George Crowninshield Jr.

George Crowninshield Jr
circa 1816
Born (1766-05-27)May 27, 1766
Salem, Massachusetts
Died November 26, 1817(1817-11-26) (aged 51)
Salem, Massachusetts
Occupation Merchant, yachtman
Known for yacht ownership
Spouse(s) Elizabeth Rowell (never married)

George Crowninshield Jr. (May 27, 1766 – November 26, 1817) was an American merchant, yachtsman, shipping magnate and shipowner. He was involved with his father's commercial international business George Crowninshield & Sons. The firm did business in the West Indies, Europe, India and China. He was the first American yachtsman and owned the first American yacht. He had an unusual personality that showed a flamboyant flair. He owned a luxurious pleasure yacht and it was rumored that he may have rescued Napoleon Bonaparte from exile with it.

Early life

Crowninshield was born at Salem, Massachusetts, on May 27, 1766. He was the son of George Crowninshield (1734–1815) and Mary (née Derby) Crowinshield (1737–1813), who married in 1757. Crowninshield was the eldest of five adult brothers.[1] His father and grandfather were both merchants, doing business in East India and China.[2]

Mid life and career

Crowninshield went to normal public schools until he was twelve. Then he studied navigation and first went to sea as a captain’s clerk and assisted in commanding a ship to the West Indies in 1790. In 1794 he commanded the ship Belisarius to the East Indies. Crowninshield’s work was largely in the construction and outfitting of his family's ships.[3]

His father was the founder of the mercantile house of George Crowninshield & Sons. The firm was engaged in commerce with the West Indies, Europe, India and China. He was admitted into his father's Salem firm in 1801 and immediately built a sloop he named the Jefferson.[4] This was the first American yacht.[5][6] Crowninshield became the first American yachtsman.[7][8] He cruised the yacht for several years as the first yachtsman under the United States flag.[9][10] Crowninshield took over the family firm upon the death of his father in 1815 and became an international merchant.[11] This made wealth for him and he had a lot of leisure time because of this.[12]

George Crowninshield Jr. sketch, circa 1813

Personal

Those who knew Crowninshield give him an unusual personality, that usually started with the fact he was a short robust daring person. He was five and a half-feet tall. Crowninshield wore extravagant clothing and Hessian boots with gold tassels. He dawned a pigtail and on his head a shaggy beaver-skin hat. He was known around Salem for his extracurricular activities, such as driving around the city in his bright yellow curricle, dressed in flamboyant clothing. He also chased fires, but rescuing people from ships in distress, for the purpose of which he maintained a vessel, was a passion of his.[2]

Crowninshield procured all the necessary paperwork from Washington D.C. and chartered the brig Henry at his own expense and manned with a crew sailed to Halifax to bring home to Salem the bodies of Captain James Lawrence and Lieutenant Augustus Ludlow. They were killed in the defeat of the USS Chesapeake by the British vessel HMS Shannon on June 1, 1813. The crew was ship masters from the Salem Marine Society. The bodies arrived at Salem on August 23, 1813. Preparations meanwhile were made for a formal funeral that was attended by many high ranking officers of the United States Navy and the US Vice President.[13][14]

Crowninshield gained notoriety with his luxury pleasure yacht Cleopatra's Barge.[15] The schooner was launched in 1816. The elaborate vessel had a luxurious interior.[3] There are suspicious circumstances connected with the possibility of Crowninshield and his brothers rescuing Napoleon Bonaparte from his exile on Saint Helena Island and taking him back to America. It was speculated by author Francis Boardman Crowninshield that the purpose of Cleopatra's Barge was for the object of rescuing Napoleon, but that has not been conclusively proven.[16]

Crowninshield never married, but did have one daughter born 1811, Clarissa (called Clara), whose mother was Elizabeth Rowell.[3] Clara, born in Salem, was a friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow who considered her a "sister." Crowninshield bequeathed a large sum of money to Clara and her mother in his will. Benjamin Ropes Nichols, a Salem attorney, informally adopted Clara on the death of Crowninshield. Clara was sent to a female seminary in Hingham, Massachusetts. There her studies consisted of Latin, French, German, and literature. She became a friend of Mary Storer Potter, Longfellow's first wife.[17] Clara recorded in her diary events of an eighteen-month trip (1835–1836) to Europe with the Longfellows. Clara married a Mr. Louis Thies in 1843. They had a son and a daughter. Clara died in Dresden in 1907.[18]

Crowninshield died of a heart attack in Salem onboard Cleopatra's Barge on November 26, 1817.[19][20][21] He is buried in Salem.[3][22]

George Crowninshield Sr. & Sons wharf in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1808. It was headquarters for the merchant fleet that was the source of the Crowninshield family fortune.

