United States

New Jersey

During the 1600s, when boats sailing through the Narrows, a tidal strait separating New York and New Jersey, wanted to drop anchor on the New Jersey side of the Hudson River, they had to first pay a monetary tribute to the powers that be in New York.

New Jersey. 1887.

In the years before the Revolution, anti-British feelings spread throughout the state. About one-third of the people living here supported the rebels, one-third supported England, and one-third remained neutral.

In 1776 New Jersey declared itself an independent state and joined the colonial side in the Revolutionary War. Because of its location near the center of the 13 colonies, more battles were fought in New Jersey than in any other state. The Americans and British fought 100 battles. Immediately after winning Trenton, General George Washington won the battle of Princeton. Having lost two battles in a matter of hours, the British fled New Jersey for New York.

During the late 1700s, Trenton produced clay products, iron, and steel. Camden, Elizabeth, Jersey City, Newark, and Passaic all became major manufacturing centers in the 1800s. New canals and railroads helped industry grow. Irish and German immigrants came by the thousands to work in the factories at Trenton, Newark, Paterson and Camden. Later people arrived by ship from Italy and Eastern European countries.

George Washington and His Continental Army ferried across the Delaware River. c. 1776 Emanuel Leutze Todd Thunstedt Washington crossed the Delaware from Pennsylvania to surprise-attack the Hessians at Trenton, New Jersey on Christmas Day, thus keeping the army and the nation’s hopes alive for another season of campaigning in the spring and summer of 1777. Washington s Continental Army had been retreating almost from the moment it was formed. From August to October 1776 Washington had been steadily chased out of New York, from Long Island north to Manhattan and then across the Hudson River at the northernmost point of Manhattan to New Jersey. From November through December 7, Washington s army was hounded by the British all the way through New Jersey, with the Continentals finally crossing the Delaware River from New Jersey into Pennsylvania. It was not until 3 AM on December 26 that the entire Continental Army got safely across the river. It was snowing and sleeting. Washington broke the army into two columns, leading one with General Nathaniel Greene and putting General John Sullivan in charge of the other. They took parallel paths to Trenton, and fell on the Hessian camp, where some men were sleeping and others still drunkenly celebrating the holiday. No Americans were killed; the camp was taken, and 110 Hessians were killed or wounded. Precious muskets, powder, and bullets were seized, and the Continentals took 1,000 prisoners back with them into Pennsylvania they did not stay in New Jersey to be attacked by the British at Princeton. The victory raised the morale of the soldiers and the nation. His victory sealed his role as commander-in-chief of the army. On December 27, the Continental Congress gave Washington special powers to recruit soldiers and get supplies from the states, to appoint officers, run the army, and arrest any citizens who did not take Continental currency as payment. Washington used these powers for six months, then relinquished them.

Throughout the 19th century, New York and New Jersey waged many disputes over their valuable, shared harbor and waterways. A dispute over the boundary line through the harbor and the Hudson River—settled by the Treaty of 1834 with reference to the jurisdiction of the waters of the Hudson River between the states of New York and New Jersey— once led state police to exchange shots in the middle of the river.

The Vulcan Mining Company. New Jersey. c. 1818.

The impasse eased when the two states agreed that the port area was, in effect, one community and that conflict squandered the port's potential. The state's sought a governmental body to oversee port affairs and found a model in the Port of London, administered by what was then the only public authority in the world.

The Trenton Times, < December 13, 1884, Trenton, New Jersey, USA

ALL ABOUT THE INSANE.
STATE LUNATIC ASYLUM'S FIGURES.

Some Statistics About New Jersey Insane People--
What a Larger Number have been Sent to the Asylum.

The State Lunatic Asylum, near this city, under the superintendence of Dr. J. W. Ward, is one of the best and most prosperous institutions in the country of its kind. It has now 663 patients on its roll. During the year ending October 31st there were discharged as recovered, 52; as improved 12; as unimproved, 11, and 64 have died, making a total loss of 139. There are at this time 663 patients in the institution. During the year there were under treatment 802 patients. Since the opening of the institution there have been 5,963 patients treated 2,782 men and 2,911 women.

