Fore & Aft – Philadelphia Collects Maritime
2008 Loan Exhibit

Sponsored by:
    

By Craig Bruns, Curator, Independence Seaport Museum, Philadelphia

Philadelphia owes its existence to the Schuylkill and Delaware Rivers. Cradled between one river that led to the abundant western frontier of Pennsylvania and another that led to the oceans of the world, Philadelphia was born and flourished. It developed into the principal colonial port city and functioned as a nexus of exchange.

The Delaware River bore people, goods, and ideas in and out of the many communities along its shores to other ports in the new world and beyond. Nourished by the rivers' lifeblood, Philadelphia grew in size and importance, playing an essential role in the birth of the new nation and ultimately, developing into one of its greatest metropolises.

Countless sailors from the world over have passed through this port aboard ships brimming with cargoes ranging from raw materials and commodities to skillfully made decorative arts. Finely built ships and elegant ship figureheads were crafted here. The infant Continental Navy first sailed from this port and Philadelphia merchants led the way to open America's trade with the distant ports of China and India.

This year's Loan Exhibit celebrates the foresight and dedication of the private collectors and public institutions in the Delaware Valley that have preserved this maritime history and made it available to the public. Bringing these individual pieces together from across these disparate collections provides an opportunity to explore this rich history from multiple angles and perspectives.

Push Comes to Shove

As it became obvious that the British would take action against the resistance of its upstart American colonies, Congress began to assemble a Continental Navy and advised each colony to defend its coastline. The colonies' divided loyalties were reflected in the flag Navy Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoisted above the 24-gun warship Alfred at Philadelphia's Navy Yard at the foot of Federal Street in October 1775.¹ Commonly called the Grand Union Flag, it combined a stripe for each colony with the British Union Jack of the mother country – independence had yet to be declared.

The only surviving example of this type of flag is made of a home-spun fabric of cotton and silk fibers (figure 1).² The spinning together of cotton and silk fibers suggest the flag's own conflicted intention. The silk fibers were likely unraveled from scraps of a costly Chinese silk fabric imported by the British. The common cotton fibers were likely an American product.

The Pennsylvania Committee of Safety, under the direction of Benjamin Franklin, developed an integrated system of river- and land-based defenses to stave off the British invasion of the Delaware River and Philadelphia, the largest city in the colonies.³ The most dramatic elements of the defense system were a series of submerged river obstructions called chevaux-de-frise, designed by Robert Smith, the architect of Carpenter's Hall.⁴

Huge pikes made of tree trunks fitted with iron points were positioned along the river bottom to rip through the hulls of British ships as they made their way to Philadelphia. The pikes were attached to massive "cribs" filled with stone to keep them in place against the powerful current of the river (figure 2).

These defenses succeeded in diverting the landing of the British Army, allowing Congress time to move the fledgling government to safety and delayed the delivery of much-needed supplies to the British occupying Philadelphia. During an attack, where colonists employed the chevaux-de-frise near Fort Mifflin and Fort Mercer, the British 74-gun HMS Augusta inadvertently drifted down stream with the tide, running aground on the New Jersey riverbank.⁵

While the crew attempted to free the ship, it caught fire, igniting its large store of gun powder. The explosion destroyed the vessel. A surviving British Naval officer is said to have depicted the explosion in a painting while staying with the painter, James Peale (figure 3).

In 1875, the wreck of the frigate Augusta was lifted from the bottom of the river and many artifacts and ship timbers were recovered. With the excitement and romance of the upcoming Centennial of America's Independence, these relics were considered sacred links to the nation's founding fathers. In 1919, a carriage for a cannon was made, from the timbers of the Augusta, and was inscribed, "CANNON FROM BRITISH FLAG SHIP AUGUSTA DESTROYED AT BATTLE OF RED BANK NJ OCT 23 1777 THE CARRIAGE WAS MADE FROM A RIB FROM THE AUGUSTA."

