Jacob Aaron Westervelt (January 20, 1800 – February 21, 1879) was a renowned and prolific

shipbuilder Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

who constructed 247 vessels''Ships and Shipping of Old New York (1915)'' by the Bank of the Manhattan Company, page 48. of all descriptions during his career of over 50 years. From 1853 until 1855 he was Mayor of New York City."Mayors of New York City"
. Official website of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services — The Green Book. Retrieved on March 14, 2009. Together with his partners (Westervelt & MacKay and Westervelt & Sons) he designed some of the fastest and most successful sailing packets,

clippers The Los Angeles Clippers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Clippers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division in the league's Western Conference. The Clipper ...

and steamships ever built, among these the

screw sloop A screw sloop is a propeller-driven sloop-of-war. In the 19th century, during the introduction of the steam engine, ships driven by propellers were differentiated from those driven by paddle-wheels by referring to the ship's ''screws'' (propelle ...

and the clipper , as well as many vessels for foreign governments and Royal Houses. Westervelt was awarded the

Order of Isabella the Catholic The Order of Isabella the Catholic ( es, Orden de Isabel la Católica) is a Spanish civil order and honor granted to persons and institutions in recognition of extraordinary services to the homeland or the promotion of international relations a ...

by the

Queen of Spain , coatofarms = File:Coat_of_Arms_of_Spanish_Monarch.svg , coatofarms_article = Coat of arms of the King of Spain , image = Felipe_VI_in_2020_(cropped).jpg , incumbent = Felipe VI , incumbentsince = 19 Ju ...

for the preparation of models and plans for three Spanish

frigates A frigate () is a type of warship. In different eras, the roles and capabilities of ships classified as frigates have varied somewhat. The name frigate in the 17th to early 18th centuries was given to any full-rigged ship built for speed and ...

. For many years he was the President of the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Marine Society, the Port Society and the St. Nicholas Society. He was also President of the Board of Dock Commissioners for several years. After Westervelt's death, the flags at City Hall were lowered to half-mast.

Early life (1800–1817)

Westervelt was the eldest son of Ari and Vrowti Westervelt. Ari Westervelt was a builder by occupation. He built several houses in Franklin Street, New York, and constructed the South Church in Schraalenburgh in today's Bergenfield borough. Westervelt was born in

Tenafly, New Jersey Tenafly () is a Borough (New Jersey), borough in Bergen County, New Jersey, Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census the borough had a population of 15,409,sacrament after the completion of the new church. The Westervelts then resided at the old family homestead on Tenafly Road midway between Englewood and Tenafly. When Ari Westervelt was working on improving the riverfront, he moved, together with his infant son, to New York in 1804, to be nearer his work. It was to his father that Jacob Aaron owed his good education. His father died when Westervelt was only 14. The sources differ as to Westervelt's further education and early career. He received additional education under the tutelage of James P. Forrester, then headmaster of the school connected with the Collegiate (Dutch) Church in New York, and was afforded greater educational opportunities under Barron & Brown, in a special course on surveying and

navigation Navigation is a field of study that focuses on the process of monitoring and controlling the movement of a craft or vehicle from one place to another.Bowditch, 2003:799. The field of navigation includes four general categories: land navigation, ...

. Afterwards he went to sea, serving on ships for more than two years. He left the sea in 1817 and became an apprentice under Christian Bergh, a prosperous shipbuilder on the

East River The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Quee ...

. A differing source reports that he went to sea directly after his father's death,''Steamboat Days (1925)'', by Dayton, Fred Erving, chapter 19. while another states that he was already apprenticed to Christian Bergh in 1814.Death of an ex-Mayor — career of Jacob A. Westervelt
in ''The New York Times'' from February 22, 1879, page 2. Retrieved on March 16, 2009.

Christian Bergh's shipyard (1817–1836)

Westervelt learned the "art, trade and mystery" of his profession in a most independent way—as a teenage sailor and as an apprentice to Christian Bergh, for whom he worked at the very latest from the year 1817. Such was his talent that he was in Bergh's absolute confidence. Before even graduating from his apprenticeship, Westervelt accepted an offer to start business in Charleston, where he undertook the construction of two schooners, with the help of

African American slaves The legal institution of human Slavery#Chattel slavery, chattel slavery, comprising the enslavement primarily of List of ethnic groups of Africa, Africans and African Americans, was prevalent in the United States, United States of America ...

from planters in and around Charleston (with his employer's consent). He was so successful during those few months that he continued in business there, but he found the environment too confining for his ambitions and in 1822 he returned to New York, where he formed a partnership with Robert Carnley and his old master under the name of C. Bergh & Co. Some of the ships built by Bergh and Westervelt were ''Hope'' (1825), ''Henry IV'' (1826), ''Charlemagne'' (1828), ''Albany'' (1831), ''Philadelphia'' (1832), ''Utica'' (1833), ''Westminster'' (1835), and ''Toronto'' (1835). Christian Bergh retired a wealthy man in 1837, and was succeeded by his sons

