Port of Portsmouth Ships and the Cotton Trade 1783 - 1829

With the conclusion of the Revolutionary War, Port of Portsmouth towns developed a lively shipbuilding business. Timber was in good supply around the shores and tributaries of Great Bay and master builders turned out scores of three-masted ships. Berwick, Dover, Durham, Exeter, Kittery and Newmarket all had thriving shipyards during these years. Some ships were also constructed in Portsmouth and a few in Stratham, the Hamptons and Somersworth.

            During these years Portsmouth carries on a lively two-way trade exporting timber and other raw materials and importing salt for fish preservation and finished goods. Many of these Portsmouth built ships with their local captains and crews participated in a triangle trade linking seaports in the Northeast with the cotton ports of the South and ports in Europe.

            The largest portion of the book is composed of biographies of the 203 three-masted ships built in the Port between 1783 and 1829. Using Portsmouth Customs District records and local newspapers, Brighton follows ships from the ways to ports round the world. The story reveals how independent captains sailed their ships transporting raw materials and then finished goods around the globe from ports in North America, South America and the Pacific to Europe and back across the Atlantic. Here too, for adventure lovers are stories of shipwrecks and rescues, attacks by privateers and South Seas islanders and tales of men lost at sea and ships that never returned.