Though this type of cannon, called a Carronade, was used by the British Navy it dates too late to have come from the frigate. Nevertheless, it reveals the magnetism the Augusta has had on patriotic citizens. The Daughters of the American Revolution were so drawn to the ship that they had paneling and furniture made from its timbers for the New Jersey Room at their headquarters in Washington, D.C.

War & Peace

From the Revolutionary War to the end of the War of 1812, the new Republic fought relentlessly to secure its free commerce. Immediately after the Revolution, the new government dismantled the Continental Navy. American merchant ships, crews and cargoes were at risk from the British and French navies and privateers, in addition to pirates of the Barbary states of North Africa (figure 4). This threatened America's new status as a sovereign nation and its ability to express its liberty through commerce on the seas.

In 1794, Congress approved building a new fleet to defend commercial shipping and reluctantly adopted the unpopular Jay Treaty, which, among other things, established America's claim for damages from British ship seizures. However, the treaty did not address Britain's continued arrest of American ships and the impressment of American seamen into service in its war against France.

At the same time, the interference of French privateers with American ships led to the Quasi-War with France, an undeclared war that lasted from 1798 to 1800. British manufacturers took advantage of the charged political climate and produced pottery, among other things, with pro-American and anti-French propaganda supporting America's infant Navy (figure 5).

The so-called Barbary War with the North African states reached a crescendo when Philadelphian, Navy Lieutenant Stephen Decatur led a raid to burn the captured U.S. frigate Philadelphia in Tripoli harbor in 1804 (figure 6). British Admiral Horatio Nelson described it as "the most bold and daring act of the age." The burning of the ship, an act devised to keep it from being used by the Barbary pirates against America's own ships, became a profound symbol of the new Republic's determination to defend its commercial trade and citizens throughout the world.

The uneasy Jay Treaty failed in 1812, leading to a full-scale war with England, for which the American government was unprepared. A year later, the war had run the United States into financial collapse. American maritime merchant Stephen Girard came to the rescue by lending more than half of the requested $16 million and managed the remainder of the loan subscription program through his bank (figure 7). America's merchants, many of whom earned their fortunes through maritime investments, took a gamble and lent their fortunes to their ailing country. The monies from the loan led directly to a string of U.S. naval victories that ultimately ended the war and liberated America's maritime commerce.

These victories were hailed by artists and craftsmen alike. Philadelphia painter Thomas Birch became sought after for his accurate portrayals of these battles, such as the engagement between the Constitution and the Guerriere (figure 8).

Such depictions became very popular and were soon available on a variety of decorative objects, including a Chinese export jug with a sailor holding a flag declaring "Don't Give up the Ship" (figure 9). These were the dying words of Navy Captain James Lawrence, an American hero mortally wounded in a fierce battle off Boston with the British frigate Shannon. His words were memorialized when his friend, Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, had them stitched on a flag that flew on his flagship during his victory over the British in the 1813 Battle of Lake Erie.

Ship carver William Rush, as part of Philadelphia's maritime community, witnessed firsthand 40 years of the new Republic's struggle in constant defense of its commercial shipping. Many ships adorned with his figureheads were at risk of being trapped in battle and captured by the foe (figure 10). At the end of this challenging era, Rush carved an allegorical figure called Peace, holding a dove, an innocent lamb huddling at her feet while she strides optimistically forward (figure 11).

Merchant Citizen

Stephen Girard was the consummate American maritime merchant whose trading throughout the world led him to become an influential financier, philanthropist and civic-minded humanitarian. This French shipmaster made an unexpected port of call in Philadelphia in 1776 to avoid British blockaders during the first hostilities of the American Revolution. Upon selling his cargo, Girard decided to stay in Philadelphia and opened an international trading business out of the port.⁶

Girard was a great planner, organizer and communicator and methodically built a network amongst ship captains, supercargoes and agents in ports around the world. He regularly communicated with his personally trained agents, discussing the fluctuations of trading values and political concerns from port to port.⁷ Thus, he was able make informed and profitable decisions on the purchase, movement and sale of cargoes.

