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West Point (1847)
Encyclopedia
The West Point (sometimes Westpoint) was a full rigged vessel built in the 1840s and used for the transportation of goods, passengers and mail to and from Liverpool
and New York. It was one of a few ocean-going packet-ships
operated by the Robert Kermit Red Star Line
company, not to be confused with the Belgian/US-American shipping company Red Star Line
, whose main ports of call were New York City and Philadelphia in the United States and Antwerp in Belgium.
In 1846, Robert Kermit commissioned the shipbuilders Westervelt & MacKay from New York
to build the West Point. Kermit's West Point was not the only ship to bear that name: it was overshadowed by the widely known steamship SS America
, which was acquired by the US Navy on 1 June 1941, renamed to USS West Point and used as a troop transport during World War II
.
ships and fast steamships. The shipyard also produced United States Navy ships such as the screw sloop
. Westervelt & MacKay co-owner Jacob Aaron Westervelt reached prominence as a Mayor of New York 1853–1855.
The West Point was built of southern live oak
despite the fact that the use of iron had started to catch on in the building of ships – especially in the United Kingdom
. In the following years the advantages of building iron ships became more obvious and the value of ships purely made of wood decreased perceptibly. The owners of wooden ships therefore began to fasten their vessels with iron and copper. In case of West Point, this happened in November 1857.
(which traded to the West Indies) for many years. He died August 6, 1812, in his house at 86 Greenwich Street, New York – two years before his old ship sunk on its way from Sydney
to Batavia (Jakarta
).
Robert Kermit gained a mercantile training in the shipping house of William Codman. With his brother Henry – a skilled bookkeeper – he went into business in 1817 at 84 Greenwich Street. They purchased the ship Aurora of which Captain Taubman was master, in order to run in the Liverpool trade
. In 1827 Henry Jr. died and Robert carried on business as an agent for packet ships to and from Liverpool. Within a few years he rapidly increased the number of his vessels and soon became one of the largest ship-owners in the country.
On December 4, 1832, Robert Kermit married Ann Eliza Carow, eldest daughter of his business partner Isaac Quentin Carow and Eliza Mowatt. The ancestors of the family Carow – actually Huguenots named Quereau – originally came from France
. They fled to the United States, soon after Louis XIV of France
revoked the Edict of Nantes
(1598) and declared Protestantism to be illegal in the Edict of Fontainebleau
(1685). Isaac Quentin Quereau anglicised the family name to Carow in 1797.
while his home was at 24 Cortlandt Street.
On September 11, 1835 Robert Kermit purchased the old and popular line of Liverpool packets – the Red Star Line – which had been established in 1818 by Byrnes, Trimble & Co, not to be confused with the shipping company of the same name founded in 1872. In 1837 Robert Kermit became director of the Mutual Insurance Company and in 1847 director of the Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Company. In this period, he commissioned the construction of a few new ships, including West Point, that finally sailed under the flag of the Red Star Line, as well as John R. Skeddy (1845), Constellation (1849), Underwriter (1850) and Waterloo. Other ships of the Robert Kermit Red Star Line were: John Jay, England, Virginian, Samuel Hicks, Stephen Whitney, United States as well as Sheffield.
In the year 1850 Robert's father-in-law Isaac Quentin Carow died. Robert Kermit never had children of his own (the only Kermit-descendant was the daughter of Robert's deceased brother Henry). That is why Robert developed an almost paternal relationship with his brother-in-law Charles Carow, who was 21 years younger than his sister Ann Eliza, and he took him into partnership as Kermit & Carow to carry on the business of general ship-owning, commission and commercial trading. Captain Kermit died at his residence, 50 East 14th Street, March 13, 1855, in his sixty-first year. The New York Post
wrote in Robert Kermit's obituary: "He was a man of very warm feelings, of incorruptible integrity, and perfectly unforgiving of any impeachment of his honour. His attachments were absorbing. He never saw any faults in a friend, nor was he content that others should see any. He loved his ships and captains as if they had been his children and never forgave an imputation upon the character of either."
