Shipbuilding

The tall trees of the New England coast provided English colonists with their most valuable resource (after codfish) and the raw materials for the entire shipbuilding industry. A fleet of vessels was a necessity for the colonists to conduct regular transportation and trade with England and with other colonies. It was the one colonial industry that British officials never sought to regulate because ships were always required, especially in time of war, when the merchant fleet suffered losses by the enemy. Ships built and owned by colonial merchants also allowed them closer control over their commerce without being dependent on ships and merchants in the mother country.

Colonial shipbuilding began in Massachusetts in the 1640s, where there was the need, the resources, and a growing merchant community. Throughout the colonial period Massachusetts remained the center of shipbuilding activity, taking the early lead in volume of construction. Before the Revolution Massachusetts-made ships accounted for one-third of all American-built vessels. The most important shipyards clustered around Boston and along the Merrimack and North Rivers. The industry expanded along the coast of Maine (then part of Massachusetts) and to other New England colonies. Ships made in Maine, Massachusetts, and Connecticut ranged from small coastal sloops to larger oceangoing ships, characterized by sound design and solid construction.

Shipbuilding centers developed in other colonies during the early 18th century. Philadelphia, soon after its founding, fostered the industry by welcoming shipbuilders. The Chesapeake region and South Carolina developed their own shipbuilding industry, albeit on a much smaller scale. Throughout the colonies shipbuilding added diversity to local business ventures, such as supplementing the tobacco trade in the Chesapeake area. Shipbuilding also contributed to the development of direct commerce with Europe, Alrica, and the West Indies.

Shipbuilding employed hundreds of shipwrights and laborers, who often faced difficult and sometimes dangerous working conditions. They usually worked seasonally. Master shipwrights could become wealthy, while lesser-skilled artisans and laborers sometimes struggled to eke out an existence.

Further reading: Joseph A. Goldenburg, Shipbuilding in Colonial America (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1976).

—Stephen C. O’Neill

Shippen, William, Jr. (1736-1808) doctor Son of William Shippen, Sr., a respected Philadelphia physician and member of the Continental Congress, William was born in Philadelphia in 1736. He graduated from Princeton College with highest honors in 1754 and began his medical studies immediately, first with his father, then in London and at the University of Edinburgh. After receiving his M. D. in 1761, Shippen spent six more months studying in Paris. While abroad he married Alice Lee, sister of Richard Henry Lee, future Virginia delegate to the Continental Congress.

Upon returning to Philadelphia in 1762, Shippen began the first anatomy lectures and anatomy school in North America. Here, he added the dissection of human bodies to the traditional pictures and casts used for educational purposes, despite the sometimes violent protests of Philadelphians. When the medical school opened at the University of Pennsylvania, he became its first professor of anatomy and surgery and later taught midwifery to both medical students and women training as MIDWIVEs. Shippen was also a founding member of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, an attending physician at the Pennsylvania Hospital, and an active member of the American Philosophical Society for many years.

During the Revolutionary War Shippen served the Continental army in several medically related capacities. Congress accepted his plans for the reorganization of the hospital department, appointing him director general of military hospitals in 1777, a position he held until January 3, 1781. Although later court-martialed for suspected financial irregularities while serving in the army, he was exonerated.

While studying medicine in Europe, Shippen realized the need for a medical school in America. His long career as a medical educator brought him recognition in both America and Europe. He died in Philadelphia in 1808.

—Anita DeClue