Henry Steers was connected the Construction Department of the Royal Naval Dockyards at Plymouth

Plymouth

Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...

 till 1815. He got two sons James

James Rich Steers

James Rich Steers was an American yacht builder and politician. He was born in Plymouth, England. His father, Henry Steers, was connected to the Construction Department of the Royal Naval Dockyards at Plymouth until 1815...

 and George

George Steers

George Steers was a designer of yachts best known for the famous racing yacht America. He founded a shipyard with his brother, George Steers and Co, and died in an accident just as he was landing a major contract to build boats for the Russian Czar....

, well known for building many ships in Greenpoint, Long Island, New York.

Isle of Guernsey

When he moved to the Isle of Guernsey, where built two privateers for the French Government. One of his comrades John Thomas having gone to the United States and obtained a position in the Washington Navy yard wrote to Henry Steers to join him. Steers accepted the invitation.

Washington

He removed with his family to New-York in 1817, and thence to Washington, where he was engaged in the Construction Department of the United State Navy. It was not long before he showed to the commodore of the navy yard the drawing after which he had constructed the terrible cruisers for the French government. He obtained from the authorities an order to build two war vessels the Shark

USS Shark

USS Shark has been the name of more than one United States Navy ship, and may refer to:, a schooner commissioned in 1821 and wrecked in 1846...

and the Grampus

Grampus

Grampus may mean:*A common name historically used for the orca*Grampus, the genus that includes Risso's Dolphin as its only species*CSS Grampus, a Confederate river steamer*USS Grampus, the name of a number of ships of the United States Navy...

after the same model and drew the plans for the frigate Brandywine

USS Brandywine (1825)

USS Brandywine was a wooden-hulled, three-masted Frigate of the United States Navy bearing 44 guns which had the initial task of conveying the Marquis de Lafayette back to France...

. Steers and Thomas also furnished plans for the construction of an immense ship house and an inclined plane by means of which they were successful in hauling up the frigate Congress for repairs.

New York

In 1824 the two ship builders came to New York and built at the foot of Tenth Street on the East River the first ship railway ever seen in the United States. It consisted of rails laid on an inclined plane upon which a cradle was run for the purpose of drawing vessels up out of the water in order to repair them and in consideration of their enterprise the Legislature granted to the railway company a charter for a bank to last as long as grass grows and water runs. Thus was founded the Dry dock Bank now the Eleventh Ward Bank. The only other institution that ever received such a charter was the Manhattan Company. Mr James Rich Steers

James Rich Steers

James Rich Steers was an American yacht builder and politician. He was born in Plymouth, England. His father, Henry Steers, was connected to the Construction Department of the Royal Naval Dockyards at Plymouth until 1815...

 has been a stockholder in that bank more than fifty years.

With his son, James Rich Steers

James Rich Steers

James Rich Steers was an American yacht builder and politician. He was born in Plymouth, England. His father, Henry Steers, was connected to the Construction Department of the Royal Naval Dockyards at Plymouth until 1815...

, he built the sloop of war Peacock in 1829, and the son in 1829 became superintendent of the shipbuilding firm of Smith & Dimon.

He died on April 17, 1896.