Enoch Train

Enoch Train (1801 – 1868) was an American shipowner and merchant. He is known for establishing the White Diamond Line, that provided a packet service between Boston and Liverpool.[1]

For other uses, see Enoch Train (disambiguation).

Colonel

Enoch Train
c. 1855
Born(1801-05-02)May 2, 1801
Weston, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
DiedSeptember 3, 1868(1868-09-03) (aged 67)
Saugus, Essex, Massachusetts, United States
Burial placeCambridge, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States
NationalityAmerican
OccupationShipowner and merchant
Spouse(s)Adaline C. Dutton (married 1823–1834, until her death in 1834) and Almira Cheever (m.1834, until his death in 1868)
ChildrenAdaline Dutton Train, Theodore Train, George N. Train, Caroline A. Train, Enoch Train
Parents
  • Enoch Train (father)
  • Hannah Ewing (mother)
RelativesGeorge Francis Train

Early life

Enoch Train was born on May 2, 1801, in Weston, Massachusetts1 to Enoch Train (1763-1805) and Hannah Ewing Train, daughter of a Scotch chaplain in British army. The fourth of five children, but the second living child. His oldest sister, Harriette died (1793-1797) in her fourth year and his oldest brother, also named Enoch Train (1795-1796), died in his second year.[2][3]

After death of his father Enoch's mother married Captain Levi Bishop in 1807 and they moved to Halifax, Vermont and to be closer to her parents.[4] Then, in 1814 she died[5] and Train found himself an orphan at the age of 13. Train learned the hide and leather business from his uncle Samuel Train, but eventually left this industry once his shipping business took off.[6][7]

Personal life

On November 3, 1823 Enoch Train married Adeline C. Dutton in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. By 1824 they were living in Boston where their first child, Adeline, was born on September 15. She was followed by four more children, Theodore (1826–1847), George (1828–1848), Caroline (1830–1908), and Enoch (1833–1854). Adeline died on August 25, 1834 at the age of 31.[8]

Train married Almira Cheever in 1835.[9] They had one boy who died shortly after his birth in 1838. Almira lived until 1881.[10]

In 1848, Train represented Boston in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.[2]

On January 23, 1885, Leon Lewis, a newspaper editor who Train had once loaned money to, visited Train at his home in Dorchester. Lewis informed Train he was armed with a Bowie knife and a revolver and demanded money from him. Train grabbed Lewis and after a violent struggle, threw him down his front steps and tied him with bed-chord.[11]

Train spent his later years in his wife's hometown of Saugus, Massachusetts.[12]

Early years as a ship owner

Train bought his first ships in the late 1830s and early 1840s. Dorchester, Cario, and Governor Davis served as trading vessels between Boston and South America. He then decided to move into the Baltic cotton trade with St. Petersburg (built by Waterman & Ewell, in Medford, Massachusetts, 814 tons burthen, 160 ft. long, 33 ft. beam).[13]

White Diamond Line / Enoch Train & Co. / Train & Co.

In 1843 Enoch Train established the White Diamond Line,[1] to provide a packet service between Boston and Liverpool. Initially he pulled ships from other service to that purpose, until new ships were built. His Boston based firm was named Enoch Train & Company, while the Liverpool end of the operation was Train & Co.[14]

Enoch Train and Donald McKay

While sailing to Liverpool, to establish Train & Co., Enoch Train had opportunity to converse with Dennis Coudry who had recently taken delivery of the Delia Walker, the first ship designed and built by Donald McKay. Coudry was so impressed with McKay's work, and spoke so highly of his ability that Enoch decided to speak to Donald McKay when he returned to the U.S., about having him build the first packet ship.[15] Upon his return to Boston he sought out McKay in Newburyport, MA and according to Captain Clark, ″it was the swift contact of flint and steel″, and Enoch ordered the Joshua Bates, his first ship built by McKay. Upon the launch of this ship Train offered McKay his financial backing if he would move his ship yard to Boston.[16] This began a relationship that produced nine ships between 1844 to 1853.