Ships like West Point mostly carried a high quantity of goods on their way to Liverpool and returned with a variety of passengers. In the 19th century over 50 million people left Europe for the United States, many of them during the California Gold Rush
in the 1840s and 50s. In these years Charles Carow made his fortune. But in 1861 everything changed when the American Civil War
began, which caused a drastic reduction in the number of emigrants. The American merchant fleet generally was badly affected by this war, that ended in 1865: in 1860 two-thirds of all US export and import tonnage was carried on American ships, in 1866 only 30% and nine years later 27%. A ruinous rise in prices enhanced Charles Carow's business worries and he began to drink. This had increased in ratio to a disastrous drop in income and immense losses. There is not much known about the whereabouts of West Point and the other ships of Charles Carow.
His daughter Edith
became popular, as she married the young widower and future US-president Theodore Roosevelt
. Their son Kermit Roosevelt
was one of the founders of the United States Lines
.
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and New York. It was one of a few ocean-going packet-ships
Packet ship
A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post office mail packets to and from British embassies, colonies and outposts. In sea transport, a packet service is a regular, scheduled service, carrying freight and passengers...
operated by the Robert Kermit Red Star Line
Robert Kermit Red Star Line
In 1818 the Red Star Line was founded by Byrnes, Trimble & Co. from New York....
company, not to be confused with the Belgian/US-American shipping company Red Star Line
Red Star Line
The Red Star Line was an ocean passenger line founded in 1871 as a joint venture between the International Navigation Company of Philadelphia, which also ran the American Line, and the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belgo-Américaine of Antwerp, Belgium...
, whose main ports of call were New York City and Philadelphia in the United States and Antwerp in Belgium.
In 1846, Robert Kermit commissioned the shipbuilders Westervelt & MacKay from New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to build the West Point. Kermit's West Point was not the only ship to bear that name: it was overshadowed by the widely known steamship SS America
SS America
SS America may refer to:, a passenger steamer for North German Lloyd, 1863–1894, a passenger steamer for Pacific Mail Steamship Company, a passenger and package steamer serving Duluth, Minnesota, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Isle Royale., originally the Hamburg America Line liner Amerika seized by the...
, which was acquired by the US Navy on 1 June 1941, renamed to USS West Point and used as a troop transport during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
Construction
West Point was built in 1847 by Westervelt & MacKay, a company that acquired renown by constructing streamlined clipperClipper
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had three or more masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area...
ships and fast steamships. The shipyard also produced United States Navy ships such as the screw sloop
Screw sloop
A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's screws...
. Westervelt & MacKay co-owner Jacob Aaron Westervelt reached prominence as a Mayor of New York 1853–1855.
The West Point was built of southern live oak
Southern live oak
Quercus virginiana, also known as the southern live oak, is a normally evergreen oak tree native to the southeastern United States. Though many other species are loosely called live oak, the southern live oak is particularly iconic of the Old South....
despite the fact that the use of iron had started to catch on in the building of ships – especially in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. In the following years the advantages of building iron ships became more obvious and the value of ships purely made of wood decreased perceptibly. The owners of wooden ships therefore began to fasten their vessels with iron and copper. In case of West Point, this happened in November 1857.
Robert Kermit: The early years (1794–1834)
It was Robert Kermit (born in New York September 4, 1794), son of Captain Henry Kermit and Elizabeth Ferguson, who placed the order for the construction of the full rigged sailing vessel West Point. His father had been master of the brig Morning StarMorning Star (ship)
The Morning Star was a ship wrecked near Quoin Island, Queensland 12.4305ºS, 143.421667ºE in 1814.The Morning Star was a brig of 140 tons constructed in Calcutta, India and registered there to the owners Lackersteen & Co. On the 2nd or 3rd of July 1814, whilst on its way from Sydney to Batavia...
(which traded to the West Indies) for many years. He died August 6, 1812, in his house at 86 Greenwich Street, New York – two years before his old ship sunk on its way from Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
to Batavia (Jakarta
Jakarta
Jakarta is the capital and largest city of Indonesia. Officially known as the Special Capital Territory of Jakarta, it is located on the northwest coast of Java, has an area of , and a population of 9,580,000. Jakarta is the country's economic, cultural and political centre...
).
Robert Kermit gained a mercantile training in the shipping house of William Codman. With his brother Henry – a skilled bookkeeper – he went into business in 1817 at 84 Greenwich Street. They purchased the ship Aurora of which Captain Taubman was master, in order to run in the Liverpool trade
Packet trade
Packet trade generally refers to any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship. The ships are called "packet boats" as their original function was to carry mail.-United States:...
