New Haven—Maritime History and Arts
George Foote and Richard Silocka
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Give FeedbackNew York, Boston. and New Haven?
The history of New Haven’s harbor has been a great disappointment to some who had visions of a great port of the magnitude of New York or Boston. Captain Charles Townshend, whose magnificent home sits on 50 acres overlooking the harbor and who was responsible for the breakwaters at the mouth of the harbor, was one of the most disappointed. But to the objective observer the limited promise of the harbor would have been clear. Being tucked behind Long Island took New Haven out of the main channels of commerce. Ships in the coastal trade wouldn’t naturally sail by New Haven when heading either north or south. The harbor, while it appears to be broad and deep, is very shallow. With dredging the channel was still narrow and even the completion of Long Wharf only briefly solved the deep water anchorage problem. Both New York and Boston have deep stone-lined harbors where large ships dock practically in the center of the city.
In addition to the limitations of the harbor, New Haven had other problems. The farms of Connecticut never produced a large enough surplus to support direct trade with Europe. Even with the Farmington Canal, New Haven couldn’t begin to compete with New York, whose Erie Canal had opened the entire mid-west to that port. When New Haven’s industry did reach a point in the 19th century where products such as guns and carriages might have been a marine export, the carriers of the day, large coastal schooners, only carried bulk cargoes such as coal and lumber, leaving the rest of the freight to the more expensive but reliable railroads. New Haven’s harbor has always been busy, but has only brought modest incomes to most who have worked it.