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Donald McKay and his famous sailing ships

Dover Publications, Inc.

DONALD MCKAY'S YOUTH—NEW YORK SHIPYARD APPRENTICESHIP AND EXPERIENCES—HIS MARRIAGE—INTERESTING EXPERIMENTS AND DEVELOPMENTS WHEN NEW YORK'S SHIPBUILDING WAS UNSURPASSED AND HER SHIPPING INTERESTS REIGNED SUPREME.

IN the early years of the nineteenth century, a wagon laden with potatoes came rattling down to the waterfront of the old Loyalist town of Shelburne, Nova Scotia. On a wharf it stopped with a jolt, and a lad, who had been sleeping on the piled-up load, awoke with a start. The little chap sat up and rubbed his eyes, then suddenly was all intent, for there, at the wharfhead, lay a Banks fishing schooner! The eyes that a moment before were closed in sleep now danced with delight, for they had been seeing ships in a dream. The lad on that load of potatoes was Donald McKay, and the world has since marvelled at the realization of his dreams!

Was his youthful imagination even then conceiving images of the Flying Cloud, the Lightning or that Queen of Ships, the Great Republic? Whether or not the lad dreamt any of these things, we cannot know. We do know that from his earliest youth Donald McKay was enamored of ships; and that this love grew and grew until his genius created and his skill constructed those superb specimens of marine architecture that won him world-wide renown.

Donald McKay, America's celebrated designer and builder of ships, was born at Shelburne, Nova Scotia, September 4, 1810. He was the eldest son of a farmer, Hugh McKay, whose father, Donald McKay, of Tain, Ross County, Scotland, was a British Army officer who emigrated to Nova Scotia after the close of the American Revolution. His mother, Ann McPherson, was the daughter of Lauchlan and Elizabeth McPherson, and she belonged to a family which had long been settled in Nova Scotia and had attained prominence and wealth in the professional and commercial circles of Halifax. She died in Boston, November 14, 1856, but both she and her husband, who survived her until December 30, 1871, lived long enough to see their son, Donald, attain fame and honors accorded few men of his time.

When about sixteen years of age, Donald McKay was compelled through necessity and an eager ambition to leave his Nova Scotia home to seek a career in New York. At that time, 1826, shipbuilding was the leading industry of the American metropolis and New York-built ships were second to none in the world. That city was the headquarters for the packet business between America and Europe and possessed the most and finest sailing ships on earth. It was natural, therefore, that our aspiring youth should gravitate toward that great seaport.

From a coaster that sailed from Halifax, after a long, rather stormy voyage, he landed in New York. It was not difficult for him to locate the shipbuilding area. The whole waterfront along the East River, from Corlaers Hook to about East Tenth Street, was one mass of busy shipyards, and he found ready employment, as a sort of day laborer in Isaac Webb's yard, located on the East River, from Fifth to Seventh Streets. This employment was only temporary, for he had decided to learn the shipwright trade thoroughly, and to do this he must serve an apprenticeship. So he became "indentured" to Isaac Webb, appropriately called the "Father of Shipbuilders," because more successful master shipbuilders were graduated from the latter's yard than from any other place in America. Webb was a man of sterling qualities, ever considerate of the needs and feelings of his workmen, at a time when harsh treatment by bosses was the rule.

The life of an apprentice to a shipbuilder in New York, one hundred years ago, when this ambitious youth "served his time," would be unbearable to a modern mechanic. How fine that mill ground is evident from the apprenticeship indenture, which we now reproduce.

This Indenture Witnesseth, That Donald McKay, now aged sixteen years, five months and twenty days, and with the consent of Hugh McKay, his father, hath put himself, and by these presents doth voluntarily and of his own free will and accord put himself, apprentice to Isaac Webb, of the City of New York, ship-carpenter, to learn the art, trade and mystery of a ship-carpenter, and after the manner of an apprentice to serve from the day of the date hereof, for and during and until the full end and term of four years, six months and eleven days next ensuing; during all of which time the said apprentice his master faithfully shall serve, his secrets keep, his lawful commands everywhere readily obey: he shall do no damage to his said master, nor see it done by others without telling or giving notice thereof to his said master; he shall not waste his master's goods, nor lend them unlawfully to any: he shall not contract matrimony within the said term: at cards, dice, or any other unlawful game he shall not play, whereby his said master may have damage; with his own goods nor the goods of others without license from his said master he shall neither buy nor sell; he shall not absent himself day nor night from his master's service without his leave; nor haunt ale-houses, taverns, dance-houses or playhouses; but in all things behave himself as a faithful apprentice ought to do during the said term. And the said master shall use the utmost of his endeavors to teach, or cause to be taught or instructed, the said apprentice in the trade or mystery of a ship-carpenter, and the said master shall pay to the said apprentice the sum of two dollars and fifty cents weekly for each and every week he shall faithfully serve him during the said term. And shall also pay to him, the said apprentice, the sum of forty dollars per year, payable quarterly, for each and every of the said years, which is in lieu of meat, drink, washing, lodging, clothing, and other necessaries. And for the true performance of all and singular the covenants and agreements aforesaid, the said parties bind themselves each unto the other firmly by these Presents.

