Shipbuilding in Colonial America

Shipbuilding was an important enterprise in Colonial America and quickly grew into one of the most thriving industries of our young United States.  East coast settlements as well as those in Philadelphia and New Hampshire provided protected harbors and bays, small coves and riverbanks, all suitable for construction.  Dense forests provided the necessary raw materials.

Building a brigantine

The simple shallops of the Pilgrim era soon diversified into small utility craft for local work and smaller boats for fishing and for transporting people and goods among the colonies.  At the turn of the eighteen century, a small sloop typically weighed about 35 tons, but by century’s end, experienced shipbuilders had begun contracting heartier seagoing vessels of up to 200 or more tons.  The need for vessels increased and soon every seaport on the Atlantic coast was constructing wooden ships.  Timber grew scarce in England, and it became cheaper to purchase vessels built in the colonies.  Before the American Revolution, about one-third of the British merchant fleet had been built in America.

The production of these vessels required the skills of various tradesmen and industries, beginning with the Shipwright who drafted the design and directed the craftsmen in their work.  A great number of shipwrights were born with shipbuilding in their blood.  From an early age they received hands-on training in the family shipyard, many of these yards having been passed down from generation to generation.  Others honed their skills through an apprenticeship.  Ship design required a genius for mathematics and geometry with its countless calculations.  A shipwright had to assure the ship would float, taking into account the hull’s volume and height.  He strove to increase the vessel’s forward motion while carrying a maximum amount of cargo.  And he must have a talent for drawing and drafting to create the life-sized patterns the builders would follow. Although it took about 20-30 craftsmen and able-bodied workers to complete a vessel, it was the master shipwright who remained in control.

Once plans had been drawn, Sawyers were hired, also known as “saw gangs.”  These men were sent to chop down oak and pine timbers to match the drawing’s measurements.  They cut the wood to the pattern’s size and seasoned the planks.  White pine made for the choicest masts, while yellow pine was best used for decks for its high resin content and resistance to sun and salt.  Hackmatack roots were utilized for their naturally crooked growth.  They fashioned the angular pieces and gave strength to “knees” which supported deck timbers and braces.

One of the oldest tools of ship construction was called an adze.  It was a type of axe with a long-shaped blade and bore a slight curve near its handle.  Adzemen were skilled craftsmen employed in shaping and smoothing the timbers of wood.

Driving in the trunnels

The vessel’s frame was built primarily of oak.  Carpenters laid the keel—the vessel’s backbone which consisted of a long, curved beam that ran along the bottom from bow to stern.  Joiners scarfed two pieces of wood together to fashion a solid beam the exact length of the keel.  The vessel’s ribs were next fastened to the keel, completing the vessel’s framework.  The ribs were covered with oak planks, steamed and softened to render them pliable and capable of being curved to assure a form fit.  The planks were fastened with wooden pegs called trunnels or tree nails.  Borers drilled the holes and Fasteners drove in the trunnels.  Dubbers smoothed and planed the surfaces, and finally the Caulkers were called to drive oakum between the planks with a flat-edged caulking iron and mallet.  Oakum was a pitch substance consisting of tarred hemp fibers.  Oakum Boys carried the pails of pitch.  The seams and cracks around the trunnels would next be sealed with boiling pine tar to make them watertight.  Finally, the hardened surfaces were scraped until smooth.

A launch in 1751

Launchings were grand affairs.  Businesses and schools closed for the day so the locals could come out to watch.  Standing on the riverbank and supported by a huge cradle, the vessel would be held in place by a set of stocks resembling extremely wide railroad tracks.  The owner would speak a few words to the crowd, then the minister would confer a blessing and a sponsor would be chosen to christen the ship by name.  The restraints were cut away, the blocks removed, and the vessel inched down the greased stocks into the sea with a great splash.  Music played and folks cheered, waving flags and partaking of the refreshments.

Once afloat, the vessel would be moored to a fitting dock where she would receive her finishing touches and the complex rigging required to support and control her sails.  Additional artisans and tradesmen were hired for this work—windlass-makers, anchor smiths, carvers, sailmakers, blacksmiths, pumpmakers, sparmakers and ropemakers.  With the combined the talents of so many laborers contributing to the extensive enterprise of building a wooden ship in colonial times, it is no wonder that launchings were celebrated by the entire town!

