Robert Kermit (September 4, 1794 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

– March 13, 1855 in

) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

shipowner and owner of the

Red Star Line The Red Star Line was a shipping line founded in 1871 as a joint venture between the International Navigation Company of Philadelphia, which also ran the American Line, and the Société Anonyme de Navigation Belgo-Américaine of Antwerp, Belgiu ...

(also called the Kermit Line).

Early life

Kermit was the son of Captain Henry Kermit and Elizabeth (Ferguson) Kermit. His father had been master of the

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

''Morning Star''MacBean, William M. ''Biographical register of Saint Andrew's society of the state of New York (1922)'' pp. 169-170 (which traded to the West Indies) for many years.

Career

Robert Kermit gained a mercantile training in the shipping house of William Codman. With his brother Henry – a skilled bookkeeper – he went into business in 1817 at 84 Greenwich Street in New York. They purchased the ship ''Aurora'' to run in the Liverpool

packet trade Generally, packet trade is any regularly scheduled cargo, passenger and mail trade conducted by ship. The ships are called "packet boats" as their original function was to carry mail. A "packet ship" was originally a vessel employed to carry post ...

. In 1827, following the death of his brother, Kermit carried on business as an agent for packet ships to and from Liverpool. Within a few years he rapidly increased the number of his ships and soon became one of the largest ship-owners in the country.

Kermit and Carow

By 1834, Robert Kermit already owned ''St. George'', and persuaded Stephen Whitney and

Nathaniel Prime Nathaniel Prime (January 30, 1768 – November 26, 1840) was a New York broker and banker. Early life Prime was born in Rowley, Massachusetts on January 30, 1768. He was the son of Joshua Prime and Bridget Hammond Prime. In his early years, h ...

to become owners in a new ship, ''St. Andrew''. Lubbock, Basil. ''Western Ocean Packets'' p. 26Scoville, Joseph. ''The old merchants of New York City (1863)'' pp. 26-27 This was the birth of the

Saint Line In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Ortho ...

. Despite making some highly profitable deals, Kermit, Prime, and Whitney could not keep the Saint Line afloat. After the Saint Line foundered, Kermit moved his company to 74 South Street, and on September 11, 1835 purchased the old and popular Red Star Line of Liverpool packets, established in 1818 by Byrnes, Trimble & Co. In 1837, Kermit became a director of the

Mutual Insurance Company A mutual insurance company is an insurance company owned entirely by its policyholders. Any profits earned by a mutual insurance company are either retained within the company or rebated to policyholders in the form of dividend distributions or re ...

and in 1847 director of the Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Company. In this period, he commissioned the construction of a few new ships, including ''West Point'' (or ''Westpoint''), that finally sailed under the flag of the Red Star Line. Other Red Star ships included ''John R. Skeddy'' (1845), ''Constellation'' (1849), ''Underwriter'' (1850), ''Waterloo'', ''John Jay'', ''England'', ''Virginian'', ''Samuel Hicks'', ''Stephen Whitney'', ''United States'', and ''Sheffield''. Unlike other operators, Kermit owned shares in all the ships of the line, while the rest of them were mainly owned by various ship builders and ship captains.''Across the Oceans'' by Seija-Riitta Laakso Under Kermit's management, several misadventures and shipwrecks occurred, but in the quality of the ships, and their speed and regularity, the performance of Red Star Line was better than it had been. In the pressure of hard competition, packet schedules were tightened when reorganizing sailings due to disasters, new launchings, etc. In 1844-1848, several ships made three-month round trips instead of the traditional four months, calculated from one Liverpool departure to the following one. ''West Point'', ''Waterloo'', and especially ''Virginian'' were among the fastest on the North Atlantic route. ''Virginian'' also was one of the most susceptible ships and often ended in reporting problems and misadventures. For many years, Kermit operated the line in his own name (it was often called ''Kermit Line'' too). In 1850, Kermit's father-in-law, Isaac Quentin Carow, died. Kermit never had children of his own; this is part of the reason Kermit developed an almost paternal relationship with his brother-in-law, Charles Carow, who was 21 years younger than his sister Ann Eliza. Kermit took Carow into partnership as Kermit & Carow, to carry on the business of general ship-owning, commission, and commercial trading. After 1851 he was associated with his brother-in-law,

Charles Carow Charles Carow (October 4, 1825 – March 18, 1883) was an American merchant and shipowner who was the father of first lady of the United States Edith Carow Roosevelt. Early life Carow was born on October 4, 1825. He was the youngest, and only surv ...

Personal life

On December 4, 1832, Kermit married Ann Eliza Carow, eldest daughter of his business partner''Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady'' by Sylvia J. Morris, p. 10 Isaac Quentin Carow and Eliza Mowatt.New York, Marriage Newspaper Extracts, 1801–1880 (Barber Collection): ''New York Evening Post'', December 6, 1832 Kermit died at his residence, 50 East 14th Street, age 60.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kermit, Robert 1794 births 1855 deaths American businesspeople in shipping Businesspeople from New York City 19th-century American businesspeople