Saturday, November 19, 2022

HOW TO GO BROKE - The USS Savannah

I heard about a guy who came up with a brilliant idea and made a billion dollars. He built himself a huge mansion (above) and lived happily ever after.  It happens. Of course you never hear about the fifty or sixty guys who came up with exactly the same idea and then went broke. The text books call this capitalism. I call it the “Savannah Effect”, that being the name of the first ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean between America and Europe using steam power. 
It happened in 1819 and if you check the history books you will discover that the first steam ship to cross the Atlantic was the “Great Western” (above) or the “Cape Breton” in 1833, or the “Siruis” in 1838.  But you will rarely hear about the “Savannah” because that innovative ship never made a dime. And in a capitalist culture this is the big secret, I mean besides the secret that advertising lies. Failure is the other big secret.
The alternative energy folks are now selling the idea that sailing ships can cross the ocean powered by the free fuel of the wind: except the wind is not free. It requires masts and sails and a lot of rope and it once required a large crew to handle it all. And even with all of that you could only move when and where the wind was blowing.
By the beginning of the nineteenth century the world had five thousand years invested in sailing technology. And living with wind technology meant that the advantages of steam power were obvious.

A steam ship could leave port when it wanted to, and even travel against the wind. The crew could be a tenth of the size needed on a sailing ship, which meant more of the power was used for moving cargo and less for moving the crew.  And crews are expenses. 
The cargo is the profit. And the new nation of America had a shortage of manpower, meaning a shortage of sailors.  Steam ships were the obvious solution to increase profits  And that is what capitalism is all about. Because it sure ain't about efficiency. That is the other great secret of capitalism, which is that "the check is in the mail".
Anyway, in 1818, the successful Savannah Georgia cotton merchant William Scarbrough (above) paid $50,000 for a 319 ton packet ship then under construction at the Fickett and Crockett shipyard, on the East River, in New York City.   
Mr. Scarbrough was president of (and principle investor in) the newly formed Savannah Steamship Company, based in his adopted home city of Savannah, Georgia (above)   William was intent upon establishing a regular steam ship service between America and Europe. And to shepherd that intention into reality Scarbrough sought out Captain Moses Rogers.
Moses Rogers (above) seemed to have been born at almost the perfect time and place for a young man with a maritime heritage, a mechanical bearing of mind and an adventurous spirit. Fifty years earlier many of those talents would have been wasted. But at the turn of the 19th century he seemed to be perfectly  positioned - seemed to be.
He was pure Yankee, born in New London, Connecticut. He had been one of the first captains of Robert Fulton’s “North River Steamboat” (Later called the “Claremont”) (above),  and in June of 1808 he had shared command of John C. Steven’s steamboat “The Phoenix”.  Stevens had missed beating Fulton to the honor of first steamboat in America by just a month, and missed profitability by not having the Governor of New York as his partner.
While Governor Livingston had granted Fulton (his partner, of course) the sole right to operate steamboats on the Hudson River, Steven’s "Phoenix" (above) was forced to use the riskier runs between New York and Philadelphia. And it was in coastal waters that Rogers built his reputation as a navigator and an engineer, because the steam engines kept breaking down.  Captain Rogers had even discussed the idea of oceanic steamships with Stephen Vail.
Vail (above) owned an iron works in Moorestown, New Jersey, and employed engineers who had worked with Watson Watt, the developer of the original steam engine. Vail’s engineers not only had personal experience at building steam engines but they had also managed to smuggle vital data about the engine design out of England. It seemed like a partnership of these three men, Scarbrough, Stevens and Vail, was made in heaven. How could they fail? I shall pause now while we all snicker.
On 22 August, 1818 the newly named “Savannah”, 98’6” long by 25’10” wide, with three masts and a man’s bust for a figurehead , slid off the ways in upper Manhattan and immediately sailed to Vail’s Speedwell Iron Works, at Mooristown, New Jersey (above) where a 90 horsepower 30 ton steam engine, removable side paddle wheels and a 17’ bent smokestack were installed. The work took six months. 
On 29 March 1819 the Savannah (above) sailed on her shakedown cruise to her namesake port. Then on 22 May she set sail for Liverpool, England.  Scarborough could already smell the money piling up in his pockets.
The correct word here is “sailed” as the Savannah’s engine gobbled up to 10 tons of coal a day. She could only carry 75 tons (with about another 5 cords of wood as an emergency backup). Besides, under sail, the Savannah could make 10 knots an hour, while under steam alone she could only average about 5 knots. So the steam power was used only when the winds failed. She used her steam engine less than 80 hours in total during her crossing.
The Savannah broke no speed records. She covered the 3,000 miles in a mediocre 22 days, and ran out of coal in the process. The boilers had to be fed the wood so the Savannah could make her "grand entrance” into Liverpool (above) under steam.
The British were not impressed.  In the first place they had not invented the thing, the Americans had. Pish posh, and poo poo. It seemed to the Limeys that the limited power of the steam engine was not worth the loss in the cargo space the engine took up.  And they were right.
Given the cold shoulder by English investors, the Savannah sailed for Copenhagen, where the King of Sweden offered to buy the ship for $100,000. Not having been authorized in advance to sell the ship, Captain Rogers said no. Ah, if he had only said yes, this story might have had a happier ending, because back home in America, the nation was being rocked by the Panic of 1819, and Mr. Scarborough needed an immediate cash infusion.
Record numbers of people in Boston were sent to debtors’ prison. In Richmond, Virginia, property values fell by half. Farm workers, making $1.50 a day in 1818 were,earning fifty-three cents a day a year later. Wood cutters were being paid thirty-three cents for a cord of wood in 1818, but only ten cents for a cord by 1821.
And one of the bigger victims of the panic was William Scarborough, and his Savannah Steamship Company. On 15 June, 1819 Scarborough had to take out a mortgage on his new mansion (above) to secure his debts, which then totaled $87,534.50. A year later, 13 May, 1820, Scarborough was forced to sell his beautiful home to Robert Isaac, his brother-in-law, for $20,000.  He had to sell his house to his brother-in-law; that must have stung! 
Oh, Isaac allowed William to continue to live in the house. But the very next day he laid claim to everything else that Scarborough still owned, including his shares of the steamship Savannah.
Once back in America The Savannah was stripped of her boilers and put back into service as a standard packet sailing ship. She was a failure at that too. In November 1821, in a gale, she ran aground and broke up off of Long Island, New York. Gee, I hope she was insured.
Stephen Vail, whose Speedwell Iron Works had installed the engine on the Savannah, was still owed $3,527.84 for his work. He never got paid. Moses Rogers went back to work running a dull coastal steamer, the “Pee Dee”.  He died of yellow fever at Georgetown, South Carolina on 15 November, 1821, at the age of 42.  And somehow I am sure a contributing factor to his early death was his loss of faith in The Savannah.
William Scarborough, the inspiration for this noble misadventure, lived out the rest of his life in his own home, (thanks to his brother-in-law), even leaving it to his daughter in his will, just as if he still owned it. He died in 1838, at the ripe old age of 62 and is buried in the Colonial Park Cemetery in Savannah.  Honestly, his grave looks more like a homemade backyard barbecue.
His home is still standing. It's address is now 42 Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, an address which might take some explaining to an old slave holder from 1818. But the building now houses "The Savannah “Ships of the Sea” Maritime Museum" (above), featuring a model of that amazing failure, the steamship Savannah. And that should make the old man proud.
The steamship Savannah (above) was a good idea. But like most ideas, good and bad, it was judged a failure. Nobody got rich off the Savannah and most people associated with her went broke. And that is why they should be remembered. It's the way capitalism is supposed to move forward.  If death is required to give life meaning, then failure is required to give capitalism meaning. 
And somebody should explain that to the Wall Street Bankers and the Health Care Leeches who think they are entitled to suck America dry so they can avoid going broke. Please remember, luck should always part of the balance sheet. The S.S. Savannah should serve as yet another reminder of that.
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Friday, November 18, 2022

