Date of Award

Summer 1990

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

History

Committee Director

Peter C. Stewart

Committee Member

Harold Wilson

Committee Member

Thomas W. Burkman

Call Number for Print

Special Collections LD4331.H47W75

Abstract

This thesis examines the volume and characteristics of a Chesapeake Bay county's shipbuilding activity to assess its impact on American waterborne commerce. The thesis proposes that this county built a significant number of fast sailing vessels in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Previous works on American shipbuilding as well as regional histories have overlooked this county and concentrated on nearby large ports such as Norfolk and Baltimore. This thesis suggests these ports acted more as vessel brokers to the maritime industry than manufacturers and that this county was, among other small bay counties, a major contributor to that marketplace.

The sources depend heavily on federal records of vessel registration as well as some fragmentary state and colonial records of marine documentation. Private papers of merchants in the county and Baltimore also are used to supplement the official sources.

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DOI

10.25777/c6y2-4683

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