Footnotes to Long Island History
Whalers Built at Port
Jeff
December 16, 1954
by
Thomas R. Bayles
One of the
most active of the old shipyards on the North shore 50 years ago was
that of James M. Bayles & Son at Port Jefferson. This firm constructed
138 schooners, brigs and ships during its existence of more than 75
years, and many of them sailed around the globe time and time again.
due to their sturdy construction they were able to weather storms and
hurricanes and earned fortunes for their owners.
The ships
built at this yard ranged in size from 300 to 800 tons, and cost from
$10,000 to $50,000 each. It was customary for the shipbuilder to show
his faith in the ships he built by taking and eighth interest or more in
the vessel, and at one time James M. Bayles & Son owned sailing for
every known port.
Two whaling
ships, the Horatio and the Fleetwing, were built in this yard, and both
were profitable to their owners, although the Horatio was afterward lost
on a coral reef in the Caroline islands and the Fleetwing in an ice pack
in the Arctic. The crews of both ships were saved.
Mr. Bayles,
as a builder and investor in whaling ships, had a considerable knowledge
of the business and the large earnings made by the boats was related by
him. The Cornelius Howland, with B. Frank Homan of Port Jefferson as
captain, sailed from New Bedford in 1865 on a four year voyage which
earned $355,000 and returned the captain as his share more than
$27,000. Other boats made similar records. By 1908 the whaling
business had shrunk to small proportions, and the Whalemen’s Shipping
list of New Bedford showed only 40 vessels engaged in it.
James E.
Bayles, who was the surviving partner in the shipyard, built 30 yachts
while the yard was under his management up to 1908, and in that year
constructed an 80-foot twin screw yacht for Henry Tinker which was one
of the finest boats of her size in the United States. The materials
used were teak and mahogany, and the boat was fitted out with sleeping
and living in quarters and all modern improvements in the most lavish
manner according to those years. It was designed for cruises to the
West Indies.
Mr. Bayles,
although a businessman giving his time and energy mainly to his
shipbuilding operations and looking after his interest in the many
vessels in which he had shares, was in addition a man of wide culture
and literary tastes. His library of 3,000 volumes contained all the
standard literary works, and in addition 600 volumes of purely nautical
works, many of them very rare. Some of them were charts and diaries of
the old whaling captains of Salem and Boston and contained stories of
thrilling interest. The margins of the old logs, written with a quill
pen, were illustrated by quaint drawings of whales.
The Bayles
firm built the Henry James which was purchased by the government and
formed one of commodore Porter’s famous mortar fleet which bombarded New
Orleans during the Civil war to distract the enemy’s attention when
Farragut performed his famous feat of running past the forts and
capturing the city.
Another
famous ship was the 150-ton Edward L. Frost, which was sent around Cape
Horn by her owners and ran between the Pacific coast and the islands of
the South Pacific on trading voyages. The Frost had the distinction of
being the first American ship to bring a cargo of merchandise to this
country from Japan, after Japan had been opened to American commerce by
the treaty put through by Commodore Perry in 1856.
The father
of the two original proprietors of the Bayles shipyard was Elisha
Bayles, who moved to Port Jefferson in 1809, when it was a little hamlet
of a dozen houses known as Drowned Meadow. He was the principal
merchant of the place for years, as well as a strong Jeffersonian
Democrat. Through his efforts, it is said, the name of the village was
changed to Port Jefferson.