CHAPTER XIII. THE BUILDING TRADES. "Good now, sit down and tell me, he that knows, Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task Hamlet, Act I, Scene 1. SHIP-BUILDING THE EARLIEST INDUSTRY-EMPLOYERS' LIABILITY, 1631 — FITS F SHIP-BUILDERS. `ROM Shakespeare's time to 1835, the shipwright's work Ce could well be described as sweaty haste," with the night made "joint laborer with the day;" yet the shipwright, in spite of hard physical labor and wearing hours, was a thinker as well as a worker, and to him is largely due the direction of the labor movement toward less hours of toil. The annals of the building trade are meagre. A careful examination of the local histories of the old seaport towns of New England furnishes us, however, with many interesting details. The inquiry has also been productive of results of a moral and intellectual character, and broad, historical tendencies have been discovered, which it is hoped will prove of sociological values to the student of that science. Ships were built in Boston as early as 1642, and a map dated 1743 shows twelve ship-yards located in the city proper. The same number is contained in the map of the siege of Boston, dated 1775. This industry was of sufficient importance to excite the opposition of the merchants and shipbuilders of England; for the London master-shipwrights, in an address to the Lords of Trade, in 1724, said that in the eight years ending in 1720, there were seven hundred sail of ships built in New England. Many of these vessels were of large size, even for our own times. Governor Winthrop, the royal governor of New Hampshire, wrote to the Lords of Trades, at the same time, that a ship was building in Massachusetts of one thousand tons, to mount seventy guns. On May 28, 1629, the Company's Court wrote Governor Endicott a letter, in which reference was made to a bark already built in the country, from which it appears, as Mr. Felt says, in his "History of Salem," that a vessel had been built, most probably at Naumkeag, and that the "Desire," afterwards launched at Marblehead, was not the first vessel built in the colony. In those early days, a sense of justice and equity seemed to provide for that which the workmen are now seeking to cover by the employers' liability law; for, in 1631, while Richard Hollingsworth was engaged in building a large vessel, one of his workmen was killed, and Hollingsworth was required by the Court of Assizes to pay ten pounds sterling to the wife and children of the deceased, because they thought that sufficient care was not taken to have his tackle strong enough. In 1631, the bark, "The Blessing of the Bay," built by THE LUNCHEON TIME. 333 Governor Winthrop, was launched at Mystic. The cost of this bark was said to be £145, being of thirty tons' burthen. The colonists were evidently determined to have good work, as on October 7, 1641, it was ordered that, when any ship was to be built within that jurisdiction, it should be lawful for the owners to appoint and put in some able man to survey the work and workmen from time to time, to see that it be performed and carried on according to the rules of their art; and, on May 29, 1644, the General Court proposed the formation of a company of ship-builders, with power to regulate the building of ships, and to make such orders and laws amongst themselves as might conduce to the public good. In the early part of the present century, the town of Medford, Mass., carried on quite an extensive ship-building business, the Middlesex Canal giving them facilities for getting their timber. From 1803 to 1855, 232,206 tons of shipping were built at this place, at an estimated cost of $10,449,270, or $45 per ton. It had been the custom in this industry, as well as in others, to furnish drink or grog at various intervals in the day. In 1817, Thacher Magoun, a ship-builder, determined to abolish the grog privilege. The ceremony of laying the keel, and of commencing each part of the work, as also the christening or naming of a vessel, was always accompanied with the use of ardent spirits. Upon Mr. Magoun giving notice that no liquor could be used in his ship-yard, the words "No Rum! No RUM!" were written upon nearly every clap-board of the workshop, and on each timber in the yard. Some of the men refused to work, but finally all gave in, and a ship was built without the use of liquor in any form. The hours of labor at that time were from sunrise to sunset, and all employers were obliged by custom to furnish liquor free at least twice a day. These two periods for drink were really periods of rest, and were called luncheon times, the men having an opportunity to eat as well as drink, and Mr. Magoun's no-rum movement meant no luncheon time, and was practically an increase in the working time, the employer thus saving the cost of time as well as the cost of the rum. The hours of this luncheon privilege were eleven o'clock in the forenoon, and four o'clock in the afternoon. Many of the workmen who were temperance men were indignant at the action of their employer, as they felt that the luncheon times were as oases in the desert of unremitting toil. Drinking habits continued, in spite of this innovation; and it is a matter of record that the agitation for temperance in drink coincides, in point of time, with the agitation for temperance in labor,- that is, for shorter hours. Richard Henry Dana, in his "Two Years Before the Mast," gives considerable space to the introduction of this reform, and charges some of the reformers with the most selfish motives. It is not to be wondered at that neither the sailors nor the workingmen were very favorably impressed by the penurious manner in which the change was brought about. Mr. Dana, in the book referred to, says : This was a temperance ship, and, like too many such ships, the temperance was all in the forecastle. The sailor, who only takes his one glass as it is dealt out to him, is in danger of being drunk, while the captain, who has all under his hand and can drink as much as he chooses, and upon whose selfpossession and cool judgment the lives of all depend, may be trusted with any amount to drink at his will. By seeing it allowed to their officers, they will not be convinced that it is taken from them for their good, and, receiving nothing in its place, they will not believe that it is done in kindness. By the local decay of ship-building on the south shore early in the nineteenth century, this force of shipworkers was diffused, carrying with them certain steady tendencies toward industrial progress, as far as the city of New York on the one hand and the city of Bath, Me., on the other. None of the towns on the south shore obtained the size and importance of the ship-building localitied on he north shore. It thrived in many of them until the exhaustion of timber and the demand for large vessels transferres the industry to various points on the north shore of Massachusetts Bay. A most remarkable race and local development presents itself here, calling for a notice, which must be much briefer than its importance demands. The inhabitants of the towns of Scituate, Marshfield, Pembroke, and Hanover, and the THE ROMAN ELEMENT. 335 region thereabouts, were, and are to this day, distinctively marked by the mental and physical characteristics of the Roman people. One cannot be familiar with them without noticing the Roman cast of countenance, and the prevalence among the women of Latin names, such as Julia, Marcia, Sylvia, etc. This is accounted for by the fact that the first settlers of these localities came from the south-east portions of England. That part of our mother-country was the first that was occupied by Julius Cæsar, and the last to be abandoned by the legions. Rome held possession of the island more than four hundred years, and it was never abandoned by those descended from the Romans. They retained their local authority and customs, especially in the city of London, as late as the Danish invasions in the ninth century. The Anglo-Saxons, though nominally in authority, were glad to make common cause with them in resisting the Danes. It is in consequence of the discovery of these facts that the theory of the exclusively Saxon character of English civilization is now repudiated by some able scholars.* The influence of this Roman element in forming the character of New England has been, as in old England, entirely overlooked; but it has been of great value. Deane's "History of Scituate" speaks thus of the original colonists: Previous to 1640, most of the population was from the county of Kent, in England. Many of them were from London. After giving a list of names, it says:— The above-named gentlemen, and others, were called "men of Kent.” * It was a natural and unavoidable consequence, that in this wilderness a less polished race should succeed; yet many of their fathers survived the darkest period of the colony, and gave a lasting impression of their manners upon posterity. **** The North River was celebrated for its shipbuilding in the early annals of the colonies, and it has held its ascendancy until late years [written in 1831]. It has been famous for the education of shipwrights, who have emigrated, and established their business along the whole coast, from New York to the furthest boundary of Maine. Scarce a ship-yard or navy-yard can be visited in this whole range of coast, without meeting many workmen who, themselves or their fathers, were educated on the North River. *See "The Romans of Britain," by Henry C. Coote. |