Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "shipyards"

Maritime Kensington: Shipwright Dynasties of Philadelphia by Gretchen Bell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


One day, Gretchen Bell joined a tour of Laurel Hill Cemetery, where she was introduced to the gravesites of Philadelphia shipbuilders William Cramp, John K. Hammitt, Samuel Merrick, John Birely, John Vaughan, and William Sutton. Her curiosity piqued, she wanted to learn more but discovered that regional histories were fairly silent about these men. Shipyards that were once famous throughout the world had become mere blips in history books and Kensington residents were unaware of the men who lent their names to their streets. She decided to change this.

Anthony Palmer of Barbados, a 17th-century land speculator, established an estate named Kensington in present-day Pennsylvania. The land along the shores of the Delaware River had once belonged to the Lenni-Lenape tribe. Eventually, he laid out streets and sold plots of land. By 1676, James West built the first substantial shipyard six years before William Penn arrived in his colony. Others followed and, as time passed, these families merged through marriage and business.

During the 18th century, Kensington’s shipwrights built privateers and vessels that brought more immigrants to the region. It didn’t take long before Philadelphia eclipsed Boston as the most important shipbuilding center in the colonies. Over the decades businesses and fortunes waned and swelled, oftentimes impacted what was happening on a wider stage. Some shipbuilders learned to change with the times; others didn’t. This growth, decline, and adaptation are all discussed within these sixteen chapters. For example, John Vaughan built Baltimore, the first vessel powered by steam in 1815, which began Kensington’s shift from sailing ships to steamships. Immigration during the middle of the 19th century also impacted the region and its shipbuilding, as did the Panic of 1857. In the second half of the century, Charles Cramp oversaw the building of ships for the Imperial Russian Navy. When he died in 1913, his death was reported as front-page news and not just in Philadelphia. While the Cramps succeeded in adapting to these changes, the Cope family, which focused on building packet ships, did not.

The book includes maps, illustrations, notes on sources, chapter notes, a bibliography, and an index. Intertwined throughout these pages is relevant history on a greater scale to better understand the local historical development of the area.

Although records on Philadelphia’s shipbuilding history are scarce, Bell has compiled an important contribution on which other researchers can build “to restore the memory of these laboring clans who lived and worked along the Delaware River.” (13) She explores the development and evolution of Kensington’s shipwrights from the earliest days of William Penn’s colony until 2011, when the Cramp Machine & Turret Shop was torn down, removing “the last piece of Philadelphia’s great nineteenth-century shipbuilding industry.” (12)


(This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/adult-hist...)



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