Lisa Norato is the author of Prize of My Heart, an inspirational seafaring historical from Bethany House. A life-long New Englander, Lisa lives in a historic village with homes and churches dating as far back as the eighteenth century.

Superstitions upon the Sea!!

The Age of Sail was not only a time of great exploration and adventure, it was also a time of deep superstition. So much about our world was yet unknown and most people were deeply religious. And I don't mean that in a good way, either. The Christianity Christ preached had long since been twisted and convoluted with Pagan practices, good luck charms, idols, amulets and other ungodly beliefs.  And since sailing was a large and prominent profession fraught with many dangers, it was inevitable that many superstitions rose regarding the sea. Here are just a few of the more interesting ones!

Rats! Every ship had rats and most sailors believed that these rodents who inhabited the dankest, darkest parts of the ship knew when misfortune was about to strike. If rats scurried off a ship at dock before it set sail, the voyage was sure to be doomed.

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If a Shark followed in the wake of a ship, someone on board would soon die

It was bad luck to kill a turtle and not eat it, but good luck to carry its bones around in your pocket 

Storm Petrels, also known as the Birds of our Lady, by the French were believed to be sent by the Virgin Mary to warn ships of coming storms.

Sailors believed Manta Rays could attach themselves to anchors and drag a ship down to Davy Jones' Locker.

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The Albatross could bring both good luck and bad. Good luck in its appearing, and bad luck if it was shot and killed because it was believed to be the restless soul of a dead sailor, as we see in Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner

‘God save thee, ancient Mariner!
From the fiends, that plague thee thus!--
Why look’st thou so?’--With my cross-bow
I shot the ALBATROSS.

And I had done an hellish thing,
And it would work ’em woe:
For all averred, I had killed the bird
That made the breeze to blow.

In fact, if a storm arose after the bird was shot, the bird's carcass was strung around the neck of the sailor responsible and he was lashed to the mainmast where he had to stay until the tempest passed.  

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The figurehead at the bow prevented the ship from sinking in a storm, and since it was also believed that if a woman bared her breasts during a storm, it would abate, many figureheads are of bare-breasted women.

It was bad luck to set sail on a Friday because according to Norse myths, Friday was the day when witches gathered. It was also the day Jesus was crucified. Friday the 13th was particularly bad luck.  

Saint Erasmus, also known as St. Elmo died in a terrible storm at sea. Right before he died, he promised the crew he would come back and give them a sign if they were to survive. Not long after, the sailors saw a weird bright light in the sky. They believed it was St. Elmo's sign and every time that electrical charge was seen thereafter, if it remained high on the masts, the ship would survive. If it shown on the deck, the ship was doomed. It is known still today as St. Elmo's fire.

In order to prevent a departed sailor from following a ship, his body was rolled up in his hammock and 13 stitches were used to sew him up, the last stitch going through his nose to ensure he was dead and keep him from appearing on the ship as a ghost. Then two cannonballs were attached to his feet so he couldn't follow them. 

And my personal favorite, mermaids! Mermaids were greatly feared because they were known to lure a man to his death. In 1608 Henry Hudson wrote that two of his sailors had spotted one of the seductive creatures. 

This morning one of our companie looking over boord saw a mermaid, and calling up some of the companie to see her, one more came up and by that time she was come close to the ships side, looking earnestly on the men. A little after the sea came and overturned her. From the navill upward her backe and breasts were like a womans, as they say that saw her, but her body as big as one of us. Her skin very white, and long haire hanging downe behinde of colour blacke. In her going doune they saw her tayle, which was like the tayle of a porposse, and speckld like a macrell.

Pretty Fascinating, huh? 

Medicine at Sea -- Not for the Squeamish!

The more I learn about doctoring on board a ship, the more I’m thankful I live in this day and age!  Much more than life on land, shipboard life was wrought with many dangers and diseases. And if the ship was a man-of-war or a pirate or privateer, they also had to endure battle from time to time.  Injuries ranged from gunshots, punctures, slashes, dismemberment, to scorching burns from cannons.