Henry Henry may refer to: People *Henry (given name) * Henry (surname) * Henry Lau, Canadian singer and musician who performs under the mononym Henry Royalty * Portuguese royalty ** King-Cardinal Henry, King of Portugal ** Henry, Count of Portugal, ...

and Edwin Bergh, who continued the business until just after their father's death in 1843.''History of New York ship yards (1909)'' by John Harrison Morrison, page 44, reprint by University of Michigan Library 2006, .''Heritage of Care (2007)'' by Marion S. Lane, Stephen Zawistowski, Marty (FRW) Beck, page 3, .

Westervelt & Co. shipyard (1836–1864)

In 1836 Westervelt built at least two ships under his own name, the ''Baltimore'' and ''Mediator'', in partnership with the 22-year-old ship chandler Marshall Owen Roberts as Westervelt & Roberts."Palmer List of Merchant Vessels"
Retrieved on March 28, 2009. (Archived by WebCite at ). Soon after Christian Bergh's retirement, Westervelt and Robert Carnley made an extensive tour of Europe, visiting the principal shipbuilding points, where Westervelt gathered information that he subsequently put to good use. Westervelt found an inactive life disagreeable and, after a year of travel, returned to the

dry docks A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...

in 1838 and resumed shipbuilding. There are differing reports as to the start of this new chapter of Westervelt's life. On one side it is stated that Westervelt bought out his former partners Carnley and the Bergh brothers and took control of the Bergh shipyard, at the foot of Gouverneur Street and extending to Water Street and up to Scammel. Other sources state that Westervelt and William MacKay (not to be confused with Canadian shipbuilder

Donald McKay Donald McKay (September 4, 1810 – September 20, 1880) was a Canadian-born American designer and builder of sailing ships, famed for his record-setting clippers. Early life He was born in Jordan Falls, Shelburne County, on Nova Scotia's ...

) established one of a few new yards at Corlear's Hook (the block bounded by Third, Goerck and Houston Streets) in 1841 and moved to Lewis and Seventh Street in 1844.''History of New York ship yards (1909)'' by John Harrison Morrison, pages 95–97, reprint by University of Michigan Library 2006, . Westervelt may also have designed and built ships in connection with Edward Mills. The shipyard Westervelt & MacKay, later Westervelt & Sons (which Westervelt formed with his sons Aaron J. and Daniel),''The clipper ship era: an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews, 1843–1869 (1910)'' by Arthur Hamilton Clark, page 48, . became prominent and prospered. Together with MacKay and his sons he built 50 steamships, 93 traditional sailing vessels and clippers, 5

barque A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, b ...

s, 14 schooners, one sloop, two lightships, and 11

pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship ...

s—a total of 181 vessels of 150,624 tons. Some of his noteworthy

s are: * Mary and Catherine (1848) * Christian Bergh (1851) * Enchantress (1851) * ''George W. Blunt'' (1856) * Edwin Forrest (1855) *

Abraham Leggett The ''Abraham Leggett'' was a 19th-century New York pilot boat built by Daniel Westervelt at the Westervelt & Co. shipyard. She helped transport New York City maritime pilots between inbound or outbound ships coming into the New York Harbor. In ...

(1870) Westervelt built more vessels of medium tonnage than any builder of his time. Some of his noteworthy sailing packets are: *The ''Constellation'' (1849), built for the Robert Kermit Red Star Line—1,534 tons; 201 feet 10 inches x 41 feet x 28 feet (length x beam x depth of hold); 3 decks; draft 23 feet. This was the largest sailing vessel in the New York–Liverpool packet service at that time. The ''Constellation'' carried between 800 and 900 steerage passengers per passage on the lower deck (the 912 steerage passengers she discharged on 29 May 1851 was a record at the time). *The and the ''Waterloo'' were among the fastest on the North Atlantic route. (Under the pressure of competition, packet schedules were tightened and sailings reorganized due to disasters, new launchings, etc. In 1844–1848, several ships made three-month round trips instead of the traditional four months, calculated from one Liverpool departure to the following one.) *The , a packet sailing between New York and London on a regular schedule. She was built in 1846 in New York by Westervelt & MacKay and owned by E. E. Morgan. The ship is renowned because of the sea shanty "Clear the track", also called "Clear the track, let the bullgine run" or simply "Margaret Evans".

Clipper ships

Westervelt also built clippers, for example ''Contest'' (1852), ''

Hornet Hornets (insects in the genus ''Vespa'') are the largest of the eusocial wasps, and are similar in appearance to their close relatives yellowjackets. Some species can reach up to in length. They are distinguished from other vespine wasps by th ...

