Washington District of Columbia

Washington Navy Yard - Carpenters and Ship Joiners - 1819
Furnished by : John Sharp

Washington Navy Yard Carpenters and Ship Joiners Work Book dated December 1819

Introduction: This transcription of two pages is from the Washington Navy Yard Carpenters and Ship Joiners work book dated December 1819. This workbook was kept by one of the Master Mechanics and reflects the day-to-day work assignment of per diem employees and the amount of time they spent at a particular job. The two transcribed pages below show the ship carpenters and joiners work assignments from December 22-30 1819. While these assignment notations provide information as to how work was delegated, what make these two pages of general interest are the wonderful drawings of seagulls in the lower right hand corner of the page dated December 22, 1819, while on the other page dated December 27th someone, perhaps the shop master, wrote a short but graphic description of the winter snow fall and the Potomac River freezing over in a single night. Both of these unique pages are historical time capsules that provide the modern reader a sense of Washington, D.C. in December 1819, and what working at Washington Navy Yard was like for the hundreds of mechanics, laborers, apprentices, and enslaved workers who built and repaired our nations early navy. In the year 1819, Washington Navy Yard employees worked six days a week and twelve hour a day; commonly referred to as "dark to dark." Their work day usually included an hour lunch and two breaks; one at mid morning and the other in the afternoon. In December 1819, the ship carpenters and joiners were finishing the frigate USS Columbus which was a 74 gun frigate, 191 feet long, and 52 feet at the beam. This frigate was large designed to carry 780 officers and men. The USS Columbus was built at Washington Navy Yard from 1816 to March 1, 1819, when she put to sea. In December 1819, much of the work on the USS Columbia was confined to the frigate's interior spaces, where ship carpenters and ship joiners would have been putting the finishing touches on the Captain's cabin and officers' quarters. The weather was a constant concern to sailors and early shipyard workers. Since most ship construction work was performed out of doors, snow, rain, or fog could hamper or actually halt ship building or repair, and the Yard reduced its workforce to those tasks that could be performed indoors. The early years of the 19th century were colder then normal and such weather was very hard on the poor and those day per diem laborers who could not work, nor as result buy food or fuel. Michael Shiner (1805-1880), the African American Diarist who worked at the Washington Navy Yard, remembered the winter of 1819 has a hard winter, Shiner briefly noted the USS Columbus, 'United States Ship Columbus 74 Constructed and built by Colnal Wiliam Doughty and launch on the 4 of march 1819 on monday at Washington navy yard the united States Ship Columbus" (Shiner Diary p.17). The other vessel at Washington Navy Yard in December 1819 was the USS Congress, a frigate that was built in 1795 and saw action against the Barbary pirates, and in the War of 1812. In the year 1819, the Congress was in the Yard for much needed repairs.   Source National Archives and Records Administration (NARA 181.3.14) Records of the Washington Navy Yard (Washington, D.C.), WNY Ship Carpenters Workbook, dated 1819.   Transcription Method In transcribing this listing I have striven to adhere as closely as possible to the original in spelling, capitalization, punctuation and abbreviation including the retention of dashes, ampersands and overstrikes. The employee's names in the workbook appear to have been arranged somewhat alphabetically. Occasionally there are gaps where I was unable to provide a clear image or the page signature was sewn so tight that it was not possible to determine what was written. I have attempted to arrange the transcribed material in a similar way as that found in the original list. In the original workbook the writer probably a master mechanic1 entered only the last names of his employees with occasional abbreviations ( Jno = John) to distinguish the more common last names like Smith . In order to assist researchers, I have compared this record to the larger 1819 WNY Pay Roll of Mechanics and Laborers. Where it was possible to discern the first name of an employee listed in the workbook, I have placed the name in brackets in some cases where the handwriting is illegible I have so noted. 1 Thomas Lyndall, Master Ship Joiner was most likely the author of this workbook. Lyndall was appointed as Master Joiner 25 April 1817. For more on Master Ship Joiner Thomas Lyndall, see                       Biography of Thomas LYNDALL Nav: Comm: off 25 April 1817 Sir Mr. Thos Lyndall to be entered on your roles as foreman of the Joiners & his Wages to be $ 2.50 per day. Resp Commd Tingey J Rodgers NYard Wash   Bibliography For more about the employees listed here see particularly the 1819 WNY Payroll: Washington Navy Yard Payroll of Mechanics and Laborers 1819 - 1820 For additional information on the Ship Joiners see Letters of Joiners About Wages in 1815 For more on Ship Joiner Horatio Kingsbury, see Apprentice Indenture of Rachael MEDCALF For more on Master Ship Joiner Thomas Lyndall, see Biography of Thomas LYNDALL Ambrose, Kevin, Henry, Dan & Weiss, Andy. Washington Weather: The Weather Sourcebook for the D.C. Area. Fairfax, VA: Historical Enterprises, 2002. This volume has a fascinating discussion of weather in the District of Columbia over the last 200 years. Peck, Taylor Round-Shot to Rockets A History of the Washington Navy Yard and United States Naval Gun Factory. United States Naval Institute, Annapolis, Maryland 1949 Sharp, John G. History of the Washington Navy Yard Civilian Workforce 1799-1962. Stockton, CA: Vindolanda Press, 2005. John G. Sharp                                             October 20, 2008

