USA > Rhode Island > Providence County > Providence > State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations at the end of the century : a history, Volume 2 > Part 49
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The traffic brought into Providence from 1800 to 1825 by the packets did mueh to increase the commercial activity, and during that
1Providence Journal, June 25, 1886.
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period as well as in the years immediately following was largely instru- mental in building up the water front of the port. The warehouses on Water street and Dyer were built at this time to enable the mer- chants to transact their business and store their goods. While the foreign commerce was allowed to lapse, largely because the energy of the owners of local capital was directed to manufacturing, the coast- wise trade dwindled as a result of the introduction of the railroads, the effect of which began to operate in a marked manner after 1840. As a result of this new alignment, while more business was transacted than ever before, the seafaring activity lessened very perceptibly for a great many years. Even the advent of steamers did not change the status, as they only operated at first to do away with the packet lines, and in many cases they were simply adjuncts of the railroads. As a result the coastwise commerce of Providence for many years practi- cally passed away, and the commercial appearance of the center of the city up to Weybosset bridge was "improved" out of existence. With the revival of the coastwise trade by steamers and barges and the increase of the coal, lumber and raw material shipments, it is a ques- tion whether those so-called improvements which have almost entirely obliterated the original water front and harbor as existing during the first part of the nineteenth century, will not prove eventually to be great disadvantages to the future development of the city. Other cities, particularly those on the Great Lakes, have spent large sums of money to secure artificial water-ways into the interior of their business districts, but Providence has effectually blockaded those with which nature had furnished her.
The Providence Packet Company had two vessels sailing regularly from Providence to the Azores, Madeira and the Cape de Verde Islands in 1900 and 1901. These vessels were the brig A. D. Small and the schooner Lucy W. Snow, and they carried both passengers and freight. Previous to this time the trade to these islands from New England had been chiefly conducted from New Bedford by sailing vessels, although at one time a stcamer was employed. The principal intercourse was with the Azores, as many of the natives of those islands, who had shipped on the New Bedford whalers, settled in that port on the conclusion of their voyages. Their interests in their native islands ultimately led them as they increased in number and became prosperous to establish trade connections, which have now been transferred to the port of Providence. Many natives of all these groups of islands now make their homes in Rhode Island, and they are joined by many of their country people every season. The cargoes
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sent out in these packets were shoes, cloth, lumber, flour, oil, and manufactured articles, and the return shipments comprised the products of the islands, fruit and oranges, the latter being chiefly brought from the Cape de Verde Islands. In the fall of 1901 the steamer Porto Rico was chartered and put on the route from Provi- dence to those islands. This vessel was a propellor 220 feet long, 32 feet beam, and 19 feet deep, and was excellently adapted to the trade.
A very essential feature of the maritime development of Providence was the rise and progress of steam navigation on Narragansett Bay. In 1792 a young Providence man, Elijah Ormsbee, a carpenter, fitted up a twelve ton boat with a steam engine constructed by David
* . This TICKET
Gratis the Times tol'ne papage ... ST .. VEW-PORT., PROVIDEVOZ In The
EXPERIMENT
THE "EXPERIMENT."
The above is a fac simile of the tickets that were issued by Elijah Ormsbee and David Wilkinson for contemplated trips on their "steamboat " in 1792.
Wilkinson of Pawtucket, and the two young men navigated their steamboat between Providence and Pawtucket and exhibited her capacity to their admiring fellow citizens "between the bridges" on the Seekonk River. Instead of a side wheel the boat was propelled by a "goose-foot paddle". The boat was named the Experiment, and the inventors had such faith in its success that they had tickets en- graved and printed for passages on her.
After the "frolic", as David Wilkinson in after life called this experiment, the boat was "hauled up" and probably was allowed to go to rack and ruin, and the opportunity of successfully starting steam navigation on Narragansett Bay was thereby lost. Daniel French,
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who it was said made the drawings for Robert Fulton's first steamboat in after years, came to Pawtucket about this time, called on David Wilkinson and was shown the boat. He examined the machinery for a day or two and by careful inquiry drew from young Wilkinson the plans and ideas on which the steamboat was designed. Probably the information thus obtained was a very important aid in the construction of the Clermont by Fulton.1 David Wilkinson was a great mechanical genius. He was a brother-in-law of Samuel Slater, and was the first special builder of cotton machinery in America. Slater's original machines for spinning cotton were made by David Wilkinson. His machine shop at Pawtucket was the pioneer workroom, in which were developed the original spinning and weaving machinery used in the early mills.
