Brown & Bell Shipyard

Brown & Bell shipyard  

Jacob Bell entered into partnership with David Brown about 1820 and they took over the shipyard formerly run by Adam and Noah Brown on the East River at the foot of Houston St., New York City. In 1821 they launched their first ships, the William Tell and Orbit. The firm was known as Brown & Bell until the former’s death about 1848, when Bell conducted it in his own name until his death. Their yard held its own with the principal local rivals, William H. Brown and William H. Webb. They seem to have been equally successful in turning out fast sailing vessels and in keeping up with the latest developments in steamships. The firm was in close relation with Edward K. Collins. In 1834 they joined with him in starting the New York Marine Dry Dock Company, and, shortly afterward, built the Garrick, Roscius, Sheridan, and Siddons for his transatlantic Dramatic Line of sailing packets. 

 
 
They are credited with building in 1840 the first ocean steamships launched in New York, the Lion and the Eagle, which became Spanish warships. A year later they built the fast little schooner Angola for the opium trade. Their clippers were surpassed only by the products of their former pupil, Donald McKay. The partners built the Houqua (1844) and Samuel Russell (1847). Among the best clippers built by Bell alone were the Oriental (1849), White Squall (1850), Trade Wind (1851), the largest clipper yet built, and Messenger, launched three months before his death. The Jacob Bell, named for himself, was completed four months after he died by his son Abraham. Even more conspicuous products of the Bell yard were the steamships Pacific and Baltic for the Collins Line.  

With his local reputation already established, Donald McKay’s abilities had long ago been noticed by Jacob Bell of the Brown & Bell shipyard next door to the shipyard of Isaac Webb. In the young Nova Scotian shipwright, Bell saw a talented craftsman eager to prove what he could do, so Bell offered him a job. Under the wing of Jacob Bell, Donald McKay would find the opportunity to advance himself. 

A state of friendly rivalry and cooperation existed between the neighboring shipyards along the East River; particularly between the Webb and Allen yard and the yards of Smith and Dimon and Brown and Bell, for they all had the common link of apprenticeship to Henry Eckford. Apprentices and mechanics freely wandered back and forth between the yards in their spare moments to engage in lively discussions with one another. 

Donald McKay worked long hours in the Brown & Bell shipyard. It was good steady well paying work, but was fast becoming a routine task. Donald McKay began looking for more challenges. 

In 1840, Jacob Bell, by now aware that his young shipwright was eager to move on with his career and gain more experience, recommended Donald McKay for a position as foreman at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. He was chosen over a thousand men for the job and named foreman over a large group of men doing important work at the shipyard. But the winds of opportunity that Donald McKay thought that he would find there suddenly began to blow the other way. Foreign immigration had become a hot issue in New York City at that time and workers were uneasy about losing their jobs to foreigners. Some men in the yard became resentful about taking orders from a “Bluenose” Nova Scotian. Resentments left over from the American Revolution and the War of 1812 still ran deep in some of the American workers and Donald McKay was bullied out of the yard. 

Jacob Bell soon came to the rescue of his young friend and sent him up to Wisscasset, Maine to help with the building of several packets for the New York ship owners. Here, as a Nova Scotian, Donald McKay felt welcome. Maine and Nova Scotia shared a maritime culture as well as the Bay of Fundy. Many Nova Scotians worked in Maine shipyards.  

  Brown & Bell built the following vessels in the 1830-1850s:

Bell’s son, Aaron C. Bell, continued operations until the shipyard closed in 1855. 

The Biography of Jacob Bell

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