During the 1840’s and 1850’s America experienced its golden age in shipping and sailing.1 At the front of this era was Donald McKay whose innovative ship designs lead to the numerous sea speed records, some of which stand today. For most of the early 19th century American ship building consisted of merchant and cargo ships. It took a long time for these ships to sail across seas. With the increased speed came decreased time to wait for pay. Another need for increased speed was the California gold rush of 1849. People wanted to make the trip as quickly as possible in order to stake their claims. Donald McKay’s clipper ships enabled people to do that.
This paper investigates why Donald McKay is the father of American clipper ships. He was born in Shelburne, Nova Scotia, September 4, 1810.2 When Donald was sixteen years old he had the desire to learn the trade of ship building, so he went to New York. In 1826 New York was the worlds best shipbuilder and shipbuilding was America’s leading industry. McKay decided that in order to learn the trade he must obtain an apprenticeship. So he became an apprentice to Isaac Web who has appropriately been called the “Father of Shipbuilders”. This is because more successful master shipbuilders came out of Web’s shipyard than from any other place in America.3 At the conclusion of his apprenticeship he went on to work for Brown & Bell. In 1832 packet building was the best and most readily available work in New York. The majority of these ships were built at Isaac Web’s, Brown & Bell’s, and Smith & Dimon’s. At this time McKay was what would be called a free lance ship wright. McKay then married Albenia Martha Boole the eldest daughter of John Boole.4 At this time McKay then went to Newburyport and formed a partnership with William Currier.
They formed the firm Currier & McKay and built the Courier. This was McKay’s first real production as designer and builder of a ship. The Courier was built for the coffee trade between New York and Rio de Janeiro and was sold to Andrew Foster & Son.5 Their firm soon dissolved and McKay then become connected with William Pickett and formed the firm of McKay & Pickett. Under this name they built the New York packet ship St. George. This was the first of the Red Cross Line.
WriteWork. "The 19th Century 'Railroad Boom.'" WriteWork . N.p., 1 May 2003. Web. 28 Feb. 2011.
In 1850, the side wheeler “Columbia”, which commenced regular services between Astoria and Portland in 1850, was the first steamship to ply Columbia as a common carrier. Half a dozen steamships soon joined her on interior waters, and their numbers greatly increased after the gold discoveries of the 1860s (Schwantes, 181).
During the 1800’s, America was going through a time of invention and discovery known as the Industrial Revolution. America was in its first century of being an independent nation and was beginning to make the transition from a “home producing” nation to a technological one. The biggest contribution to this major technological advancement was the establishment of the Transcontinental Railroad because it provided a faster way to transport goods, which ultimately boosted the economy and catapulted America to the Super Power it is today. Throughout the beginning of the 19th century, America was still being harassed by her former mother country, Britain.
Throughout the late nineteenth and the early twentieth century, the United States economy changed dramatically as the country transformed from a rural agricultural nation to an urban industrial gian, becoming the leading manufacturing country in the world. The vast expansion of the railroads in the late 1800s’ changed the early American economy by tying the country together into one national market. The railroads provided tremendous economic growth because it provided a massive market for transporting goods such as steel, lumber, and oil. Although the first railroads were extremely successful, the attempt to finance new railroads originally failed. Perhaps the greatest physical feat late 19th century America was the creation of the transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Company, starting in San Francisco, and the new competitor, Union Pacific, starting in Omaha. The two companies slaved away crossing mountains, digging tunnels, and laying track the entire way. Both railroads met at Promontory, Utah on May 10, 1869, and drove one last golden spike into the completed railway. Of course the expansion of railroads wasn’t the only change being made. Another change in the economy was immigration.
What do you think of when you hear the term “Gold Rush”? The 1849 gold rush in California?
During the Gold Rush of 1848-1849, California began to experience a large wave of Chinese immigration to the United States. Stories of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill drew thousands of Chinese immigrants into North America from various parts of Asia. These immigrants, who were primarily poor peasants, flooded the “Golden Hills” we know as California in pursuit of better economic opportunity. To fill in the needs of the increasingly widespread mining communities in the West, many Chinese immigrants ultimately became merchants, railroad workers, agricultural laborers, mining laborers, and factory workers. Throughout the Gold Rush, members of the Chinese labor force played significant roles in both the social and economic development of the American West, particularly with regards to the construction of the transcontinental railroad.
In the article "Ship Of Gold" by Gary Hanna talks about events that happened during the middle of 1857 and early 1980's. In the middle of 1857 there was a ship (Central America) in Cuba that was headed toward New York. But, a massive Hurricane was headed right toward the ship. In the article it says " The Central America had sailed into the path of a furious hurricane. For three days, enormous waves had pummeled the ship. Screaming winds had shattered its windows and shredded its sails.” (Hanna 18)The ship gave in after three days. A nearby vessel was able to save only 132 people which left 425 people to die. This ship was not not ordinary, it had twenty one tons of gold. The article states ” It was filled with treasure—21 tons of gold.” (Hanna
Stanley, George E. "The Rise Of Manufacturing." The Era of Reconstruction and Expansion (1865-1900. N.p.: World Almanac Library, 2005. 20-21. Google Books. World Almanac Library. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
During the post gold rush and pre gold rush (1847) similarities reminded the same. For example, the main way of transportation was by boat.