A curious story is told about the invention of the screw propeller by David Grieve, a well known and highly respected citizen of Provi- dence, who in the early years of the nineteenth century enjoyed the unique distinction of being the town wit and oracle. He was a man of commanding presence, which was enhanced by the peculiarity of his dress, as he wore a broad brimmed hat, a capacious coat with wide lapels, and long hose with knee brecches. On Walker street, just off from Westminster street, he had a little shop, where he industriously employed himself in spooling cotton. At this occupation he earned a comfortable livelihood. He is also said to have been a tailor, and in the first Providence directory of 1824, as well as in the subsequent ones up to the time of his death, he is recorded as an "Artist". Un- doubtedly he was possessed of mechanical ingenuity, for it was related that he and another Providence man, John Nichols, "conceived the plan of propelling vessels by the use of screws, or by what is now called Ericsson's propeller. A 'prospectus' was proposed, and shares were sold, and in that way money was raised to build a vessel about 100 feet long by 20 beam, which drew only a few feet of water. She was designed by John E. Eddy, had three masts, and was rigged by Richard Marvin, after the manner of a Dutch galliot. Her machinery was constructed by Ephraim Southworth. She was hastily and some- what rudely built, and was ready to be tried about the middle of August, 1807. She was to be moved by horse power, and Marvin Morris, a well known publican of that day, who had great confidence in the project, supplied eight horses to put the machinery in motion.
1David Wilkinson's Reminiscences, North Providence Centennial, pp. 97-8; Dow's History of Steam Navigation between New York and Providence, pp. 3-4.
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The vessel started from Jackson's wharf on Eddy's Point, and went off finely on an ebb tide, bound for the village of Pawtuxet, and with the wind and tide in her favor made a speed of four knots an hour. It was coneeded at once that she had triumphed, and all were happy. On the return a gust of wind drove the boat upon the mud flats (off South Providence), where she lay all night-such was the end of the discovery".
There is a tradition to the effect that the members of St. John's Lodge of Masons were the passengers on this occasion and that the motive power was a yoke of oxen, and that when the eraft ran aground the passengers had a long walk home through the sand. Soon after this disastrous ending to the experiment the vessel was sold by the sheriff, and bought by John Peek of Boston, a naval arehitect, but while being towed to Boston she was lost. David Grieve died Mareh 9, 1838, at East Greenwich, aged seventy-six years.1
The first steamboat that appeared in Narragansett Bay was the Firefly, which arrived at Newport from New York on the 26th of May, 1817, and two days later steamed up to Providence. It was intended that she should ply between Providenee and Newport; but being a clumsy craft, she was not able to compete with the regular sailing paekets, in point of speed, when they had a favorable wind. As a eonsequenee, after running four months her trips were discontinued and the packetmen had the field to themselves again for a while. During her stay, however, she made many excursions to different points in the bay, thereby earning more money than by her regular trips between Providence and Newport. Her fame as an excursion boat was noised abroad and parties eame from Springfield and Worcester and the surrounding country to avail themselves of the privilege of a trip in the then new and wonderful eraft.
After the departure of the Firefly no steamer appeared in Narra- gansett Bay until August, 1821, when the Fulton, with an excursion party of eighty persons, ineluding John Quincy Adams, then seeretary of state, arrived at Providence from New York. The visit of this steamer created mueh excitement in Providenee, and it is related that every available point along the shore from which a view of the vessel could be obtained "was covered with an admiring assemblage".
In the summer of 1822 the Rhode Island and New York Steamboat Company was organized, and its steamers, the Conneetient, Capt.
1Sidney S. Rider, in Notes and Queries in Providence News, June 2, 1900; Dow's History of Steam Navigation between New York and Providence, p. 27; Reid's Seaside Souvenir, 1882; Bishop's History of American Manufactures.
