Shipbuilding and the Nascent Community of Greenpoint, New York, 1850-1855

Plusieurs constructeurs de navires connus et plusieurs jeunes charpentiers de marine ont été forcés de quitter la ville de New York en raison de l'augmentation excessive de la population et parce que le dévelopement industriel n'était pas réglementé.Ils se sont réinstallés de l'autre côté de l'East River, sur les rives de Greenpoint, sur une site rurale qui est rapidement devenue une communauté urbaine.Des jeunes charpentiers de marine tels que Eckford Webb et Edward F. Williams ont ouvert des chantiers navals près de ceux des éminents constructeurs de navire tels que Samuel Sneden, William Collyer et Jeremiah Simonson qui y avaient également déplacé leurs chantiers.Étant en exploitation pendant une période de croissance économique, ces chantiers ont mis à l'eau, pratiquement les uns après les autres, tant navires à vapeur qu'à voile.En moins de cinq ans après leur arrivée, la population de Greenpoint avait pratiquement décuplé.Virtually unknown until shipbuilders began opening yards there in 1850, the tiny hamlet of Greenpoint grew from a population of a few hundred to almost five thousand in the short span of five years.Shipbuilding was the largest of the industries that accounted for this remarkable growth.The shipbuilders enjoyed great initial success at their new locations in Greenpoint.However, rapid technological changes in their industry soon diminished demand for their wood-hull vessels and made their particular skills obsolete.This is a brief chronicle of their accomplishments in those years.Situated on the western end of Long Island, on the shore of the East River, Greenpoint is the northernmost community of Brooklyn, one of the five boroughs that comprise the modern city of New York.Because Greenpoint was never an incorporated municipality, its boundaries were never officially described.The community's generally accepted borders are the East River on the west; Newtown Creek on the north; the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on the east; and Bushwick Creek on the south, the original course of which is today partially traced by North 14th Street.For much of its first two centuries as a European settlement, Greenpoint had 17 New York Herald says oscillating engine in the 1 September 1850 (2/3) and rotary engine, launched 17 December, in the 1 January 1851 (2/1) editions; the Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, 3 January 1851 (2-3), says launched 28 December "and she is now lying at the works of Messrs. Hogg & Delamater, receiving her machinery."18 New York Herald, 28 August 1851 (2/5).Henry R. Stiles, History of the City of Brooklyn, 3 vol.(Albany, NY, 1860, 1870), II:415, says the Honda was constructed in 1850, the first vessel built by Eckford Webb in Greenpoint, but does not mention his partnership with Collyer, nor any of the other numerous vessels built at Greenpoint in the early 1850s.19 Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer, 1 March (2/3) and 1 May (2/2), 1851; Felter, 7; New York Journal of Commerce, 26 May 1851 (2/1); New York Herald, 23 July 1851 (2/3).In the registers issued for the subcontracted vessels -Sail Registers No. 294, No. 295, and No. 296, all dated 19 June 1851, for the Antonia, Cayetano, and Benita, respectively; Steam Register No. 35, dated 27 August 1851, for the Honda, and No. 39, dated 31 October 1851, for the Edgar -William H. Webb is shown as the master builder and the place of build is given as New York City rather than Greenpoint.(Unless otherwise stated, all vessel registers and enrolments cited herein are in the customhouse copies of documents issued at the Port of New York in the US National Archives, Washington, DC, Record Group 41, Records of the Bureau of Marine Inspection and Navigation, hereinafter referred to as RG 41.) Unless otherwise indicated, tonnages given in this work are the registered tonnages found in the customhouse copies; in Forrest R. Holdcamper, compiler, List of American Flag Vessels That Received Certificates of Enrollment or Registry at the Port of New York 1789-1867, Special List No. 22 (Washington, DC, 1968); and in William M. Lytle and Forrest R. Holdcamper, Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States 1790-1868, "The Lytle-Holdcamper List" (Staten Island, NY, 1975).These tonnages frequently differ from those appearing in news articles, which were typically published at the time of construction, well before the vessels were officially measured by customs officers.20 New York Daily Tribune, 27 December 1851 (7/5) -the name of the steamer is not given.

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