WHAT THE COUNTIES HAVE.

Atlantic county has 22; Bergen, 2; Burlington, 42; Camden, 13; Cape May, 5; Cumberland, 47; Essex, 7; Gloucester, 37; Hudson, 7: Hunterdon, 67; Mercer, 137; Middlesex, 97; Monmoutb, 84; Morris, 2; Ocean, 17; Salem, 23; Somerset, 48; Union, 1; Warren, 1; and from other States, 4; making a total of 663.

The Asylum has been greatly crowded during the past year. The accommodations are for only five hundred patients, but that is exceeded by 163. The very smallest number during the past year was 623 and the largest 673. The daily average was about 635, or about a daily average of 135 more than the proper accommodation. Dr. Ward in an interview with a Times reporter this forenoon said that notwithstanding the crowded condition the institution has passed through, there has been no accident, and that the patients have been watched so closely and so well that no accidents, for all cases of sudden and violent deaths are classed as accidents, have occurred during the year just closed. There has been but little acute disease, and while the death rate has been comparatively large the cause of death has been from

CHRONIC AND INCURABLE MALADIES,

and the majority of the cases have been for a very long time in the Asylum. Everything that can be done to make the Asylum a home for the afflicted is done. The unfortunates are treated not as brutes but as beings who are human, bereft of their reason for a time, and every effort is being made to restore their disordered faculties. It is really a hospital Not one for those classed as incurables but one to cure the afflicted. The Superintendent is lavish in his supply of flowers. He introduces amusements and does all that can be done to detract the mind from the malady with which it is afflicted. The library of the Asylum has been added to, and last year about 400 volumes have been added to it. This principally has been by the gift of a deceased attendant. Pictures, good reading, good music, all that can be done to lighten the cares of the patients is done.

The Sindia, a four-masted ship sank near Ocean City, New Jersey in 1901. The 329-foot Sindia manifest included 24,747 rolls of matting, 200 cases of manganese ore, 14 boxes of linseed, 5 cases of screens, 300 boxes of wax, 2,900 cans of camphor oil, 1,656 tubs of camphor and 4,000 boxes of Japanese curios (fine china, etc.). However, she was also loaded with valuable contraband not listed on the ship's manifest. The ship, returning to New York from Japan when she went aground, had been carrying cargo that might be worth $10 million to $30 million. The wrecked ship was 100 feet off the beach.

Wellsboro Agitator, July 14, 1920

Originally a steamer, the Sindia was built at Belfast, Ireland, in 1887. Five years later her engines were removed and she was fitted out with sails and transformed into a bark. In the next decade, the Sindia carried her crew into almost every body of water traversed by merchantmen. She bears a record of over 200,000 miles since becoming a sailing vessel. The ship had a length of 329 feet and a gross tonnage of 3,068. Having cleared from the City of Kobe in July, the Sindia had sailed for five months on the homeward trip, reaching a point in the Southern Pacific as far south as Alaska is north, and rounding Cape Horn. In that time she had covered more than 12,000 miles, only to meet her fate but a short distance from port.

All day long the sky had been overcast, and now as night was fast closing down upon the Northern Atlantic, a few flakes of snow fluttered down upon the deck. The sailing vessel, with every inch of canvas stretched to the wind, plunged her nose in the waves in defiance of the approaching storm. Below decks in the cabin, the officers and men were rejoicing, for-the next day they were expecting to hit port, in time to spend Christmas eve at home with their families.

With the approach of night, the wind increased greatly in violence; the water which all day had been comparatively calm, had now ripped itself into a sea of angry, turbulent waves, which dashed themselves into spray against the iron sides of the vessel. The old captain, Alan McKenzie, yelled down the cabin stairs for "all hands on deck" to take in sail. It was a bitter cold night, and hauling on ice covered lines and climbing slippery rigging is not a pleasant occupation. But the men worked, worked till their hands were raw, and before long, all had been made snug. With every passing hour, the storm increased. By 10 o'clock it had worked itself into a perfect tempest. The waves, now mountainous high, and which at times careened the ship over till her lower yardarms dipped into the waves, swept over her, carrying everything loose before them. What was not loose, they threatened to tea apart.

