George Steers
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George Steers (August 15, 1819 – September 25, 1856) was a designer of yachts best known for the famous racing yacht ''America''. He founded a shipyard with his brother,
George Steers and Co George Steers & Co was a 19th century shipyard company at Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint, Long Island, New York. Company history Hathorne & Steers In 1843, George Steers went into partnership with William Hathorne, under the name of Hathorne & ...
, and died in an accident just as he was landing a major contract to build boats for the Russian Czar.


Early life

George Steers was born in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
, USA, in 1819. His father,
Henry Steers Henry Steers (1779 in Dartmouth, England – 1850 in New York, USA) was a prominent nineteenth-century American shipbuilder of English descent, and the ancestor of a line of important businessmen in various boatbuilding and maritime construction ...
, was engaged as
Naval Constructor Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befo ...
for the U.S. Government. George never learned the trade of ship carpenter, but rather built vessels based on the design concepts he worked out for himself in his youth, growing up as a shipbuilder's son.George Steers, The Famous Long Island Shipbuilder, March 29, 1896, The New-York Times
/ref> He became a journeyman for William H. Brown, in whose service he assisted in building the ''Arctic'' and another of the Collins steamers.


Designer of famous racing yacht ''America''

Between 1841 and 1850, Steers built many yachts which were well known in their day. In 1845, Steers went into business with a partner under the name of Hathorne & Steers, at the foot of North First street, in
Williamsburg, Brooklyn Williamsburg is a Neighborhoods in Brooklyn, neighborhood in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn, bordered by Greenpoint, Brooklyn, Greenpoint to the north; Bedford–Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, Bedford–Stuyvesant to the s ...
. In 1849, George Steers designed the
pilot boat A pilot boat is a type of boat used to transport maritime pilots between land and the inbound or outbound ships that they are piloting. Pilot boats were once sailing boats that had to be fast because the first pilot to reach the incoming ship ...
''Mary Taylor,'' with a radical new design in a schooner. The firm was closed in 1849. In 1850 he formed the firm George & James R. Steers with his brother. In 1850, Steers designed the pilot boat ''Moses H. Grinnell, No. 1''. The Grinnell was the first pilot boat to have a long lean bow, which made it very fast. It was owned by George W. Blunt.Cunliffe, Tom, Pilots: Pilot, The World Of Pilotage Under Sail and Oar
Wooden Boat Publications. Brooklin, Maine. 2001
George Steers is perhaps best known as the designer of the most famous racing yacht of all time, the schooner yacht ''America'' (1851), for which the
America's Cup The America's Cup, informally known as the Auld Mug, is a trophy awarded in the sport of sailing. It is the oldest international competition still operating in any sport. America's Cup match races are held between two sailing yachts: one f ...
is named. No doubt influenced by the ''Mary Taylor'' and ''Grinnell'', and the ship designs of fellow New Yorker John W Griffiths, the aptly named ''America'' established the American
naval architecture Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and o ...
of the day. He also built one full-sized ship, the
clipper ship A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century Merchant ship, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessel, designed for speed. Clippers were generally narrow for their length, small by later 19th century standards, could carry limited bulk freight, and had ...
''Sunny South'', which was sold to foreign owners after a voyage around
Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...
to San Francisco, and captured in the
Mozambique Channel The Mozambique Channel (french: Canal du Mozambique, mg, Lakandranon'i Mozambika, pt, Canal de Moçambique) is an arm of the Indian Ocean located between the Southeast African countries of Madagascar and Mozambique. The channel is about long ...
in 1860 with a cargo of over 800 slaves. List of boats built by Steers include: * ''William G. Hagstaff'' Pilot Boat (1841) built for the New Jersey pilots * ''Mary Taylor,'' Pilot Boat (1849) * ''George Steers'' Pilot Boat (1852) * ''Phantom'' three-masted schooner (1853) * '' Anthony B. Neilson'' Pilot Boat (1854) * ''Julia'' Yacht (1855) * ''Haze'' Yacht (1855) * Widgeon Pilot Boat (1855) * (1855) Steers last ship.


Landed a large contract, but died young

On 25 September 1856, George Steers, while driving a pair of horses to Glen Cove, Long Island, in order to bring home (91 Cannon St.) his wife, who had been visiting, was thrown from his wagon and mortally wounded. He was only 37 years old. He had just negotiated for $1,000,000 worth of boats for the Czar of Russia. He left a son behind him. A procession of 800 citizens was followed by lodges of the Masonic Order, including the Mariner's Lodge (400 men), and 70 carriages of friends and relatives.Funeral of Mr. George Steers. September 29, 1856, Wednesday, The New York Times
/ref> Steers is interred at
Green-Wood Cemetery Green-Wood Cemetery is a cemetery in the western portion of Brooklyn, New York City. The cemetery is located between South Slope/ Greenwood Heights, Park Slope, Windsor Terrace, Borough Park, Kensington, and Sunset Park, and lies several bl ...
in
Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
,
New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...
.


References


Further reading


George Steers and His Work
from "American Yachting" (part of the
American Sportsman's Library The ''American Sportsman's Library'' is a series of 16 uniformly-bound volumes on sporting subjects, from an American perspective, published by the Macmillan Company (see Macmillan Publishers) in the period 1902-1905. Caspar Whitney, the owner/ed ...
) by W.P. Stephens
George Steers, Shipbuilder
a tale for boys *
Henry Howe Henry Howe (October 11, 1816 – October 14, 1893) was an American author who wrote histories of several states in the United States. His most celebrated work is the three volume ''Historical Collections of Ohio''. Life Henry Howe was born in ...
, ''Adventures and Achievements of Americans,'' 1859; pp
140 – 146
{{DEFAULTSORT:Steers, George American naval architects American yacht designers America's Cup yacht designers Businesspeople from New York City Businesspeople from Washington, D.C. 1819 births 1856 deaths Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery 19th-century American businesspeople