. In 1827 Henry Jr. died and Robert carried on business as an agent for packet ships to and from Liverpool. Within a few years he rapidly increased the number of his vessels and soon became one of the largest ship-owners in the country.
On December 4, 1832, Robert Kermit married Ann Eliza Carow, eldest daughter of his business partner Isaac Quentin Carow and Eliza Mowatt. The ancestors of the family Carow – actually Huguenots named Quereau – originally came from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. They fled to the United States, soon after Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV of France
Louis XIV , known as Louis the Great or the Sun King , was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and Navarre. His reign, from 1643 to his death in 1715, began at the age of four and lasted seventy-two years, three months, and eighteen days...
revoked the Edict of Nantes
Edict of Nantes
The Edict of Nantes, issued on 13 April 1598, by Henry IV of France, granted the Calvinist Protestants of France substantial rights in a nation still considered essentially Catholic. In the Edict, Henry aimed primarily to promote civil unity...
(1598) and declared Protestantism to be illegal in the Edict of Fontainebleau
Edict of Fontainebleau
The Edict of Fontainebleau was an edict issued by Louis XIV of France, also known as the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. The Edict of Nantes of 1598, had granted the Huguenots the right to practice their religion without persecution from the state...
(1685). Isaac Quentin Quereau anglicised the family name to Carow in 1797.
Kermit & Carow (1834–1855)
By 1834, Robert Kermit already owned the ship St. George and then persuaded Stephen Whitney and Nathaniel Prime to become owners in a new ship named St. Andrew. This was the birth of the Saint Line. Even though the old heads Kermit, Prime and Whitney (and two or three younger ones) once had exclusive news about a cotton-deal and intended to make the most of it (the profits were enormous), it didn’t help Captain Robert Kermit particularly. So the Saint Line went down. At that time Robert moved his company to 74 South StreetSouth Street (Manhattan)
South Street is a street in Lower Manhattan, New York City, located immediately adjacent to the East River.It runs from Whitehall Street near the southern tip of Manhattan to Jackson Street near the Williamsburg Bridge. The Franklin D...
while his home was at 24 Cortlandt Street.
On September 11, 1835 Robert Kermit purchased the old and popular line of Liverpool packets – the Red Star Line – which had been established in 1818 by Byrnes, Trimble & Co, not to be confused with the shipping company of the same name founded in 1872. In 1837 Robert Kermit became director of the Mutual Insurance Company and in 1847 director of the Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Company. In this period, he commissioned the construction of a few new ships, including West Point, that finally sailed under the flag of the Red Star Line, as well as John R. Skeddy (1845), Constellation (1849), Underwriter (1850) and Waterloo. Other ships of the Robert Kermit Red Star Line were: John Jay, England, Virginian, Samuel Hicks, Stephen Whitney, United States as well as Sheffield.
In the year 1850 Robert's father-in-law Isaac Quentin Carow died. Robert Kermit never had children of his own (the only Kermit-descendant was the daughter of Robert's deceased brother Henry). That is why Robert developed an almost paternal relationship with his brother-in-law Charles Carow, who was 21 years younger than his sister Ann Eliza, and he took him into partnership as Kermit & Carow to carry on the business of general ship-owning, commission and commercial trading. Captain Kermit died at his residence, 50 East 14th Street, March 13, 1855, in his sixty-first year. The New York Post
New York Post
The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...
wrote in Robert Kermit's obituary: "He was a man of very warm feelings, of incorruptible integrity, and perfectly unforgiving of any impeachment of his honour. His attachments were absorbing. He never saw any faults in a friend, nor was he content that others should see any. He loved his ships and captains as if they had been his children and never forgave an imputation upon the character of either."
