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Charles Hervey Townshend
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Business New Haven
6/1/1994
By:
Priscilla Searles
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Charles Hervey Townshend was, by all definitions, a colorful character with an eclectic assortment of interests. No one would describe him as a business man, yet his experiments in oystering and his determination to improve New Haven Harbor gave the economy of New Haven a major boost and helped launch the city into the industrial era.
Born in 1833, Townshend went to sea at age 15 on a small East Haven-built bark to the West Indies. Considered one of the extraordinary American sea captains of the mid-nineteenth century, Townshend helmed some of the fastest and largest packets operating between New York and Europe and then in steamships beginning in 1867. In 1870, at age 37, Townshend ended his sea-going career as captain of the large steamer Ontario .
Townshend's devotion to the sea never abandoned him. For the remaining 33 years of his life Townshend studied and developed improvements in methods of navigation. In addition, he began to record the family genealogy and write historical books.
Townshend had a strong interest in the oyster business, which had been born in the early days of the New Haven settlement and had continued to grow to the point that demand was exceeded supply. Seed oysters began to be imported from Maryland and by 1850 New Haven oystermen were using 250 schooners to import 200 million bushels of seed oysters yearly to Fair Haven.
Townshend, who had studied oysters in France, surmised that the management of the local oyster beds was poor. Realizing that it would be more practical and profitable to produce seed oysters locally, he began to conduct experiments in the moat at Fort Nathan Hale. In 1867 Townshend proved to New Haven oystermen that seed oysters cemented to old, used oyster shells and could be grown successfully in New Haven and marketed profitably. His experiments were such a huge success that by the turn of the century more than 50 oyster companies lined the Quinnpiac River. At that time New Haven was producing 12.5 percent of the nation's total output of oysters and seed oysters.
Townshend dreamed of New Haven Harbor as a major port, exporting and importing goods directly to and from Europe. He saw the deepening of the harbor and the construction of breakwaters as the answer. He used the knowledge that he had acquired studying the great systems of harbor improvements in Europe and began to gather information and prepare arguments to back up his plan.
Working with a group of New Haven men who believed in his plan, he successfully persuaded Congress to appropriate funds to deepen the channel to 12.5 feet in 1871 and later to 16 feet over the Fort Hale Bar. In 1887 the harbor was dredged to a depth of 20 feet at mean low tide, 26 at high tide. Today the channel is maintained at 45 feet.
The present day breakwater system was constructed in the 1890s using Townshend's plan. The East Breakwater, ending at the light at Southwest Ledge, was built first. The Middle or Luddington Breakwater was then built and West Breakwater was built last. This system continues to help channel sediment into the sound and out of the harbor.
Townshend believed that his system of breakwaters would make New Haven a safe anchorage for sail. Although he didn't anticipate the end of commercial sailing vessels and his dream of New Haven as a hub for foreign trade never developed, his work and the improvements he was responsible for made it possible for today's present deep draught vessels to enter New Haven Harbor. Tankers in excess of 50,000 tons bring in fuel; freighters pick up scrap metal. And the oyster industry, almost completely gone by 1965, is beginning to come back.
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