Maritime History of the Great Lakes

Adz, Caulk, and Rivets: A History of Ship Building along Ohio's Northern Shore, 1963, 2017, p. 65

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would reveal a defect that rendered it worthless. Thus, a gang of men would go through a forest, from morning till night, without accomplishing but little to say the least. And then another item in this mode, was getting the timber into the yard, scattered as it was over hundreds of acres of dense forest. But it was the way vessel frames were gotten out in that age of ship-building. Now (1873), if one desires to build, he goes to the lumber-dealer, and orders the amount he needs, gives the different thicknesses for frames, keels, kelsons, beam, etc., etc. These are all delivered in the ship-yard; moulds are placed on each piece of fletch used for frames, marked with a racing knife, then taken to the turning-out machine, or put on benches to be turned out by whip sawyers; and thus a much better and more durable frame is made than was or could be made from natural crooks, and with less than one-half the expense or waste timber.87 Root built a wide assortment of vessels, from tugs and steam yachts to propellers and schooners. Some of the better-remembered ones are the propellers D. Leuty (1882), W. P. Thew (1884), and Albert Y. Gowan (1888); the schooner R. Bottsford. (1882), and tugs Annie (1889) and Buckeye (1901). Root died at Lorain in 1914, and with his death ended the wooden shipbuilding era at Lorain. The firm of Quelos and Peck must be mentioned as they built three well-remembered vessels in Black River. Quelos was with Ira Lafrinnier at Cleveland in 1871, but in 1872 he associated with Elihu M. Peck, also of Cleveland. They were in business only from 1872 until 1874. It seems that a bumper grain crop in 1872, with prospects of several more, prompted this association. In 1872 they launched the propeller Sarah E. Sheldon, followed in 1873 by the Egyptian, and in 1874 the schooner Sumatra. The latter was launched on May 2, 1874. After this, Quelos went to Detroit and Peck dropped from the shipbuilding scene. So ended the Black River yards. Lorain must be considered second only to Cleveland in importance to Ohio shipbuilding during the era of wooden ships. Perhaps, when one considers the influence of the Jones family, and the great number of ship carpenters who served their apprenticeships under Jones, the Black River yards may even forge ahead of Cleveland. Editor's Notes: In the account of Augustus Jones given here, some of the early Black River history was incorrect. Enoch Murdock was not a shipbuilder and never built a vessel. Augustus never received any land for his loses at Essex. The Jones shipyard was established about 1841 by William Jones. The Jones vessels before 1841 were all probably built on 52

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