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James Tetlow
BornApril 22, 1820
Manchester, England
DiedFebruary 5, 1892(1892-02-05) (aged 71)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
NationalityUnited States
OccupationBoilermaker
Known forShipbuilding for the U.S. Navy during and after the American Civil War

James Tetlow (1820–1892) was an American boilermaker who briefly operated as a naval contractor in the 1860s while proprietor of the James Tetlow Boiler and Iron Ship Building Works[1] in Chelsea, Massachusetts. Tetlow is known for his construction of six of the nine 420-ton Pinta-class tugboats built for the United States Navy at the end of the American Civil War. Tetlow also did other work for the Navy during the war, including the construction of the Casco-class monitor USS Shawnee, which never saw active service.

Tetlow was bankrupted by the Pinta tugboat contracts, and in 1867 his creditors had him thrown into debtor's prison by means of an archaic Massachusetts statute. Tetlow later won an $86,000 petition for debt relief from the U.S. Congress, though this figure was reportedly far short of his total losses on naval contracts. In 1871, he was jailed for debt a second time, under the same "barbarous and abominable" Massachusetts statute—this time by the Federal government itself—for falling into arrears on his taxes. He ended his career as an engineering plant supervisor in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts.

Life and career

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1859 advertisement for Tetlow's Salem boilerworks

James Tetlow was born in Manchester, England, on or about April 22, 1820.[2][3][4] His parents emigrated with him to the United States when he was still an infant.[2]

Little is known about Tetlow's early career. An 1855 periodical describes him as a "a skilful machinist" based at Salem, Massachusetts, who had moved there some years earlier from Providence, Rhode Island. The periodical reports on a recent contract between Tetlow and a Captain McKenney for the construction at Salem of an 800-ton iron-hulled ship with five watertight bulkheads, to be named North Star. Tetlow, whose workshop was located at Naumkeag Wharf, in the yard of the Naumkeag Steam Cotton Company, was said to be acquiring "powerful and expensive machinery" for construction of the ship, which was expected to take about a year to build.[5]

In 1857, Tetlow submitted a patent for "an improved machine for cutting metal".[6] By the 1860s, he had moved from Salem[7] to East Boston, where he ran a boilermaking business.[8] The 1864 Boston Almanac locates Tetlow's boilerworks at "Liverpool [Street] n.[ear] Central square", East Boston.[9]

In 1865, Tetlow built a bridge for $17,210 on Columbus Avenue, Boston, over the Boston and Albany Railroad line for the Boston Water Power Company.[10]

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Monitors

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Tetlow built the Casco-class monitor Shawnee, seen here laid up alongside her sister ship Wassuc, ca. 1871-72. Neither of these vessels saw active service.

With the outbreak of the American Civil War in April 1861, the U.S. Navy embarked on a massive shipbuilding program to enforce the Naval blockade of the Confederacy.[11] Ironclads were a priority,[12] and as the government wished to spread its patronage as widely as possible, companies from less industrialized states were often favorably considered for contracts.[13]

In March 1863, Curtis & Tilden, a Boston shipbuilding firm, submitted a bid to build one of the Navy's new Casco-class light draft monitors. Since Curtis & Tilden was a wooden shipbuilder and had only basic ironworking facilities, the company proposed to do only the woodwork for the monitor, subcontracting construction of the ironclad itself to a metalworking firm.[14] This proposal was accepted by the Navy,[14] and Curtis & Tilden subcontracted construction of the vessel, named Shawnee, to Tetlow, who built it onsite at the Curtis & Tilden shipyard.[15] The Navy botched the design of the Casco-class monitors and most of them, including Shawnee, never saw active service.[16]

In addition to the Shawnee subcontract, Tetlow was awarded a $318,794 contract to build the armored turrets of the Kalamazoo-class monitor Quinsigamond.[17] None of the Kalamazoo class monitors were completed by the end of the war and the Navy consequently cancelled their construction.[18][19] It is not known whether Tetlow completed the turrets or was paid for his work.

