Background
He was born on November 16, 1763 at Marshfield, Massachussets, the son of Ebenezer Barker, a blacksmith of Pilgrim descent, and of Priscilla (Loring) Barker.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Josiah Barker
Edit ProfileCareer
His Revolutionary service began at thirteen. After four short army enlistments spent chiefly in tedious guard duty, he was at sea on the frigate Hague during the last year of the war. A veteran at nineteen, he returned to Pembroke, Massachussets. In the meantime he had learned to build ships on the North River, whose numerous yards made it a "cradle of New England shipbuilding. " The industry was temporarily dull at home, so he built five ships, between 1786 and 1792, in New Brunswick, where vessels enjoyed the advantages of British registry. The Anglo-French war stimulated the New England demand and in 1795 he settled at Charlestown, Massachussets His reputation attracted orders from the ship-owners of Boston, and in the next twenty years, the Barker yard turned out nearly forty vessels.
In the War of 1812, Barker built on contract the sloop of war Frolic, and served as master carpenter on the Independence, the first ship of the line in the United States Navy. It has been erroneously stated that he became naval constructor at the Charlestown yard about 1811. He was still building merchantmen in his own yard in 1816, and not until 1826 does his name first appear as naval constructor, at a salary of $2, 000, later $2, 300. He served in that capacity for twenty years. Among the ships which he constructed were the ships of the line Vermont and Virginia and the frigate Cumberland. In 1834, he rebuilt the Constitution in our first naval dry dock. But he does not seem to have been a creative genius in naval architecture; ordinarily, he built along lines received from the chief constructor. His original work was the designing of the sloop Portsmouth in 1843, though even there he followed a French model.
In 1843, he was transferred to Portsmouth, and he was finally dismissed from the service on July 9, 1846, at the age of eighty-three. He survived this barely a year, dying at Charlestown on September 23, 1847.
Achievements
Personality
With his imposing figure, about six feet tall, and his "dignity, urbanity, and hospitality, " he was prominent in the comfortable life of the navy-yard and town.
Connections
He married Penelope, the daughter of Captain Seth Hatch, on December 9, 1787.
