Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that answer the question.
Query: When was Jacob Aaron Westervelt born?
Jacob Aaron Westervelt (January 20, 1800– February 21, 1879) was a renowned and prolific shipbuilder who constructed 247 vessels[2] of all descriptions during his career of over 50 years. From 1853 until 1855 he was Mayor of New York City.[4][5]
Some historians[33] take the view that Westervelt built the first true American steamship that crossed the Atlantic to Europe. The Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans from France invented and constructed the first steamboat, the so-called Palmipède, in 1774, and a second one, the steamboat Pyroscaphe, in 1783. Robert Fulton built the first commercially successful steam paddleship in the US, the North River Steamboat (also known as Clermont) in 1807, using a Boulton and Watt engine.[34]
In 1836 Westervelt built at least two ships under his own name, the Baltimore and Mediator, in partnership with the 22-year-old ship chandler Marshall Owen Roberts as Westervelt & Roberts.[13] Soon after Christian Bergh's retirement, Westervelt and Robert Carnley made an extensive tour of Europe, visiting the principal shipbuilding points, where Westervelt gathered information that he subsequently put to good use.[1] Westervelt found an inactive life disagreeable and, after a year of travel, returned to the dry docks in 1838[6] and resumed shipbuilding.
Westervelt was politically an ardent but not very active Democrat. In 1840 he was elected to the Common Council,[6] in which he served for two years as an Alderman from the thirteenth ward.[20] Westervelt stepped back from active political involvement for a couple of years, but remained a shrewd observer of current affairs and recognized nuisances and the needs of the people of "his" town. He witnessed sharply increasing taxes between 1850 and 1852 and the establishment of a reform movement that began to decry excessive government spending. Grand jury revelations of widespread corruption on the common council heightened such concerns. Reformers mobilized and ran the Democratic incumbents out of office, electing in their place a combination of Whigs and reform Democrats committed to "economy" in government.[52] In November 1852 Westervelt was nominated for Mayor of the city by reformist representatives of the Democratic party. The mayoralty election was held at the same time as the presidential election, and the Democrats were successful in both.[1]
It was Mayor Westervelt's stated aim to sort out the bad seed.[57] In 1853 an administrative body was created, called the Board of Police Commissioners, consisting of Mayor Westervelt, the recorder and the city judge. Apart from the fact that the chief of police was selected by the Mayor with the Board's approval, the Board had full powers of appointment and dismissal of all members of the force and was charged with general administrative duties.[59]
Albion, Robert Greenhalgh. (1938, reprint 1965): Square-riggers on schedule, ASIN B0006AO5QE. Clayton, W. Woodford; Nelson, William (1882 - from old catalogue): History of Bergen and Passaic counties, with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, ASIN B0006QCEF2. Dayton, Fred Erving. (1925): Steamboat Days, Frederick A. Stokes, New York, ISBN978-0-356-04765-2 (reprint of 1974) Morrison, John Harrison. (1909): History of New York Ship Yards, ISBN978-1-4181-8738-5. Westervelt, Walter Tallman. (1905): Genealogy of the Westervelt Family, Higginson Genealogical Books (1987), ASIN B00071870S
The most successful year for Westervelts's yard was 1858 when 12 ships were built (aggregating 14,081tons). At the outbreak of the Civil War, Westervelt was one of the richest shipowners in the country. He was a supporter of the Union cause. President Abraham Lincoln esteemed his judgment highly, and entrusted him with the purchase of many of the river craft which were altered to suit the demands of blockading and transport service. Westervelt accepted nothing for such service, but contented himself with the profits accruing from his shipyard. It was during this period that his fortune shrank very much faster than it had been accumulated. Steamer after steamer was wrecked, burned or captured by Confederate cruisers, until at the close of the war he was almost bankrupt. During one year alone his losses from marine casualties amounted to $500,000.[6]
Westervelt married Eliza M. Thompson in New York City on April 25, 1825. They had eight children:[1]
Together with his partners (Westervelt & MacKay and Westervelt & Sons) he designed some of the fastest and most successful sailing packets, clippers and steamships ever built, among these the screw sloop USS<i>Brooklyn and the clipper Sweepstakes, as well as many vessels for foreign governments and Royal Houses. Westervelt was awarded the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the Queen of Spain for the preparation of models and plans for three Spanish frigates.[1][2] For many years he was the President of the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Marine Society, the Port Society and the St. Nicholas Society.[1] He was also President of the Board of Dock Commissioners for several years. After Westervelt's death, the flags at City Hall were lowered to half-mast.[6]
There are differing reports as to the start of this new chapter of Westervelt's life. On one side it is stated that Westervelt bought out his former partners Carnley and the Bergh brothers and took control of the Bergh shipyard,[14] at the foot of Gouverneur Street and extending to Water Street and up to Scammel.[15] Other sources state that Westervelt and William MacKay (not to be confused with Canadian shipbuilder Donald McKay) established one of a few new yards at Corlear's Hook (the block bounded by Third, Goerck and Houston Streets)[9] in 1841 and moved to Lewis and Seventh Street in 1844.[16] Westervelt may also have designed and built ships in connection with Edward Mills.[9] The shipyard Westervelt & MacKay, later Westervelt & Sons (which Westervelt formed with his sons Aaron and Daniel),[17] became prominent and prospered. Together with MacKay and his sons he built 50 steamships, 93 traditional sailing vessels and clippers, 5 barques, 14 schooners, one sloop, two lightships, and 11 pilot boats—a total of 181 vessels of 150,624tons.[9] Westervelt built more vessels of medium tonnage than any builder of his time. Some of his noteworthy sailing packets are:
After the end of the Civil War in 1865, the U.S. government auctioned off the hundreds of ships it had requisitioned during the war at firesale prices, depressing the market and leaving American shipyards with no work. The result was that most American shipyards, along with marine engine specialists, failed. Not only the Westervelt shipyard, but the whole shipbuilding industry in New York was badly affected by the slump, being practically wiped out in the ensuing years. As the demise of shipbuilding after the war afforded him little opportunity to recover from his losses, the firm was dissolved in 1868, with no large surplus of assets. By this time Westervelt had constructed 247 ships with his partners, more than any other American shipbuilder in his day.[6]
Jay Westervelt (Jacob James Westervelt), contemporary 21st century New York biologist/professional snowboarder, is a namesake descendant of Jacob Westervelt.
