Maritime Connecticut

Before studying Connecticut maritime interests, it would be best to read a very interesting, even charming, and authoritative book by Robert G. Albion, William A. Baker, and Benjamin W. Labaree, New England and the Sea (Mystic: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1972). That work provides the context for studying the Connecticut scene. There is, too, a superb bib­liography of the subject by Robert G. Albion in Naval and Maritime History: An Annotated Bibliography (Mystic: Munson Institute, 3rd rev. ed., 1963).  See also: Calabretta, Fred, Guide to the Oral History Collections at Mystic Seaport Museum. Mystic: The Museum, 1992; and Stein, Douglas L. A Guide to the Manuscript Collections of the G.W. Blunt Library. Mystic: Mystic Seaport Museum, 1983.

For Connecticut there is no comprehensive history, or even a survey, of the whole sweep of time since the 1630s. The list below provides ample resources, however, for a fair study of the subject. Of course, general his­tories of the state should be consulted. Local histories of coastal and riverine towns will also yield a good deal of relevant information. The naval history of the American Revolution has been dealt with under its own section, above; steamboats are treated under “Transportation,” below; and the Connecticut River has its own section, too.

Adams, Charles F. “Why Did the New Haven Port Fail?” Journal of the NHCHS 23(Fall, 1944)1:15-26. Deals with the era to about 1875, with emphasis on the period centered in the War of 1812. The fundamental problems were the physical geography and hinterland conditions. “New Haven lacked all the nec­essary prerequisites for commercial prosperity....” (p. 26)

Albion, Robert Greenlagh. “Yankee Domination of New York Port, 1820-1865.” New England Quarterly 5(October, 1932)4:665-71. “It was natural,” reports the dean of American maritime historians, “that Connecticut should be most heav­ily represented among the invaders.” (p. 669)

Burnham, Collins G. “Early Traffic on the Connecticut River.” New England Magazine 23  (October, 1900).

Dart, Margaret S. Yankee Traders at Sea and Ashore: An Account of the Early Nineteenth Century Merchant Ships Built in Connecticut... and of Connecticut Travelers to the Far West and the Far East. New York: William Frederick Press, 1965. A ninety-six-page work based on the papers of the Hurd family, of Middle Haddam. Includes letters of Cyrus Hurd. Jr., a Forty-Niner.

Dzikas, Joan A. “The Phantom Ship: Great Dream for New Haven’s Future.” Journal of NHCHS 26(Winter, 1978)1:3-13. The story of New Haven Colony’s effort to establish a mercantile connection with England in 1647 by means of her doomed “Great Shippe.”

Fowler, William W., Jr. “A Connecticut Captain in a Pennsylvania Court.” CHS Bulletin 37(April, 1972)2:59-63. The story of Gideon Olmsted, whose privateer booty was stolen by Pennsylvania warships in 1777. Olmsted went to court and persevered for years until finally he got to the United States Supreme Court and won his booty back—after more than three decades—in the case of U. S. v. Peters 5 Cranch 15 (1809). See also Middlebrook, below.

Goff, John V. “Traces of the Shipyard Workers: Shipbuilding in the Connecticut River Valley, 1800-1850.” CHS Bulletin 46(January, 1981)1:1-30. The focus is on the lower part of the valley in southern Connecticut, mostly Essex. This is an effort in the genre of the history of the inarticulate. It is an excellent study of the nitty-gritty of shipbuilding, drawing on many manuscript sources. It in­cludes an appendix listing 175 shipyard workers. Citations.

Griswold, Roger W. “First Sailing Vessels and Merchant Mariners on the Connec­ticut River.” Connecticut Magazine 10(1906)3:463-73. Focused for the most part on the eighteenth century, this article includes lists of captains lost, ships lost, and captains captured by the Algerians.

Harris, C.M. "The Improbable Success of John Fitch," American Heritage of Invention and Technology, 4 (Winter, 1989) 24-31.

Holms, Jeremiah. “The Voyages of an Old Sea Captain.” Connecticut Magazine 11(1907)1:65-80. The reminiscences of Holms (1782-1872), of Stonington, captain of the sloop Hero in the War of 1812. Holms was impressed into the British navy and captured by French privateersmen, and he survived other hairy adventures.

Love, W. DeLoss. “The Navigation of the Connecticut River.” Proceedings of the American Antiquarian Society 15(1902-03).

Middlebrook, Louis F. Captain Gideon Olmsted: Connecticut Privateersman [in] the Revolu­tionary War. Salem, Mass.: Newcomb and Gauss, 1933. A detailed biography. See Fowler, above.

Pease, Julius Walter. “Adventures of an Early American Sea-Captain.” Connecticut Magazine 10(1906)4:631-46 and 11(1907)2:275-84. A transcript of a diary of Samuel Hoyt (1744-1826), of Guilford. Part I covers 1762-64, Part II, 1764-1800. West Indian and coastal trade; capture by privateers; storms on the At­lantic. Extensive.

Smith, Gaddis. “New Haven and the Sea.” In New Haven; An Illustrated History. Edited by Floyd Shumway and Richard Hegel. New Haven: the NHCHS, 1981. A narrative and descriptive account, with analytical focus provided by the concept of energy—food, coal, oil—by a professional historian.

Stevens, Thomas A. Connecticut River Mariners: A Brief Record of Some of the Blue Water Shipmasters of the Connecticut River. Essex: The Connecticut River Foun­dation, 1979. Short maritime sketches of eighty-nine captains. Many pictures of the captains, their ships, and their wives. A fifty-one-page work.

Thompson, Ellery. Draggerman’s Haul: The Personal History of a Connecticut Fishing Captain. New York: Viking Press, 1950. Early twentieth century.

Todd, Charles B. “An Old New-England Seaport.” Lippincott’s Magazine 27(January, 1881).

Trowbridge, Thomas R., Jr. “History of Ancient Maritime Interests of New Haven.” Papers of the NHCHS 3(1882):85-204. Descriptive piece covering the colonial period to 1812. Revised and republished in William L. Davis, The New England States. 11:744-814. Boston: D. Hurd, 1897.

—“History of [Long Wharf] New Haven.” Papers of the NHCHS 1(1865):83-104. “As a pecuniary speculation [Long Wharf] was a great failure, or rather a con­stant succession of failures; but stimulated by the need of a wharf for the busi­ness of the place, public spirited men were successively engaged in the enter­prise.” (p.83)