Charles Carow & Co. (1855–1867/68)
After Robert Kermit's death, Charles Carow continued the business and West Point entered into his possession. The ships from then on sailed under his name. In 1859 Charles married Gertrude Elisabeth Tyler and became the father of a son. In remembrance of his brother-in-law he called him Robert Kermit Carow. But the boy died one year before the birth of Charles and Gertrude's first daughter. That’s why they called her Edith Kermit Carow.Ships like West Point mostly carried a high quantity of goods on their way to Liverpool and returned with a variety of passengers. In the 19th century over 50 million people left Europe for the United States, many of them during the California Gold Rush
California Gold Rush
The California Gold Rush began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The first to hear confirmed information of the gold rush were the people in Oregon, the Sandwich Islands , and Latin America, who were the first to start flocking to...
in the 1840s and 50s. In these years Charles Carow made his fortune. But in 1861 everything changed when the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
began, which caused a drastic reduction in the number of emigrants. The American merchant fleet generally was badly affected by this war, that ended in 1865: in 1860 two-thirds of all US export and import tonnage was carried on American ships, in 1866 only 30% and nine years later 27%. A ruinous rise in prices enhanced Charles Carow's business worries and he began to drink. This had increased in ratio to a disastrous drop in income and immense losses. There is not much known about the whereabouts of West Point and the other ships of Charles Carow.
His daughter Edith
Edith Roosevelt
Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt was the second wife of Theodore Roosevelt and served as First Lady of the United States during his presidency from 1901 to 1909.-Early life:...
became popular, as she married the young widower and future US-president Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt was the 26th President of the United States . He is noted for his exuberant personality, range of interests and achievements, and his leadership of the Progressive Movement, as well as his "cowboy" persona and robust masculinity...
. Their son Kermit Roosevelt
Kermit Roosevelt
Kermit Roosevelt I MC was a son of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. He was an explorer on two continents with his father, a graduate of Harvard University, a soldier serving in two world wars, with both the British and U.S. Armies, a businessman, and a writer...
was one of the founders of the United States Lines
United States Lines
United States Lines was a transatlantic shipping company that operated cargo services from 1921 to 1989, and ocean liners until 1969—most famously the SS United States.-1920s:...
.
Captains of the vessel West Point
Based on the remaining passenger lists, it was possible to determine that, within the 16 years the full-rigged sailing vessel West Point was in service, at least seven captains were the ship's masters. Listed below is a summary of all verifiable passages from Liverpool, with the arrival dates in New York City (assigned to the relative captains):| Number | Shipmaster | Liverpool-New York passages made under the command of the captain |
|---|---|---|
| |
William Henry Allen | October 25, 1847 – March 7, 1848 – July 3, 1848 – October 30, 1848 – Mai 26, 1849 – September 22, 1849 – February 13, 1850 – Mai 20, 1850 – September 2, 1850 – November 6, 1858 – August 8, 1859 |
| |
Francis P. Allen | March 29, 1851 – July 26, 1851 – November 4, 1851 – February 12, 1852 – June 19, 1852 – September 24, 1852 |
| |
William R. Mullins | March 6, 1849 – February 15, 1853 – August 15, 1853 – December 19, 1853 – Mai 19, 1854 – April 17, 1855 – August 11, 1855 |
| |
William H. Harding | June 7, 1856 – October 30, 1856 – Mai 6, 1857 – December 7, 1857 |
| |
J.E. Ryan | July 12, 1858 |
| |
L.W. Spencer | September 17, 1860 |
| |
J.H. Childs | March 16, 1861 – August 7, 1862 – September 23, 1863 |
Literature
- MacBean, William M. (William Munro): Biographical register of Saint Andrew's society of the state of New York (1922)
- Scoville, Joseph Alfred (Barrett, Walter = pseud.): The old merchants of New York City (1863), ISBN 0-543-79000-2, ISBN 978-0-543-79000-2
- Lubbock, Basil: Western Ocean Packets, ISBN 0-486-25684-7, ISBN 978-0-486-25684-9
- Morris, Sylvia J.: Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady, ISBN 0-375-75768-6, ISBN 0-375-75768-6, ISBN 978-0-375-75768-6
- Whipple, A. B.: The Clipper Ships, ISBN 0-8094-2677-3, ISBN 978-0-8094-2677-5
- Laakso, Seija-Riitta: Across the Oceans (academic dissertation, University of Helsinki, Finland), ISBN 978-951-746-904-3, ISBN 952-10-3559-5
External links
- mysticseaport.org Information about the Kermit family
- immigrantships.net Website with a couple of passenger lists of this ship
- theshipslist.com Website with lots of information about ships and shipping lines (ship descriptions, passenger lists, fleet lists, ship pictures etc.)