Girard's trading domain began with the closer ports of the West Indies, South America and Europe but, slowly "building his solvency,"⁸ was able to take larger investment risks and expand his interests as far as China and India. Girard seems to have celebrated his reach half-way around the world with the building of new furniture for his home. Using ebony he imported from India, he commissioned his neighbor, Ephraim Haines, to build a "sophisticated parlor set" in the Sheraton style (figure 12).⁹ Unlike mahogany, the imported exotic wood used in most important American furniture commissions, ebony was unique and outside the common expression of wealth and power.

Girard kept meticulous records of all transactions, communications with his agents, ship logs, manifests, insurance policies, port price guides and wage agreements listing crew members (figure 13).¹⁰ These records were stored in custom-made painted pine boxes, made in groups and labeled as needed, with a date or name of a ship. These seemingly humble boxes, representing the labors of sailors, captains and supercargoes as they traveled the world over, became an icon of thriving American maritime commercial enterprise (figure 14).

Girard was also politically active, sponsoring a petition to Congress, in 1794, to protect American ships and their crews. He followed this with a rally that drew a reported 6,000 citizens from Philadelphia's maritime community to the rear of the Pennsylvania Statehouse, birthplace of American independence, to protest the effects of Federalists' foreign policy with England on their community.¹¹

At the same time, a theatrical play was performed dramatizing the imprisonment of American sailors in North Africa.¹² This rally, along with those in other port cities, demanded the President and Congress take action to protect America's commerce and loved ones at sea. These pressures sparked Congress to appropriate funds to build six frigates, which became the foundation of a new American Navy.

Ambassadors at Sea

The American Revolution sought to release commercial shipping from the restrictions of British rule. However, without England, the fledgling Republic lacked an identity among the community of nations with which it wanted to trade. Just what was an American and how should an American conduct one's self on the world's stage?¹³ Ship captains and sailors defined America's identity, sailing under their new flag into ports around the world in search of trade. The sea captains who represented the country in war, now did the same in the name of commerce.

In 1784, immediately after the close of the Revolution, a group of American investors sent a pioneering voyage to China. The Empress of China was claimed as a demonstration, "...to encourage others in the adventurous pursuit of commerce..." according to Philadelphian, Robert Morris, owner of a half-interest in the voyage (figure 15).¹⁴ Fellow Philadelphian, John Green, a veteran officer of the Continental Navy, named captain of the voyage, is believed to be the first to fly the American flag in the eastern hemisphere. He was encouraged to "render it respectable by integrity and benevolence in all his conduct and dealings."¹⁵

As a precaution, to provide Chinese officials with documentation of legitimacy, he carried copies of the Declaration of Independence, treaties with several European countries, sea-letters from New York City and State requesting safe passage and most importantly, a sea-letter of "ample terms" from Congress, representing the citizens of the new Republic and carrying the Great Seal of the United States (figure 16).¹⁶

Like Green, many American ship captains accepted this new responsibility to represent their country. This, in turn, heightened their social standing and was reflected in their personal belongings (figure 17).¹⁷

Captain David Alden's celebration of his new responsibility is reflected in his creamware jug that reads, "MAY THE TREE OF LIBERTY, THAT FIRST BUDED IN AMERICA, SPREAD IT'S BRANCHES THROUGH THE WORLD," a proclamation that suggests a ship spreading liberty via the pursuit of commercial trade throughout the world (figure 18).

Pride and excitement in this new calling must have led Captain James Josiah to sit for a portrait before his departure aboard the China-bound ship Asia (figure 19). The Continental Navy uniform he is wearing asserts Josiah's past successes while the navigational chart of Asian waters at his elbow reflects his future. Captain John Barry recruited Josiah as his first mate to serve in his place should a disaster happen during this lucrative, yet potentially dangerous, voyage.¹⁸

Barry no doubt would have shared the use of his octant with Josiah as they navigated halfway around the world (figure 20). It was the same octant that Barry employed during the Revolutionary War aboard the warships Lexington and Alliance.¹⁹

