Black Ball Line (trans-Atlantic packet)

The Black Ball Line (originally known as the Wright, Thompson, Marshall, & Thompson Line, then as the Old Line) was a passenger line founded by a group of New York Quaker merchants headed by Jeremiah Thompson, and included Isaac Wright & Son (William), Francis Thompson and Benjamin Marshall. All were Quakers except Marshall.[1]

Black Ball Line
TypePartnership
IndustryShipping, transportation
FateBankruptcy
Founded1817 (1817)[1][note 1] in New York, United States
Defunct1878
Area served
Transatlantic
Map of the Port of New York on the south tip of Manhattan Island in 1851. Heavy broken line marks the waterfront below City Hall park in 1784. Area filled in prior to 1820. The docks of the Black Ball Line are in the upper part of the figure.

The line initially consisted of four packet ships, the Amity, Courier, Pacific and the James Monroe. All of these were running between Liverpool, England and New York City. This first scheduled trans-Atlantic service was founded in 1817. In operation for some 60 years, it took its name from its flag, a black ball on a red background.[2]

History

England, a packet ship of the Black Ball Line

The Wright, Thompson, Marshall, & Thompson Line was founded in 1817 and began shipping operations in 1818. At some point in the line's history it became known as the Old Line and eventually became known as the Black Ball Line after the 1840s.[1] The Black Ball Line established the modern era of liners. The packet ships were contracted by governments to carry mail and also carried passengers and timely items such as newspapers. Up to this point there were no regular passages advertised by sailing ships. They arrived at port when they could, dependent on the wind, and left when they were loaded, frequently visiting other ports to complete their cargo. The Black Ball Line undertook to leave New York on a fixed day of the month irrespective of cargo or passengers. The service took several years to establish itself and it was not until 1822 that the line increased sailings to two per month; it also reduced the cost of passage to 35 guineas.

The sensation this created brought in competitors such as the Red Star Line, which also adopted fixed dates. The average passage of packets from New York to Liverpool was 23 days eastward and 40 days westward. But this was at a period where usual reported passages were 30 and 45 days respectively, while westward passages of 65 to 90 days excited no attention. The best passage from New York to Liverpool in those days was the 15 days 16 hours achieved at the end of 1823 by the ship New York (though often incorrectly reported as Canada).[3] The westward crossing had a remarkable record of 15 days 23 hours set by the Black Ball's Columbia in 1830,[4] during an unusually prolonged spell of easterly weather which saw several other packet ships making the journey in 16 to 17 days. Captain Joseph Delano was reported to be "up with the Banks of Newfoundland in ten days".[5][6]

Captain Charles H. Marshall

In 1836 the Line passed into the hands of Captain Charles H. Marshall, he gradually added the Columbus, Oxford. Cambridge, New York, England, Yorkshire, Fidelia, Isaac Wright, Isaac Webb, the third Manhattan, Montezuma, Alexander Marshall, Great Western, and Harvest Queen to the fleet.[7]

The Black Ball Line is mentioned in several sea shanties, such as "Blow the Man Down," "Homeward Bound", "Bullgine Run", "New York Girls", and "Hurrah for the Black Ball Line."

List of Black Ball Line (USA) ships

Year builtNameTonnage Length BeamShipyardRemarks
1807 Pacific A. & N. Brown, New York Sold in 1819 and became a whaler[8]
1816Amity382 (bm) New Yorkstranded on 24 April 1824 in Manasquan
1817 Courier381 tons 103'6'' 29'S. Wright, New York Was a whaler from 1826 to 1861 and a part of the Great Stone Fleet during the Civil War[8]
1817James Monroe424 tons 118 ft 28'3''A. Brown, New York The first packet of the Black Ball liner to depart on time, 5 January 1818;[8] left the packet service in 1823 to the Cuban trade; ran aground in 1850 off the Tasmanian coast
1819Albion New Yorkwrecked off the coast of Ireland, near Kinsale, April 25, 1822, with a loss of forty-six lives
Liverpool wrecked on her maiden voyage[8]
1822James Cropper
1832South America[8]
1843
Montezuma
924 (bm) William H. Webb, New Yorkwrecked on Jones Beach, Long Island, 18 May 1854.[9]
1843
Yorkshire
996 (bm) William H. Webb, New Yorkin February 1862 lost on the trip from New York
1845
Fidelia
895 (bm) William H. Webb, New York
18451683 (bm) William H. Webb, New YorkIn 1887 sold to Norway as Sovereign; burned while loading coal 20 March 1891
1846Columbia1050 (bm) William H. Webb, New York
1847Isaac Wright1129 (bm) William H. Webb, New Yorkcaught fire on 23 December 1858 on the Mersey and sank
Orpheus
New York
1850Manhattan1299 BRT William H. Webb, New Yorkbroke out on 14 March 1863 Liverpool en route to New York; disappeared
1851Isaac Webb1359/1497 BRT William H. Webb, New Yorkwent to the dissolution of the Black Ball Line for Charles H. Marshall & Co. and sank on 25 October 1880
1851Great Western1443 BRT William H. Webb, New York
Eagle
Orbit
Nestor
William Thompson
Albion
Canada
Britannia
18541383 BRT sank 31 December 1875 after a collision, in the Irish Channel
1855James Foster, Jr.1410 BRT William H. Webb, New Yorkwas in 1881 as a Hudson sold to German owners
1855Neptune1406 BRT William H. Webb, New Yorkran in April 1876 to the Nova Scotia coast and broken
1860Alexander Marshall1177 BRT William H. Webb, New Yorksank 1869 in the North Atlantic

Similar shipping lines

  • The Saint John-Liverpool Packet Line which existed for a couple of years in the 1850s was also known as the Black Ball Line. It was managed by Richard Wright, St. John, and William and James Fernie, in Liverpool.[1]

Notes

  1. The company was founded in 1817. It wasn't until 1818 that it began shipping operations.

References

  1. http://www.bruzelius.info/Nautica/Ships/Owners/Old_Line.html
  2. Stephen Fox, Transatlantic: Samuel Cunard, Isambard Brunel, and the Great Atlantic Steamships, Harper Collins (2003) ISBN 0-06-019595-9, pp. 3–16 (introductory chapter on sailing packets)
  3. Cutler, Carl C. (1984). Greyhounds of the Sea (3rd ed.). United States Naval Institute/Patrick Stephens, Northants. p. 66.
  4. Cutler 1984, pp. 410
  5. Gibbs, Charles Robert Vernon (1957). Passenger Liners of the Western Ocean: A Record of Atlantic Steam and Motor Passenger Vessels from 1838 to the Present Day. London: Staples Press. OCLC 225962096.
  6. Cutler 1984, pp. 65–68
  7. Clark, Arthur H. (1911). textsThe clipper ship era; an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews, 1843-1869. G. P. Putnam's Sons. p. 41. Retrieved 1 April 2020.
  8. Strong, Charles (1957). The story of American sailing ships. New York, Grosset and Dunlap.
  9. https://wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?152045
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