Isaac C. Smith
Born1797
DiedMarch 15, 1877 (aged 79)
NationalityAmerican
Occupations
  • Sail and steamboat captain
  • Shipbuilder
  • Sparmaker
  • Entrepreneur
Years activeca. 1810 to ca. 1860

Isaac C. Smith (1797  March 15, 1877) was an American sail and steamboat captain, shipbuilder, sparmaker and entrepreneur.

A longterm resident of Ossining, New York (then known as Sing Sing), Smith began his career working aboard Hudson River sloops, eventually rising to the rank of captain. He also built watercraft and worked as a sparmaker. In the mid-1830s, Smith was the initiator of a steamboat line from Ossining to New York City, supervising the construction of two steamboats for the line and taking command of the first.

In 1849, Smith opened a shipyard in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he built a wide variety of vessels, from small sloops to steamboats to large, full-rigged ships. In 1853 he was joined in this venture by his son J. Malcolm Smith, the firm then being renamed Isaac C. Smith & Son. About 30 ships were built at this yard before it closed in 1855 due to a nationwide shipbuilding slump. In all, Smith is said to have built about 100 ships through the course of his career, the best known of which was the 1600-ton Hurricane, reputedly the most extreme clipper ever built.[1][2][3]

Smith was also a devout Methodist and contributed to the construction of five churches of that denomination in his native town, for which he was known as "the father of Sing Sing Methodism".[4]

Life and career

Isaac C. Smith was born in 1797 in Sing Sing, New York, (modern day Ossining), one of a large number of children of Caleb Smith and his wife Elizabeth (née Sherwood).[5] Smith's paternal grandfather, John Smith, was one of the earliest settlers of the region that would later become Sing Sing,[5][6] and worked as a tenant and later owned a farm on the Manor of Phillipsburg.[5]

Smith began his career at an early age, working aboard market sloops on the Hudson River. He sailed the sloop Volunteer for some 23 years,[7] and later became captain of the sloop General Ward.[8] He also "carried on the ship and spar building business."[9][10]

Telegraph, built for Smith's steamboat line in 1836.

In the mid-1830s, Smith proposed the establishment of a steamboat line to run from Sing Sing to New York City.[4] Funds were raised from a number of interested parties including local farmers, and in 1835, the passenger-and-freight steamboat Mount Pleasant was built for the purpose at Sing Sing under Smith's supervision.[11][4] After completion of the vessel, Smith was appointed her captain.[12] Shortly after, Smith and two partners, Thomas Hulse and Jonathan Odell, organized the construction of a second steamboat, Telegraph,[13] built in New York in 1836 by Lawrence & Sneden,[14] with Smith again supervising construction.[4] These two steamboats reportedly represented the first morning steamboat line established between Sing Sing and the city.[4][15]

In 1849, Smith opened a shipyard in Hoboken, New Jersey under his own name. Over the next six years, Smith would build a wide variety of vessels at this yard, from sloops to steamboats to large, full-rigged ships.[lower-alpha 1] In 1853, Smith's son, J. Malcolm Smith, who had been advised for his health to pursue an open-air profession,[5] joined his father in partnership,[16] the firm then being named Isaac C. Smith & Son.[lower-alpha 2] Smith's Hoboken shipyard produced about thirty ships in its relatively brief existence,[lower-alpha 3] and for the year 1853 was the fourth most prolific New York shipyard by number of vessels built.[19] In 185455 however, a deepening nationwide shipbuilding slump persuaded the Smiths to leave the business,[20] the yard's last known ship, "a beautiful clipper schooner"[21] named Colonel John McRae[lower-alpha 3] being launched in March 1855.[21] In the entire course of his career, including his output at both Hoboken and Sing Sing, Smith is said to have built a total of more than 100 vessels.[4]

Personal details

Smith's son and shipbuilding partner, J. Malcolm Smith

Isaac C. Smith's first marriage was to Maria Titlar, daughter of George, an Irish-born American who fought in the American Revolutionary War and "was one of the company who laid the great chain across the Hudson River at West Point".[5] The marriage produced three children, J. Malcolm, Cornelia A. and George T. Smith.[5] J. Malcolm Smith, Isaac's eldest son, was briefly a partner in his father's Hoboken shipyard before becoming a distinguished lawyer and county clerk in White Plains and Sing Sing.[5] Isaac's daughter Cornelia married James T. Stratton, who later became United States Surveyor-General for the state of California.[5][6][22] Isaac's second marriage, which took place on 15 March 1854,[23] was to Catharine McCord, widow of James McCord; daughter of James Trowbridge, a Captain in the Revolutionary War;[24] and mother of Smith's daughter-in-law Hannah, the wife of J. Malcolm Smith.[5]