Aside from battle, a wooden ship was a floating bucket of germs and disease. Rats, cockroaches, weevils, lice, and lifestock infected every corner. Sailor's clothing was often damp, making it more likely to harbor disease. Sunburn, heat exhaustion, sun stroke, hypothermia, exposure, and frostbite were just a few of the normal problems each sailor faced.

Diseases such as typhus, cholera, yellow fever, or bubonic plague had a nasty habit of invading ships where large numbers of people were gathered together in confined places  Scurvy killed more sailors than any other disease, natural disasters, and fights combined. Historians conservatively place the number of deaths at more than 2,000,000 between Columbus’ first voyage to the New World and the mid-nineteenth century.

In 1596 William Clowes, an English surgeon at sea, described how his men suffered from scurvy:

Their gums were rotten even to the very roots of their teeth, and their cheeks hard and swollen, the teeth were loose neere ready to fallout…their breath a filthy savour. The legs were feeble and so weak, that they were not scarce able to carrie their bodies. Moreover they were full of aches and paines, with many bluish and reddish staines or spots, some broad and some small like flea-biting. (Brown, 34)

Aside from battle, most injuries occurred from simple accidents. Scurrying up and down the rigging as the ship swayed back and forth often caused sailors to lose their footing and fall, resulting at best with a fractured skull, at worst death. Falling or snapping rigging, shifting yards, and accidents with knives and other tools also caused severe injuries.

Then, of course, an actual battle normally flooded sick bay with wounded men. The worse of them needed the dreaded, amputation

The process involved cutting off the injured man’s clothing and applying a tourniquet. The surgeon then gave him a stick to bite down on.  Anesthetics had yet to be invented and contrary to belief, they weren’t given alcohol either. Only after the surgery were opiates or grog given for the discomfort.  Without going into details, the limb was sawed off and tossed in a bucket. Either hot tar was applied to the stump or it was cauterized with a hot iron to stop the bleeding. The tourniquet was removed and strips of linen lashed over the stump. If a wool stocking cap was available, this was also pulled over the stump. The entire operation took eight to ten minutes. The man’s chances of survival? Fifty-fifty.

A seaman aboard HMS Macedonian assisted during an operation.

We held [one man] while the surgeon cut off his leg above the knee. The task was most painful to behold, the surgeon using his knife and saw on human flesh and bones as freely as the butcher at the shambles.”

The Medicine Chest

Every ship at sea was in dire need of a medicine chest. In fact, the medicine chest was considered more valuable than a doctor. If a doctor was not on aboard, the captain simply designated someone to tend to the patients, but the medicine chest they could not do without!

John Woodall’s The Surgeons Mate, first published in 1617 was a shipboard manual that listed instruments and medicines found in the chest as well as special instructions for emergencies and ailments.  There were 281 remedies listed, which consisted of popular herbs of the day, rosemary, mint, clover, sage, thyme, angelica, comfrey, blessed thistle, juniper, hollyhock, absinthe and pyrethrum.

Here’s a list of tools and supplies normally found in medicine chest

Knives

Razors

Head-sawes

Cauterizing irons

Forceps

Probes

Spatulas for drawing out splinters and shot

Syringes

Grippers for extracting teeth

Sissors

Stitching quill and needles

Splints

Spomges

Clouts (soft rags)

Cupping glasses,

Blood porringers

Chafing dishes

Mortar and pestle

Weights and scales

Tinderbox

Lantern

Plasters

These medicine chests were so valuable and sought after by ships that Blackbeard himself blockaded the port of Charleston just to get one in exchange for prisoners. The going rate for a medicine chest of the day was  between 300-400 pounds!

Remedies or medicines had to be concocted on the spot. Normally the medication consisted of a curative agent, water or oil, flavoring, if swallowed, and a compound used to deliver the medicine (like a pill or ointment).

Here’s a list of ailments and their remedies. I think you’ll find some of them most amusing!

