Outing . while still in hisyouth. He was the foremost owner ofSalem privateers during the Revolution,and no sooner was peace declared than hewas making ready his great ship theGrand Turk, for the first American voyageto the Cape of Good Hope. One of hiscaptains, Richard Cleveland, said in hisrecollections of the methods and enterpriseof this typical merchant of his time: In the ordinary course of commercialeducation, in New England, boys are trans-ferred from school to the merchants deskat the age of fourteen or fifteen. When Ihad reached my fourteenth year it was mygood fortune to be received
Outing . while still in hisyouth. He was the foremost owner ofSalem privateers during the Revolution,and no sooner was peace declared than hewas making ready his great ship theGrand Turk, for the first American voyageto the Cape of Good Hope. One of hiscaptains, Richard Cleveland, said in hisrecollections of the methods and enterpriseof this typical merchant of his time: In the ordinary course of commercialeducation, in New England, boys are trans-ferred from school to the merchants deskat the age of fourteen or fifteen. When Ihad reached my fourteenth year it was mygood fortune to be received in the countinghouse of Elias Hasket Derby of Salem, amerchant who may justly be termed thefather of American commerce to India,one whose enterprise and commercial sa-gacity were unequaled in his day. Tohim our country is indebted for openingthe valuable trade to Calcutta, beforewhose fortress his was to be the first vesselto display the American flag; and follow-ing up the business, he had reaped golden. Elias Hasket Derby. harvests before other merchants came infor a share of them. The first Americanships seen at the Cape of Good Hope, andthe Isle of France belonged to him. Hiswere the first American ships which carriedcargoes of cotton from Bombay to China,and among the first ships which made adirect voyage to China and back was oneowned by him. Without possessing a sci-entific knowledge of the construction andsparring of ships, Mr. Derby seemed tohave an intuitive faculty in judging ofmodels and proportions, and his experi-ments in several instances for the attain-ment of swiftness in sailing were crownedwith success unsurpassed in this or anyother country. He built several ships for the Indiatrade immediately in the vicinity of thecounting houses, which afforded me anopportunity of becoming acquainted withthe building, sparring, and rigging of conversations to which I listened re-lating to the countries then newly visitedby Americans, the excitement on the re- O
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade, booksubjectsports, booksubjecttravel