Smith was a Methodist, and was an incorporator of and largest contributor to the construction of the first Methodist Church in Sing Sing, after which he participated in the construction of four more Sing Sing churches of the same denomination, for which he became known as the "father of Sing Sing Methodism".[4] In his retirement, he became an enthusiastic yachtsman, taking excursions of up to a week in length with his friends aboard his small ten-ton yacht Cornelia to destinations in and around New York Harbor, New Jersey and Long Island Sound.[lower-alpha 4] A few months after the death of his second wife in 1874,[26] Smith and his son J. Malcolm took an extended trip by ship and train via the Panama route to California,[27] returning three months later.[28]

Isaac C. Smith was "greatly respected as an honorable citizen" in his native Sing Sing.[6] In the last year of his life, he began to have attacks of paralysis, until eventually, "convinced the end was approaching",[9] he joined the household of his son J. Malcolm in White Plains, where he died two months later on March 15, 1877, at the age of 79.[9] His remains were interred in Dale Cemetery, Ossining.[9]

Ships of note

Smith's best-known ship, the extreme clipper Hurricane

The largest and best-known ship built by Isaac C. Smith was the 1600-ton extreme clipper Hurricane, said by some authorities to have been "the sharpest sailing ship ever constructed by any builder".[1][2] Hurricane proved a very fast vessel, capable in ideal conditions of speeds of up to 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h).[1] On an 1854 voyage from New York to San Francisco, Hurricane was on track to challenge Flying Cloud's all-time record passage of 89 days, until adverse conditions over the last 1000 miles lengthened her passage to a still outstanding 100 days.[29][lower-alpha 5] On another voyage, from Portsmouth, England to Calcutta, India, in 1855, Hurricane set a record of 82 1/4 days from The Needles to the mouth of the Hooghly River that remained unbeaten for many years.[31][32]

Smith built two other clippers, the 820-ton Gravina, built in 1853,[33] and the small 470-ton Tejuca, completed in 1854.[34] On an 1855 voyage, Tejuca made "one of the quickest passages on record"[35] from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to New Orleans.[35] Less than a year later however, she foundered in a hurricane, the majority of her crew being rescued by a daring maneouvre of the ship Excelsior, for which Excelsior's captain later received an award for heroism.[36]

Smith also built a substantial number of steam vessels, including steamboats, towboats and tugs.[lower-alpha 3] The largest of these was the 800-ton freight steamboat Atlas, built in 1852, which had the unusual design feature of external iron strapping for strengthening of her exceptionally broad-beamed hull.[37][38] Another of Smith's steamboats, Ocean Wave, became notorious for the manner of her demise. After 17 years of service, Ocean Wave was found to be in too poor a condition for passenger service and was restricted by the authorities to freight-only service, but her owners ignored the restriction and continued to use the vessel for weekend passenger excursions. On one such excursion in August 1871, Ocean Wave's defective boiler exploded, sinking the steamer and killing over 70 passengers and crew.[39]

Shipbuilding record

Isaac C. Smith, both alone and in partnership with his son J. Malcolm Smith, is known to have built about thirty ships at Hoboken.[lower-alpha 3] Given that Smith is said to have built more than 100 ships in the course of his career,[4] another 60 or more were presumably built by him at Ossining. As scant record of these latter vessels has been found,[10] probably they were mostly small watercraft of little individual historic interest such as Hudson River sloops.[lower-alpha 6]

Ships built at Hoboken, New Jersey, by Isaac C. Smith (184953) and Isaac C. Smith & Son (185355)
Name(s)[lower-alpha 7] Type Yr.
[lower-alpha 8]
Ton.
[lower-alpha 9]
Engine [lower-alpha 10] Ordered by[lower-alpha 11] Intended service Ship notes; references
MariaPre-clipper1849397Charles W. Swift"Fast sailer".[40]
Ship1851562W. W. De Forrest & Co.Argentina[41]
Margaret ElizaShip1851550W. W. De Forrest & Co.Argentina[41][42]
Wilson SmallSteamboat1851300West StreetWilson SmallNYNew Jersey[42][43]
ParanaShip1851650O. J. Hayes & Co.Argentina[42][lower-alpha 12]