FOLLOW THE LEADER

 

A leader in the Democratic Party is a boss, in the Republican Party he is a leader.
Harry Truman
Ohio born, but from Irish immigrant parents,  eldest son James Pendergast (above) was a steel worker and laborer in Kansas City, Missouri, who struggled to support his large family until he won big - betting on a race horse named Climax. 
James invested the winnings in a collection of bars (above), a restaurant and hotel in Kansas City, Missouri's West Bottom neighborhood, on the Kansas River flood plain.
The town was then divided between the uptown establishment Republicans who lived on the high ground, and the working class Democrats who were literally on the flood plain (above).  James' business was so successful that the money allowed him to became one of the town’s most powerful councilmen. 
His competition for Democratic votes was Joe Shannon (above) who controlled the Democratic votes in the Kansas City suburbs. Rather than fight, “Big Jim” cut a power sharing deal with Shannon, which ultimately worked to Big Jim's. advantage.  James Pendergast's  first instinct was always to negotiate.
“You use a saw to shape wood, not a hammer.”
James Pendergast. 1892
James hired his youngest brother, Tom (above), as cashier and bookkeeper in the early 1890’s. He also schooled Tom in local politics, lecturing him that, “The important thing is to get the votes.” 
In 1900 James (above) secured Tom the position of Superintendent of Streets. Tom immediately hired two hundred new employees, all loyal goats, as Pendergast supporters were called. And most goats voted the way the Pendergasts asked them too.  Then, in November of 1911, at just 55, big brother James died of kidney failure. 
Tom Pendergast stepped in to fill his brother’s seat on the council, but resigned after just five years. The position was no longer powerful enough for him. Tom’s first instinct was always to go for the power, not the office.
“Today, politics may be our friend, and tomorrow we may be its victims.”
Owen D. Young. Chairman of General Electric. 1922-1939
In 1916 Tom Pendergast had himself appointed to the leadership of the Jackson County Democratic Party, headquartered in a two story yellow brick building (above, left)  at 1908 Main Street. With the votes from the Irish and Italian neighborhoods in his pocket, Tom became the invisible hand in writing of the new city charter, adopted in 1925. 