In Witness Thereof, the parties to these Presents have hereunto set their hands and seals the 24th day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven.

ISAAC WEBB DONALD McKAY HUGH McKAY.

Certain of the master shipbuilders erected, as a boarding house for their apprentices, a large brick building in Columbia Street, popularly known as the "Weary Wanderers' Hotel," and here our struggling apprentice and later on, his brother, Lauchlan, were domiciled for a time during their apprenticeship. From all accounts, it was the headquarters of considerable jocularity; and, we daresay, the future builder-owner of a fleet of the finest ships that ever sailed the main, often joined his companions, when they went out upon those festive nocturnal expeditions that made these precocious shipyard apprentices the terror of the neighborhood.

His apprenticeship fulfilled, the aspiring mechanic became, at twenty-one years of age, a full-fledged shipwright or carpenter; but it would be a mistake to suppose that this young man's labors were easy. He worked from sunrise to sunset; that is to say,—from half-past four o'clock A.M. in summer till half-past seven o'clock P.M., a period of fifteen hours,—for $1.25 per day. At eight o'clock in the morning he was allowed an hour for breakfast. At twelve o'clock he had two hours for dinner. His supper came after the day's labor. The heaviest beams, which are now lifted to the stocks by steam or electricity, he carried on his shoulders, his bosses working with him, and usually not sparing their emphatic orders. Many hours would be consumed in the sawing of a piece of timber of live-oak that well- exemplified its name. Using a two-handed saw, one man would stand upon the beam, and the other below it in a saw-pit or ditch that had been dug to hold him, his face protected by a veil from the dust. Nowadays a circular steam, or electric-driven saw would go through such a beam in a fraction of the time it then took.

Eventually the wages aforementioned were raised, and a working day of ten hours ushered in. It was about this time that Donald McKay made a decided move. The "indenturing" had palled upon him. The so-called "slavocratic" conditions imposed by a shipyard apprenticeship, on a young man of his indomitable energy and natural mechanical talent, were too onerous to be long endured. He, therefore, decided to demand a release. To the credit of Isaac Webb, it must be said that he had somewhat anticipated such a move. Our young Nova Scotian had attracted his attention by his unusual industry and ability, and this competent master of men had already singled him out and entrusted him with responsible duties and far more important work than usually fell to the share of apprentices. Isaac Webb's well-known honesty of purpose triumphed over the consciousness of his legal rights, and he allowed the apprentice-bound youth a free and clear release from the terms of his indenture. He forthwith entered the employ of Brown & Bell. Mr. Jacob Bell of this firm had not only formed a strong attachment for him personally but had realized his ability as a craftsman.

Thus it can be seen that the youthful Donald, although a stranger in New York and comparatively friendless, met with a fair measure of success early in his career.

Now his restless ambition received an impetus from a feeling that has carried many a man over otherwise unattainable heights. In other words, he fell in love—fittingly of course, with a shipbuilder's daughter.

At this time, 1832, Donald McKay was what may be termed a "free lance" shipwright of locally established reputation. Packet building was the best work of the New York yards at this time, and in the construction of the packets, especially the Liverpool, London and Havre packets, the majority of which were built in three yards,—Isaac Webb's, Brown & Bell's, and Smith & Dimon's,—the best shipbuilding talent of the day was employed. Regular work was to be had by young McKay, for his employers soon recognized his capability.

Democratic in their tastes and simple in their habits, New York's East River shipbuilding community had little social intercourse outside of their own neighborhood. It was natural that Donald McKay should bestow his affections and marry within this immediate circle. Albenia Martha Boole was the eldest daughter of John Boole, who had been engaged in the shipbuilding industry for many years. Two of her brothers, also, were shipbuilders. She was an unusually talented, energetic young woman, possessing a good education. Brought up in a shipbuilding atmosphere, she not only understood much about ship construction, but could draught and quite expertly "lay off" plans for a vessel. This capable woman became the mentor and teacher, who imparted to Donald McKay not a little of his knowledge of marine architecture at the beginning of his career. Oftentimes his unceasing ambition caused him to feel the need of knowledge other than what he had acquired at Shelburne in his early youth,—a period so short as to cover only the fundamentals of an education. In brief, this man of extraordinary mechanical endowments, had possessed only what may be called a "primary education," previous to his courtship of Albenia Boole. But his was a will that triumphed over all impediments; he rapidly acquired not only an excellent knowledge of the rudiments of that education which had been denied him in his youth, but so well succeeded in the acquisition of learning that during his remarkable after-career, he consistently held his own with nearly all kinds and classes of people.