Pinta-class tugboats

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By 1864 the Navy had reportedly grown dissatisfied with its fleet of wooden-hulled sidewheel tugs, many of which had been acquired from commercial fleets and which had not proven entirely suitable for maintaining the Navy's fleet of blockading ships.[20] Tugs had, however, proven useful in a secondary role as gunboats.[21] Accordingly, the Navy decided to equip itself with a number of new, iron hulled, screw propelled, armed tugboats of modern design.[20][21] The largest and most important of these were the nine 420-ton Pinta-class tugs, built between 1864 and 1866.[21]

When the Navy tendered for the tugs, Tetlow sent an agent to New York to place a bid for two of them. According to testimony later presented in Congress, Tetlow's agent drastically underestimated the bid, reportedly by neglecting to factor in the cost of all the raw materials. As a result, Tetlow found himself bound to build two of the Pinta-class tugs at only $84,600 each, when the next lowest bid was $128,000. Tetlow requested annulment of the contract but the Navy, fearful of setting a harmful precedent, refused. The Navy however assured Tetlow that if the tugs were built to its satisfaction, it would support any claim made by him against the government for losses incurred in the tugs' construction. The Navy also offered Tetlow more tugboat contracts as an additional means of recovering his losses.[22][23]

USS Fortune, one of six Pinta-class tugs built by James Tetlow

Tetlow built the tugs in Chelsea, Massachusetts, probably at his newly established "iron clad" works[24] at the foot of Winnisimmet Street, near the Chelsea ferry. The works included "a main building 220x65 feet and several smaller structures".[24]

A Navy report on the Tetlow works dated March 11, 1865 states that "the contractors have no facilities for constructing steam-machinery; and hitherto have had no experience in building iron vessels."[25] Tetlow initially subcontracted the engines of the first two tugs for $20,000 each to Hepworth & Carr, a machinist firm in Foundry St., South Boston. This firm became insolvent during construction of the engines,[26] and it is unclear if Tetlow was able to take delivery of them. Government records do not list a separate engine builder for the Tetlow-built tugs,[27] so either Tetlow acquired his own engine plant after the March 1865 report, or else the subcontractors were not recorded. Tetlow ultimately built six of the nine Pinta-class tugboats.[27]

Bankruptcy and jailing

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In spite of being awarded the additional tugboat contracts, Tetlow lost heavily on his work for the Navy and was driven into bankruptcy, after which he was thrown into debtors' prison by some of his creditors. Eventually, with the support of the Navy, he was able to launch a successful petition for relief to the U.S. Congress, which recompensed him the sum of $86,400—the difference between the original contract price of $86,400 paid to Tetlow per ship for the first two ships, and the $128,000 paid per ship to the next lowest bidder.[22][23] This was not sufficient however to cover Tetlow's losses in building the ships, which according to a Congressional report amounted to at least $130,652.22—representing an aggregate loss after compensation of $44,252.22 ($670,488.18 in 2014 dollars). The Congressional report also appears to have taken no account of the high wartime inflation which badly affected many naval contractors during the war,[28] including Tetlow.[2][3][29]

Ironically, after the Massachusetts statute under which Tetlow was originally jailed for debt had been denounced in Congress as "barbarous and abominable",[30] the Federal government itself had Tetlow jailed in 1871 under the same archaic statute, for falling into arrears on a tax instalment. Tetlow reportedly thought it "very hard that he should be put [in jail] after the faithful fulfillment of every contract obligation by the very government which has been the cause of his ruin."[31][32] He was released in 1872 after a successful legal appeal.[32]

Later career

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1891 advertisement for the Roberts Iron Works, listing Tetlow as supervisor

After his bankruptcy, Tetlow appears to have done no more work of historical note. By 1868, his ironclad works in Chelsea had fallen into the hands of The American Heel Stiffening Company, a shoemaking firm.[24] The 1880 Federal Census lists Tetlow's occupation as "works in a machine shop".[33] Tetlow registered patents for boilermaking equipment in 1888 and 1891. At the time of his death in 1892, he was superintendent of the Roberts Iron Works in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts.[2][3]

Personal details

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Tetlow married relatively late in life, to a woman 31 years his junior, Henriella "Ella" Dexter of Corinth, Maine.[a] The date of their marriage is not known, but census records list Dexter as single in 1870 when she was 19 years old,[35] and married to Tetlow by 1880.[34] The couple were apparently childless.