'' (1851), N.B. Palmer (1851), ''Kathay'' (1853), and . Clipper bows were distinctively narrow and heavily raked forward, allowing them to rapidly clip through the waves. The first archetypal clipper, with sharply raked stem,

counter stern The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Orig ...

and square rig, was '' Ann McKim'', built in Baltimore in 1833 by Kennard & Williamson. For some historians, the ''

Rainbow A rainbow is a meteorological phenomenon that is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. It takes the form of a multicoloured circular arc. Rainbows c ...

'' was the first true "Yankee clipper". She was built in 1845 to a new design by the American naval architect John Willis Griffiths who is said to have based his design on the owner's previous ship ''Ann McKim''. This type of vessel had been in demand for the China trade, but they were rather small. From the experience gained in the service of these first clippers, the builder soon found the changes that were necessary in the design for the building of larger and faster ships demanded in 1850 for the California, China and Australia

clipper route The clipper route was the traditional route derived from the Brouwer Route and sailed by clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route ran from west to east through the Southern Ocean, to make use of the s ...

Westervelt's clippers

The greatest New York clippers took shape in the yards of Westervelt and his friend

William H. Webb William Henry Webb (June 19, 1816 – October 30, 1899) was a 19th-century New York City shipbuilder and philanthropist, who has been called America's first true naval architect. Early life William Henry Webb was born in New York on June ...

. The ''N.B. Palmer'' was perhaps the most famous clipper built in the Westervelt yard, besides the ''Sweepstakes''. In China she was known as "the Yacht", and with her nettings in the tops, brass guns, gold stripe, and her lavish entertainment on the

Fourth of July Independence Day (colloquially the Fourth of July) is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the Declaration of Independence, which was ratified by the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, establishing the United States ...

and

Washington's Birthday Presidents' Day, also called Washington's Birthday at the federal governmental level, is a holiday in the United States celebrated on the third Monday of February to honor all persons who served as presidents of the United States and, since 1879 ...

, she well deserved the title. A full-rigged model of the ''N.B. Palmer'' was exhibited at

The Crystal Palace The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibitors from around th ...

, London, in 1851, and attracted much attention as a fine example of the American clipper ship. In 1858–1859 the ''N.B. Palmer'' with her 28-year-old Captain Hingham had tied the record of 82 days for the Shanghai to New York run. The ''Sweepstakes'', though black-hulled like other clippers, bore a stripe of gold, found on only a few others like the ''N.B. Palmer'', and was praised for her sleek lines and speed. ''Sweepstakes'' (which was the last clipper to be built by the Westervelt shipyard) gained celebrity for her record-breaking seventy-four-day run from New York to

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second-m ...

in 1857, and for making the trip between New York City and San Francisco in only 106 days.

The end of the clipper ship era

The economic boom spurred on by the California Gold Rush that had brought on the era of the clipper ships had turned to bust. All the secrets of building lofty clippers had been discovered and there were too many of them in existence. The dropping freight rates now gave no incentive to build any more. The San Francisco market was so saturated that many a disgusted ship captain dumped unwanted cargo overboard in the bay before sailing on to other ports. The diary of Robert Underhill, which recorded his 1856 travels on the ''Sweepstakes'', revealed that Westervelt was also traveling on this voyage to San Francisco and the Orient. Underhill's entries made clear that Westervelt recognized the economic situation facing the port of New York and was seeking other possible venues for the family business. By 1859 most of the extreme clippers had been dismasted more than once after half a decade or more of relentless hard driving. All were in a leaky condition, and most of their owners were by then in dire financial straits and could not afford expensive repairs to clippers that could not find a paying cargo to justify such expenses. Their masts were cut down, their yards shortened and their sails reduced as they were refitted and re-rigged with the new Howes rig to make them easier to handle by smaller crews. Other less fortunate clippers were discarded outright and sold for a pittance.

Steamboats and steamships

Some historians take the view that Westervelt built the first true American steamship that crossed the Atlantic to Europe. The Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans from France invented and constructed the first steamboat, the so-called ''Palmipède'', in 1774, and a second one, the steamboat , in 1783.

Robert Fulton Robert Fulton (November 14, 1765 – February 24, 1815) was an American engineer and inventor who is widely credited with developing the world's first commercially successful steamboat, the (also known as ''Clermont''). In 1807, that steamboa ...

built the first commercially successful steam paddleship in the US, the (also known as ''Clermont'') in 1807, using a

Boulton and Watt Boulton & Watt was an early British engineering and manufacturing firm in the business of designing and making marine and stationary steam engines. Founded in the English West Midlands around Birmingham in 1775 as a partnership between the Eng ...

engine. The is usually said to be the first steamship to cross the Atlantic (in 1819). She was originally planned as a sailing ship but was changed into a steamer. Because she did not make the entire passage under steam, some dispute the ''Savannah''s claim as the pioneering ocean steamer of the Atlantic. The British steamer ''City of Kingston'' and the , a

