Large merchant vessels had long been a commonality along the world’s sealanes. Though companies and nations aimed to increase tonnage and increase speed, one had to be sacrificed for the other. As the 19th century began, global maritime traders looked for ways to increase the speed of their ships, even if it meant less tonnage. Longer trips, like England’s treks to Australia or America’s to China, required quicker turnarounds, especially for commodities that were relatively light. In New York City, a young shipwright believed he had devised a ship that would dramatically decrease the time it took for lengthy journeys.
John Willis Griffiths (1809–1882) was born to a shipwright in New York City. He received a regular public education, but his education in carpentry and shipbuilding was of an elite level. He worked in the shipyards of New York, as well as Portsmouth, Virginia. Griffiths’s contribution to shipbuilding was not relegated to physical labor only. By the middle of the 1830s, he was making a name for himself through writing maritime articles.
