Isaac C. Smith

Isaac C. Smith (1797 – March 15, 1877) was an American sail and steamboat captain, shipbuilder, sparmaker and entrepreneur.

A longterm resident of Ossining, New York (then known as Sing Sing), Smith began his career working aboard Hudson River sloops, eventually rising to the rank of captain. He also built watercraft and worked as a sparmaker. In the mid-1830s, Smith was the initiator of a steamboat line from Ossining to New York City, supervising the construction of two steamboats for the line and taking command of the first.

In 1849, Smith opened a shipyard in Hoboken, New Jersey, where he built a wide variety of vessels, from small sloops to steamboats to large, full-rigged ships. In 1853 he was joined in this venture by his son J. Malcolm Smith, the firm then being renamed Isaac C. Smith & Son. About 30 ships were built at this yard before it closed in 1855 due to a nationwide shipbuilding slump. In all, Smith is said to have built about 100 ships through the course of his career, the best known of which was the 1600-ton , reputedly the most extreme clipper ever built.

Smith was also a devout Methodist and contributed to the construction of five churches of that denomination in his native town, for which he was known as "the father of Sing Sing Methodism". and worked as a tenant and later owned a farm on the Manor of Phillipsburg.

Smith began his career at an early age, working aboard market sloops on the Hudson River. He sailed the sloop Volunteer for some 23 years, and later became captain of the sloop General Ward. He also "carried on the ship and spar building business."

In the mid-1830s, Smith proposed the establishment of a steamboat line to run from Sing Sing to New York City. After completion of the vessel, Smith was appointed her captain. Shortly after, Smith and two partners, Thomas Hulse and Jonathan Odell, organized the construction of a second steamboat, Telegraph, built in New York in 1836 by Lawrence & Sneden, with Smith again supervising construction.

In 1849, Smith opened a shipyard in Hoboken, New Jersey under his own name. Over the next six years, Smith would build a wide variety of vessels at this yard, from sloops to steamboats to large, full-rigged ships.

Hull reinforced with external iron straps to support steamers exceptionally broad beam.

Rockland–Machiasport, ME, 1853–61; U.S. government charter, 1861–64; Charleston, SE service, 1864–68; snagged 1868, auctioned and evidently scrapped, 1869.

Early example of a 300-plus-ton schooner. See note to Enchantress above.

—and homeported in Málaga. Sold to parties in Valparaíso, Chile, ca. 1860; still in service 1866.

Three-masted schooner or "tern". Early example of 300-ton-plus schooner; see note to Enchantress above. Built for parties in Wilmington, NC.

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