Frank Phelps, Shipbuilder at Chaumont, New York

Syracuse Post-Standard

November 28, 1920

Frank Phelps' Shipyard at Chaumont

____

Of the Many That Once Nourished Along the Lake Shore It Alone Remains.

____

Of all the ship building plants that once flourished along the Jefferson county shore bf Lake Ontario, a single yard, that of Frank Phelps, at Chaumont, now remains. Few new crafts have been laid down there of late years, but repairs are still carried on, and the lone ship builder exhibits all the resource which characterized the pioneer yards in the days before steam power was known upon these inland waters, and when a 300 ton schooner was considered a craft of remarkable dimensions.

In the earlier days the lakes and the St. Lawrence river afforded the means of transportation and communication for this region. Bay and streams, now blocked by shoals and closed to the modern mariner, were open to the navigator of those days, and the demand for ships from the smaller ports was brisk where to-day it has disappeared.

Lumber Plentiful.

Forests dotted with clumps of virgin pine, needing only the removal of bark and branches to form masts and spars, and an abundance of oak for the staunchest hulls, invited the sailor to build boats. With so long a lake shore, lengthened by the excellent harborage of Henderson, Sackets Harbor and Chaumont, it was natural that Jefferson county would be well represented, in inland maritime trade. With all these advantages of harbors and timber it was to be expected that ship, building would follow. Add to the lake the long shore line of the St. Lawrence river and the water facilities of the county become doubly important.

It was natural that the environs of Chaumont bay should become a flourishing shipping center. The double havens of Chaumont in the mouth of Chaumont creek on one side and Saw Mill bay on the other, gave it an advantage, but in the early days Three Mile Bay vied with it as a shipbuilding site, while several crafts were laid down on Point Peninsula, five miles across Chaumont bay from the village.

Construction on a large scale seems to have begun in 1835. At that time the lock capacity of the Welland canal limited the size of the vessels to 400 tons.

Establishes First Yard.

Asa Wilcox established the first yard at Three Mile Bay and launched a great many boats from 1835 to 1853. They were mostly schooners, ranging from 112 to 395 tons, and including one three master, the Hungarian, launched in 1856. Ontario, Hampton, Iroquois and Ocean, dating from 1843 to 1848, and one steam propeller, the Clifton, which took the water in 1846. Schuyler & Powers did some boat building at Three Mile Bay beginning in 1843, and E. Cline and Peter Estes each launched one craft, but none of these boats reached 100 tons.

In 1832 William Clark began building ships at Chaumont with the launching of the Stephen Girard of 60 tons. Three years later Robert Masters turned out the Alleghan of 100 tons. From then until the Civil War crafts were launched from time to time ranging from 75 tons to the 244-ton Oxford of 1848. In all upwards, of 3,000 tons of shipping was turned out from the Chaumont yards by various builders, from small sail barges to steam freighters. The, majority of these were launched in the west bay, where Chaumont creek empties, and near the site of the present ship yard. Some activities followed the Civil war, but about 1890 interest in ship building waned.

Phelps Now Owns Yard.

For the last several years the Chaumont ship yard has been conducted by Frank Phelps. It is located upon the west bay a few rods from the historic mansion erected by James Le Ray de Chaumont, from whom the village took its name. Across a little cove is the pavilion arid boat livery of Schimerhorn's park; one of the favorite local watering resorts.

The yard is devoted mainly to repairing. Possessing no dry dock, Mr.Phelps utilize winches in hauling craft out of the water. They are dragged out on a skidway and made high and dry for purposes of repairing the bottoms. A couple of shops and equipment of boilers, engines and machinery complete the yard.

Despite the limited conveniences, Mr. Phelps accomplishes extensive repairs and citizens of Chaumont Bay high tribute to his resource and mechanical ingenuity which permits him to overhaul any part of a craft from its rigging to a defective boiler.

Denver Now in Yard.

At present the sail barge Denver is hauled up in the yard for repairs and Captain Phelps expects to have the craft ready for lake trade by opening bf navigation in the spring. The Denver is a two-masted barge and has been engaged extensively in the bay transport. A small tug and launch or two are also in the Phelps yard for overhauling.

The steam barge M. C. Phelps, of Chaumont, one of the best known ships at this end of the lake, is the largest propeller launched at the yard. The Phelps is a vessel of about 340 tons, it makes Chaumont headquarters, being berthed in lower Chaumont river behind the drawbridge of the state highway.

Cape Vincent Eagle

October 19 1922

C.W. Cole’s Fish Tug Nearing Completion

Staunch Lake Craft Will Soon Be Launched From Phelps Shipyard, Chaumont

Under date of October 14, the Watertown correspondent of the Syracuse Post-Standard writes as follows:

Another wooden steamer, fresh from the Chaumont yard, once so active but of late years so dull, will shortly join the rapidly depleting fleet of ships of its kind to ply the great lakes. The boat, which has been under construction of several months, will be added to the fishing squadron of Claude W. Cole, well known Cape Vincent business man and owner of the Main Duck Islands. On being put in commission very shortly the steamer will at once be put on the run between Cape Vincent, the Ducks and other fishing colonies, to hasten the collection of food from a supply that seems in no danger of diminishing.

