Background
Henry Eckford was born on March 12, 1775, in Kilwinning, Scotland, the son of John Eckford and Janet Black.
architect Businessman engineer politician shipbuilder
Henry Eckford was born on March 12, 1775, in Kilwinning, Scotland, the son of John Eckford and Janet Black.
At the age of sixteen he went to Quebec, Canada, and began studying the principles of ship designing in the yards of his uncle, John Black. After five years of such schooling he settled in New York City, where he soon began shipbuilding on his own account.
At the opening of the nineteenth century his yards were on the Long Island side of the East River, near the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Because of the abundance and accessibility of timber, American ships could be built for $35 a ton, as against $50 in England, and $60 in France.
Even without the aid of the discriminating laws enacted by Congress, American shipbuilders had a clear advantage.
It was his custom to question the captains of his ships on their return from voyages, learning thus what the behavior of the vessels had been in various circumstances and taking advantage of the knowledge so obtained in planning his next ship.
His business was prospering when the War of 1812 came on.
After the United States navy decided to build war vessels on Lake Ontario, Eckford supervised the work.
The sloop-of-war Madison, 24 guns, was constructed by him within forty days from the cutting of the timber in the forests.
After the war he returned to New York.
During the Monroe administration he was appointed naval constructor at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and held this office for three years, 1817 - 1820, the Ohio and five other line-of-battle ships being constructed on his models.
There is no doubt that J. Fenimore Cooper in paying tribute to Eckford’s genius and resourcefulness as a naval constructor voiced a prevalent opinion.
He resigned because of differences among some of the Navy Department officials.
Resuming work in his own yards, he built the Robert Fulton, which made the first successful voyage by steam from New York to New Orleans and Havana (1822) and after conversion into a sailing vessel made the swiftest sloop-of-war in the Brazilian navy; and frigates for Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Chile.
He invested money in the National Advocate and in the campaign of Crawford for the presidency (1824) he controlled that journal, in association with Matthew L. Davis and Jacob Barker.
He bought a country estate on Manhattan Island (between Sixth and Eighth Avenues, 216t and 24th Sts. , New York City), and there entertained among others, James E. De Kay, Fitz-Greene Halleck, Joseph Rodman Drake, and kindred spirits.
In Eckford’s later years the failure of an insurance company in which he was interested took away a large part of his fortune.
The last ship that he built was a corvette for the Sultan of Turkey.
Aboard this ship, commanded by Commodore George Colman De Kay, Eckford sailed to Turkey, where he was placed in charge of naval construction, and there, while organizing a navy yard, he died.
In the twenties Eckford became keenly interested in New York Democratic politics.