The first pier in the area appeared in 1625, when the Dutch West India Company founded an outpost there. With the influx of the first settlers, the area was quickly developed. One of the first and busiest streets in the area was today’s Pearl Street, so named for a variety of coastal pearl shells. Due to its location, Pearl Street quickly gained popularity among traders. The East River was eventually narrowed. By the second half of the 17th century, the pier was extended to Water Street, then to Front Street, and by the beginning of the 19th century, to South Street. The pier was well reputed, as it was protected from the westerly winds and ice of the Hudson River.
In 1728, the Schermerhorn Family established trade with the city of Charleston, South Carolina. Subsequently, rice and indigo came from Charleston. At the time, the port was also the focal point of delivery of goods from England. In 1776, during the American Revolutionary War, the British occupied the port, adversely affecting port trade for eight years. In 1783, many traders returned to England, and most port enterprises collapsed. The port quickly recovered from the post-war crisis. From 1797 until the middle of 19th century, New York had the country’s largest system of maritime trade. From 1815 to 1860 the port was called the Port of New York.
On February 22, 1784, the Empress of China sailed from the port to Guangzhou and returned to Philadelphia on May 15, 1785, bringing along, in its cargo, green and black teas, porcelain, and other goods. This operation marked the beginning of trade relations between the newly formed United States and the Qing Empire.
On January 5, 1818, the 424-ton transatlantic packet James Monroe sailed from Liverpool, opening the first regular trans-Atlantic voyage route, the Black Ball Line. Shipping on this route continued until 1878. Commercially successful transatlantic traffic has led to the creation of many competing companies, including the Red Star Line in 1822.Transportation significantly contributed to the establishment New York as one of the centers of world trade.
.jpg)
One of the largest companies in the South Street Seaport area was the Fulton Fish Market, opened in 1822. The Tin Building opened within the market in 1907; it is one of two remaining structures from the market and the only one that is officially designated as a landmark. In 2005, the market moved to Hunts Point, Bronx.
In November 1825, the Erie Canal, located upstate, was opened. The canal, connecting New York to the western United States, facilitated the economic development of the city. However, for this reason, along with the beginning of the shipping era, there was a need to lengthen the piers and deepen the port.
On the night of December 17, 1835, a large fire in New York City destroyed 17 blocks, and many buildings in the South Street Seaport burned to the ground. Nevertheless, by the 1840s, the port recovered, and by 1850, it reached its heyday:
Looking east, was seen in the distance on the long river front from Coenties Slip to Catharine Street [sic], innumerable masts of the many Californian clippers and London and Liverpool packets, with their long bowsprits extending way over South Street, reaching nearly to the opposite side.
Richard C. McKay in his book: Some Famous Sailing Ships, has this to say:
From all accounts, it was the headquarters of considerable jocularity; and, we daresay, the future builder-owner of a fleet of the finest ships that ever sailed the main, often joined his companions, when they went out upon those festive nocturnal expeditions that made these precocious shipyard apprentices the terror of the neighborhood.
No doubt many of these nocturnal expeditions were to the South Street waterfront, where they would wander about the wharves and piers and marvel at the many ships, and have lively debates about the sailing merits of each vessel. These nocturnal expeditions were a way to unwind from a grueling work schedule that people would find appalling today.
The apprentice workday would begin at four-thirty in the morning and end at seven-thirty in the evening, a period of fifteen hours. At eight a.m. they were allowed an hour for breakfast. At twelve they had two hours for lunch, and would then work till the evening, with supper coming after the day’s labor.
The big ships were built along the river with their sterns right at the water’s edge and were surrounded by latticed scaffolding. A wide ramp was set up alongside each hull where workmen would carry timbers and everything else to the decks. Amidst the steady din of noise, carpenters applied the planking to the hull. A vast lumberyard surrounded the work area where planks and beams of every shape and size were stacked in rows.
Everything had to be done by hand. Sawing timbers was by far the most tiring and tedious chore in the yards. Right around this time, the first steam powered innovations began to show up in the New York yards for the lifting and sawing of timbers. Donald McKay duly took note of this and soon his young agile mind began to think of ingenious ways to harness this power.
Donald and Lauchlan McKay spent many hours learning every aspect of the ship carpenter’s trade. They pulled the saws in the pits, carried the heavy timbers on their shoulders up the ramp to the deck, drilled holes and pounded trunnels, those marvelous wooden tree nails. They did the caulking, labored over ship’s plans in the molding loft, and did many other things that were expected of them.
