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[[Category:1742 establishments]]
[[Category:1742 establishments]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Boston, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Organizations based in Boston, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Maritime museums and museum ships in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Maritime museums in Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Charities based in the United States]]
[[Category:Charities based in the United States]]

Revision as of 20:30, 5 December 2009

Boston Harbor, 19th c.

The Boston Marine Society (est. 1742) is a charitable organization in Boston, Massachusetts, formed "to 'make navigation more safe' and to relieve members and their families in poverty or other 'adverse accidents in life.'"[1] Membership generally consists of current and former ship captains. The society provides financial support to members and their families in times of need; and also actively advises on maritime navigational safety such as the placement of lighthouses and buoys, and selection of Boston Harbor pilots.

Brief history

The society first formed as a fellowship in 1742, and officially incorporated in 1754. Founders included William Starkey, Edward Cahill, Isaac Freeman, Richard Humphreys, Edward Freyer, Moses Bennet, Jonathan Clarke, John Cullum, Joseph Prince, and Abraham Remmick.[2]

In the first century of the society's history the group met at various venues in town, such as the Concert Hall, Bunch-of-Grapes tavern, and the Sun Tavern. In 1851 the society conducted its business from quarters on Commercial Street;[3] and later from rooms in the Merchants Exchange. Since the 1980s the society has operated from offices in the Boston Navy Yard.

According to maritime historian Samuel Eliot Morison, the society's meetings "were common ground where all Bostonians interested in seaborne commerce met. The secretary describes it in 1811 as 'composed of upwards of 100 former shipmasters who have retired from sea with adequate fortunes, many of whom are largely interested in the insurance offices and as underwriters, and about 50 of the most respectable merchants and shipowners and gentlemen of the highest stations in the commonwealth. The rest of the Society is composed of the more active and younger mariners who still follow the seas as a professional business.' These last were the men who made the name of Boston famous from Archangel to Smyrna, and east by west to the River Plate and Calcutta."[4]

Navigation safety

Nixes Mate
Boston Harbor, ca.1906

The society has borne responsibility for safe pilotage in the Boston Harbor since the 18th century. "Beginning in 1791 and continuing through the present, the society through its trustees is vested with the authority to appoint Pilot Commissioners, who in turn appoint Boston Harbor pilots."[5] It has also published guides such as the 1832 Rules and regulations for the pilotage of the harbor of Boston.[6]

Along with others, the society caused the creation of the Cape Cod Highland Light in 1797.[7] In 1805, the society built the current granite base of the beacon on Nixes Mate in Boston Harbor.[8] The society also conducted numerous studies, including one that led to the building of Long Island Head Light in 1819.[9]

Among the society's many accomplishments in the area of navigation safety are the publication in 1768 of Directions for sailing in and out of Plymouth Harbour;[10] which was produced in connection with the building of Plymouth Light in that year; the production in 1790 of charts of the coast of America from Cape Breton to the entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, in collaboration with Osgood Carleton;[11] and the 1797 publication of Directions for sailing by Cape-Cod light-house.[12]

Other activities

In addition to safety, the society has devoted itself to collection and distribution of funds to aid members and their families in times of financial need.

USS Enterprise

The society has also hosted a number of lectures. In the 19th century, speakers included John Pickering on "telegraphic language" (1833);[13] and Robert Bennet Forbes (1854).[14]

In 1893 the society began supervising "the operation of school ships "Enterprise" (1892-1909) and her successor "Nantucket" (1909-1917, 1921-1940)," affiliated with the Massachusetts Nautical Training School.[15]

As a focal point for seafaring in general, numerous members have donated various items to the society -- model ships; navigation instruments such as telescopes; paintings; scrimshaw; travel souvenirs; and so on. Visitors to the society's present-day quarters in Charlestown may view some of these objects on display.

Members and officers

Members in the 18th century included William Furness; Daniel Malcom;[16]and John Foster Williams[17] Some 18th-century presidents were Thomas Dennie; and Mungo Mackay.

Among the many members in the 19th century: J.D. Farrell;[18] F.W. Macondray;[19] and Daniel McLaughlin.[20] In the heyday of the clipper ship, "many were captained or owned by such society members as Bacon, Eldridge, Emmons, Forbes, Glidden, Howes, Lodge, Ropes, Upton, Wales, Watkins and Weld."[21] Some of the 19th-century presidents were Jonathan Chapman; Eben Davis;[22] Charles Emery;[23] Luther Fisk; Robert Bennett Forbes;[24][25] William Humphrey;[26] James P. Martin;[27] William F. Sturgis; and Israel Whitney.