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

-built craft, have been suggested as the first true steamers to make the crossing. Steamship Washington - 1847

Three side-wheel steamers were also built in New York: the ''Lion'' and the ''Eagle'' (subsequently ''Regent'' and ''Congress''), built in 1841 by Jacob Bell for the Spanish navy, and at about the same time the ''Kamschatka'' built by William H. Brown for the Russian navy. After the ''Savannah'', there was no steamship owned or run by an American company that navigated the Atlantic Ocean to a port in Europe until 1847. In 1846 began inquiries regarding the building of steamships for regularly scheduled

transatlantic Transatlantic, Trans-Atlantic or TransAtlantic may refer to: Film * Transatlantic Pictures, a film production company from 1948 to 1950 * Transatlantic Enterprises, an American production company in the late 1970s * ''Transatlantic'' (1931 film) ...

service. Edward Mills, a

novice A novice is a person who has entered a religious order and is under probation, before taking vows. A ''novice'' can also refer to a person (or animal e.g. racehorse) who is entering a profession with no prior experience. Religion Buddhism ...

in the shipping business, led a syndicate that received the contract for mail delivery to

Le Havre Le Havre (, ; nrf, Lé Hâvre ) is a port city in the Seine-Maritime department in the Normandy region of northern France. It is situated on the right bank of the estuary of the river Seine on the Channel southwest of the Pays de Caux, very ...

and Bremen for five years. With his associates C. H. Sand, Mortimer Livingston and John L. Stephens, he founded the Ocean Steam Navigation Company in May 1846.Morrison 1903, p. 408. The company was unable to attract sufficient capital to carry out its original business plan to build four ships and instead ordered two ships from Westervelt & MacKay, ''Washington'' and ''Hermann'' (1848). The Westervelt shipyard built the hull, and the engines were made by Stillman, Allen & Co. This was one of the less successful chapters in the history of the Westervelt shipyard. Both

paddle steamer A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses we ...

s were said to be slow and had insufficient cargo space, and the government soon revoked the Le Havre portion of the mail contract because of the line's poor performance. Arago (steamship 1855) 01

Westervelt and his associates later built very successful steamships. Through 1850 they built 8 of the 38 steamships constructed in New York until that year, including the ''Franklin'' and ''Havre'' (the first steam vessels for the Havre Line), followed by and ''Rhode Island'' (for the government) and ''Eagle'' and ''Morro Castle'' (for Spofford, Tileston & Company). Westervelt & Sons also built ''Foong Shuey'', afterwards named ''Plymouth Rock'', of 287 feet in length, with an engine from the

Lake Erie Lake Erie ( "eerie") is the fourth largest lake by surface area of the five Great Lakes in North America and the eleventh-largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also h ...

steamer ''Plymouth Rock''. This vessel made the voyage from New York to

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

in 51 days. (The all-time record for a sailing vessel on that route is 78 days.) The SS Winfield Scott built in 1850 by Westervelt & MacKay, wrecked on Middle Anacapa Island in 1853, and has been the object of numerous salvage operations since; she currently rests underwater as part of the

Channel Islands National Park Channel Islands National Park consists of five of the eight Channel Islands off the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. Although the islands are close to the shore of the densely populated state, they have been relatively undevelope ...

and Marine Sanctuary. The wreck site of the ''Winfield Scott'' is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic ...

Warships and ships for governments

By 1855, the

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

was over and Westervelt, like other shipbuilders, began looking for new markets to keep his yard busy, as the shipping lines that had carried almost 2.7 million emigrants across the Atlantic by sailing vessels between 1846 and 1855,were ordering fewer ships than before. The declining trend continued because of the outbreak of the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

in 1861. Between 1855 and the end of the war in 1865, only 1.4 million emigrants were conveyed from Europe to the United States. On March 3, 1857 the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, composed of a lower body, the House of Representatives, and an upper body, the Senate. It meets in the U.S. Capitol in Washin ...

authorized five screw sloops of war, one of them the (the first ship so named by the U.S. Navy). It was laid down later that year by Westervelt and his sons, launched in 1858, and commissioned on January 26, 1859 with Captain (later Admiral) David G. Farragut in command. USS ''Brooklyn'' was active in Caribbean operations until the start of the American Civil War. In 1861 she was an active participant in the

Union blockade The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of of Atlanti ...

of the

Confederate States of America The Confederate States of America (CSA), commonly referred to as the Confederate States or the Confederacy was an unrecognized breakaway republic in the Southern United States that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865. The Confeder ...

. She received orders for many different missions: she was one of the ships that attacked the Forts St. Philip and Jackson, and under the command of Captain James Alden, Jr. she was part of the fleet that helped to blockade

Mobile Bay Mobile Bay ( ) is a shallow inlet of the Gulf of Mexico, lying within the state of Alabama in the United States. Its mouth is formed by the Fort Morgan Peninsula on the eastern side and Dauphin Island, a barrier island on the western side. The ...

