Page:The Clipper Ship Era.djvu/78

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The Clipper Ship Era

erald, Switzerland, Shakespeare, Garrick, Sheridan, Siddons, Roscius, and Cornelia from 1831 to 1841; and the Liverpool, Queen of the West, and Henry Clay in the period from 1841 to 1843, inclusive. Besides these, they built fifteen other ships, seven steamers, eight barques and brigs, thirty-nine steamboats, six ferry- and tow-boats, nineteen sloops and schooners, seven pilot boats, and four yachts.

Upon the death of Isaac Webb in 1840, his son William H. Webb, then only twenty-four years of age, continued the firm of Webb & Allen which built during the next ten years the packet ships Montezuma, Yorkshire, Havre, Fidelia, second Columbia, Sir Robert Peel, Splendid, Bavaria, Isaac Wright, Ivanhoe, Yorktown, London, Cruy Mannering, Albert Gallatin, Isaac Webb, and Vanguard. Their yard extended from the foot of Fifth to Seventh Street, East River.

Jacob A. Westervelt, born at Hackensack, New Jersey, in 1800, was the son of a ship-builder. He went to sea before the mast and upon his return served his apprenticeship with Christian Bergh, subsequently becoming a partner in the firm and retiring with an ample fortune in 1837. Mr. Westervelt then made an extensive trip through Europe, and after returning built two ships at Williamsburg. He formed the firm of Westervelt & Mackay and built a number of London and Havre packet ships, among which were the Ocean Queen, West Point, Toronto, Devonshire, and American Eagle. The front door of Mr. Westervelt's house in East Broadway was ornamented with a beautiful carved stone cap representing the stern of a packet ship. In later