Mr. Cole’s new craft will be 75 feet in length and will have a cargo capacity of approximately 75 tons, making her one of the largest fishing boats at this end of the lake. Her actual tonnage will considerably exceed that figure. She will be steam driven, with a propeller, and is stoutly built to withstand the severe storms which pile the waters into high and choppy seas at the eastern end of Lake Ontario. Her route, between Cape Vincent and the Main Ducks, is over one of the most dangerous parts of the lower lake, passing the reefs of Charity shoals and shouldering her way to the rocky shore of the Main Duck’s noted among mariners of the inland seas as the graveyard of Ontario.

The death last summer of Frank Phelps, who conducted the Chaumont shipyard for many years, delayed the completion of the boat, of which the keel was laid many months ago. His need of the craft caused Mr. Cole personally to supervise her building after Mr. Phelps death, and veteran ship builders from Oswego were brought to the little yard to carry on the work. Although small, the yard is well provided with equipment for constructing a wooden boat of considerable tonnage and appurtenance are on hand for all phases of the work, including a boiler and steaming chest for softening the timbers that they may be bent to the lines of the vessel.

It is a curious feature in the life of a wooden vessel that its appearance at first conception and final decay are so similar. The ribbed frame work, projecting from the keel, quite like the ribs of an animal, radiate from the backbone, form one of the most noticeable features of the weather-beaten wreck, be it buried beneath the sands of the Ellisburg coast or washed onto the rock beach of the Stony Point shore. Once the general framework of ribs and keel are down, the shipbuilders undertake to lay the symmetrical sides, prow and stern, closely fitting the heavy planking. Once the hull is completed every crevice and crank is closed by oakum and covered with a coat of tar until the vessel is rendered seaworthy.

Caulking the ship requires experience, for it is one of the most vital features. Where sufficient crevice does not exist between the planking, it is opened by driving in heavy steel wedges. The long strip of oakum are then forced into the crack by mallet and chisel, the wedge is removed and the oakum covered with tar and eventually the entire hull receives a top coat of paint.

In the earlier days of lake navigation Chaumont and its adjacent communities formed the busiest shipbuilding center at this end of Ontario. The harbor offered excellent shelter, combining safety from the gales that swept the 180 miles of water, with sufficient depth for any craft then riding these inland seas, while the low shores, dipping quickly to a depth sufficient to float the craft made the location of a shipyard a matter of no difficulty. The adjacent lands were forested with virgin timber, including an abundance of oak, so necessary for the stout hulls, and having also the straightest pines for masts and spars. With these advantages, it is no surprising that ship builders plied a busy trade from Sacket Harbor to Three Miles Bay. Even Point Peninsula boasted its product in the fleet, and it is recorded that over in the town of Ellisburg boats were built and launched-in shallow Sandy creek.

Excepting the period from 1812 to 1815, when the government naval bases of the United States at Sacket Harbor and of Great Britain at Kingston engaged in a shipbuilding race, Chaumont was the busiest construction port along the Jefferson country shore. Until after the first steamers had demonstrated beyond question their dependability and adaptability to the necessities of lake navigation, the Chaumont yard turned out sailing craft, largely of the schooner rig. Few ships, as designating a class of vessel, were built upon the great lakes, brigs, sloops, and schooners making up the fleet in the main.

Later, the local builders turned their hands to the demand of the day, and the forms upon the ways lost the graceful lines of the sailing craft, sprouting the dirty funnels, the ungainly high waking beams, and the low-lying stern of paddle boats or propeller. Simultaneously the tonnage increased and larger boats braved the open lakes. Many steamer were turned out at Chaumont Three Miles Bay especially at the former port, which became a well known ship building center at this end of Ontario. Then progress took another stride forward, and its iron shod foot crushed the lucrative trade of the Chaumont ship builder.

In 1845 there had been launched at Erie Pa., amidst many misgivings and wise shaking of heads among the old mariners there assembled, an iron steam paddle vessel, christened the Michigan. No less a corporation than the United States of America had undertaken the building of this experiment, and the forebodings of misfortune were many for fresh water sailors agreed that iron could not float. Despite their arguments, the Michigan, now the gunboat Wolverine, is still paddling about the upper lakes. The following year 1814, the United States launched the iron propeller Jefferson at Oswego, the material, like that for the Wolverine, having been rolled in the iron mills at Pittsburg. From then on, the iron and later t

he steel fleet, multiplied. First came the Canadian merchantman Richelieu of 167 ton s in 1845; next year the Caspian, 177 feet long, launched for Lake Ontario and a couple of years later the paddle boat Hamilton built by the Richelieu company for service on the St. Lawrence river.

They ushered in the age of steel in the lake marine. Gradually the yards at Sacket Harbor, Chaumont, Three Mile Bay and other points along the fresh water seas gave way to the larger ship building plants where resounded the racket of steel construction. The experience of the local yards was the experience of every other wooden ship building yard along the great lakes chain.

Lake Ontario, which claims the fist boat to glide over the waters of the great lakes with sail power, also saw the premier propeller. Like the second iron steamboat, the propeller, known as the Vandalia, was built at Oswego, She was of 138 tons and was launched in the spring of 1841. There was no high walking beam, no flanking paddle boxes, and the staunch and speedy little craft aroused much interest and was widely sought by passengers. It is recorded that 10 cords of seasoned wood sufficed for a day’s run. She was later reconstructed, enlarged and rechristened the Milwaukee.