. During the battle of Mobile Bay, which lasted a little more than three hours, 54 of ''Brooklyn''s crew were killed and 43 wounded while firing 183 projectiles. After spending the next few weeks helping reduce the Confederate land works guarding the entrance, ''Brooklyn'' departed Mobile Bay on September 6, 1864 and headed for Hampton Roads for service in the

North Atlantic Blockading Squadron The Union blockade in the American Civil War was a naval strategy by the United States to prevent the Confederacy from trading. The blockade was proclaimed by President Abraham Lincoln in April 1861, and required the monitoring of of Atlantic ...

. Soon thereafter, ''Brooklyn'' was in the task force that arrived off

Fort Fisher Fort Fisher was a Confederate fort during the American Civil War. It protected the vital trading routes of the port at Wilmington, North Carolina, from 1861 until its capture by the Union in 1865. The fort was located on one of Cape Fear Rive ...

on January 13, 1865, and her guns supported the attack until the fort surrendered on January 15. Since this victory completed the last major task of the Union Navy during the Civil War, ''Brooklyn'' sailed north and was decommissioned at the New York Navy Yard on January 31, 1865. Admiral Farragut declared ''Brooklyn'' to have been the most efficient man-of-war in the American navy. Besides the ''Brooklyn'', also built at the Westervelt shipyard were the gunboats , and the

revenue cutter A cutter is a type of watercraft. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan) of a sailing vessel (but with regional differences in definition), to a governmental enforcement agency vessel (such as a coast guard or bor ...

, all of which performed efficient blockading services during the war. Westervelt also built many vessels for foreign governments, among these the frigate ''Hope'' in 1825 for the Greek government, ''Guadalquiver'' for Spain, and ''Eusiyama'' for Japan. Westervelt was awarded the

by the

for the preparation of models and plans for three Spanish

Postwar slump and closure (1861–1868)

The most successful year for Westervelts's yard was 1858 when 12 ships were built (aggregating 14,081 tons). At the outbreak of the Civil War, Westervelt was one of the richest shipowners in the country. He was a supporter of the

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

cause. President

Abraham Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation thro ...

esteemed his judgment highly, and entrusted him with the purchase of many of the river craft which were altered to suit the demands of blockading and transport service. Westervelt accepted nothing for such service, but contented himself with the profits accruing from his shipyard. It was during this period that his fortune shrank very much faster than it had been accumulated. Steamer after steamer was wrecked, burned or captured by Confederate cruisers, until at the close of the war he was almost

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor ...

. During one year alone his losses from marine casualties amounted to $500,000. After the end of the Civil War in 1865, the U.S. government auctioned off the hundreds of ships it had requisitioned during the war at firesale prices, depressing the market and leaving American shipyards with no work. The result was that most American shipyards, along with marine engine specialists, failed. Not only the Westervelt shipyard, but the whole shipbuilding industry in New York was badly affected by the slump, being practically wiped out in the ensuing years. As the demise of shipbuilding after the war afforded him little opportunity to recover from his losses, the firm was dissolved in 1868, with no large surplus of assets. By this time Westervelt had constructed 247 ships with his partners, more than any other American shipbuilder in his day.

Dock Commissioner (1870–1879)

When the Dock Department was created in 1870, Wilson G. Hunt prevailed upon Westervelt to accept the duties of Superintendent of the Department. His management was characterized by prudence, sagacity and honesty. When

William Frederick Havemeyer William Frederick Havemeyer (February 12, 1804 – November 30, 1874) was a German American businessman and politician who served three times as Mayor of New York City during the 19th century. Early years Havemeyer was born in Staten Island, Ne ...

became Mayor in 1873, Westervelt was appointed a Commissioner of Docks and at the same time elected President of the Board of Dock Commissioners (which position he also held at the time of his death), and as such made tremendous improvements in piers and docks. His chief engineer, whom he selected in July 1870, was General

George B. McClellan George Brinton McClellan (December 3, 1826 – October 29, 1885) was an American soldier, Civil War Union general, civil engineer, railroad executive, and politician who served as the 24th governor of New Jersey. A graduate of West Point, McCl ...