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Elihu S. Bunker, and the Fulton, Capt. Riehard Law, made semi- weekly trips during the season between Providenee and New York, stopping at Newport each way. The fare between Providenee and New York was $10 and between Newport and New York $9. This was the beginning of permanent steamboat traffie between Providenee and New York. The owners of the sailing paekets were so mueh afraid of the competition of the steamboats that they attempted to hamper them by having laws passed by the General Assembly prohibiting the land- ing of passengers by the steamers and imposing a tax of fifty eents a head, but both laws failed of final passage. The Fulton discontinued her trips November 16, for the winter, but the Connectieut continued to make one trip each week until prevented by iee. Both vessels began running again in 1823, the Conneetieut in March and the Fulton in May. For a short time at the beginning of the season of 1824 the boats stopped at New London as well as at Newport. In 1826 a new boat, the Washington, began running independently, but by May 1 the three steamers were advertised as the "Fulton, Rhode Island and New London Steamboat Line to Boston", and they left Providenee for New York Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and for New London Mondays and Fridays. After July the New London line was discontinued and the steamers then left Providenee for New York on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 3 P. M.
Competition began early in the history of steamboating. In 1824 the steamer New York began running between Providenee and New York at a redueed fare of $6, the fare on the regular line being $10; but she only continued for a short time. In 1827 the Mareo Bozzaris made two trips in June at a reduced rate. The Chancellor Livingston was the next opposition boat and she began running in Mareh, 1828, and eontinued through the season, earrying passengers from Provi- denee to New York for $6. The steamer Long Branch made a few trips between Providenee and New York in June and July, 1828. In September, 1828, a new boat, the Benjamin Franklin, was put on the regular line and this boat and the Conneetieut were run during the ensuing winter.
During 1829 there were four boats running to New York, the Washington, Fulton, Chaneellor Livingston and Benjamin Franklin, and in November a fifth, the President, was added. May 14, 1831, the Chancellor Livingston collided with the Washington in Long Island Sound and the latter sank in fifteen minutes, but no lives were lost. During that year the President and the Franklin were operated as the New York and Boston Steamboat Line, starting from Fox Point
33
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and calling in at Newport, while the Chancellor Livingston ran in opposition. A new boat, the Boston, began running during the sum- mer of 1831 and another new one, the Providence, was put on in 1832. During the years 1833 and 1834 the President and the Benjamin Franklin were operated as one line and the Boston and Providence as another. The Connecticut was sent elsewhere in 1833 and the Chall- cellor Livingston, which had been withdrawn from the Providence line in 1832, was wrecked in Boston harbor in 1834. In June, 1835, the steamer Lexington began running between Providence and New York as a day boat in opposition to the other lines.
The opening of the Boston and Providence Railroad in 1835, with its terminus at India Point in Providence, gave a great impetus to steamboat traffic. In 1836 the steamers Boston, Providence, Presi- dent, Benjamin Franklin and two new boats, the Massachusetts and the Rhode Island, were operated as the Boston and Providence Railroad Line between Providence and New York. This line was owned by the Boston and New York Transportation Company, subsequently known as the New Jersey Steam Navigation and Transportation Com- pany. The Lexington still ran as an opposition boat and so continued for a number of years.
The Transportation Company put on a new boat, the Narragansett, late in 1836; another opposition boat, the Cleopatra, was on the route in 1838. The Boston, President and Benjamin Franklin about this time began to make irregular trips and were ultimately replaced altogether by the newer and larger boats. With the opening of the railroad to Stonington in 1837, the Narragansett and the Rhode Island were put on the run in connection with the railroad from Stonington to New York, while the Massachusetts and the Providence made the trips from Providence. The Atlantic Steamboat Company, in 1837, built a steamer, at Eddy's Point on Providence River and named it the John W. Richmond,1 in honor of the president of the company, Dr. Richmond; the vessel's engines were built by the Providence Steam Engine Company. June 7, 1838, the Richmond started on her first trip to New York. She proved to be a very fast boat and was able to beat any of the steamers of the railroad line. In order to cope with her the Transportation Company bought the Lexington, and for two years these two boats were pitted against each other. The Richmond was sold in 1840 and taken to Maine. The Lexington was burned in Long Island Sound off Huntington, L. I., January 13, 1840, on a trip
1A model of the hull of this vessel is in the cabinet of the R. I. Historical Society.
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from New York to Stonington and all on board except four persons were lost.