But these many hours of work gave the apprentice a firm foundation on which to establish his future livelihood, and Donald McKay always felt indebted to Isaac Webb. He had “served his time” and learned the “mystery” of becoming a ship’s carpenter.
Over these same years young William Webb, a boy entering his teens at the time, was getting early lessons about the “mystery” himself and spent many hours in the shipyard with all the various tasks, as well as building small boats on his own. Two of the most talented shipwrights of the coming era of the clipper ships came to know each other at an early age and perhaps the rivalry between the two was sparked at that time.
Isaac Webb would invite his young apprentices over to his home for dinner occasionally on Sundays and holidays, and this must have been a welcome respite for the young McKay brothers so far from their homes and family.
But eventually the “indenturing” palled upon Donald McKay. The many hours of “slavocratic conditions” became burdensome and began to take a toll on his spirit. He was restless and had already more than proven his abilities to his master, Isaac Webb, and had taken on greater duties and far more important work than the rest of the apprentices. He decided to demand a release from his apprenticeship a few months shy of his four-and-a-half-year contract. Isaac Webb, to his credit, had anticipated this move by his young apprentice and granted him a free and clear release from the terms of his indenture.
Disaster awaited Donald McKay in Nova Scotia
Donald McKay, now 21 years old and a “free lance shipwright,” left the Webb & Allen shipyard and booked passage to Nova Scotia. He had been away for five years and missed his homeland.
The gently flowing Jordan River was a welcome sight to Donald McKay who, after the toil of the past five years, was relieved to get away from New York City and join his family again.
In the spring of 1832, Donald McKay along with his uncle, Robert McKay, began to build a barkentine on the Jordan River below the falls. They opened accounts with Shelburne blacksmiths “from who they bought rivets for crosstrees, for mast hoops, and for rudder bands; hinges for quarter boards; a strap for a martingale; hoops for a windlass.” ( From ‘The McKay’s and McPhersons’ by Marion Robertson )
Once they completed the vessel, they sailed her to Halifax. Unfortunately neither of the McKays were astute businessmen for they both were cheated out of the money by the people they had sold the vessel to.
This financial disaster forced Robert McKay to mortgage his house that he had inherited from his father, Sergeant Donald McKay. Robert would eventually lose title to the house in a forced sheriff sale in 1834 and Robert, with his house and land now gone, would move on to Port Joli where his wife’s family lived.
Whatever thoughts and dreams Donald McKay had of a shipbuilding career in his homeland ended with this financial disaster. Disheartened, he said his good-byes to his family and returned to New York City.
Back working the Shipyards of New York
Upon returning to New York, Donald McKay lost little time in finding employment as a freelance shipwright in the shipbuilding trade. The year was 1832 and at that time by far the best work in the New York shipyards was in the construction of packet ships. Packets were the pride of the maritime world as they raced back and forth across the Atlantic to Liverpool, London and Havre. The majority of these fast ships were built in the New York City yards of Isaac Webb, Smith & Dimon, and Brown & Bell.
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.
William Webb was by that time an apprentice at his father’s yard and had steadfastly chosen this profession for himself, even though his father had initially tried to talk him out of it but had at last come to realize that his son was determined to become a shipbuilder. For the next six years, William did all that was required and served his time as the other apprentices did taking no special favors just because he was Isaac Webb’s son, except that he continued to live at home.
New York became the center for Entreprenurial Experimentation
Around this time, Isaac Webb decided that his shipyard was not large enough to suit his needs. So he sold his yard to Brown and Bell and moved his yard farther uptown to a larger less expensive waterfront tract just north of the Smith and Dimon yard between Fifth and Seventh Street.
At the neighboring Smith and Dimon yard, Stephen Smith occupied his time designing and building ships. His partner John Dimon specialized in ship repairs which turned out to be the more profitable work of the yard as Dimon himself once pointed out: “Smith builds the ships and I make the money.”
Smith and Dimon Shipyard
New shipyards were springing up all along the East River waterfront from Corlear’s Hook north to Thirteenth Street and by 1832 they numbered over thirty. North of the new Webb and Allen yard, Bishop and Simonson opened up a shipyard in 1834 and this yard was kept busy by Cornelius Vanderbilt who was the uncle of Jeremiah Simonson.
Just north of that yard, William H. Brown (no relation to Brown and Bell) established a new yard that specialized in building steamboats.
North of there was the Novelty Iron Works where engines were built, and other yards that specialized in joiner or repair work.
Farther north was the Thomas and Steers yard that in the coming years would work closely with William Webb.