, and his secretary General was Louis Fitzgerald. In 1875 George S. Greene Jr. became the new chief engineer. As Dock Commissioner, Westervelt followed in the footsteps of his father by continuing to improve the riverfront. In 1873 the

draughtsmen A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British and Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman or drafting technician in American and Canadian English) is an engineering technician who makes detailed technical drawings or plans fo ...

and engineers in the office of the Engineer-in-Chief were engaged in the preparation of maps and drawings to show the grants of land under water, around, and adjoining the island of

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

which had been made by either the state or Municipal governments from 1696 till 1873. They were also been engaged in the preparation of plans for a proposed exterior bulkhead wall which was planned to be built all around the city. A new dock system was also proposed of which the main feature was a wide river street encircling the waterfront to afford ample accommodation for the movement of freight and its transportation by rail. The new river and sea wall was to be constructed of

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies under ...

and a Beton concrete, composed of

Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19th ...

and broken stone. From this wall projecting into the river were a series of piers constructed of wood, iron, and stone. The large concrete blocks used in the construction of the new river wall were manufactured at the yards of the Dock Commission in Gansevoort Street, Manhattan. Two to three blocks, of forty to fifty tons each, were made daily. Westervelt was closely involved in these improvements.

Political career

Start in politics (1840–1852)

Westervelt was politically an ardent but not very active

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

. In 1840 he was elected to the Common Council, in which he served for two years as an

Alderman An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members t ...

from the thirteenth

ward Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a pris ...

.''Eighteenth Annual Report (1920)'' from the Bergen County Historical Society, Hackensack, New Jersey (number 13, pages 61–62). Westervelt stepped back from active political involvement for a couple of years, but remained a shrewd observer of current affairs and recognized nuisances and the needs of the people of "his" town. He witnessed sharply increasing taxes between 1850 and 1852 and the establishment of a reform movement that began to decry excessive government spending. Grand jury revelations of widespread corruption on the common council heightened such concerns. Reformers mobilized and ran the Democratic incumbents out of office, electing in their place a combination of Whigs and reform Democrats committed to "economy" in government. In November 1852 Westervelt was nominated for Mayor of the city by reformist representatives of the Democratic party. The mayoralty election was held at the same time as the presidential election, and the Democrats were successful in both.

Election as Mayor (1853–1855) and political goals

Westervelt was elected by a majority of 10,000, the largest ever received by a candidate up to that time (being nearly as much indebted to Whigs as to Democrats for his seat), against the most popular member of the Whig party, Alderman Morgan Morgans, carrying his own ward by a majority of nearly 1,000, and only a few votes behind the electoral ticket for President Franklin Pierce. The new mayor inherited the bad financial situation of the city, corrupt politicians, and an ailing police system. In his first message to the Community Council he declared the subjects he planned to deal with first, and that according to him, needed the attention of the council:

Mayor Westervelt and the police

Westervelt's term was marked by many

reforms Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

of the city's police. One of the most controversial was his attempt to enforce a police uniform. In 1844, New York City's population of 320,000 was served by an archaic police force, consisting of one night watch, one hundred city marshals, thirty-one constables, and fifty-one

municipal police Municipal police, city police, or local police are law enforcement agencies that are under the control of local government. This includes the municipal government, where it is the smallest administrative subdivision. They receive funding ...

officers.''American Metropolis: A History of New York City (1998)'' by George L. Lankevich, pages 84–85, . On 7 May 1844, the state legislature approved a proposal that authorized creation of a city

police force The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...

, along with abolition of the nightwatch system. Under Mayor William Havemeyer, the

NYPD The New York City Police Department (NYPD), officially the City of New York Police Department, established on May 23, 1845, is the primary municipal law enforcement agency within the City of New York, the largest and one of the oldest in ...

was reorganized on May 13, 1845, with the city divided into three districts, with courts, magistrates, and clerks, and station houses. Within eight years this system showed weaknesses. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' wrote in 1853, "Our police are inefficient. Worse has been said of them." Another publication delineated the situation much more precisely: It was Mayor Westervelt's stated aim to sort out the bad seed.Examples of such occurrences in the article
Meeting of the Board of Police Commissioners
in ''The New York Times'' from September 27, 1853, page 3. Retrieved on March 24, 2009. In 1853 an administrative body was created, called the Board of Police Commissioners, consisting of Mayor Westervelt, the recorder and the city judge. Apart from the fact that the

chief of police Chief may refer to: Title or rank Military and law enforcement * Chief master sergeant, the ninth, and highest, enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force * Chief of police, the head of a police department * Chief of the b ...

was selected by the Mayor with the Board's approval, the Board had full powers of appointment and dismissal of all members of the force and was charged with general administrative duties.''American Police Systems (1920)'' by Raymond B. Fosdick (Raymond Blaine), pages 67–69, . In nothing was the undisciplined attitude of the police more clearly shown than in their refusal to wear uniforms. "Un-American", "undemocratic", "militarism", "King's livery", "a badge of degradation and servitude"—ideas of this kind formed the basis of opposition against Westervelt's wish to put policemen in uniform, mainly from the force itself and an influential number of citizens who deemed it "unrepublican" to put the servants of the city in livery. On June 24, 1854 there was a large, angry meeting of 1,000–1,500 policemen. The objects of the meeting were stated in a notice posted prominently in the streets and published in the morning papers: Westervelt's position was clear: that a uniform incites a high degree of

chivalrous Chivalry, or the chivalric code, is an informal and varying code of conduct developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It was associated with the medieval Christian institution of knighthood; knights' and gentlemen's behaviours were governed by ...

sentiment, that it involves a "pride of cloth", and that the wearer knows that if he disgraces it he disgraces himself and the profession in which he serves. Westervelt earned many party enemies by his determined policy to keep appointments to the police force, which were then a large part of the patronage appertaining to the mayoralty, free from political influence.