Besides the Brooklyn, also built at the Westervelt shipyard were the gunboats USS<i>Ottawa, USS<i>Otsego and the revenue cutter USRC<i>Kankakee, all of which performed efficient blockading services during the war. Westervelt also built many vessels for foreign governments, among these the frigate Hope in 1825 for the Greek government, Guadalquiver for Spain, and Eusiyama for Japan. Westervelt was awarded the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the Queen of Spain for the preparation of models and plans for three Spanish frigates.[1][2]
As Dock Commissioner, Westervelt followed in the footsteps of his father by continuing to improve the riverfront.[50][51]
Jacob Westervelt may refer to:
. Retrieved on March 20, 2009. "". The New York Times (February 25, 1879). Retrieved on March 19, 2009.
In the middle of the 17th century a few Westervelts lived in Meppel, situated a few miles from the eastern shore of the Zuiderzee, in the province of Drenthe and three miles east of Zwolle. Amongst them were two brothers, Willem and Lubbert Lubbertsen van Westervelt, both farmers and cattle raisers, who with their wives and children decided to move to the New World.[67] They left Amsterdam on board De Hoop ("Hope") on April 8, 1662. On their arrival on May 24, 1662, New Amsterdam (which later became New York City) was suffering from a prolonged drought as no rain had fallen for eighty consecutive days.[67] Lubbert settled near Hackensack, New Jersey and was one of the promoters of the Dutch Church organized there in 1686. Willem was a member of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in New Amsterdam (1667), whilst his son lived at New Utrecht on Long Island. This son sold his lands in 1706 and is supposed to have moved to New Jersey, where the family has been numerous and prominent for the past 300years.[6] William Lubbertsen van Westervelt with his wife and six children, and Lubbert Lubbertsen van Westervelt, with his wife and four children, became the progenitors of the van Westervelt/Westervelt family in America, and were at one time the second largest family in Bergen County, New Jersey.[67] Jacob Aaron Westervelt was a seventh-generation descendant of Lubbert Lubbertsen van Westervelt.[6]
He was born on July 27, 1794 in Schraalenburgh, New Jersey to William Westervelt.
In 1852, he was nominated by the Whigs as a candidate for mayor of New York City, but lost to Jacob Aaron Westervelt.
Westervelt's term was marked by many reforms of the city's police.[6] One of the most controversial was his attempt to enforce a police uniform.[55]
Jacob Westervelt (1794–1881) is often confused with his brother-in-law John Jacob V.B. Westervelt (1805–1866), who was a Deputy Sheriff under him, and subsequently High Sheriff of New York City himself too (1846–1849), as well as Assistant Alderman from the 16th Ward (1844–1846). Another namesake is Jacob Aaron Westervelt (1800–1879), the shipbuilder, Alderman from the 13th Ward and later Mayor of New York City (1853–1855).
By 1855, the gold rush was over and Westervelt, like other shipbuilders, began looking for new markets to keep his yard busy, as the shipping lines that had carried almost 2.7million emigrants across the Atlantic by sailing vessels between 1846–1855,were ordering fewer ships than before. The declining trend continued because of the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861. Between 1855 and the end of the war in 1865, only 1.4million emigrants were conveyed from Europe to the United States.[43]
Westervelt was the eldest son of Ari and Vrowti Westervelt. Ari Westervelt was a builder by occupation. He built several houses in Franklin Street, New York, and constructed the South Church in Schraalenburgh in today's Bergenfield borough.[1][7] Westervelt was born in Tenafly, New Jersey, on January 20, 1800 and was baptized at Schraalenburgh on February 16, being the first child to receive that sacrament after the completion of the new church. The Westervelts then resided at the old family homestead on Tenafly Road midway between Englewood and Tenafly. When Ari Westervelt was working on improving the riverfront, he moved, together with his infant son, to New York in 1804, to be nearer his work.[8] It was to his father that Jacob Aaron owed his good education. His father died when Westervelt was only 14.[6]
The feelings of the members of this movement against the participation of foreign-born citizens in municipal affairs had grown very bitter,[63] and Westervelt set himself so sternly against them that his house was mobbed again.[6] Probably due to the paucity of support for his reformist efforts during his term, but also because he applied himself more and more to the business of shipbuilding again, Westervelt declined a renomination, which for him was equivalent to an election, and was succeeded as Mayor by Fernando Wood.[1] In 1857 Westervelt became a member of the New York State Assembly for Rockland County.[66]
Westervelt's position was clear: that a uniform incites a high degree a chivalrous sentiment; that it involves a "pride of cloth" and that the wearer knows that if he disgraces it he disgraces himself and the profession in which he serves.[55] Westervelt earned many party enemies by his determined policy to keep appointments to the police force, which were then a large part of the patronage appertaining to the mayoralty, free from political influence.[6]