What is more awesome, yet more fascinating, than such a night at sea! The great vessel was tossed about like a toy in the grasp of a mighty giants. Great waves rushed upon her. It seemed as though she would be completely engulfed, but up she rose proudly to their very crest, and down into the valley on the next. So on and on, the Sindia bore her way through the heavy seas. At 12 o'clock the storm was still raging with all of its fury, and as yet showed no signs of abating. The officers and sailors, elated by the thoughts of home after a successful voyage, had been making merry in the cabin. The captain, also imbued by the spirit, foolishly gave the half-frozen helmsman a bottle of wine to warm him up. Then all the rest "turned in." Whether the helmsman really lost his way in the storm-as he later testified, or whether under the effects of the wine he fell asleep, will never be known, but about two-thirty there suddenly rang through the ship the cry of breakers ahead! In desperation the captain leaped up the cabin stairs to the deck.

"Throw over your helm," he yelled, but even then it was too late, and in a few minutes there was a grinding sound, as the keel grated on the sands. A great wave seized her and lifting her night in the air, cast her up toward the beach. Again and again the doomed ship was tossed nearer and nearer the shore, until finally she refused to budge any further. Then listing to port, she found her final resting place.

In a short time, the waves broke entirely over her, and every soul on board was forced to climb up into the rigging. Sky-rockets were set up at intervals, and at last attracted the attention of the shore patrol of the Ocean City life-saving station. After several attempts a line was finally shot over her. The half-frozen men in the shrouds descended to the deck and made the line fast to the main mast. A breeches buoy suspended from a pulley was next attached, and in this the men were hauled one by one to shore.

It was long after daybreak that the old captain, who had at first refused to leave his ship, knelt, and after kissing the deck of the ship which had carried him safely through many waters and through the many dangers of the great deep," reluctantly, with one last longing look, jumped into the buoy and was hauled ashore.

At his trial by the British Court of Inquiry in Philadelphia the skipper was found guilty of carelessness, and sentenced to six months' suspension from sea service. When he received his sentence, McKenzie remarked, "I could stand it for myself, but my two sons who hold high positions as sailing masters, will suffer greatly for the disgrace which has befallen their father." Heartbroken, the old captain returned to his little home in Scotland, never more to tread the deck of a vessel, but still within hearing distance of the old ocean, which had been his playground in youth, his place of business in manhood, and last of all, the scene of his downfall.

Till this day, one may still see the mainmast and part of one side of the wreck. Every summer visitors to Ocean City see less and less of the old landmark, for the skeleton of what was once a noble ship is fast being broken to pieces by the great waves that thunder against her iron sides all the year round.

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1899. World's Fleet. Boston Daily Globe

Lloyds Register of Shipping gives the entire fleet of the world as 28,180 steamers and sailing vessels, with a total tonnage of 27,673,628, of which 39 perent are British.

Great Britain	10,990 vessels, total tonnage of 10,792,714
United States	3,010 vessels, total tonnage of 2,405,887
Norway	2,528 vessels, tonnage of 1,604,230
Germany	1,676 vessels, with a tonnage of 2,453,334, in which are included her particularly large ships.
Sweden	1,408 vessels with a tonnage of 643, 527
Italy	1,150 vessels
France	1,182 vessels

For Historical Comparison
Top 10 Maritime Nations Ranked by Value (2017)

	Country	# of Vessels	Gross Tonnage (m)	Total Value (USDbn)
1	Greece	4,453	206.47	$88.0
2	Japan	4,317	150.26	$79.8
3	China	4,938	159.71	$71.7
4	USA	2,399	55.92	$46.5
5	Singapore	2,662	64.03	$41.7
6	Norway	1,668	39.68	$41.1
7	Germany	2,923	81.17	$30.3
8	UK	883	28.78	$24.3
9	Denmark	1,040	36.17	$23.4
10	South Korea	1,484	49.88	$20.1
Total		26,767	87.21	$466.9