Mayor Westervelt's influence on tourism

By the early 1850s New York had grown to sufficient size and prominence that the city decided to host a major exhibition of the type that London had pioneered in 1851. Such early exhibitions were forerunners of the later

world's fair A world's fair, also known as a universal exhibition or an expo, is a large international exhibition designed to showcase the achievements of nations. These exhibitions vary in character and are held in different parts of the world at a specif ...

s. The

Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations The Exhibition of the Industry of All Nations was a World's Fair held in 1853 in what is now Bryant Park in New York City, in the wake of the highly successful 1851 Great Exhibition in London. It aimed to showcase the new industrial achievements ...

opened during the term of Mayor Westervelt on July 14, 1853, in a sparsely developed part of the city. Fortieth and Forty-second streets bounded the fair's four-acre site to the immediate west of the

Croton Distributing Reservoir The Croton Distributing Reservoir, also known as the Murray Hill Reservoir, was an above-ground reservoir at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Covering and holding , it supplied the city with drinking water ...

—today's

Bryant Park Bryant Park is a public park located in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Privately managed, it is located between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas ( Sixth Avenue) and between 40th and 42nd Streets in Midtown Manhattan. The e ...

. Within New York's

Crystal Palace Crystal Palace may refer to: Places Canada * Crystal Palace Complex (Dieppe), a former amusement park now a shopping complex in Dieppe, New Brunswick * Crystal Palace Barracks, London, Ontario * Crystal Palace (Montreal), an exhibition building ...

, designed by Karl Gildemeister, four thousand exhibitors displayed the industrial wares, consumer goods, and artworks of the nation.''History of the city of New York: its origin, rise and progress'' by Martha J. Lamb & Burton Harrison, pages 358–359. Westervelt was President of the Exhibition, which set off one of the first major tourism booms in New York; many hotels were built to handle the influx of visitors. Over one million people visited the Crystal Palace Exhibition, which closed on November 1, 1854 (in spite of its popularity, the exhibition's sponsors lost $300,000 on the venture). The structure remained standing after the fair, and was leased for a variety of purposes before being destroyed by fire on October 5, 1858.

Controversial opinions

Proposed reduction of Central Park

Mayor Westervelt did not shy away from unpopular decisions if he considered them to serve the general good. In 1853 the New York legislature designated a area from 59th to 106th Streets for the creation of the planned

Central Park Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban park in the United States, with an estimated ...

, though the land alone cost over $5 million. At the time, the city's finances were declining, and Westervelt was concerned about overspending and the state's regulatory overreach in its decision to designate such a large area. There were several competing proposals to curtail the park, but no decision was made until March 1855, when the city's board of councilmen voted 14-to-3 to trim both the lower thirteen blocks (from 59th to 72nd Streets) and four hundred feet from each side of Central Park. However, on March 23, 1855, the new Democratic Mayor,

Fernando Wood Fernando Wood (February 14, 1812 – February 13, 1881) was an American Democratic Party politician, merchant, and real estate investor who served as the 73rd and 75th Mayor of New York City. He also represented the city for several terms in ...

, vetoed the measure.

Riots

The

New York Draft Riots The New York City draft riots (July 13–16, 1863), sometimes referred to as the Manhattan draft riots and known at the time as Draft Week, were violent disturbances in Lower Manhattan, widely regarded as the culmination of white working-cl ...

, the worst riots in United States history with respect to lives lost, took place during the Civil War in 1863, when immigrant factory workers forcibly resisted the federal government's

military draft Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it continues in some countries to the present day und ...

. In the United States, the period from 1820 to 1870 was generally characterized by conflicts on the domestic front, such as the police riots and the riots of the

Know-Nothing The Know Nothing party was a nativist political party and movement in the United States in the mid-1850s. The party was officially known as the "Native American Party" prior to 1855 and thereafter, it was simply known as the "American Party". ...

movement. It was during Westervelt's term as mayor that some of the first Know-Nothing riots occurred. This nativist American political movement was empowered by popular fears that the country was being overwhelmed by

Irish Catholic Irish Catholics are an ethnoreligious group native to Ireland whose members are both Catholic and Irish. They have a large diaspora, which includes over 36 million American citizens and over 14 million British citizens (a quarter of the Briti ...