The South Street Piers
Around this time, Christian Bergh decided to retire and passed on his shipyard to his two sons and to his two loyal assistants, Jacob A. Westervelt and Robert Carnley. After taking a year off to travel around European shipyards, Westervelt and Carnley returned to New York and Westervelt eventually bought out his partners and took control of the shipyard.
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.
Their mentor, Henry Eckford, stayed active with the designing of ships, but had left the management of the yard to Isaac Webb. Some of Eckford’s business investments had gone bad in 1828 and he had lost a great deal of money. He had designed the corvette Kensington in the late 1820s for the Mexican government. Upon completion, the Mexican government decided that the ship was too large to suit their purposes, so Eckford eventually sold her to Russia. In order to keep lucrative commissions coming his way, Eckford accepted an order for a similar corvette from the Sultan of Turkey, a recent purchaser of an Eckford warship, who was still at war with the Greeks.
American sympathies ran high on the side of the Greeks at that time. During the construction of the corvette, named the United States, her buyer and destination was a carefully kept secret within the yard. Upon completion, the United States set sail for the Mediterranean on June 5, 1831, with Henry Eckford aboard, along with a few unsuspecting passengers. Eckford wanted to deliver the ship to the Sultan of Turkey personally, as well as collect the $150,000 for the vessel, and to secure future lucrative contracts.
The 126-foot United States flew across the Atlantic and reached the Azores in ten days time with one of the passengers, Dr. James E. DeKay, noting: “Our greatest pleasure is sailing faster than anything we fall in with.”
The United States arrived at Istanbul and both ship and builder made such a profound impression upon the Sultan that his government asked Eckford to remain there and take on the position within the Ottoman Empire of Naval Constructor. The financial rewards must have been rather enticing, for Eckford could have continued on with the building of ships at his New York yard and done very well for himself. Instead, he chose to accept the position and remained at Istanbul. He wrote home to Isaac Webb informing Webb of his decision and requested that some of the shipwrights from the yard join him at the Turkish capital.
As soon as Eckford realized that his extended visit to Istanbul would be a long one, he wrote home to his family explaining among other things, the trust that he had in Isaac Webb for managing the affairs of his yard. His letter home included the following passage:
I have the most unbounded confidence in the honor and integrity of Isaac Webb, and I cannot be mistaken; and it is my particular wish that he may be consulted and advised with by my whole family as a man in whom they may implicitly rely, and one whose judgment is good on all subjects with which he is acquainted. He is cautious in business, and not easily led astray. On the whole, I think him one of the safest men I have met as a friend.
Isaac Webb’s obvious and continued devotion and attention to the business of running Henry Eckford’s yard turned out to be most profitable for Eckford. While his efforts endeared him to his employer, they were not all that financially rewarding to Webb himself. But his perseverance and dedication to his mentor would eventually bear fruit.
Henry Eckford, while supervising the construction of a 74-gun ship-of-the-line, unexpectedly died in Istanbul during a cholera epidemic on November 12, 1832. According to Eckford’s wishes and the terms of his will, Isaac Webb and his partner John Allen were presented with the opportunity to purchase the shipyard from Eckford’s heirs and continue operating the yard in pretty much the same fashion as they had been doing. Webb went on to establish his own reputation as the leading American shipwright, who would continue on the legacy passed on to him by Henry Eckford and would throughout the rest of his career teach his young apprentices the “mystery” of shipbuilding.
The final fate of the South Street Seaport & the many shipyards
At its peak, the port hosted many commercial enterprises, institutions, ship-chandlers, workshops, boarding houses, saloons, and brothels. However, by the 1880s, the port began to be depleted of resources, space for the development of these businesses was diminishing, and the port became too shallow for newer ships. By the 1930s, most of the piers no longer functioned, and cargo ships docked mainly on ports on the West Side and in Hoboken by the late 1950s, the old Ward Line docks, comprising Piers 15, 16, and part of 17, were mostly vacant.
References
Jackson, Kenneth T., ed. (1995). The Encyclopedia of New York City. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300055366.
Kroessler, Jeffrey A. (2002). New York Year by Year: A Chronology of the Great Metropolis. NYU Press. ISBN 0814747515.
McKay, Richard Cornelius (1969). South Street: A Maritime History of New York. Ardent Media.
Brouwer, Norman J. South Street Seaport.
Lindgren, James Michael (2014). Preserving South Street Seaport: the dream and reality of a New York urban renewal district. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 9781479822577.
South Street: The Maritime History of New York, by Richard C. McKay, Haskell House, London; New edition (January 1, 1971)