Wharves in the Early 1800s

In the late seventeen hundreds and early eighteen hundreds, Salem’s waterfront was crowded not only with ships and imported cargo but also with the artisans and craftsmen who kept the port’s fleets working, including sail makers, riggers, rope makers, and blacksmiths. Along Derby Street, during the height of Salem’s trade, Derby Wharf stood with three-story warehouses while other historic wharves lined the harbor, a shipyard on the shore built a hull, and the Turner-Ingersoll mansion rose nearby. An advertisement in the Essex Register on March 13, 1811, announced that ship joiner Isaac Cushing had moved his business to store no. 15 on Derby Wharf, where he offered work in his line as well as patent binnacles and skylights. The waterfront scene included the ship John returned from the East Indies, sugar unloaded from Isle de France, cotton unloaded from India, cargo weighed on U.S. Customs scales and on a merchant’s tripod scales, and a schooner’s hull being coppered against teredo worms. Also present were the counting house of Elias Hasket Derby, Jr., a schooner delivering lumber, a brig under construction, the brig Badger, the ship Monk, the home of Captain Samuel Ingersoll later known as the House of Seven Gables, a fishing boat leaving the harbor, Orne’s Wharf, the former privateer Rhodes, Crowninshield Wharf or India Wharf built in 1802, a stagecoach waiting for a shore party, a visiting naval frigate, Coney Island, Baker’s Island Light, and Becket’s shipyard, associated with many of Salem’s well-known vessels. Cargo shown there included hides, hemp, tea, tallow, nutmeg, coffee, molasses, cotton, fireworks, pepper, wine, sugar, and chinaware.

Salem, Massachusetts · United States