In 1647 a group of local merchants built a ship of about 100 tons and filled it with a cargo of hides, skins and grain. It represented New Haven’s first attempt at establishing direct trade with England. The “Great Shippe” was probably poorly constructed and was lost at sea with much of the colony’s wealth and seventy of its citizens. This marked the end of our direct trade with Europe, with the exception of a brief period between 1790-1812. While the glamour trades of the world were not to be important to New Haven, the coastal and West Indies trade were to be a steady source of income.
Small sloops were generally used in the coastal trade and, at times, more than 100 sailed out of New Haven. These vessels generally had crews of two or three local men and traveled along Long Island as far as New York or Boston. Leaving New Haven carrying agricultural produce, livestock and lumber, they would travel to, for example, Boston. Here the captain would sell his cargo of consigned goods and then purchase a return cargo of goods imported from Europe. Goods not produced in New Haven such as pewter, wheat flour, some candles, nails and other ironware, fine furniture, pepper and other spices, were in demand at home. After the Revolution when all coastal cargo had to, according to maritime law be carried in U.S. ships, some New Haven vessels pushed out and became coasters. These ships worked the entire coast from the Gulf of Mexico to Calais, Maine, seeking out cargo going from one U.S. port to another. Coasters gradually increased in size during the 19th century, evolving from two to as many as seven masted schooners. In 1880 dozens of three and four masted schooners made regular trips from the coal docks of Newport News, Virginia or the forests of North Carolina and Georgia to New Haven. A young New Havener could start at the age of 11 or 12 working on a coastal sloop as a ship’s boy and within a few years become a seaman of considerable skill. By his 20th birthday he might be able to purchase shares in a local sloop and in that way become her captain. Working as a coastal captain out of New Haven would provide a comfortable income with which to support a home and family. Large investors such as the Townsends, Atwaters and Trowbridges, who owned shares in many vessels, became wealthy. Large coastal schooners were still apparent in New Haven harbor through World War I but few were locally owned and none had local crews. Today, while most of Connecticut’s oil comes from ships that enter New Haven’s harbor (some U.S. flag vessels), none are even remotely owned by local investors.
Trade with the West Indies was, for nearly 250 years, New Haven’s major foreign commerce. In what was an extension of the coastal trade New Haven shipped food, livestock and timber to the Caribbean Islands from the 1640s to the 1890s. For more than half of the 250 years, the existence of slavery in the sugar fields of the Caribbean and the need to feed the slaves provided a certain market for New Haven’s agricultural produce. Small sloops and some two masted schooners carried livestock on the deck and flour and vegetables in the hole. As profit margins decreased with competition these small vessels were frequently overloaded and dangerous. Deck cargoes of horses and cattle would be jettisoned during storms, rather than have top heavy vessels roll over and sink. As to the quality of the produce sent to places such as Barbados and Antigua from New Haven, one can only guess based on the general practices in New England. For example, it was the tradition among New England fishermen to send the best of their catch of cod to the Catholic countries of Europe, the second grade was sold in Boston for home consumption, and the poorest sent to the Caribbean to feed slaves. There isn’t any reason to believe that New Haven farmers didn’t follow the example set by the men of the fishing fleets.
The most important family associated with the West Indies trade was Trowbridge. During the 18th and 19th century the Trowbridge family owned and commanded sloops, schooners, and the large bark “Trinidad”, all employed in the West Indies trade. It is claimed that they were the largest West Indies trading concern in the United States. This firm continued to do business until 1887 from their offices on Long Wharf and were dissolved in 1891.