Liberty on the Waterfront. Paul A. Gilje
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whaling voyages too, the crew might be taken from all over New England and include Native Americans as well as young farm boys eager to earn a stake to establish themselves on shore.125 But the merchant sailing vessels, especially those that sailed from larger ports, contained men from up and down the seaboard. In the colonial New York Admiralty courts, only about half of the American-born men identified came from New York.126 This proportion may have declined in large ports after the Revolutionary War. Less than 10 percent of the mariners in Philadelphia crews in 1803 were born in that city.127 In smaller ports like Salem and Providence, the majority of sailors were locals.128
Many maritime workers traced seafaring roots back for generations. Others left the family farm to seek their fortunes abroad, knowing that they had a sparse patrimony if they stayed at home. A few seamen came from affluent backgrounds and hoped to learn the ropes in the forecastle before they moved to the quarterdeck. A variety of circumstances could lead a man to sign on with a ship. There were even some less ambitious souls—like Melville and Dana—whose education and temperament set them apart from their shipmates. Some sought respite and adventure. Samuel Smith's business plans went sour; he fell into debt and had nowhere else to turn.129 One whaleman who taught school, farmed, and fished in the year before signing on a cruise, saw his stint at sea as yet another in a round of different employments. The forecastle included men from many different classes and backgrounds, as well as nationalities.130
Despite this diversity, sailors generally shared one characteristic: more than half were in their twenties. A ship might contain a boy of ten or twelve, like Horace Lane, who labored as a servant or cabin boy. A serious maritime career did not begin until the late teens. The average age of sailors was about twenty-five. Less than 20 percent of seamen were under twenty, most of these were eighteen or nineteen. By the time a man reached his thirties, he likely either moved on to a new occupation ashore, turned to fishing, labored on the docks, or was lost at sea. Approximately 20 percent continued to ship out into their thirties or forties, some as officers and some merely as “old salts.” Surveys of American prisoners of war held during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 suggest that during hostilities, as job prospects dimmed on the waterfront and the lure of privateering offered the hope of quick rewards, the average age increased slightly.131 Overall, compared to their white shipmates, black seamen were slightly older. In 1803 more than 80 percent of the white seamen and 70 percent of the blacks on crew lists in Providence were under the age of thirty.132 Being a mariner was a young man's game.133
The waterfront workforce, however, included man at various ages. As reported in the reform publication the Mariner's Church in 1818 “there are many old Seamen, who are employed in fitting out vessels, many ship carpenters and others” who crowd the dockside neighborhoods.134 “Old” Mr. Coats, the boatswain of the Beaver, gave up the sea after a China voyage in 1805–1806. He married and became a rigger in New York.135 One master rigger who listed his employees in 1821 stated that they all had once followed the sea but now worked on shore.136 Often these men turned to waterfront labor when shipboard life became too physically demanding for them, or when personal commitments, like providing for a family, convinced them to remain rooted in one community.
The range of shoreside labor was staggering. Many men who served at sea remained near the waterfront as stevedores, riggers, ship carpenters, sailmakers, blockmakers, and coopers. Others set up grog shops or boardinghouses. Some men turned to regular trades a few streets away from the docks as carpenters, shoemakers, and the like. Others went further inland. A few actually became farmers. Indeed, the boundaries between work ashore and work afloat remained fluid. Men who shipped out one month might stay ashore the next month. Many who labored at sea while in their twenties avoided service on the ocean in their thirties. Others shifted back and forth throughout their lives.
4. This certificate includes five waterfront scenes: at top is a view of Salem harbor; one of the smaller pictures shows two men working a sugar press in a warehouse; the other three demonstrate various stages of preparing a vessel for sea. Salem Marine Society Certificate for John B. Knight, January 31, 1839. Peabody Essex Museum.
Sometimes it was a sense of wanderlust, or some mysterious unease like Melville's “growing grim about the mouth” and “damp, drizzly November” in his soul, that limited time on land.137 At least twice during his teens Horace Lane attempted to wean himself from a sailor's life. Before his arms-running voyage in 1804 he spent two years ashore learning a trade, and in 1805 he tried blacksmithing for a while. Yet Lane complained that “There was a constant restless anxiety for something—I could not tell what.” Intermittently thereafter he attempted to extend his stays on shore through labor as well as criminal activity.138
More often it was economic circumstances that compelled men to sign on for another voyage. To avoid going to sea, Samuel Leech worked on the docks loading and unloading ships. He found this “an uncertain employment,” however, and reenlisted in the American navy.139 In 1822 Joseph Oliver struggled to find work on the waterfront but could not. He had a sick wife and reported that he often went to bed at night without anything to eat. Confronted with this desperate situation, he thought that his only solution was to go to sea to earn some money.140 Thomas Gregory was a junior officer on a privateer during the War of 1812. The end of that conflict found him stranded on the docks, without steady employment ashore. As he lacked basic navigational skills he signed as a common seaman, a step he philosophically dismissed by declaring that he will just have to “fart like a Jack.”141
Many men thus passed easily from work on the waterfront to work aboard ships. French Canadian Joseph Baker arrived in New York City in 1799 and labored for a while making staves. After his partner ran off with his money, he went to Philadelphia, where he signed aboard an English vessel bound for Jamaica, hoping to make big wages as a ship carpenter there.142 Nicholas Isaacs described how, after several years as a sailor during his teens, he sought work in New York City as a cooper making buckets. After about six months the other men complained that he was too young to be working as a journeyman, so he moved to another shop. Problems arose at this employer, and once again he went back to the sea.143 Stephen Gray came from a family with strong maritime roots in Rhode Island; his mother's father was a ship captain and five maternal uncles died at sea. At age sixteen he “had a strong inclination to go to sea” and sailed to Cape Breton, but “had a rather unpleasant voyage.” Gray tried seafaring two more times, with the same results, before apprenticing as a carpenter. Once he became a journeyman he signed aboard a vessel to New Orleans. From there he worked his way overland back to Rhode Island as a carpenter. The imprint of his years at sea was indelible; he continued to spice his diary with nautical terms and reported the comings and goings of local shipping for the rest of his life.144
Most seamen sought shorebound employment more toward the end, rather than the beginning or middle, of their careers. Ashley Bowen had worked intermittently ashore for more than twenty years as a seafarer before becoming a full-time rigger at age thirty-five.145 Samuel Leech eventually broke away from the sea, and even the waterfront, and established himself as a shopkeeper in New England. Simeon Crowell started his sea career on fishing schooners on the Grand Banks, turned to sailing on coastal traders, and traveled at times to the West Indies. He became a mate and then a captain, and ended up settling in Barnstable and serving as inspector and deputy collector of the port.146 The Hammond family of Rochester, Massachusetts, offers us further insight into how and why seamen sought shorebound employment. Bezeal Shaw, the oldest boy, had already gone to sea by 1818. He told his younger brother LeBaron not to follow him in his occupation. But LeBaron's options were not great—digging ditches with Irish laborers or going to sea. By 1830, four Hammonds were sailing out of the port of New York. Sometimes they served as mates; often they sailed as common seamen. LeBaron worked for a while on Mississippi steamboats, but by 1841 he had married and established a grocery in New York City. Two other brothers also gave up their maritime careers: Bezeal Shaw became a trader in New Orleans, Andrew a carpenter in New York. Like LeBaron they may have done so when they married and in an effort to settle down. If they needed a reminder of the dangers of