Extreme clipper18511608C. W. & A. ThomasCalifornia[42][44] Reputedly the most extreme clipper ever built.[1][2][3] Several fast passages including 100-day passage in 1854 from New York to San Francisco,[30] and record 1855 run between Portsmouth, England and Calcutta, India.[31][32] Laid up 1857–58, sold to British 1860, last entry in shipping registers 1876.[20][32]
CamillaBark1851250Gruner & Co."[I]n the St. Thomas trade"[42]
Angelina CorningTowboat1852102PhoenixDubois & Corning[37][38][45]
Golden GateSteamboat1852200West StreetCharles G. Allen et al.[37][38][45]
AtlasFreight steamboat1852800BelknapCamden & Amboy RR Co.[37][42][45][46] Hull reinforced with external iron straps to support steamer's exceptionally broad beam.[38]
EnchantressSchooner1852420N. L. McCready & Co.East Coast[37][45] Early example of a 300-plus-ton schooner. Large schooners proved so economical that they eventually came to dominate coastwise merchant sail in North America, with ever-larger examples being built into the early 20th century.[47]
DeerTugboat1852140[37][48]
  • Peter G. Coffin
  • Alexis 71
  • Riverdale 79
Steamboat1852350West StreetWilson SmallHudson River[37][49] Ran on Hudson for entire career. Sunk by boiler explosion, several killed, 1879.[50]
RocklandSteamboat1853199Rockland, ME[18][51] Rockland–Machiasport, ME, 1853–61; U.S. govt. charter, 1861–64; Charleston, SE service, 1864–68; snagged 1868, auctioned and evidently scrapped, 1869.[lower-alpha 13]
CorneliaSteamboat1853250West StreetWilson Small[lower-alpha 14]
  • Fairy y
  • Walter B. Crane
Towboat1853100BirbeckThomas Cornell[18][53][54][55]
Anglo-CeltTowboat1853405BelknapStar Towboat Co.New Orleans[17][18][53][54][56]
James CogswellBarge1853200J. P. & Thomas Cumming[17][18][53][54]
  • Gulf Stream y
  • Gardiner Pike
Schooner1853330S. C. Nelson et al.East Coast[17][18][53][54] Early example of a 300-plus-ton schooner. See note to Enchantress above.[57]

Gravina
Clipper1853820Howes & Co.China[18][33][58][53] Owned by the Loring Brothers of Málaga, Spainsons of American expatriate George Loring[59]and homeported in Málaga.[60] Sold to parties in Valparaiso, Chile, ca. 1860; still in service 1866.[59]
Jonas SparksSchooner1853284Jonas Sparks et al.[18][53]
NondescriptSloop185360Isaac C. Smith et al."The name is indicative of some new peculiarities in her model."[53]
OlympiaSloop185455Isaac C. Smith et al.[34][61]
Ocean WaveSteamboat1854300BirbeckMiddleton & Shrewsbury TCNYNew Jersey[34][53][61][62] Licence restricted to freight-only in 1869 due to poor condition but owners ignored restriction. Sunk by boiler explosion 1871, 70+ killed.[39]
TopsyTowboat185460BirbeckC. H. Allen & Co.Southern U.S.[62] "[F]or the Southern rivers"[34]

Tejuca
Clipper1854470Napier & JohnsonSouth America[34][61][lower-alpha 15][lower-alpha 16] Fast passage Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to New Orleans, 1855.[35] Sank in hurricane on transatlantic voyage 1856, most of crew saved by courageous intervention of ship Excelsior.[36]
  • James Rumsey y
  • Paterson
Ferryboat1854360BelknapHoboken Ferry Co.New York[34][61][62] [64] Abandoned 1874.[65]
PilotTowboat1854200BirbeckW. N. DoughertyNew York Harbor[61][62][66] Experimental tug "built upon the elliptical principle of James K. Howe".[64][34]
AmericusSchooner1854261Van Brunt, Slaght et al.[61][lower-alpha 17]
Colonel John McRaeSchooner1855412Shadbourne & Co.East CoastThree-masted schooner or "tern".[21][68] Early example of 300-ton-plus schooner; see note to Enchantress above.[69] Built for parties in Wilmington, NC.[62]