James Tetlow died of heart failure at his home in the Florence Hotel on Norfolk Street, Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, on February 5, 1892, after feeling too ill to attend his workplace the previous day. He was 71 years of age.[2]

Obituaries described Tetlow as "an expert boiler maker" who had "invented many improvements in his line of work" and "made and lost several fortunes" over the course of his career.[2][3][29] The Cambridge Chronicle described him as a "highly respected" manager at the Roberts Iron Works, who maintained "especially cordial" relations with the men under his supervision.[2] As an example of his solicitude, it was noted that after a fire at the Works the previous year, he had insisted on continuing to employ the machinists on full wages while the plant was rebuilt.[2]

Tetlow was survived by his wife Henriella, who continued living in Norfolk Street for many years thereafter, working as a dressmaker.[36] Following her death in 1929, she was buried alongside her husband in a large plot in Corinthian Cemetery, in their former hometown of Corinth.[2][3][37]

Shipbuilding summary

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U.S. Navy ships built by James Tetlow
Name Type Class Disp. Launch Comm. Decom. Notes
USS Shawnee Monitor Casco 1,175 1865-03-13 1865-08-18 1865-11? Laid up, Nov 1865; sold 9 Sep 1875 and broken up
USS Fortune Tugboat Pinta 420 1865-03-25 1871-05-19 1922-05-07 Served as harbor tug, towboat, freighter, engineer and gunnery training ship, icebreaker, troop transport, gunnery tug, submarine tender and station ship. Sold 22 May 1922.
USS Leyden Tugboat Pinta 420
USS Mayflower Tugboat Pinta 420
USS Palos Tugboat Pinta 420
USS Speedwell Tugboat Pinta 420
USS Standish Tugboat Pinta 420

References

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Footnotes

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  1. ^ [34] The 1880 census incorrectly records Tetlow's age as 55 years when in fact he was 60.

Citations

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  1. ^ American Railway Master Mechanics' Association 1908. p. 445.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Death of James Tetlow". The Cambridge Chronicle. Cambridge, MA. 1892-02-13. p. 7.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Cambridgeport". The Cambridge Tribune. Cambridge, MA. 1892-02-13. p. 7.
  4. ^ "James Tetlow". Massachusetts, Death Records, 1841-1915 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. (subscription required)
  5. ^ Parish 1855. p. 251.
  6. ^ Frazer 1857. p. 256.
  7. ^ Webb Brothers 1869. p. 150 (see under heading "Allen, Leavitt & Co.").
  8. ^ Webb Brothers 1869. pp. 150, 336-38, 347, 349, 351-52.
  9. ^ Coolidge 1864. p. 193.
  10. ^ City of Boston (1874). Annual Report of the City Engineer for the Year 1874 (Report). p. 55.
  11. ^ Silverstone 1989. Introduction.
  12. ^ Roberts 2002. p. 25.
  13. ^ Roberts 2002. pp. 114-115.
  14. ^ a b Roberts 2002. p. 117.
  15. ^ Roberts 2002. p. 247.
  16. ^ Silverstone 1989. pp. 12-14.
  17. ^ Daniels 1921. p. 187.
  18. ^ Bauer and Roberts 1991. pp. 45-46.
  19. ^ Silverstone 1989. pp. 11-12.
  20. ^ a b "The New Fleet of United States Navy Screw-Tugs", The New York Times, 1864-09-12.
  21. ^ a b c Bennett 1896. p. 481.
  22. ^ a b Rives 1867. p. 1403.
  23. ^ a b Rives 1867. pp. 1426-1428. Cite error: The named reference "rives_pp1426-1428" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  24. ^ a b c Webb Brothers 1869. p. 220; see under heading "The American Heel Stiffening Co.".
  25. ^ Miscellaneous Documents 1879. p. 74.
  26. ^ Browne 1870. pp. 397-404.
  27. ^ a b Silverstone 1989. p. 112.
  28. ^ Roberts 2002. pp. 126-28.
  29. ^ a b "James Tetlow". The Boston Daily Advertiser. 1892-02-08. p. 2.
  30. ^ Rives 1867. p. 1427.
  31. ^ "Untitled" (PDF). New York Daily Tribune. New York. 1871-12-07.
  32. ^ a b Lowell 1877. pp. 159-67.
  33. ^ James Tetlow". 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. (subscription required)
  34. ^ a b "Ella Tetlow". 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010. (subscription required)
  35. ^ "Henry Ella Dexter". Ancestry.com. 1870 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. (subscription required)
  36. ^ "All City & Area Directories results for Henriella Ella Tetlow". Ancestry.com. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc. (subscription required)
  37. ^ "James Tetlow". findagrave.com. Provo, UT: Find A Grave, Inc. 2009-11-01.

