Henry Eckford (12 March 1775 – 12 November 1832) was a Scottish-born American shipbuilder, naval architect, industrial engineer, and entrepreneur who worked for the United States Navy and the navy of the Ottoman Empire in the early 19th century. After building a national reputation in the United States through his shipbuilding successes during the War of 1812, he became a prominent business and political figure in New York City in the 1810s, 1820s, and early 1830s.
Early life Eckford was born in Kilwinning, Scotland, to Henry Eckford and Janet Black (a possibly unmarried couple)Selig, p. 14. on 12 March 1775, the youngest of five sons. The family soon moved to nearby Irvine, where he attended school and became a lifelong friend of schoolmate John Galt, a future novelist. As a boy, Eckford trained as a ships carpenter somewhere in Ayrshire, probably in the shipyard at Irvine on the Firth of Clyde.Jampoler, p. 38Selig, pp. 14–15.
In 1791, at the age of 16, Eckford left Scotland – to which he never returned – to begin a five-year shipbuilding apprenticeship with his mothers brother, the noted Scottish-born Canadian shipwright John Black, at a shipyard Black had established on the St. Lawrence River at Quebec City in Lower Canada. Eckford proved to be a hard worker and quick learner, with a flair for shipbuilding and ship design. When Black moved to Kingston, Upper Canada on Lake Ontario late in 1792, Eckford followed to continue his apprenticeship, but the two soon went their separate ways, with Black moving back to Quebec City to pursue revolutionary politics and purchase a shipyard in Lower Town from Ralph Gray while Eckford stayed behind in Kingston to continue to learn the shipbuilding trade. In 1794, Eckford joined a Freemason Lodge in Kingston, beginning a long association with Freemasonry.Selig, p. 21.
In 1796, Eckford reached the age of 21 and completed his apprenticeship, becoming a shipwright (or "mechanic") with the title "master builder." He emigrated to the United States that year, settling in New York City – a booming city with a flourishing shipbuilding industry – to work as a journeyman in a boatyard on the East River.Selig, pp. 24, 32.
Personal life In April 1799, the 24-year-old Eckford married 20-year-old Marion Bedell. They had nine children:.
Their daughter Sarah Eckford married the noted American poet Joseph Rodman Drake in 1816, and the couple gave Eckford his first grandchild in 1819.Selig, Steven M., Draughts: The Henry Eckford Story, Scottsdale, Arizona: Agreka History Preserved, 2008, no ISBN, p. 70. Another daughter, Janet Eckford, married the American zoologist James Ellsworth De Kay.
Shipbuilding in New York
In 1799 or 1800, Eckford moved into a house on Long Island and opened his own shipyard on the East River in Brooklyn.Chapelle, p. 249Selig, p. 32. He designed and built his first ship, the three-masted Sportsman (later renamed Samuel Elam) of 324 gross refgister tons, in 1800. Around 1802, he sold his yard and moved back across the river to New York City, where he and Edward or Lester Beebe (sources differ)Selig, p. 34, states that the partners name was "Edward Beebe," while Chappelle, p. 249, gives his name as "Lester Beebe." opened a new shipyard together. The yard prospered, turning out a series of ships that were handy and seaworthy, and upon which Eckford built a reputation as a talented shipbuilder.Jampoler, p. 39 He also befriended the successful New York shipbuilder Christian Bergh, and on 10 June 1803, became a United States citizen. He joined the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen of the City of New York and a Freemason lodge, where he met such prominent New Yorkers as Mayor DeWitt Clinton, Governor Daniel Tompkins, Chancellor Robert Livingston, and John Jacob Astor, with whom he formed a lasting business partnership.Selig, p. 33. Eckford built the three-masted ship Beaver (427 tons) for Astor in 1805, and the great success of the ship established him as one of New Yorks best naval architects and shipbuilders. Later in the year, he constructed the ship Magdalen for Astor, and in 1808 he built the brig Sylph for him.Selig, p. 34.
Eckford did his first shipbuilding work for the United States Navy beginning in 1806,Selig, pp.34–35, although p. Chapelle, pp. 220, 225, 247, mentions only the year 1808 in relation to the gunboat construction work. when the Eckford & Beebe shipyard built coastal gunboats for the Navy. In July 1808, Christian Bergh invited Eckford to join him in building the 14-gun U.S. Navy brig at Oswego, New York, on Lake Ontario. Although he did not design Oneida, the project enhanced his reputation further with the U.S. Navy and gave him experience in shipbuilding under the primitive conditions then prevailing along the New York shore of Lake Ontario.Selig, pp. 34–35; Chappelle, pp. 220, 225, 248.
Returning to New York City in 1809, Eckford bought out his partner Beebe and became sole owner of a new shipyard he established which would remain his main place of business for the rest of his life. For Astor, he built the brig Fox in 1809 and the ship Hannibal in 1810. Fox in particular was noted for her great speed thanks to the streamlined hull form Eckford designed for her, making the trip from Calcutta, India, to New York City in only 90 days – a record that would stand for 40 years – and making the round trip from New York to Calcutta and back in only seven months and 14 days. It was the speed of his ships thanks to their revolutionary hull form that gained Eckford great fame in the 19th century.Selig, pp. 35–36.