For several years after this time steamboat travel between Provi- dence and New York dwindled in importance. Passengers preferred to go by way of Stonington, and the Transportation Company ran two boats, the Narragansett and the Rhode Island, from Stonington to New York and only one, the Massachusetts, from Providence. Oppo- sition boats, the Belle, Gladiator, Telegraph and New Haven, ran at intervals between Providence and New York in 1841; the Cleopatra and New Haven were put on in 1842 and the Charter Oak in the fall of that year; in 1843 the Charter Oak was the principal boat; in 1844 the New Jersey and the Neptune were the opposition boats and the Neptune continued to run until 1846. In 1844 a steam propeller, the Washington, was built at Bristol by a company composed of William M. Bailey, Samuel B. Mumford and Thomas Hull, of Providence, and Joseph L. Gardner, of Bristol, and ran between Providence and New York from 1844 to 1847, when she was sold to the government and used as a transport during the war with Mexico. There were five lines from Providence to New York in 1845; the Transportation Com- pany operated the Rhode Island, while the Washington, Neptune, Worcester and the Telegraph were each run independently. During this year the New Haven began running from Providence to Green- port, L. I., in connection with the Long Island Railroad, thereby making a direct line to New York. The Transportation Company added to its Providence line, in 1846, the steamer Oregon, and in 1847 the Cornelius Vanderbilt.
The passenger termini of the two original railroads at Providence were transferred in 1848 from the water front where they had been originally located, to the center of the city, where, with the line from Worcester then just built, they made joint use of a union station. The year previous the Fall River line to New York was started. These two events, the concentration of the three railroads centering at Providence in one terminal and the establishing of the Fall River Line, diverted both freight and passenger traffic from the steamers running between Providence and New York. This traffic was taken by the Fall River and Stonington lines because their railroad con- nections were much superior to those that the Providence boats enjoyed under the arrangements resulting from these changes. The Fall River line connected directly with the Old Colony Railroad, both at Fall River and Newport, and carried a large part of the freight and passengers from Boston, while the Stonington line had the
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traffic brought into the Union Station at Providence by the railroads from Worcester and Boston. As a result the boats from Providence had to depend very largely on local business. For the next few years consequently, few boats ran between Providence and New York.
There was a revival of the steamboat traffic from Providence in 1851, when William P. Williams and Benjamin Buffum organized the Commercial Steamboat Company, with three steam propellors, the Pelican, the Osceola and the Petrel. At first scarcely any freight was secured, but before the end of the season the steamers were carrying full cargoes to New York. In 1852 a new boat was built for the company by the president, William P. Williams, but as it did not prove satisfactory he sold out his interest to the Norwich line, which thereby acquired the control of the company. Business continued to increase and the company built a new boat, the Osprey, in 1853. In order to secure the funds to do this, the capital stock was increased by $25,000, which Mr. Buffum, who was manager of the company, was authorized to sell. He did so in such a manner as to bring the control of the company into local hands and dethrone the Norwich interest. There resulted as a consequence a war on freight and passenger rates, and the other lines combined to destroy the Commercial Company. The Providence boats, which previously had only carried freight, began carrying passengers to New York for fifty cents each and freight at two cents a foot, the regular price being seven and eight cents. But even at these prices the Commercial Company, owing to the excellent management of Mr. Buffum, made money. Finally a truce was patched up, the Providence boats agreeing not to carry passengers, on condition that the competition on freight should cease.
From that time on for many years the Commercial Steamboat Company was very successful and its wharf at Fox Point was a busy place. The controlling genius of the company was Benjamin Buffum, who was a man of great energy. Another boat, the West- chester, was brought in 1855, when the company started a daily line to New York. Previous to that time the steamers had gone out three or four times a week. In 1856 a new boat, the Curlew, built for the company, was put on the line and during the next five years the steamers Albatross, Penguin, Falcon, Eagle, Seagull and Kingfisher, were also added. By 1858 business had increased to such an extent that sometimes two and three boats a day were dispatched to New York, and the large fleet, consisting of a dozen vessels, was employed to its full capacity. The Penguin and Albatross were sold to the United States government in 1861, but the remaining vessels continued
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in service. Mr. Buffum resigned as manager in 1863 and was suc- ceeded by Isaac H. Southwick, while Edward P. Taft became president of the company.