The young couple established themselves in a little home of their own on East Broadway, considered then one of the finest residential streets upon the East Side of New York. Here their first child, Cornelius Whitworth, was born February 1, 1834. As the Boole family were well-to-do, the wife brought young McKay a tidy sum of money. She was economical as well as capable and industrious in her household, and those "hard times," too often encountered by young married people, did not mar their happiness. Then, again, his labors at the shipyards continued steady and wages were good.

Employed as a draughtsman by Smith & Dimon, whose shipyard lay at the foot of East Fourth Street, was a gray-eyed, dreamy-browed fellow, in his early thirties, who later exerted great influence over McKay's marine architectural productions. His name was John Willis Griffiths, and his genius revolutionized the science of merchant shipbuilding by the introduction of the first clipper ship model. He and the future designer and builder of the finest clipper ships that ever "slid down the ways"—the latter being at this time employed in an adjoining East River shipyard—naturally met each other; and then and there commenced a friendship which lasted for many years. Griffiths created no small sensation in New York shipbuilding circles when he attacked the predominating theory, that it did not matter how roughly a vessel entered the water so long as she left it smoothly behind her—the theory exemplified in the Baltimore clipper's full round bows, practically flat forward floor and narrow stern. This daring innovator proposed a model of a knifelike, concave entrance, melting into an easy run to the midship section, where, instead of forward, he located the extreme breadth of beam. Thence this fullness of breadth melted again into the after end in lines almost as fine as those forward. In place of the codfish underbody, he gave his innovation a dead rise amidships. Later on, he carried this innovation into practice in designing the pioneer American clipper ship Rainbow. Donald McKay became, in time, his most famous disciple.

It should be borne in mind that during this period, packet building was the best work of the New York shipyards, as that city was the centre of the packet business between America and Europe. There were lines from other ports; but New York, the pioneer, always kept the lead, and had the most and finest packets. The frequency and regularity of their sailing were amazing. Towards the last there was a packet ship sailing every five days. No foreign vessels carried the mail in those days, as it was all given to American packets; and so great was the reputation of these vessels that they were regularly patronized, not only by Americans going abroad, but by West India merchants, Canadians, and even by the English officers of the large garrisons in Halifax and the provinces generally. For many years these swift sailing New York packets drove nearly all their foreign rivals out of the shipping business.

In the construction of these vessels the ablest mechanics were employed,—selected men, well-known as a rule for their capability. A large percentage of them were Americans, for there was then no place more patriotic than a New York shipyard. The rivalry among the various trans-Atlantic lines was keen, and it was this eager competition as much as anything else, that led to the continual improvement in the models, rig, workmanship and general excellence of American ships—each new vessel being expected to excel some rival or all the predecessors of its own fleet in some desirable quality. New York shipbuilders now found that more was required of them than at any previous period of their history. In order to hold their own and maintain the reputation of their yards, they were forced to study the scientific principles involved in the form of the hull and in the sparring of ships. They did not sufficiently know what made one ship bad and another good, and therefore began to study and experiment. They eagerly sought every source of information. Delicate tests were made with small models of different forms; the flow of waves away from the bow of a boat was investigated and every other conceivable point was carefully looked into. Even fishes were cut up and their shapes analyzed. Here in the centre of this vortex of study, experiment, and discussion, we find our young shipwright striving, with honest effort, to learn, not only fundamentals, but, also, the scientific principles that governed the noble art of shipbuilding.

Upon the recommendation of that eminent shipbuilder, Jacob Bell, Donald McKay obtained employment in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and there his exceptional ability led to his selection from among nearly a thousand men as foreman of a gang having important work in hand. Unfortunately at that time a strong native American party-feeling prevailed among the mechanics, and, because McKay was not born under the "Stars and Stripes," they bullied him out of the yard! However, within a comparatively short period of time, this "victimized alien" virtually invested those same "Stars and Stripes" with more maritime honor and glory than they have ever since received.

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Excerpted from Donald McKay and his famous sailing ships by Richard C. McKay. Copyright © 1995 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
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