MISPILLION-BUILT SAILING VESSELS 1761 - 1917 (SIGNED)

Milford, Delaware: Milford Historical Society, 1990. Hardcover. Fine in Very Good Minus Dust Jacket. Quarto. Turquoise cloth-covered boards . with bright gilt lettering and design to front. Map endpapers. One tiny stain to front free endpapers. SIGNED by author on title page. A complete history of the famous sailing vessels built in Delaware on the banks of the Mispillion River, the yards and their builders, provenance, crews, etc. " Shipbuilding was an important part of Milford's growth at the turn of the century. Many ships were built at several different shipyards throughout the town. In the preface to the book "Mispillion Built Sailing Vessels 1761-1917," author Betty Harrington Macdonald wrote that William Penn himself wrote of the Mispillion Creek as a convenient method for transferring goods from one place to another. When ships were completed, their launching was a holiday throughout the town. Schools were closed and the entire town turned out to send the ship off. September 27, 1904 was no exception when the Charles J. Dumas was launched from the Abbott Shipyard. As with all launches at local shipyards, a scaffolding had been built so that those who wished to watch the ship launch could do so above the crowd. In the case of the Charles J. Dumas, school children, who had collected funds for a large bible that was presented to Captain Hutchins after the launch of the ship. Nearly 1,200 people were on hand to see the launch of a ship that had been proclaimed "one of the best productions" of the Abbott shipyard. The ship was to sail to Philadelphia for fitting out before the new owner, A.T. Hudgin, took possession. Just after the launch of the ship, however, tragedy struck as the scaffolding full of school children collapsed. More than 100 people were injured in the collapse, many of them women and children... (Terry Rogers writing on the "Milford Live" Website, on September.