The Panic of 1857 significantly effected and eventually ended Enoch Train's shipping businesses. A Liverpool partnership, Thayer & Warren succeeded Train & Co. as the Warren Line.[17]

Ships built by Donald McKay for Enoch Train
Sovereign of the Seas (1852)
Great Republic (1853)
DateNameSizeNotes
1844Joshua Bates620 tons
1845Washington Irving751 tonsLaunched 15 September 1845. Sold to England in 1852
1846Anglo-Saxon894 tonsLaunched 5 September 1846
1847Ocean Monarch1,301 tons OMBurnt in North Atlantic 1848
1848Anglo-American704 tons
1850Daniel Webster1187 tons
1851Flying Cloud1782 tons OMWrecked on Beacon Island 1874
1851Staffordshire1817 tons OMWrecked off Cape Sable, 1853 December 29 Struck on Blonde Rock at Seal Islands, Cape Sable. Captain Richardson and 169 others lost their life when the ship went down. She was valued at $120.000 at the time of shipwreck. in 1853
1852Sovereign of the Seas2421 tons OMInitially named Enoch Train, she was renamed and sold before she was launched. She was wrecked in the Malacca Straits in 1859
1853Star of Empire2050 tons OMIn 1857, laden with guano, she broke to pieces on Currituck Beach, N. C.[18]
1853Chariot of Fame2050 tons OMSold in 1862 and came to her end in January, 1876, being abandoned or lost at sea en route from Chincha Islands to Cork.[19]
unk.Parliament[20]unknown
unk.Empress of the Seasunknown
unk.Plymouth RockunknownHalf-owned by George B. Upton
unk.Lightningunknown
unk.Cathedralunknown
unk.John Eliot Thayerunknown

Other Ships owned Enoch Train & Co.
DateNameSizeNotes
Pre. 1839Dorchester
Pre. 1839Cairo
Pre. 1839Governor Davis
Pre. 1839St. Petersburg814 tonsbuilt by Waterman & Ewell of Medford
unknownBreak of Dayunknown

Boston & European Steamship Company

Enoch Train saw the future of steam powered ships and in 1855, along with James Bebee, Andrew Hall, Donald McKay, and George Upton, formed the Boston & European Steamship Company, ″for the purpose of navigating the ocean by steam.″ This venture seems to have been curtailed by the same economic issues related to the Panic of 1857 that ended Enoch Train & Co.[17]

Notes
1.^ Some sources give Train's place of birth as Hillsborough, New Hampshire.[7]

References
  1. Lubbock, Basil (1988). The Western Ocean Packets. Mineola, N.Y., USA: Dover Publications Inc. p. 29. ISBN 0-486-25684-7.
  2. Poole, Alexis (1848). Poole's Annual Register of the Executive and Legislative Departments of the Government of Massachusetts. Boston: Dutton and Wentworth. Retrieved November 5, 2021.
  3. Dedham historical register. Dedham Historical Society. 1890. p. 69.
  4. "THE SAD LIFE OF HANNAH EWING By Louis Lehmann". www.familysearch.org. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  5. "Hannah Train Bishop". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  6. "Some Merchants and Sea Captains of Old Boston". www.archive.org. Retrieved September 1, 2019.
  7. "COL. ENOCH TRAIN". Ballou's Pictorial. 9 (26): 412. December 29, 1855.
  8. "Deaths". Christian Register. August 30, 1834.
  9. "Married". Zion's Herald. December 30, 1835.
  10. "Find-a-Grave: Almira C. Train". www.findagrave.com. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
  11. "Attempted Robbery and Assassination of Enoch Train, Esq". The New York Times. January 25, 1855.
  12. Robinson, E.P. (December 1884). "Sketch of Saugus". The Bay State Monthly. ISBN 9785041431594.
  13. Lubbock, Basil (1988). The Western Ocean Packets. Mineola, N.Y., USA: Dover Publications Inc. p. 30. ISBN 0-486-25684-7.
  14. "The Law Journal Report for the year 1861 Comprising Reports of Cases in the House of Lords, and in the courts of Chancery". books.google.com. 1861. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
  15. Lubbock, Basil (1988). The Western Ocean Packets. Mineola, N.Y., USA: Dover Publications Inc. p. 31. ISBN 0-486-25684-7.
  16. Lubbock, Basil (1988). The Western Ocean Packets. Mineola, N.Y., USA: Dover Publications Inc. p. 32. ISBN 0-486-25684-7.
  17. Other merchants and sea captains of old Boston : being more information about the merchants and sea captains of old Boston who played such an important part in building up the commerce of New England, together with some quaint and curious stories of the sea. University of California Libraries: State Street Trust Co, Bsoton. 1918. pp. 45, 48. OCLC 903285879.
  18. https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35988125/star_of_empire/
  19. McKay, Richard (1928). Some Famous Sailing Ships and Their Builder Donald McKay. New York.
  20. "Dorchester's Enoch Train" (PDF). dorchesteratheneum.org. Retrieved October 2, 2019.
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