THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 23, 1994 TAG: 9410210293
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Alan Flanders
LENGTH: Medium: 84 lines
Charles Steuart had, much to his partner's dismay, become preoccupied with looking across the Elizabeth River.
Although he and his business partner Alexander MacKenzie were recognized throughout Norfolk Borough as leaders among the area's ``Scottish Merchants,'' Steuart was continually looking for even more fertile markets.
In May, 1754 he found one right under his nose.
After breaking up with MacKenzie, he wrote to one of his supporters, ``I intend to remove to Portsmouth, a new town on the side of the river about half a mile from here, which is more convenient for navigation and equally convenient for any other business.''
This was music to the ears of colonial militiaman William Crawford who was busy dividing up what had been an earlier grant of 1,129 acres into square parcels measuring 226 feet by 360 feet. Each square was further separated into 4 lots measuring 113 feet by 180 feet. Priced to sell at 30 pounds ``current money of Virginia,'' Crawford had succeeded in turning Portsmouth into one of Hampton Roads' earliest real estate developments.
According to Portsmouth historian Marshall Butt, ``three-fourths of Portsmouth's first lot owners were engaged in or connected with the maritime trade either as merchants or craftsmen.''
In his book, Portsmouth Under Four Flags, Butt wrote, ``These important men were generally shipowners or factors who built wharves and warehouses and traded by sea beyond the local level and whose business gave employment to others associated with ships and shipping.''
Among Charles Steuart's neighbors was Andrew Sprowle, another Norfolk Borough ``Scottish Merchant.'' Like Steuart, he knew a good thing when he saw it.
In 1752, Sprowle became one of Crawford's first customers as he bought lots 11 and 12 along the waterfront and 24 at what is now the intersection of Crawford and King streets.
(Fortunately for those trying to get a more accurate look at Portsmouth before the Revolution, the 1851-Rolin and Keily survey map still carried the original names of the original Colonial lot owners. Thus the approximate location of Colonial maritime artisans can be found.)
Over the coming years Sprowle purchased large tracts along the waterfronts of Crab Creek and Gosport. After building a handsome three-story stone house, he developed Gosport shipyard in 1767 into one that could rival anything in North America as British admirals openly admitted that Sprowle's yard was best equipped in the colonies, which as Crawford had wanted, put Portsmouth on the map.
But the real attraction for Steuart and Sprowle were the craftsmen who called themselves shipwrights, ship carpenters, boatwrights and joiners as they would provide the economic backbone for Gosport shipyard and the city merchants.
As adjacent lots along the waterfront were snapped up, small repair yards and building ways began to crop up all along Portsmouth's side of the Elizabeth. Directly supporting these enterprises were blacksmiths; coppersmiths who supplied cooper sheathing for the bottom of ship hulls; apothecaries who mixed ship paint; navigation instrument shops that offered compasses, octants and charts for mariners and ropewalks for ships rigging.
As tobacco convoys grew and word spread around the Chesapeake that Portsmouth had not only a deep natural harbor, but a network of maritime trades, English merchantmen began regular calls along its wharves.
Coopers like John Conner made a good living supplying British ships with everything from water barrels and rum kegs to hogsheads for tobacco. Angus McCoy was busy enough as the ports senior pilot to hire several apprentices. Henry Wells, whose skilled art work was known from Boston through the Carolinas, operated his wood carving shop in the 1760s on lot number 4 at the corner of Crawford and Glasgow streets and turned out some of the most beautiful figureheads, stern carvings and billet heads ever made.
With the addition of several larger pit saws, the town must have been a busy and noisy place with the cadence of malls, hammers, saws, adzes and axes going at it during most of the daylight hours. But that noise was music to the ears of men such as Steuart and Sprowle who made their fortunes from the ship repair trade as did Crawford and his heirs.
Real estate quickly became a premium as the remainder of Crawford's original tract was snapped up in one of Hampton Roads' first and most successful real estate developments.
For that nothing much has changed in more than two centuries as Portsmouth's future fortunes depend heavily on the ebb and flow of ship repairs from the sea. by CNB