Footnotes

  1. [4] Also, see shipbuilding table.
  2. The yard was still being referred to as Isaac C. Smith's in early 1853[17] and was referred to as "Isaac C. Smith & Son" for the first time in August of that year.[18]
  3. 1 2 3 4 See shipbuilding table.
  4. [25] A more precise date for the edition could not be established, although it appears to have been published on or after the 23d.
  5. Fairburn notes that on the 85th day of her voyage, Hurricane was 1,040 miles from San Francisco, as compared to Flying Cloud's 887 miles after the same number of days on her record passage.[30]
  6. Sloop building was a common activity for ship carpenters and others in the towns and villages along the Hudson River, and deep draft vessels cannot be launched on the upper Hudson. Fairburn also notes that in 1849, Smith "had no former experiences in building fast sizeable ships".[20]
  7. Name=name of ship. Where a ship had more than one name in the course of its career, the later names are presented in chronological order, with each name followed by a two-digit number (in superscript) representing the last two digits of the year in which the rename took place (where known). Names followed by a "y" (in superscript) are yard names.
  8. Yr.=year of ship launch. Ships are listed by date of launch, with the exception of the unnamed ship built for W. W. De Forrest & Co. in 1851, and the 1853 steamboat Rockland, for both of which only the year of launch is known.
  9. Ton.=ship tonnage. In some cases, tonnages may only be approximate as they are sourced to reports in contemporaneous periodicals made prior to the ship's official measurement.
  10. Engine=engine manufacturer. Abbreviations as follows: Birbeck = Birbeck's iron works; Phoenix = Phoenix Iron Works; West Street = West Street Foundry. All engine manufacturers were based in New York. Fields in this column with a dash (——) denote that the vessel had no engine. Fields left blank indicate that the engine builder is unknown.
  11. Party that ordered the ship. This is usually the owner but is sometimes the operator, or an agent of either. Contemporaneous newspaper sources rarely state to which category a named party belongs. Abbreviations in this column: RR = Railroad; TC = Transportation Company.
  12. [44] The source erroneously refers to the ship as Panama.
  13. Lytle and Holdcamper list the vessel as "lost" in 1869.[52]
  14. [53][54][55] Cornelia may only have been a yard name for Rockland as no trace of the former has been found in sources other than those originating from the shipyard, as listed.
  15. [63] The source erroneously refers to the ship as Tessica.
  16. [62] The source erroneously refers to the ship as Cachuga.
  17. [62][67] The source erroneously refers to the yard as "J. Smith & Sons".

