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History of the Great Lakes, Vol. 2 by J.B.
Mansfield
Captain Edward Babcock, an old and
widely-known lake mariner, was born in Painesville, Ohio, in 1833. He attended
the public schools of his native town until 1847, when he commenced his lake
career as boy on the schooner Nebraska, with Capt. Normal Richmond, the
following season serving on the schooner Matt Root, and in the spring of 1849
shipping as seaman on his first boat, the Nebraska, with Captain Blanchard. On
the 2d of July they came up to the bark Sunshine, which had capsized in a
squall; the captain and mate were drowned, and the Nebraska picked up the
captain’s wife, the second mate and five of the crew. In 1850 Captain Babcock
shipped on the scow I. C. Pendleton with Capt. David Becker, who lost his life a
few years ago, his vessel having taken fire off St. Catharines, Ontario. In the
spring of 1851 he shipped as seaman on the brig Iroquois; in 1852-53 in
the scow E. L. Herrick; in 1854-55 in the schooner Nebraska, as second mate; in
1856-57 in the schooner Goodell, with Capt. Ras Herrington; in 1858-59 as second
mate on the steamer E. B. Hale. In the spring of 1860 he was appointed second
mate of the brig Iroquois, and remained on her until May 20, 1861, when she was
laid up at Cleveland. Captain Babcock then enlisted in the Twenty-third O. V.
I., serving with that regiment eighteen months, and participating in all the
encounters in which it was engaged, including the battles at Island No. 10 and
Vicksburg. In 1862 he was transferred to the navy, and was promoted to captain
of the aftguard of the man-of-war Metacomet, a side-wheel, double-end steamer,
which he joined at Mobile. He was with this boat in the engagements at Mobile
and New Orleans, and remained on her until the expiration of his three years’
term of enlistment, when he re-enlisted for another three years, being assigned
boatswain to the man-of-war Michigan, under command of Captain Jewett. He
served in that position until the close of 1866, and the year following was
appointed boatswain of the revenue cutter Commodore Perry, Capt. D. O. Ottinger
commanding, on which he remained two years. In the spring of 1869 Captain
Babcock shipped on the schooner Harvest Home. In 1870-71 he engaged in the
fishing business out of Erie, Penn., and in 1872-73 he was again boatswain of
the cutter Commodore Perry. In 1874 he joined the life-saving service as
surfman, at Erie, remaining there two seasons, and in that time assisted in the
rescue of the crews of the schooner Beels Thompson, which was burned off that
port, and the barge St. Joseph. Removing to Cleveland, Captain Babcock there
engaged in occupation ashore two years, but in 1878 he joined the Cleveland
life-saving service as surfman, and during his connection with same participated
in the rescue of the crews of the schooners Moonlight, Baldwin and Cossack. In
the spring of 1879 he engaged in the fishing business out of the port of
Cleveland, continuing same until, in the fall of 1884, he entered the employ of
the Smith Tug Company as watchman, remaining there one year. The following year
he engaged as night watchman for the three tug lines, the Black, Red and
Independent, serving in that capacity about four years, following which, for
another four years, he was watchman for the Red Stack line. In the spring of
1895 he entered the employ of the Cleveland Tug Company as night manager which
position he yet retains. Captain Babcock is an ardent member of Stedman
Post, G. A. R. In 1872 he was united in marriage to Miss Emily Gibson, of Erie,
Penn., who died in September, 1895.
Captain George Francis Babcock is
the only original keeper appointed by the United States Government to the
life-saving service on the lakes in the Ninth District, when the Cox bill
providing for a paid life-saving service first became a law, and he had been for
years previous to that in command of a volunteer life-saving crew. He is a man
in every way qualified to fulfill the hazardous and oftentimes dangerous duties
of his calling. He is stationed at Fairport, Ohio, a locality often subject to
the fiercest tempests, and visited by any of the ore and coal carriers, a
combination which requires him to be ever on the alert. W.I. Babcock, the efficient manager
of the Chicago Ship Building Company, is a finished scholar and a man of
national reputation as a naval architect and shipbuilder. He has the right to
contemplate with pride the many finely constructed steamers that he has designed
and launched, some of which have been noted for their speed, and others for
their stanch sea-going qualities. Mr. Babcock was born in Stonington,
Conn., in 1858, a son of Capt. David S. and Charlotte (Noyes) Babcock, who in
1866 removed to Brooklyn, N. Y., where our subject had the advantage of the
excellent public-school system, graduating from School No. 11, in 1872. He then
attended the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, graduating in 1876
with the degree of B. S., and two years later he was granted the degree of civil
engineer by the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, of Troy, N. Y., from which he
graduated. In 1878 Mr. Babcock became connected with the Morgan Iron
Works, of New York, in the machine shop and as draughtsman, remaining with them
until the next year, when he became assistant engineer of the Tehuantepec Inter
Ocean Railroad Company, in Mexico. In 1880 he was engaged as draughtsman at
Roach's shipyard, Chester, Penn., and remained with that concern five years. He
was then called to New York to become assistant to the president of the
Providence & Stonington Steamship Co., retaining that office two years. It
was in 1887 that Mr. Babcock accepted the position of superintendent of
the Union Dry dock Company at Buffalo, N.Y., and during the two years he
remained with that corporation he designed and constructed several steamers
notable for their beauty and speed. In 1889 he accepted the office of manager of
the Chicago Shipbuilding Company, and during the ten years that he has directed
affairs the company has built some of the finest and largest steel vessels that
traverse the lakes. Since October, 1897, they have launched three fine vessels.
The towbarges Australia, build for James Corrigan of Cleveland, and the Maia,
for the Minnesota Steamship Company, have each a 376-foot keel, 48-foot beam, 26
feet deep, and a gross tonnage of 3,745.17, and a net tonnage of 3,467.89, while
the steamer William R. Linn, built for C.W. Elphicke and others, of Chicago, has
a 400-foot keel, 48-foot beam, is 28 feet deep, and has a gross tonnage of
4,328.71, and a net tonnage of 3,196.99. The Chicago Shipbuilding Company
was organized in December, 1889, under the laws of Illinois, by certain Chicago
parties, and parties connected with the Globe Iron Works, of Cleveland, Ohio.
The first officers were J.F. Pankhurst, president; W.I. Babcock, manager; Luther
Allen, vice-president and treasurer; and J.H. Craig, secretary. In 1892 the
Cleveland stock was purchased by Chicago men, and Emmons Blaine became
president; W. F. Cobb, vice-president and treasurer; O.R. Sinclair,
secretary; and W.I. Babcock, manager. After the death of Mr. Blaine, in the
summer of 1892, William L. Brown became president, the other officers remaining
unchanged, and all these hold their respective positions. The societies of
which Mr. Babcock is a member are of a high order, and comprise the American
Society of Naval Engineers, United States Naval Institute, Society of Naval
Architects & Marine Engineers, and Institution of Naval Architects, of London,
England. In 1890 Mr. Babcock was united in marriage to Miss Grace W.
Kernochan,daughter of Hon. Henry P. Kernochan, of Louisiana, and one son,
Irving, has been born to them. |
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