Norwich bulletin., 1909-07-03
HISTORY OF TRANSPORTATION
 BY WATER.

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 We have traced the history of trans portation as affecting the history of | Norwich from the earliest conditions as they existed. when the Indians were the ruling people, through the colonial. | revolutionary and recent times. as re- gards land transportation. We will ] now briefly sketch the changes which have taken place in water trans pOrtation. Before the coming of the 1 the highest method of transportation used by the Indians. The early. settlers | of Norwich, according to old accounts, used "pinks and snows," and then sloops and brigs.
 | It is probable that the persons and ' goods of the proprietors were brought l from Saybrook by water. It is also | probable that for many years most of | the supplies, all the mail which was tion and manufactured articles from Europe came up the Thames river by boats. Norwich was undoubtedly To- cated where it is on account of this easy water transportation to the land ing at the Falls. The shallow water at the cove had sufficient depth for the small boats used for the first sixty years after the settlement of Norwich.
 It is difficult for the present genera ton to form a conception of the amount of traffic which passed up and down the Thames river in the days before the coming of the railroad. Overland transportation was by means of the cumbrous stage coach. and the carrying of goods for any treat dis tance must have been both slow and costly. But the river opened a path way for commerce leading to distant ports and foreign lands.
 The first masters of vessels of whom we know were Captain Kelley and Cap tain Norman. who were engaged in the Barbadoes trade as early as 1T15. Cap tain Kelley was soon granted by the town free liberty to build vessels on the Point the town to have the use of his wharf" In TIT Caleb Bush nell applied for a grant by the water side convenient for building vessels. and the following vote was passed:
 "The town grants to Caleb Bushnell 20 feet square upon ye water upon the west side of the rookie Point at ye Landing place."
 About the year 1730 the sIoo- Mar tha, the Elizabeth and the Success, each of 40 tons displacement the Olive Branch of 25 tons. and the Mary of 20, were engaged in the trade with the West Indies. Soon afterward sloop and a schooner were sent to Ireland. 
 The "New London Summary" the first newspaper published in eastern Connecticut, contained frequent adver- tisements of Norwich vessels, as Tn August, 1760:
 For Menis or Chignector. the sloop Defiance, Obadiah Aver. master" and The sloop Ann. Stephen Calkns, mas ter lyinA at Norwich Landing, is ready for freight and DdSSenCers ''
 All through the years of the Revo- lution, in spite of grave danger of loss and capture, the West India trade was brisk, owners, captains and crews not hestating at the risks since large re- turns were promised in case of sue cess.
 With the close of the war the com merce of Norwich increased rapidly. Horses, cattle sheep. swine, lumber and produce were carried to the West Indies where they were exchanged for molasses, sugar, rum, pimento, lines, tamarinds pepper, coffee, salt, cot ton. tobacco, etc. Most of the vessels in which these voyages were made were sloops. schooners and brigs of from 35 to 70 tons burden. The sea- going shipping belonging in Norwich at this time comprised twenty sloops nve schooners, five brigs and one ship.
 Among the regular packets runnina from Norwich to New York may be mentioned the Juno. Robert Niles; the Venus, Christopher Vail; and the Le Washington, the constant packet" Stephen Culver. The Lady Washing ton is reported in the marine news as having lately made a trip from New London to New York, and from thence back. in sixty-one hours!!"
 Other coasting sloops. running to Newport. Boston and other nearby ports, were the Norwich Packet, Ben jamin Culver; the Swallow, Zephaniah Jennings; the Lark, Jonathan Roath, and the Royal Oak, Timothy Parker. 
 1t was not unusual for from sixty to eighty American vessels to be reported in one West Indian port at the same time. This trade and that with the northern coast of South America was very lucrative. A memorandum of the lading of the Josephus. Elisha Hunt ington. for Demarara. will give an idea of the cargoes which these ships car ried. Miss Caulkins says: Her live stock consisted of 62 horses and mules. a few cows. a yoke of oxen and dog en sheep and swine. Of provisions she carried 4.500 punches of onions, IS hhds. of potatoes, S6 boxes of cheese. 10 III hliio Ol Uutlti. HtdiiN NV ilHQS- bI beef and pork, 30 kegs of crackers 34 bbls. of bread and 30 bbls. of flour. She had a large amount of brick and lum- Der, blanks, clapboards, slaves, joints, and spars; 115 water hogsheads: a lot of parlor furniture. such as mahogany tables. green chairs and sofas, and few saddles and bridles."
 The ship masters generally owned part of the cargo and it was no uncom- mon thing for merchant to alternate between trading at home and trading at sea.
 Serious Instructions to this com merce came with the war between England and France in the last years of the eighteenth century and the first years of the nineteenth. American yes sels were seized by ships of both par ties. carried into port, libelled and con- demned, the spells being shared by the government and the captors The brig Minerva, eighty miles from Block Isl- and, fell in with a French privateer. was robbed to the amount of $400 and dismissed.
 The new armed ship Pacific, Captain Solomon lneraham,- went down the river in May. 179S bound for caicut- ta, the first expedition of the kind ever fitted from Connecticut. She arrived at Calcutta in safety after a voyage of two hundred days, but on her return