• Vomiting, hiccups, stomach ache --- cinnamon water ,licorice juice, peppermint water 
•  Urinary problems, fevers – spirits, salts and tinctures like salts of wormwood, vinegar and quicksilver
• To close up a wound, or as a varnish on a violin – Dragon’s blood, the resin made from the agave and rattan palm
•  Malaria – quinine bark
•  Headache – Chamomile flowers
•   Mucus – syrup from vinegar of squills with sugar and honey
•  Skin wounds – oil of St. John’s Wort
•  Fear of water, bites from serpents, mad dogs, and creeping things – Methridatum – an opiate
•  Syphilis – apply poultice made of frogs, “earthworms, viper’s flesh, human fat, wine, grass from northern India, lavender from France, chamomile from Italy, white lead and quicksilver”
•  And my personal favorite! Wounds from battle – apply poultice made of “burnt earthworms, dried boar’s brain, pulverized Egyptian mummy, crushed rubies, bear’s fat, and moss from the skull of hanged man which had been collected from the gibbet at moonrise with Venus ascending.”

And get this, the plaster was not applied to the wound but to the sword that sliced him!.

The Crew of a Merchantman in Colonial Times!

While information on the crew of a military vessel such as a Royal Navy Frigate is easy to find, how about the crew manning a regular merchant ship? Ofttimes this information gets lost and muddled among so many different types of ships sailing under the flag of so many different countries.  But while there were differences, I hope to give a general account of the crew of a normal Merchantman.

The Ship Master - Or simply Master or Captain as he was addressed while at sea. His responsibilities included: Outfitting, supplying and manning the vessel before a voyage as well as compliance with all the paperwork, ordinances and regulations demanded by the port authority  Once at sail, his job was to get the vessel safely out of the harbor, but rarely, aside from Sunday services, which he officiated, did he have much contact with the crew. He navigated the ship, made all decisions and was in complete power over the voyage, including dolling out punishments.

First mate - Received orders from the captain and transmitted them to the crew. He was in charge of the setting and lowering of sails, all aspect of the rigging, and ship repairs. He was often hired directly by the owner of the vessel and could not be removed by the captain. He was responsible for keeping an accurate log book and commanded the larboard watch.

The Second mate - commander of the starboard watch and in the absence of the first mate or captain, he commanded the entire vessel. His duties included the maintenance and care of all the spare rigging, blocks, and sails as well as the tools used to work on the rigging. Unlike the captain or the first mate, the second mate actually got his hands dirty and worked alongside the crew.

The Third Mate - only found on large vessels and chosen by the captain from among the most senior able seaman. In some cases, they were designated as bosuns, which were petty officers who were in charge of the crew.

Idlers: - specialized workmen who did not do the work of seaman or stand watch. Idlers commonly included the carpenter, the sailmaker, and the cook. Larger vessels might have a cooper, steward, armorer and other tradesmen.  On smaller vessels, an idler could sign on as both an able bodied seaman and a carpenter, etc..   Cooks were never seamen and were usually older sailors with missing limbs unable to do normal seamen tasks. 

Able seamen - knowledge of steering, reefing, furling and also able to cut and fit new rigging. These were also the topmen who were expected to go to the end of the yards or above the tops. No man could "pass as an able seaman in a square-rigged vessel who could not make a long and short splice in a large rope, fit a block strap, pass seizings to lower rigging, and make the ordinary knots, in a fair, workmanlike manner.'

Ordinary seamen - not quite at the level of an able seaman, the ordinary seaman was expected to 'hand, reef, and steer under normal weather conditions'. They did not have to be a competent helmsman but should be acquainted with all the running and standing rigging of the ship

Green hands - young boys who were learning to be sailors and who were given all the unpleasant simple tasks on board such as sweep the decks, hold a log-reel, coil a rope, slush or scrub a mast, touch up a bit of tar, or help in the galley. But they also learned important skills. They stood watch and went aloft to adjust sails.

Within the Able and Ordinary Seamen existed these titles
Sheet anchor men - worked on the forecastle handling the anchors, jibs and foreyards.
After-gang - working the aft deck these men dealt primarily with the mainsail and spanker and worked on the lines and haliyards
Waisters - worked in the ship's waist.. the center deck below the top deck
Holders - Worked in the hold

Clear as the bilge in the hold?  It thought so!