[Washington Navy Yard Carpenters and Ship Joiners Work Book dated December 27 1819.]

Decr 27th 1819	Columbus						Mould Loft
Ashbough	1	1	1	½	1	4½
Kutlow	1	1	1	1	1	5
Kresston	1	1	1	1	1	5							This day Decr 30th 1819 the first snow fell and it was very Deep from the N E - And - it was the first cold weather of any importance - it was so cold that the Creek and the Potomac froze over in on night - there was no ice in the river the Day Proceeding
[Antonio] Catalano	1	1	1	1	1	5
Creamer	1	1	1	1	1	5
Cumerford	1	1	1	1	1	5
Clokey	1	1	1	1	1	5
Clampet	1	1	1	1	1	5
Conover	1	1	1	1	1	5
Courtney	1	1	1	1	1	5
Corcoran	1	1	1	1	1	5
Jno Cotner	1	1	1	1	1	5
[Justice] Danehart	1	1	1	1	1	5
[Samuel] Fowler	1	1	1	1	1	5
Grandwell	1	1	1	1	1	5
Griffin	1	1	1	1	1	5
[Horatio] Hagan	1	1	1	1	1	5
[Horatio] Kingsbury	1	1	1	1	1	5
Krey	1	1	1	0	1	4
[Randall] Low	0	1	1	1	1	4
[Edward] Murphy	1	1	½	1	1	4½
Betts	1	1	1	1	1	5
[Thomas Lyndall]                      Linde	1	1	1	1	1	5
[illegible]	1	1	1	1	1	5
Smith	1	1	1	1	1	5
Smith	1	½	1	1	1	4½
Jno Williams	1		1	1	1	4
Jno White	1	1	1	1	1	5
[John] Lagree	0						1	1	1	1	1	5
Page	0						1	½	1	1	1	4½
J Myers	1	1	1	1	1	5
[William] Reddy	1	1	1	1	1	5
Zench	1	1	1	½	1	4½
O'Brian	1	1	1	1	1	5

[Washington Navy Yard Carpenters and Ship Joiners Work Book dated December 1819.]

December 22	Columbus						Congtgts [USS Congress]
[Henry] Vanderslice	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1					[Mould Loft no performed in this area ]			[Patterns no work performed in this area ]
Ashbough	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Brown	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Benreton	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Titus] Burcroft	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Butler	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Phillip] Bishop	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	Ship Joiner
Bennett	1	1	½	1	1	1	1	1
[Antonio] Catalano	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Creamer	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[John] Cork	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Joseph] Cross	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Cumerford	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Closkey	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Clampet	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[crossed out illegible]
[Justice] Danehart					1	1	½	0	1	1	11
Fowler
Greenwell	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Peter] Griffin	1	1	1	½	1	1	1	1
[Horatio] Hagan	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Horatio] Kingsbury		1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Randall] Low	1						1	1	½	1	1
[Edward] Murphy	1;	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Charles] Petit	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Person	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Quide	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[William] Reddy	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Smith	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[John] Smoot	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	Ship Joiner
S. Smith	½	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
Jno Smith	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[Robert] Thomas	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[John] Vaness	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
[illegible]	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	Ship Joiner

Notes Mould Loft also spelled Mold Loft, was where patterns were laid out for the use of carpenters and ship joiners in some case laying out full scale portions of the ship plans on the mould loft floor Pattern Shop, here wooden patterns were constructed for making sand molds used for shaping metal objects for the ship . These molds were later used for pouring hot and super heated metal. In addition the pattern shop would make molds for common pieces of the ship interior . Pattern makers also made wooden models of a ship or parts of the ship to show or demonstrate how a ship would appear.

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