immigrants, who were often regarded as hostile to American values and controlled by the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

in Rome. This body of thought was often propagated by street preachers. One of the most ambivalent characters was Reverend Mr. Parsons, who had been in the habit of regularly preaching on the wharves, in shipyards and other "obscure" places along the East and North Rivers. On December 11, 1853 he planted himself upon a pile of timber in the Westervelt & MacKay shipyard. His voice traveled far, and in the course of half an hour there was an assemblage of some ten thousand people. As a result of his speech a serious riot occurred and on the orders of Mayor Westervelt the preacher was taken into custody. Some Know-Nothinger hastened to the station house with the intention of liberating him. Finding no redress there, five thousand excited men marched to 308 East Broadway and surrounded the residence of Mayor Westervelt. Finding that he was absent from home, they contented themselves with daubing a large cross on the door. The feelings of the members of this movement against the participation of foreign-born citizens in municipal affairs had grown very bitter, and Westervelt set himself so sternly against them that his house was mobbed again. Probably due to the paucity of support for his reformist efforts during his term, but also because he applied himself more and more to the business of shipbuilding again, Westervelt declined a renomination, which for him was equivalent to an election, and was succeeded as Mayor by

. In 1857 Westervelt became a member of the New York State Assembly for Rockland County.

Genealogy of the Westervelt family

Ancestors

Westervelt, as his name indicates, came from old

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

stock. The name was known in the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

at a very early period, and although the family members were not of nobility, they had been extensive property owners for many generations. The earliest mention of the Westervelts that has been recorded is of a Dirk van Westervelt and his family who resided in and around the town of

Harderwijk Harderwijk (; Dutch Low Saxon: ) is a municipality and city of the Netherlands. It is served by the Harderwijk railway station. Its population centres are Harderwijk and Hierden. Harderwijk is on the western boundary of the Veluwe. The south ...

for many years. Some individuals sharing that name appear to have been early inhabitants of

Zwolle Zwolle () is a city and municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of Overijssel and the province's second-largest municipality after Enschede with a population of 130,592 as of 1 December 2021. Zwolle is on ...

, and their descendants are still to be found there, known by the name Westerveld.''Genealogy of the Westervelt family'', by Walter Tallman Westervelt, pages 1–2. In the middle of the 17th century a few Westervelts lived in Meppel, situated a few miles from the eastern shore of the

Zuiderzee The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee'') was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands, extending about 100 km (60 miles) inland and at most 50 km (30 miles) wide, with an o ...

, in the province of Drenthe and three miles east of Zwolle. Amongst them were two brothers, Willem and Lubbert Lubbertsen van Westervelt, both farmers and cattle raisers, who with their wives and children decided to move to the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...

. They left

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the capital and most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population of 907,976 within the city proper, 1,558,755 in the urban ar ...

on board ("Hope") on April 8, 1662. On their arrival on May 24, 1662, New Amsterdam (which later became New York City) was suffering from a prolonged drought as no rain had fallen for eighty consecutive days. Lubbert settled near Hackensack, New Jersey and was one of the promoters of the Dutch Church organized there in 1686. Willem was a member of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in New Amsterdam (1667), whilst his son lived at

New Utrecht New Utrecht ( nl, Nieuw Utrecht) was a town in western Long Island, New York encompassing all or part of the present-day Bath Beach, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Dyker Heights and Fort Hamilton neighborhoods of Brooklyn, New York Cit ...

on Long Island. This son sold his lands in 1706 and is supposed to have moved to New Jersey, where the family has been numerous and prominent for the past 300 years. William Lubbertsen van Westervelt with his wife and six children, and Lubbert Lubbertsen van Westervelt, with his wife and four children, became the progenitors of the ''van Westervelt/Westervelt'' family in America, and were at one time the second largest family in Bergen County, New Jersey. Jacob Aaron Westervelt was a seventh-generation descendant of Lubbert Lubbertsen van Westervelt.

Descendants

Westervelt married Eliza M. Thompson in New York City on April 25, 1825. They had eight children: *John Albert, b. September 15, 1826 *Daniel Demarest, b. November 5, 1827; d. June 4, 1896 *Aaron Jacob, b. March 14, 1829; d. March 9, 1879 *James Thompson, b. October 5, 1830; d. in infancy *Annie Halstead, b. May 12, 1832 *Sophronia, b. December 19, 1834 *Robert Carnley, b. November 25, 1837 *Eliza Mariette, b. July 16, 1841; d. April 21, 1891

External links

Website of the Bergen County Historical Society
Retrieved on March 20, 2009. *

. ''The New York Times'' (February 25, 1879). Retrieved on March 19, 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Westervelt, Jacob Aaron 1800 births 1879 deaths American shipbuilders American people of Dutch descent Commissioners of Docks and Ferries of the City of New York Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States Mayors of New York City Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery People from Tenafly, New Jersey New York (state) Democrats 19th-century American politicians