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Howe and Matthews 1926. I. p. 277.
  2. 1 2 3 Fairburn 194555. III. p. 2129.
  3. 1 2 Knoblock 2014. p. 37.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Scharf 1886. p. 561.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Scharf 1886. 1. p. 560.
  6. 1 2 3 The Bay of San Francisco. 1892. I. p. 441.
  7. Fisher, George Jackson, M.D. (September 26, 1959). "Shipping Village Felt Ugly Scar Of River Tragedy In Faulty Boat" (PDF). The Citizen Register. Ossining, NY. p. 3.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  8. "Sing Sing News of Sixty Years Ago". The New York Times. January 28, 1894.
  9. 1 2 3 4 "Obituary" (PDF). Democratic Register. Ossining, NY. March 21, 1877.
  10. 1 2 "Sloop For Sale" (PDF). Daily Albany Argus. Albany, NY. March 19, 1834. p. 3.
  11. Anon. (September 1835). "Sing Sing, August 8, 1835". New York Farmer and American Gardener's Magazine. Vol. 8. New York: D. K. Minor. p. 265. hdl:2027/njp.32101050721560.
  12. "Sing Sing and New York Passage and Freight Boat" (PDF). Morning Courier and New York Enquirer. September 16, 1835. p. 1.
  13. "Notice is Hereby Given". The Evening Post. New York. July 15, 1837. p. 4 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  14. Dayton 1925. p. 54.
  15. "J. Malcolm Smith" (PDF). The Eastern State Journal. White Plains, NY. May 15, 1886. p. 2.
  16. "J. Malcolm Smith, Clerk of the Board of Supervisores" (PDF). Eastern State Journal. White Plains, NY. November 23, 1866. p. 3.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "Shipbuilding in New York". The New York Herald. April 5, 1853. p. 2 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  18. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Our Shipyards". The New York Times. August 3, 1853. p. 3 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  19. Morrison 1909. p. 150.
  20. 1 2 3 Fairburn 194555. III. p. 2128.
  21. 1 2 3 "Launch". The New York Times. March 23, 1855. p. 3 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  22. Stratton 1918. II. p. 301.
  23. "Record of Marriages" (PDF). Eastern State Journal. Ossining, NY. January 20, 1854. p. 3.
  24. Trowbridge 1908. p. 153.
  25. "A Week's Cruise in a Sing Sing Yacht" (PDF). Sing Sing Republican. August 1865.
  26. "Died". The New York Times. January 23, 1874.
  27. "Letter From Capt. Isaac C. Smith" (PDF). The Republican. Ossining, NY. April 23, 1874. p. 2.
  28. "County Items" (PDF). The Statesman. Yonkers, NY. July 10, 1874. p. 8.
  29. Howe and Matthews 1926. I. pp. 27879.
  30. 1 2 Fairburn 194555. III. pp. 212930.
  31. 1 2 Fairburn 194555. III. p. 2132.
  32. 1 2 3 Howe and Matthews 1926. I. p. 279.
  33. 1 2 "Hoboken". The New York Times. October 10, 1853. p. 1 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  34. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Ship Building In New York". The New York Herald. June 29, 1854. p. 2 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  35. 1 2 3 "Wednesday Morning, March 14". The Daily Picayune. New Orleans. March 14, 1855. p. 2 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  36. 1 2 "A Well Deserved Testimonial". The Daily Picayune. New Orleans.
  37. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Ships Built at the Port of New York in 1852". Hunt's Merchants' Magazine and Commercial Review. Vol. 29. New York. December 1853. p. 753. hdl:2027/nyp.33433022395861.
  38. 1 2 3 4 "The Hoboken Yards". The New York Herald. April 7, 1852. p. 8 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  39. 1 2 Heyl 1965. IV. p. 229.
  40. Fairburn and Ritchie 1945–55. V. pp. 2820–21.
  41. 1 2 "Ship Building in 1850". American Railroad Journal. Second Quarto. Vol. VII, no. 2. New York: J. H. Schultz & Co. January 11, 1851. p. 30. hdl:2027/mdp.39015013032126.
  42. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Hoboken". The New York Herald. January 1, 1852. p. 3 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  43. Reussille 1975. p. 16.
  44. 1 2 "Marine Affairs". The New York Herald. June 14, 1851. p. 2.
  45. 1 2 3 4 "Ship Building in New York". The New York Herald. July 8, 1852. p. 6.
  46. "Marine Affairs". The New York Herald. April 22, 1852. p. 6.
  47. Cutler 1967. pp. 551–52, 554–55.
  48. "New-York City". The New York Times. October 6, 1852. p. 8 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  49. "Jersey City". The New York Times. December 30, 1852. p. 6 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  50. Reussille 1975. p. 11.
  51. Lytle, Holdcamper 1975. p. 187.
  52. Lytle, Holdcamper 1975. p. 294.
  53. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 "Hoboken Yards" (PDF). The New York Herald. December 29, 1853. p. 3.
  54. 1 2 3 4 5 "The shipyards in New-York, Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Hoboken". The New York Times. February 26, 1853. p. 6.
  55. 1 2 "New-York City". The New York Times. March 17, 1853.
  56. "New Towboat for New Orleans". New Orleans Daily Crescent. August 3, 1853. p. 2.
  57. Cutler 1967. pp. 551–52, 555.
  58. "Marine Affairs". The New York Herald. October 8, 1853. p. 8.
  59. 1 2 Sprague 1913. pp. 18–19.
  60. New York Marine Register 1858. p. 36.
  61. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Our Ship Yards". The New York Times. September 15, 1854.
  62. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Hoboken" (PDF). Morning Courier & New-York Enquirer. December 22, 1854.
  63. "Untitled". The New York Times. May 20, 1854.
  64. 1 2 "Marine Affairs" (PDF). The Evening Post. New York. April 18, 1854.
  65. Cudahy 1990. p. 381.
  66. "Launch at Hoboken". The New York Times. July 27, 1854. p. 8 via Newspapers.com.Open access icon
  67. New York Marine Register 1858. p. 208.
  68. New York Marine Register 1858. p. 225.
  69. Cutler 1967. p. 553.

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