Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company Records |
Previous | 1 of 2 | Next |
|
|
MASSACHUSETTS STEAM NAVIGATION COMPANY RECORDS, 1816-1818, undated
Collection Summary | |
Repository: | The Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum 132 Essex Street Salem, MA 01970 Phone: 978-745-9500 Fax: 978-531-1516 |
Creator: | Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company |
Title: | Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company Records |
Dates: | 1816/1818, undated |
Quantity: | 0.25 linear feet (1 box) |
Abstract: | The Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company Papers contain correspondence, financial records, legal papers, and shares of ownership for this shipping company and are divided into four series. |
Collection Number: | MSS 278 |
Series List
SERIES I. CorrespondenceSERIES II. Financial Records
SERIES III. Legal Papers
SERIES IV. Shares
Scope and Content Note
The Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company Papers contain correspondence, financial records, legal papers, and shares of ownership for this shipping company and are divided into four series.
Series I. Correspondence includes both original
letters and copies. The letters are to and from various people involved with the
Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company and the steamboat Massachusetts, including William Dodge (who was the builder), various
individual shareholders, and a "corresponding committee," probably made up of some
of the officers and/or shareholders of the company. The collection does not include
correspondence between any two individuals, but there is overlap between senders and
receivers. The letters cover the time period from the construction of the boat in
1816 to its sale and a settling of accounts in 1818.
Topics include discussion of the progress of the project (including financial
details and concerns such as shareholding, accounts, and settling of bills),
progress on building the engine, and progress on and difficulties with building the
boat. Topics also include the acquisition of building supplies, insurance, and
building debts, the possibility of building a second boat, and the intervention of
the firm of P. Revere & Sons of Boston on behalf of William Dodge, builder. The
sale of the boat, its loss, and plans for disposition of it, as well as court issues
and the trial relating to the difficulties between the company and William Dodge are
also included. Few of these topics are covered completely over the whole time
period.
Series II. Financial Records include accounts of
individuals with the Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company, accounts the company
had with individuals and with other companies, company accounts indicating cash
received and disbursed, and receipts for payment for labor, supplies for work on the
ship, ticket sales, food supplies, and pilotage in Boston and other harbors.
Some identify the steamboat Massachusetts or the
Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company by name, some refer only to "the steamboat,"
and a few name only one party to the transaction. Bills of sale of the company are
with the legal papers.
The collection does not include the books of the company. The financial records
it does include are probably quite incomplete.
Series III. Legal Papers include legal papers and
copies relating to the Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company. A copy of the act of
incorporation, papers relating to legal disputes between William Dodge, the builder
of the Massachusetts, and the Massachusetts Steam
Navigation Company, papers relating to agreements between Thomas Eayres, Paul Revere
Jr. and Joseph Revere, and the Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company, and bills of
sale for the Massachusetts are included.
Series IV. Shares include certificates of share
ownership in the Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company. Eliphalet Kimball, the
treasurer, issued them all on 15 August 1817. Each certificate includes the name of
the shareholder and the number of shares to which he is entitled. They are arranged
in numerical order.
Historical Sketch
The Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1816 and formally incorporated on 16 June 1817; many of the shareholders were Salem, Massachusetts men. A list of those involved with the company is attached as Appendix I.
The company financed the building of the steamboat Massachusetts in 1816 by William Dodge in Philadelphia. The steamboat
made its appearance in Salem on 5 June 1817. Apparently the owners intended the boat
to ply a coastal route between Salem and Boston, although it seems probable that
this was not the only route contemplated. There are indications that it traveled to
Marblehead, Cape Ann, and Hingham as well. It was probably the first coastal steamer
in the area of Boston and the adjacent north and south coasts.
The Massachusetts apparently operated at a loss and
was sold to Captain Charles Vanderford on 20 November 1817 and then to Francis H.
Story, a Salem merchant, on 30 November 1817. It was wrecked off the coast of New
Jersey on its way to Alabama in December 1817. There is some question as to whether
some of it was salvaged and included in a later steamboat also named the Massachusetts. There is no indication in the papers as to
what happened to the company subsequent to the wreck of the Massachusetts and the settlement of debts.
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in Philcat. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Restrictions
Restrictions on Access
This collection is open for research use.
Administrative Information
Copyright
Requests for permission to publish material from the collection must be submitted in writing to the Manuscript Librarian in the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.
Preferred Citation
Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company Records, MSS 278, Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass.
Provenance
This collection came from several sources. The Essex Institute purchased the bulk of the collection in 1961. Shares no. 1-7 and 9-17 (Series IV) were removed from the Newhall Family Papers. In addition, five items were purchased on Sept. 10, 1982 (acc. #22,869); they may now be found in Series III. The 1817 bill of sale for the Massachusetts from the directors of the Massachusetts Steam Navigation Company to Charles Vanderford and from Vanderford to Franklin N. Story, was removed from the Bradlee Papers (MH 45) and placed here.
Processing Information
Collection processed by Elizabeth L. Balcom, August 1995.
Related Material
Bentley, William. The Diary of William Bentley, D.D. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1962.
Bradlee, Francis B. C. Some Account of Steam Navigation in
New England. Salem, Mass.: Essex Institute, 1920.
Dayton, Fred E. Steamboat Days. New York: Frederick
A. Stokes Company, 1925.
Essex Institute Historical Collections. Salem,
Mass.
Holdcamper, Forrest R., ed. Merchant Steam Vessels of the
United States, 1807-1868,"The Lytle List," Supplement No. 3, 30 June
1958. Published by The Steamship Historical Society of America.
Johnston, Paul Forsythe. Steam and the Sea. Salem,
Mass.: Peabody Museum of Salem, 1983.
Kellock, Katharine Amend. "Paul Revere," Dictionary of
American Biography, Dumas Malone, ed., vol. XV. New York: Charles
Scribner's Sons, 1935.
Lytle, William M., comp., and Forrest R. Holdcamper, ed. Merchant Steam Vessels of the United States, 1807-1868, "The Lytle List,"
Publication No. 6. Mystic, Conn.: The Steamship Historical Society of
America, 1952.
Preble, Geo. Henry. A Chronological History of the Origin
and Development of Steam Navigation. Philadelphia, Pa.: L. R. Hamersly
& Co., 1895.
Appendix I