Bibliography

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Books
  • American Railway Master Mechanics' Association (1908). Report of the Proceedings of the Forty-first Annual Convention of the American Railway Master Mechanics' Association. Chicago: The Henry O. Shepard Company. p. 445.
  • Bauer, K. Jack; Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775-1990: Major Combatants. Greenwood Press. pp. 45-46. ISBN 978-0313262029.
  • Bennett, Frank M. (1896). The Steam Navy of the United States. Pittsburg, PA: Warren & Co. p. 481.
  • Browne, Albert G. (1870). Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts. Vol. III. Boston: H. O. Houghton & Company. pp. size=100, id=nyp.33433006873081, q1=%22james%20tetlow%22, page=root, seq=411, num=397 397-404.
  • Coolidge, George, ed. (1864). The Boston Almanac for the Year 1864. Boston: Rand & Avery. p. 193.
  • Daniels, Josephus, ed. (1921). Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. II. Vol. 1. Washington: Government Printing Office. p. 187.
  • Rives, F. & J. (1867). The Congressional Globe: Containing the Debates and Proceedings of the Second Session of the Thirty-ninth Congress. Washington: Congressional Globe Office. pp. seq=735, num=1403, q1=%22james%20tetlow%22, start=1, size=25, page=search, view=image 1403, seq=758, num=1426, q1=%22james%20tetlow%22, start=1, size=25, page=search, view=image 1426-28.
  • Lowell, LL.D., John (1877). Judgements Delivered in the Courts of the United States for the District of Massachusetts. Vol. II. Boston, MA: Little, Brown & Company. pp. 159-67.
  • Roberts, William H. (2002). Civil War Ironclads: The U.S. Navy and Industrial Mobilization. Baltimore, MA: The Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-8751-2.
  • Silverstone, Paul H. (1989). Warships of the Civil War Navies. Annapolis, MA: Naval Institute Press. pp. 11–14, 112. ISBN 0-87021-783-6.
  • United States Government (1879). Index to the Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives for the Third Session of the Forty-fifth Congress, 1878-79. Vol. I.—Nos. 1 to 21. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. p. 74.
  • Webb Brothers & Co. (1869). Webb's New England Railway and Manufacturers' Statistical Gazetteer. Providence, R.I.: Providence Press Company. pp. seq=230, q1=tetlow, start=1, size=25, page=search, num=220 220, 150, 336–38, 347, 349, 351-52.
Journals





Category:1820 births Category:1892 deaths Category:American shipbuilders Category:Defunct shipbuilding companies of the United States

refs

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