Metacom
Total 5,896
About 1845 Bristol's whale fishery began to decline, and in a few years had utterly died out.
The custom receipts at the port of Providence from 1790 to 1899 by periods of ten years were as follows :1
1790 to 1799
$1,593,470.00
1800 to 1809 2,784,739.99
1810 to 1819 2,155,425.53
1820 to 1829
2,202,432.69
1830 to 1839
794,032.12
1840 to 1849
403,458.89
1850 to 1859
541,163.49
1860 to 1869
977,915.58
1870 to 1879
2,163,124.07
1880 to 1889
2,295,860.52
1890 to 1899
2,650,542.65
1900
337,624.00
"The figures for the first ten years are from Staples's Annals of Providence, p. 627 ; from 1800 to 1869 from State Census of 1885 ; and latter dates from U. S. Government Reports.
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