Members and officers in recent years include William A. Baker; Barry Clifford; William M. Fowler, Jr.; and Soren Willensen.[28]

References

  1. ^ 1754 charter, quoted in: http://www.bostonmarinesociety.org/index2.html
  2. ^ Nathaniel Spooner. Gleanings from the records of the Boston Marine Society: through its first century, 1742 to 1842. The Society, 1879; p.4.
  3. ^ Dearborn's reminiscences of Boston.
  4. ^ Samuel Eliot Morison. The maritime history of Massachusetts, 1783-1860. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922; p.132.
  5. ^ Boston Marine Society brochure. 1982.
  6. ^ Additional rules and regulations for the pilotage of the harbor of Boston. Approved by the governor, with advice of Council, July 5, 1832. Boston: Dutton and Wentworth, state printers, nos. 1 and 4 Exchange Street, 1832. Approving rules and regulations adopted by the trustees of the Boston Marine Society at their meeting on March 12, 1832.
  7. ^ Morison. Maritime history of Massachusetts; p.162.
  8. ^ King's handbook of Boston Harbor. M. King, 1882.
  9. ^ http://www.uscg.mil/history/weblighthouses/LHMa.asp
  10. ^ Directions for sailing in and out of Plymouth Harbour; taken by Moses Bennet, William Rhodes, Thomas Allen, and Nathaniel Green, being a committee of the Marine Society of Boston, appointed for this survey, by the desire of a committee of the General Court of the Massachusetts-Bay, appointed to build a light-house on the Gurnet, near Plymouth-Harbour, in said province, in July 1768. Boston: 1768.
  11. ^ [Charts of the coast of America from Cape Breton to the entrance of the gulf of Mexico]. Boston : Published & sold by Matthew Clark, 1790. Each chart certified and signed in manuscript by Osgood Carleton on behalf of the Boston Marine Society.
  12. ^ Directions for sailing by Cape-Cod light-house. Boston : Published by the Boston Marine Society, for the benefit of their sea-faring brethren, 1797.
  13. ^ John Pickering. A lecture on telegraphic language, delivered before the Boston Marine Society, 5 February, 1833. Hilliard, Gray, and Co., 1833.
  14. ^ R B Forbe. An appeal to merchants and ship owners on the subject of seamen. A lecture delivered at the request of the Boston marine society, March 7, 1854. Boston, Sleeper & Rogers, 1854.
  15. ^ Boston Marine Society brochure. 1982.
  16. ^ Benjamin L. Carp. Rebels rising: cities and the American Revolution. Oxford University Press US, 2007.
  17. ^ Boston Marine Society brochure. 1982.
  18. ^ Boston Marine Society brochure. 1982.
  19. ^ Boston Marine Society brochure. 1982.
  20. ^ http://www.maritimeheritage.org/captains/mclaughlinDaniel.html
  21. ^ Boston Marine Society brochure. 1982.
  22. ^ Boston Marine Society. Boston Daily Globe, Nov 7, 1874. p.8.
  23. ^ Boston Marine Society meet; Many Commanders of the "Noble East-Indiamen." Dine at the Quincy. Boston Daily Globe, Nov 10, 1887. p.3.
  24. ^ http://www.bostonmarinesociety.org/about/index.html
  25. ^ Honors to Captain Forbes; His Sixtieth Anniversary of Membership in the Boston Marine Society. Boston Daily Globe, Dec 6, 1887. p.4.
  26. ^ Opposed to a bridge; Boston Marine Society in Annual Meeting Appoints a Committee to Say so --New Officers. Boston Daily Globe, Nov 11, 1891. p.5.
  27. ^ Boston Marine Society meet; Many Commanders of the "Noble East-Indiamen." Dine at the Quincy. Boston Daily Globe, Nov 10, 1887. p.3.
  28. ^ Boston Marine Society Names New President. New York Times, Nov 23, 1958. p.S14.

Further reading

  • Nathaniel Spooner. Gleanings from the records of the Boston Marine Society: through its first century, 1742 to 1842. The Society, 1879.
  • Pleasant little breeze; Annual Meeting and Election of Officers of the Boston Marine Society Held Yesterday. Boston Daily Globe, Nov 15, 1893. p.8.
  • Manual of the constitution and by-laws of the Boston Marine Society, began June 1, 1742, incorporated February 2, 1754: Together with a brief history of the society ... its condition April 1, 1896, lists of members and other statistical information. Rockwell and Churchill, 1896.
  • William A. Baker. A History of the Boston Marine Society, 1742-1967. Boston, 1968.

External links

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