Sailing the Seven Seas

While details abound about the lives of ship captains, the common sailor remains more of a mystery. We do know that life on the sea could begin at a very young age. Boys would sometimes be bound to a captain by an apprenticeship with the expectation that he would learn navigation and commanding skills but some would be employed as a personal servant of the captain, cooking and cleaning the cabin.²⁰

Other boys found themselves aboard ships having run away from home, like Philadelphian John Reese Haslett who, "Caught eating some apple sauce between meals his grandmother told him he had to eat it all and to avoid the cruel and unusual punishment he enlisted as a cabin boy in the Navy" (figure 21).²¹ The treatment of these young cabin or ship's boys would vary, as they were strangers aboard ship with no one to look after them (figure 22).²² Naturally, girls too were attracted to the sea, like Ann Jane Thornton who, at the age of fifteen, posed as a boy and was given a position aboard a ship bound for New York (figure 23).

Sailors could be identified by the way they looked; they were dressed for their profession and acted as a community. Their clothing was fashioned to protect them from the elements, the most distinctive being the use of tar to waterproof their hats and as a result they were called Jack Tars (figure 24). Jack Tar shop figures frequently advertised ship chandlers, taverns, or other establishments that catered to the seafaring community. These figures would have greeted the many seamen that crowded the streets and clearly communicated they were welcome at the particular establishment.

Both free and enslaved blacks were also part of the community of sailors. Black sailors were common enough in American port cities that Frederick Douglass was able to escape enslavement, in 1838, by melting into the crowd by disguising himself as a sailor wearing "a red shirt and tarpaulin hat and black cravat, tied in sailor fashion, carelessly and loosely about [the] neck."²³ The same manner of dress can be seen in the print The True American Sailor from the same period (figure 25).

It is also known that life at sea was difficult and potentially hostile. A great number of threats, both natural and man-made, could endanger the welfare of the crew and the success of a voyage. Patches on their clothing and the scars on their bodies told of the difficulties and dangers of their work (figures 26, 27). Some sailors were marked with tattoos of religious symbols, names of loved ones and patriotic and political images, expressing their hopes and fears.

Shipboard drinking water was prone to stagnation; both the British and American Navies mixed it with various distilled liquors to make it potable and more palatable. This is what we know as grog. After 1862, alcohol was banned from use aboard American Navy warships to the displeasure of the crews (figure 28).

Sailors leaving the confines and routine of their ships for personal liberty ashore were known to readily spend their earnings when they arrived in port. When on shore, both merchant and navy seafarers "gathered in and around waterfront taverns, grog shops, and residences, their distinctive rolling gait,... their weathered complexions, and their unique songs, dances, jargon, and curses all marked them as men who worked at sea." (figure 29).²⁴

This sailor culture developed from living closely together for long periods of time in close quarters aboard ship. Seamen had little personal space and few possessions, although they often made room for the accumulated souvenirs gathered during their voyages (figure 30).

Bounty of the Ship

Skilled seamen were accustomed to working with their hands, making a variety of repairs to the ship while at sea. During down time, some applied their skills to smaller craft projects for shipmates, loved ones at home, or to sell in port. Materials were limited to whatever could be found on board that was extraneous to the business of the ship. There are stories of sailors using cheese rinds or shark vertebra to fashion buttons for their clothes.²⁵ This lends insight as to why whalers used whales' teeth and bones for handicrafts.

Though the Delaware River is not commonly thought of as a whaling port, the Wilmington Whale Company and its fleet of five ships was in business from 1833 to 1846.²⁶ The whalers aboard these ships no doubt produced scrimshaw like their fellow whalers up the coast (figure 31). John Martin of the Wilmington Whale Company's Lucy Ann confirms the production of whalebone canes in his journal dating 1841-44. "There are enough canes in this ship to supply all the old men in Wilmington."²⁷ None of the Lucy Ann canes are known to have survived, but similar canes can be found in regional collections and suggest what they might have looked like (figure 32).