References

  1. ↑ "American Yacht Astonished All the Countries of Europe on Voyage made over Century Ago". Asheville Citizen-Times. Asheville, North Carolina. June 7, 1914. p. 18 – via Newspapers.com . The first American yacht was built for George Crowninshield in 1801 and was named Jefferson. The next known yacht was the Diver, owned by John C. Stevens in 1802. The Jefferson was a fast sailor, and when in 1812 the second war with Great Britain broke out she was commissioned privateer and captured three prizes.
  2. 1 2 Garraty 1999, p. 809.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Horwitz 2003, p. 55.
  4. ↑ "Yankee Yacht amazed Europe a century ago". The Buffalo Sunday Morning News. Buffalo, New York. May 17, 1914. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com .
  5. ↑ Horgan, Tom (October 18, 1946). "Up and Down New England". Nashua Telegraph. Nashua, New Hampshire. p. 4 – via Newspapers.com . Salem can boast many nautical firsts, including the first pleasure yacht to fly the American flag--the schooner Jefferson built in 1801 for Captain George Crowninshield of that port.
  6. ↑ Seaman's Friend Society 1907, p. 6.
  7. ↑ Day 1904, p. 2.
  8. ↑ Paine 1924, p. 175.
  9. ↑ "History of Cleopatra's Bardge Links with Early Isle Romance". October 7, 1945 – via Newspapers.com . Salem was where George Crowninshield happened to live, and George happened to be the first American yachtsman.
  10. ↑ "Cleopatra's Barge and how an Emperor Kidnapped a King". The Honolulu Advertiser. Honolulu, Hawaii. March 1, 1936. p. 39 – via Newspapers.com quote=So this idealistic Yankee, who became America's first yachtsman, called upon Retire Beckert, famous Salem shipwright, to build his dream ship. .... But Crowninshield's dream was a short lived one. In November, 1817, a month after the brig's return to Salem, America's first yachtsman died.
  11. ↑ "The Romantic History of America's First Yacht". The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer. Bridgeport, Connecticut. October 2, 1916. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com .
  12. ↑ Essex Institute 1917, p. 49.
  13. ↑ Putnam 1930, pp. 127–128.
  14. ↑ Horwitz 2003, pp. 55–56.
  15. ↑ Horwitz 2003, p. 56.
  16. ↑ "The Romantic History of America's First Yacht". The Bridgeport Times and Evening Farmer. Bridgeport, Connecticut. October 2, 1916. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com . George, a veteran seaman, decided in 1816 to construct in Salem the most magnificent pleasure craft afloat, and sail in her to all the principal ports of Europe. His decision to do this was reached shortly after Napoleon had been sent to the barren rock of St. Helena, and those who knew Capt. George Crowninshield'a passionate admiration for the deposed Emperor immediately put two and two together.
  17. ↑ Bruce R. McElderry Jr. (June 4, 1967). "Longfellow Letters". The Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California. p. 201 – via Newspapers.com .
  18. ↑ Gale 2003, p. 52.
  19. ↑ "Crowninshield obituary". American Yeoman. Brattleboro, Vermont. December 9, 1817. p. 3 – via Newspapers.com .
  20. ↑ "Cleopatra's Barge, built at Salem, Mass., by George Crowninshield". Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Honolulu, Hawaii. June 18, 1938. p. 53 – via Newspapers.com .
  21. ↑ Crowninshield 1966, p. 97.
  22. ↑ Horwitz 2003, p. 57.

Sources

  • Crowninshield, Frank (1966). Vanity Fair. University Microfilms.
  • Day, Thomas Fleming (1904). The Rudder. Fawcett Publications. ...it may be well for us to make a somewhat closer acquaintance of George Crowninshield, Jr., the first American yachtsman.
  • Essex Institute (1917). Old Time Ships of Salem. Essex Institute. In 1801, fifteen years before the building of "Cleopatra's Barge," Captain George Crowninshield built a smaller yacht, a sloop of twenty-one tons, the Jefferson, which is the first recorded American yacht.
  • Gale, Robert L. (2003). Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Companion. Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-32350-8.
  • Garraty, John Arthur (January 1, 1999). American National Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-512784-3.
  • Horwitz, Tony (2003). The Devil May Care. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-516922-5.
  • Paine, Ralph Delahaye (1924). Ships and Sailors of Old Salem. Heritage Books. ISBN 978-0-7884-3774-8. Captain George has the distinction of being the first American yacht owner. As early as 1801 he had built in Salem a sloop called the Jefferson in which he cruised for several years. While the Jefferson was beyond doubt the first vessel built for pleasure in the country, and the first yacht that ever flew the Stars and Stripes, her fame is overshadowed by that of the renowned Cleopatra's Barge, the second yacht owned by Captain Crowninshield, and the first of her nation to cruise in foreign waters.
  • Putnam, George Granville (1930). Salem Vessels and Their Voyages:. Essex Institute.
  • Seaman's Friend Society (1907). The Sea Breeze. Boston Seaman's Friend Society. ... and of George Crowninshield, who owned the first American yacht, the Jefferson, built in Salem waters in 1801.
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