In September 1810, Eckford took on 16-year-old Isaac Webb as an apprentice at his yard. In the following years, Eckford would take on many other apprentices who would become important naval architects and shipbuilders in their own right, including John A. Robb, Jacob Bell, William Bennett, David Brown, Andrew Craft, John Dimon, John Englis, Thomas Megson, Stephen Smith, and Sidney Wright. In thus spreading naval architecture and shipbuilding expertise, Eckford made a significant contribution to the growth of American shipbuilding.Selig, p. 36.
The War of 1812 After the War of 1812 began in June 1812, Eckford offered his services to United States Secretary of the Navy Paul Hamilton in a letter of 8 July 1812. U.S. Navy Commodore Isaac Chauncey was placed in command of all Navy forces in the Great Lakes region, and he had known Eckford since Chauncey had been master of John Jacob Astors Eckford-built ship Beaver in 1806–1807 and had supervised Eckford & Beebes construction of U.S. Navy gunboats in 1808. Chauncey visited New York City in the first week of September 1812 to meet with Eckford and his fellow shipbuilders Christian Bergh and Adam and Noah Brown about the problem of building a fleet of warships on Lake Ontario. Eckford, with experience in building ships in both Kingstown and Oswego, was an obvious choice for building ships for Chauncey on the Great Lakes, and Adam and Noah Brown also agreed to head north to design and build Chaunceys fleet, while Bergh agreed to remain in New York City and oversee the transportation of men and materiel north to Lake Ontario.Selig, p. 44.
Suspending all work at his New York shipyard, Eckford gathered his apprentices and his best workers and set out a few days after the meeting with Chauncey for the approximately 300-mile (480-km) journey to Sackets Harbor, New York, on the northeastern shore of Lake Ontario, where he set about establishing a naval base and shipyard. He was the first of the men at the meeting to arrive on the Great Lakes. Chauncey joined him at Sackets Harbor on 6 October 1812, establishing his headquarters there, and finding that Eckford already had a shipyard in operation and had laid the keel of the 22-gun corvette .
Despite terrible winter weather, Eckford not only quickly established a shipyard, but also quarters for the shipbuilders, mess and kitchen buildings, a hospital, offices, and blockhousesChapelle, p. 308 in what once had been merely a quiet hamlet, and made Sackets Harbor one of the U.S. Navy's main bases during the war, also taking the opportunity to invest in real estate in the area. With the shipyard in operation, Eckford took time away from it in December 1812 to join Chauncey in an inspection tour of American military and shipyard facilities on the Great Lakes and, finding the yards on Lake Erie at Erie, Pennsylvania, and Black Rock, New York, struggling, made suggestions to their staffs on how to improve their shipbuilding efforts. Chauncey wrote to Noah Brown to hurry north from New York City and take charge at Erie, which Brown did in February 1813 while his brother Adam remained in New York City to work with Christian Bergh in ensuring that Noah received the men and supplies he needed. Noah Brown later moved to Lake Champlain, and later still to Sackets Harbor, where he joined Eckford in ship design and construction activities.Selig, pp. 44, 45–46.
At the Sackets Harbor shipyard, where Eckford had a work force of over 200 carpenters by April 1813 and of over 400 by April 1814 and where he employed over 800 men by January 1815, Eckford and the Browns combined to build all U.S. Navy men-of-war launched on Lake Ontario during the war. By 1814, the Sackets Harbor yard had converted some Great Lakes merchant vessels to carry guns and also had launched eight new purpose-built warships. Among the converted ships was the sloop-of-war ; the new purpose-built warships ranged in size from the 89-ton schooner launched in 1813, to the never-finished 3,200-ton, 106-gun ship-of-the-line , and also included the corvette in 1813 and the frigate in 1814. Eckford understood that the American war effort on the Great Lakes required the U.S. Navy to keep ahead of British shipbuilding in Canada, and that speedy construction and delivery of warships was critical. Using prefabrication in New York City and on-site assembly in Sackets Harbor, he achieved what were considered breathtaking construction rates. Among the yards most spectacular feats was the rapid construction of Madison, which took only nine weeks from the cutting of her timbers, and only 45 days from keel-laying, to launch on 26 November 1812; the yard went on to beat that record in November 1814 by taking only five weeks between laying the keel of the frigate and launching her.Selig, pp. 45, 46, 48. The Sackets Harbor yard also built smaller ships in record time; the schooner took only 21 days from keel-laying to launch in 1813.Selig, p. 47. Eckford also demonstrated a facility for dealing with labour crises, as demonstrated by an incident on 1 May 1814, when a United States Army soldier on sentry duty at Sackets Harbor shot and killed a carpenter after the launching of USS Superior, provoking an armed confrontation between soldiers and shipyard workers, who threatened to go on strike and go home, crippling American shipbuilding on the Great Lakes; Eckford joined Chauncey and the U.S. Army commander, Major General Jacob Brown, in talking to the men and defusing the situation, avoiding further violence and allowing shipyard work to continue.Selig, p. 49.
With both the Browns and Eckford active at Sackets Harbor, it has become a bit murky as to what extent Eckford was involved in the building of some of the ships there. He was in charge of all shipbuilding there and probably prepared plans for most of the ships, but the Browns' contracts were independent of his, proposals for the Browns and Eckford to combine forces to build some of the ships do not appear to have borne fruit, and some of the ships the Browns built may have borrowed from Eckford's plans without him being otherwise involved in their construction. Despite tradition that he was, Eckford may not have been in involved the construction of New Orleans,Chapelle, p. 273 but Lady of the Lake, Superior, General Pike, Madison, and Mohawk were his.