Many of these crafts reflect a mariner's experiences at sea, such as a pedestal cup created from whalebone and a coconut shell (figure 33). Carving on the outside of the cup offers an uncommon view of an ordinary dockside scene stacked with cargo in preparation for shipment. The scene on the coconut shell cup details bales marked "Baltimore" and "Maine," barrels of oil and rose madder dye, a crate of soda soap and an unshorn sheep. In the distance stands a factory or warehouse, which would have had extensive dealings with the dock. A sailor's awareness of cargo stemmed from his responsibility for stowing and ballasting the consignment securely in the ship's hold.

Seasonal layovers, or retirement from life at sea, afforded a skilled sailor the opportunity to work on larger and more complex projects, like a 19th century model of a typical merchant ship of the time (figure 34). Because the rigging is more accurate than the hull, it is thought to have been made by a sailor who would have been more familiar with the rigging he climbed than the hull obscured by the sea.²⁸ Models such as these were made without plans and guided by memory and experience. The cook house on the deck of the ship contains a small carved figure, the only sailor aboard.

Seamen also made things that acted as personal commemoratives of their travels and functioned as mnemonic devices for storytelling. An example is a large carving of an anchor painted with the words, "HTM – CAP HORN – CAP GOOD HOPE - BARNKRUG A. ELBE 1850. – HAMBURG BUENOS AIRES, 1869 – PHIL'A. – 1872" (figure 35). These clues suggest that "HTM" might have begun his seafaring life along the Elbe River, at Barnkrug, Germany in 1850.

By 1869, he left the neighboring city of Hamburg, crossing the Atlantic Ocean to Buenos Aires. His career seems to have spanned the globe, taking him to the Indian and Pacific Oceans, requiring him to sail around both the Capes of Good Hope and Horn. Philadelphia became his last port of call in 1869, where he carved a wooden anchor recording the highlights of his 22-year adventure as a mariner on the seven seas.

The revelation of Philadelphia's maritime past has only begun. The Loan Exhibit provides but a mere glimpse into the abundant maritime history contained in the private and public collections held in the Delaware River Valley. Many masterpieces had to be overlooked because they did not fit with the specific stories told in this particular Exhibit; many masterpieces remain to be discovered. The research and assembly of this Exhibit disclosed a vast wealth of material culture defining Philadelphia's ties to the rivers and seas that is only waiting to be tapped.

In Dedication to J. Welles Henderson

"As a seven-year old in 1927, I gave fifty cents to save America's most historic ship, the USS Constitution – 'Old Ironsides.' For that donation, I received a small anchor made of metal and wood salvaged from the ship. This event changed my life – it was as if I had become transfused with salt water. My quest as a collector had begun for all things relating to the sea." – J. Welles Henderson

Believing that Philadelphia should join the ranks of other port cities with museums celebrating America's maritime heritage, Henderson founded Independence Seaport Museum. This year's Philadelphia Antiques Show exhibit is dedicated to him.