Late in 1864 the Commercial Steamboat Company sold out to the Neptune Steamship Company, which had been organized the previous year by William P. Williams, who had associated with him a number of prominent capitalists. The charter of the new company was taken out in the names of William Sprague, L. B. Freize, Henry Lippitt, Henry Howard, J. A. Gardiner, Jonathan Chase, William P. Williams, Nathaniel B. Palmer, George H. Howland, E. C. Williams and Frank Wright. During the latter part of the season of 1863, and before the company was fully organized, the line was started with the Warrior, a sidewheel steamer of 1,500 tons, and soon after the Steamer Triton was also put on. In August, 1864, when all the details of the organization of the new company had been completed, two new boats, the Electra and Galatea, began running, and the Neptune Steamship Company was thereby fully launched on its career. Other boats were built and rapidly put on the line, which soon comprised a fleet of nine vessels, including besides the two already mentioned, the Oceanus, Metis, Thetis, Doris, Nereus, Glaucus and Neptune. The Galatea, Electra and Oceanus carried both passengers and freight between Providence and New York; the Metis and Doris carried freight only, and the three remaining boats were designed to carry freight between Boston and New York direct. The headquarters of the Neptune line were at Fox Point, where many improvements were made and new buildings erected to accommodate the growing business of the company. In 1865 the traffic increased to such an extent that at times there was not dock room to unload the steamers that arrived. As a result the company earned large profits and a dividend of twenty per cent. was declared.
The Neptune line was consolidated with the Stonington line in 1866, through the efforts of Samuel Walsh, and the combined lines were incorporated as the Merchants Steamship Company. The fleet of the Neptune line consisted of a dozen vessels, while that of the Stonington line comprised the steamers Commodore, Commonwealth and Ply- mouth Rock. Consequently the new company started with fifteen vessels. Its capital stock was $2,750,000, which sold at $175 a share, and its prospects for the future in view of the well established business of the two parent companies seemed all that could be wished. In order to forestall all possible or contemplated opposition, the company decided to build two mammoth palatial steamers that would
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surpass in size and splendor any vessels then in use. To do this $2,000,000 was required, but as to sell stoek to seeure this sum would depreciate the existing stoek of the company, it was deeided to build the boats out of the earnings. Work was begun on these boats and they were eonstrueted in the most eostly and elegant manner. While they were as yet incomplete, one of the other steamers, the Common- wealth, was burned at Groton, Conn., and at the same time the doeks there were consumed, entailing a heavy loss, as there was no insurance on the steamer. The company, as a result of the fire, was also obliged to remove its terminus from Groton to Stonington. Soon after the steamer Commodore went ashore and became a total loss, and this disaster was followed almost immediately by an aeeident to the Plymouth Roek, which went ashore at Saybrook, Conn., and sustained serious damage. Thus, in a short time, of the three boats owned by the original Stonington line, two were destroyed and the third was damaged to such an extent as to be put out of commission, with the result that the line from Stonington to New York was suspended.
These events so erippled the Merehants Steamship Company that it beeame bankrupt in 1866; its property was sold and its stockholders received three eents on the dollar. Three companies were formed from its ruins; the Metropolitan Steamship Company purchased the Nereus, Glaueus and Neptune and took them to New York. The two steamers, which had been originally named Pilgrim and Puritan, but were renamed Bristol and Providenee before they saw serviee, were sold to the Narragansett Steamship Company for $350,000, although $1,350,000 had been spent on them and they were still incomplete. When they were finished the new owners ran them between Bristol and New York for two seasons, making a connection at Bristol with trains for Boston and Providenee. These two boats were in their time the finest palaee steamers in the world and eost when fully completed $2,200,000. The Narragansett Steamship Company was originally composed of Boston, New York and Providenee capitalists, but in a short time the New York men seeured the bulk of the stoek, and finally the boats were sold to "Jim" Fisk and Jay Gould, who put them on the Fall River line, which at that time those capitalists eon- trolled. The Bristol was totally destroyed by fire at her doek at Newport, Deeember 30, 1888, but the Providenee continued in aetive serviee until 1899, and late in the summer of 1901 she was towed from Providenee to Boston and dismantled.
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