Old ships and Ship-building days of Medford.
Chapter 8:
Development of the American merchant vessel.1
THE first improvement in the speed of ships was suggested by the
French luggers which came over here at the time of the Revolution.
These ideas were applied to the design of privateers in the second war with
Great Britain.
Plate I shows a model of the Privateer
Brig Avon,
2 built in 1813 by
Calvin Turner, in twenty-six days. Her lines indicate a very fast vessel, which she proved to be. Her high stern and low bow was a survival of the previous century and was a great advantage in a fighting ship, as guns could be mounted in the stern and used to repel a boarding party to greater advantage.
She was very sharp, both forward and aft, and had considerable width, her water line length being but about three and one-half times her greatest breadth.
She was built entirely for speed.
Her sharp body lines and great dead-rise, which was thirty-six inches at half floor, made her cargo capacity small.
After the war of 1812, there was a great improvement in the design of cargo-carrying vessels.
Shipbuilding had been started in
Medford in 1803 and was firmly established here at this period.
So the town was destined to take a prominent, if not a leading part in the development of the
American merchant ship.
The
[p. 62]  |
Plate 2
Ship Australia, 1849 |
[p. 63] largest ships of the time were built here, and having ten large ship yards within a distance of a mile helped to systematize the industry.
In 1845 ‘one quarter of the shipbuilders in the
Commonwealth were employed in this town, and built nearly one-quarter of the ships constructed in the state, one-third of the tonnage and one-half the value of the whole.’
3
These vessels had much less dead-rise and fuller lines, both forward and aft. The high stern and low bow was still retained, however, and did not disappear until after about 1830.
This may have been because a merchant ship still had to be equipped for fighting pirates.
Plate II shows the lines of a vessel of this type, the ship
Australia,
4 (built by
Hayden &
Cudworth for
Silsbee &
Stone of
Salem) of 557 tons.
Although she was not built until 1849, her lines were very similar to vessels built during the two previous decades,
5 except that the bow was higher and the stern lower, and the proportion of length to breadth which had been increased from less than four to one, to four and a half to one.
She had eighteen inches of dead-rise at half floor, on the mid-ship section.
Plate III shows the lines of a California clipper ship of 1852, ‘The Golden Eagle.’
6 Several vessels of different proportions were built from this model by
Hayden &
Cudworth, it is said.
The proportion of water line length to greatest breadth, which was at the centre, was approximately five and a quarter to one.
She shows eighteen inches of dead-rise at half floor on the midsection.
Her water line length was eighty-seven feet and length on deck one hundred and ninety-five feet. The sharpening of her body lines, both forward and aft, is noticeable, and also the easing of the curve of the main transom.
7 [p. 64]  |
Plate 3
clipper Ship Golden Eagle, 1852 |
[p. 65]
From some unknown source there comes to us the bill against a well known ship-builder who evidently had some difficulty at Chelsea bridge, in the passage of his Medford-built vessel.
| Joshua A. | Foster Esq. |
| 1862 | Owner of Ship Tangere | | Dr. |
| To Salem Turnpike & Chelsea Bridge Co. |
| Nov. 22. | To Expenses incurred in repairing the Draw in Chelsea Bridge, embraced in the following Bills |
| 1862 | Norton & Kendrick, Bill | | $42.50 |
| 1862 | Bisbee & Endicott, Bill | | 24.20 |
| 1862 | Dows Bill | | 25.00 |
| 1862 | V. D. Waters 4 days services | | 20.00 |
| 1862 | Estimated cost splicing outer String piece | $50.00 |
| 1862 | loss of Tolls 4 1/2 days | 109.72 | 159.72 |
| | —— | —— |
| | | $271.42 |
How the claim for damage was settled we cannot say, as the bill is not receipted.
Evidently there was an interruption of turnpike travel.