Footnotes

1. 1. “Naval Committee to To: Virginia Convention, Philadelphia [December ? 1775],” Delegates to Congress, Letters of Delegates to Congress, 1774-1789, Volume 2, September 1775-December 1775, Electronic Text Center, University of Virginia Library. Also see, John Fitzhugh Millar, Early American Ships, Thirteen Colonies Press, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1986. p28
2. Sotheby's New York, Important Americana, catalog #N07801, May 23, 2002, lot 97
3. Jeffrey M. Dorwart, Fort Mifflin of Philadelphia: An Illustrated History, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998, p.19
4. John W. Jackson, The Delaware Bay and River Defenses of Philadelphia, Philadelphia Maritime Museum, 1977, p. 5
5. Dorwart, p.40
6. George Wilson, Stephen Girard: The Life and Times of America's first Tycoon, Combined Publishing, 1995, p.56
7. Wilson, p. 191
8. Wilson, p. 86
9. Ephraim Haines to Stephen Girard, invoice, November 21, 1807, Girard College Historical Collections
10. Wilson, p. 190
11. Wilson, p. 142
12. Simon P. Newman, Embodied History: The Lives of the Poor in Early Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 119
13. Dane A. Morrison, American Expatriates in Canton: National Identity and the Maritime Experience Abroad, 1784-1850, in Perspectives on Race Ethnicity, and Power in Maritime America, edited by Glen S. Gordinier, Mystic Seaport Museum, 2000, p.6
14. Morrison, p.7
15. Daniel Parker to Captain John Green, January 25, 1784, from Philip Cadwick Foster Smith, the Empress of China, Philadelphia Maritime Museum, 1984, p.69
16. Gouverneur Morris to Charles Thompson, December 30 1783, from Philip Cadwick Foster Smith, the Empress of China, Philadelphia Maritime Museum, 1984, p. 70
17. Morrison, p.9
18. Alan Granby, Ph.D., editor, A Yachtsman's Eye: The Glen S. Foster Collection of Marine Paintings, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 2004, p. 150
19. Philip Chadwick Foster Smith, Philadelphia Displays “The Flowery Flag,” essay in Philadelphians and the China Trade, 1784-1844, Jean Gordon Lee, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1984, p.29
20. Daniel Vickers with Vince Walsh, Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail, Yale University Press, New Haven & London, 2005, p. 106, 140
21. W. H. Bowers, a note accompanying the 1841 watercolor portrait of John Reese Haslett, “copied by W. H. Bowers 1935,” Independence Seaport Museum, accession number 1997.17.13b
22. Vickers, p. 140
23. W. Jeffery Bolster, Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail, Harvard University Press, 1997-98, p. 1
24. Newman, p. 104
25. Marcus Rediker, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1700-1750, Cambridge University Press, 1987, p. 11
26. David Budlong Tyler, The Bay & River Delaware, Cornell Maritime Press, Cambridge, Maryland, 1955, p. 80
27. Stuart M. Frank, Dictionary of Scrimshaw Artists, Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut, 1991, p. 91
28. Brian Lavery & Simon Stephens, Ship Models, Their Purpose and Development from 1650 to the Present, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 1995, p. 142

Acknowledgements

Lenders to the Exhibition

• American Swedish Historical Museum
• Robert & Katharine Booth
• Camden County Historical Society
• Corinthian Historical Foundation
• The Dietrich American Foundation
• Girard College Historical Collections
• J. Welles Henderson Collection
• Historical Society of Frankford
• Independence National Historical Park
• Independence Seaport Museum
• Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia
• Marguerite & H. F. (Gerry)
• Lenfest Collection
• Peter & Bonnie McCausland
• David G. Nazarian
• Brian & Miriam O'Neill
• The Rosenbach Museum & Library
• Estate of S. Robert Teitelman
• The Rosenbach Museum & Library
• Winterthur

Independence Seaport Museum

• Michele Blazer
• Dollie Buckwalter
• Michele DiGirolamo
• Matt Herbison
• Lori Dillard Rech
• Bill Ward

Special Thanks

• Julie Baker
• Laura Brooks
• Lisa Byrne
• Andrea Cakars
• Karie Diethorn
• Susan Drinan
• Desiree Foulds
• Connie Gross
• Judith M. Guston
• Steven Hemstreet
• Hannah Henderson
• Carrie Hogan
• Elizabeth Laurent
• Sidney A. Lefkoe
• Roy T. Lefkoe
• Ed Lynch
• Jack McCarthy
• Tim McGrath
• Museum Council of Philadelphia, White Glove Brigade
• Kathleen Orr
• Jeffery Ray
• Deborah Rebuck
• Norman P. Robinson
• Karen Schoenewaldt
• Mary Sinclair
• Paul Swenbeck
• S. Robert Teitelman*
• Ted Wiederseim

Loan Exhibit Committee

• Joan Johnson, Chairman
• Craig Bruns, Curator

Loan Article Coordinators

• Ms. Elizabeth Cavanaugh-Kerr
• Mrs. William C. Frayer
• Mrs. Thomas B. Helm

Photography

• Sahar Coston
  Amanda Jaffe

* Deceased