Charles Goodyear was born in New Haven, Connecticut on December 29, 1800 to Amasa and Cynthia Goodyear. Charles’s father was a hardware manufacture and a merchant. Amasa Goodyear built mainly farming tools like hayforks and scythes, which he invented. When Charles was a teenager he wanted to go into the ministry and become a pastor, but his father convinced him that he was a good business man and placed him in the hardware store of the Rogers brothers in Philadelphia at the age of seventeen. He worked there until he was twenty-one years old. At that time he returned to New Haven to join his father’s business, making farm tools. For five years he worked for his father, building up the family business. On August 24, 1824, while he was still working for his father he married Clarissa Beecher who also lived in New Haven, Connecticut. In 1826 Charles Goodyear decided to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There he opened a hardware store where he sold the products that his father made. Four years after opening this store both Amasa and Charles Goodyear were bankrupt because they would extend credit to customers and the customers would never pay back the money that they owed. Charles’s health started to decline and both father and son owed tens of thousands of dollars. For the next thirty years Charles Goodyear was thrown in prison over ten times because he didn’t pay his debts. In 1834 when he was in New York, on a business trip, the Roxbury India Rubber Company caught his eye. ...
The California Gold Rush in 1849 was the catalyst event for the state that earned them a spot in the U.S. union in 1850. This was not the first gold rush in North America; however, it was one of the most important gold rush events. The story of how the gold was discovered and the stories of the 49ers are well known. Men leaving their families in the East and heading West in hopes of striking it rich are the stories that most of us heard about when we learn about the California Gold Rush. Professors and scholars over the last two decades from various fields of study have taken a deeper look into the Gold Rush phenomena. When California joined the Union in 1850 it helped the U.S. expand westward just as most Americans had intended to do. The event of the Gold Rush can be viewed as important because it led to a national railroad. It also provided the correct circumstances for successful entrepreneurship, capitalism, and the development modern industrialization. The event also had a major influence on agriculture, economics, and politics.
Trade was important to the Maritimes. Up to 1846 Britain had provided the British North American colonies with a market for their goods, but then began a policy of free trade. Because there were no tariffs placed on any country the colonies lost a sure market for their goods. Many colonists were concerned that some might consider union with the United States and the British North American colonies was brisk with large amounts of lumber and grain being imported by the U.S. When the Americans ended the Reciprocity Treaty in 1865, many Maritimers became uneasy about the economic future. It became apparent that in order to develop thriving trade; new economic links would have to be developed. 3
Travel by land and water was both tedious and expensive. Transporting one ton of goods across states would cost around 100 dollars or 1,265 dollars in today’s money. In the 1790s, land routes connecting the east coast and the farther western regions of the United States were undeveloped. Along with this, when weather conditions were poor land routes could not support any sort of dependable shipping by wagon, or even travel by horseback. Natural waterways provided the most dependable method of transport west of Albany. Even travel by waterway in this time period was inconvenient because these water routes were unreliable due to shallow water and raging rapids.
Fulton invented the first steam powered warship for the United States that was launched in New York in 1814 (Pierce 95). Little did he know that this steamboat would help America defeat the British and prohibit them from entering America’s waters and land. The main reason for constructing his steamboat was to keep the U.S. safe from harm by the British, and to protect them from the fear (Sutcliffe 132). In order to achieve this goal, he would make a sturdy boat with cannons on top that could fight against the British and keep America out of harm’s way. Not only would this innovation defend the U.S., the warship would help transport American troops to their bases. He also supplied Commodore Perry with a steamboat that helped America create foreign relations (Sale 180). This meant that ideas, goods, and materials could be exchanged among other countries. It would increase America’s income through exports and imports. The money America would make from this could lead to more exploration, the invention of new technology, and more evolved weaponry. Robert Fulton once declared that his, “‘ingenious Steam Boat, invented with a view to the navigation of the Mississippi from New Orleans upward . . . will certainly be a very valuable acquisition to the commerce of Western States’” (Kirkpatrick 14) Fulton saw his steamboat as an opportunity to spread goods and commercialize America. The steamboat also made America’s population more diverse and greater. Once people from outside countries heard about the first successful steamboat, they wanted to experience that new piece of technology. Immigrants and tourists noticed how intriguing the steamboat and decided to stay. A frenchman by the name of Michel Chevalier once expressed that “‘the discovery of steam has added unbelievably to the strength and prosperity of the Union . . .’” (Kirkpatrick 191). Robert Fulton’s
"Although he takes many a blow on the chin, he always dusts off his feathers and rises to take it on the chin again."