“Boss” Tom, as the Republican newspapers called him, could now manipulate both the city and county governments, both the Democratic and Republican parties, from behind the scenes, following a simple rule; The important thing is to get the votes-no matter what.”
“Those who are too smart to engage in politics are punished by being governed by those who are dumber.”
Plato 400 B.C.E.
Boss Tom’s name never had to appear on another ballot. As one Republican St. Louis writer noted, “Pendergast never did hunt ducks with a brass band. It has always been hard to tell what he is doing, but easy to tell what he has done the day after the election.” 
Tom helpfully described the methods he had learned from his older brother. “Every one of my workers has a fund to buy food, coal, shoes and clothing. When a poor man comes to old Tom's boys for help….we fill his belly and warm his back and vote him our way.”
“Politics have no relation to morals.
Niccolo Machiavelli. 1532
James "Blackie" Audett explained the alleged  methods Boss Tom developed for himself.  “My first job in Kansas City was to look up vacant lots…we would give addresses to them vacant lots. Then we would take the address and assign them to people we could depend on – prostitutes, thieves, floaters, anybody we could get on the voting registration books. On election days we just hauled these people to the right places and they went in and voted…”   A moment's thought will reveal that all vacant lots already have numbers, that's what defines them as vacant. But such Republican smears stuck, and are still accepted as fact almost a century later. 
“The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority, acting against a divided majority.”
Will Durant.
With the arrival of the Great Depression, Boss Tom did not wait for Hoover to sympathize with Kansas Cities’ 38% unemployment. In November of 1930 the town voted a $40 million bond issue, for a “Ten-Year-Plan”. 
What Kansas got for its investment in the future was the “Power and Light Building”, still a landmark in KC., as well as a new City Hall, the Jackson County Court House, a new Police Headquarters, a new Municipal Auditorium, and several schools. 
When the KC “Star” described all these new buildings as “Pendergast’s concrete pyramids”, Tom merely smiled. And the hundreds of workers who found work building Kansas City's future, smiled too. The truth was that Pendergast Ready-Mix Cement was a legal business. But what brought Tom Pendergast down, was another legal business; political consultant.
“There are no true friends in politics. We are all sharks circling, and waiting for traces of blood to appear in the water’
Alan Clark. 1974
Since 1922 regulators for the State of Missouri and 137 fire insurance companies had been sparing over rate increases.  As a compromise, for 15 years the companies were allowed to charge higher rates, but the difference was impounded, Eventually, the impounded fees reached $10 million. Then, suddenly, the state agreed to a settlement, giving the insurance companies $8 million in higher rates, and the right to future increases. 
In May of 1938 Republican Governor Loyd Stark (above, right), a Tom Pendergast pick, ordered an investigation. This investigation uncovered that the insurance companies had delivered a half million dollars in cash to Tom Pendergast as a “political consulting” fee, just before the settlement. Now, since Pendergast had no direct authority over the insurance commissioner, this fee was legal. However it was politically embarrassing. And in order to avoid the embarrassment, Boss Tom had not declared it on his Federal income tax. And that was illegal.
“The hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.”
Adlai Stevenson.
The end came quickly. On 7 April, 1939 Boss Tom (above) was arraigned on two counts of tax fraud. On 22 May, 1939 he pled guilty. 
"Boss" Tom Pendergast He paid a fine and served 15 months in prison, and was never involved in Missouri politics again.  His photos reveal a man not nearly as fat as the Republican newspapers wanted him to be.
“An election is coming. Universal peace is declared, and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.”
George Eliot.
The reformers patted themselves on the back, and the Republicans reveled in their triumph over Democratic sin. Governor Stark (above) hoped to use the toppling of Boss Tom to propel himself into the U.S. Senate. 
But in 1940, Stark lost a nasty election contest to Harry Truman (above), who had been a long time Pendergast man.  After that Stark was through in Missouri politics. 
When Boss Tom died in January of 1945, his funeral was well attended, and the only thing that changed about Missouri politics was the names on the ballots. The working men and women of Kansas City, Missouri, knew he had been their friend, and had thought about them when the Republican bankers and power brokers did not. They saw a statue of him, gazing paternally down upon the bottoms he had risen from.
“If you can’t convince them, confuse them.”
Harry S. Truman.
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