History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917; - citizen hylbom blog

230 History of Swansea
19 years of age, a fact which renders his enterprise extraordinary and all
the more so, as he was not a practical shipwright. No doubt he saw the
advantage of the situation, surrounded as the place was by a forest of
heavy timber, from which the entire frame work was easily obtained, and
for years he used this timber for his vessels, but at a later date he received
some portion of it from a distance by water.
His operations extended from the time of his first venture to about
1861, a period of 59 years, during which he annually sent down stream
crafts of various sizes—in some seasons only one, but oftener two or three.
In 1829 he built the ship Warren of 383 tons. This was looked upon as so
large a vessel that some anxiety was felt as to the difficulty of getting her
down the crooked channel, and finally got stuck in the draw way of Kelly's
Bridge (Warren) and lay there a week or two, delaying travel by the old
stage route between W^arren and Providence. In 1831 the brig "Whim"
was built and owned by Capt. Lee of Warren and was considered the
fastest vessel of her time hailing from any Rhode Island port. She traded to
the coast of Africa and was afterwards sold there. The ship " Luminary " of
432 tons, owned in Warren and intended for the whahng business was
launched in 1832. She was regarded as a monster, being the largest vessel
which the obscure shipyard in the woods had up to that period sent down
the so-called eel track. But the tonnage of Mason Barney's new ventures
increased from year to year, and in 1839 he launched the ship "Ocean" of
566 tons. This was commanded by Capt. Gardner Willard of Bristol. The
last vessel launched was a ship of 1023 tons, and it appears that while the
earlier craft, which was much smaller, had great difficulty in getting down
stream, the later and larger ones went somewhat easier.
It was interesting to watch the progress of any one of these new vessels
as they were slowly worked along from day to day, in a channel sometimes
hardly wider than herself. It might be a Providence ship Uke the Oroondates,
or the Carrington or it might be a Boston or New York craft which
to the beholder on shore would loom up, morning and evening for a week
or fortnight apparently in the same position, getting clear from one mud
bank only to become fast on Euiother. The intricles of the channel were
generally staked out, but this did not obviate the difficulty, when the ship
was deeper than the water.
Finally the big new ship would be floated down to some W arren wharf,
there to receive her spars and be rigged from deck to truck, preparatory to
being sent to her owners in Providence, Boston or New York as the case
might be.
The only spar which the new vessel brought down with her was the
bowsprit, all the others being hauled to Warren by ox or horse power. Such
was the story of many a tall ship, perhaps in a few months to be reported
off the Naze of Norway or far up the Mediterranean or beating against the
monsoon in the China Sea.
So the "Bungtown" ships as they were called, issuing from the marshes
and making their way to deeper and clearer waters, were to be found in
every port of the navigable globe and the name of Mason Barney became
as familiar along the Atlantic seaboard from Boston to New York as was
his stout sinewy figure to the people of his immediate locality, where he
hustled about in his " one horse shay. " The names of his crafts sometimes
suggested their local origin as in the case of the brig MUes, afterwards
rigged into a ship—a remembrance of the good old pioneer minister and of
MUes' bridge. There were the Mason Barney, the Esther G. Barney and
the Mary R. Barney—all of which carried the stars and stripes to distant
ports.
The launching of a ship which was then considered to be so large, drew
hundreds of spectators from the neighboring towns.