The Black Ball Line (originally known as the Wright, Thompson, Marshall, & Thompson Line, then as the Old Line) was a passenger line founded by a group of New York

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

merchants headed by Jeremiah Thompson, and included Isaac Wright & Son (William), Francis Thompson and Benjamin Marshall. All were Quakers except Marshall. The line initially consisted of four

packet ship Packet boats were medium-sized boats designed for domestic mail, passenger, and freight transportation in European countries and in North American rivers and canals, some of them steam driven. They were used extensively during the 18th and 19th ...

s, the ''Amity'', ''Courier'', ''Pacific'' and the ''James Monroe''. All of these were running between

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and

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 ...

. This first scheduled trans-Atlantic service was founded in 1817. In operation for some 60 years, it took its name from its flag, a black ball on a red background.

History

The Wright, Thompson, Marshall, & Thompson Line was founded in 1817 and began shipping operations in 1818. At some point in the line's history it became known as the Old Line and eventually became known as the Black Ball Line after the 1840s. The Black Ball Line established the modern era of

liners "Liners" is a horticultural term referring to very young plants, usually grown for sale to retailers or wholesalers, who then grow them to a larger size before selling them to consumers. Liners are usually grown from seed, but may also be grown ...

. The

s were contracted by governments to carry mail and also carried passengers and timely items such as newspapers. Up to this point there were no regular passages advertised by sailing ships. They arrived at port when they could, dependent on the wind, and left when they were loaded, frequently visiting other ports to complete their cargo. The Black Ball Line undertook to leave New York on a fixed day of the month irrespective of cargo or passengers. The service took several years to establish itself and it was not until 1822 that the line increased sailings to two per month; it also reduced the cost of passage to 35

guineas The guinea (; commonly abbreviated gn., or gns. in plural) was a coin, minted in United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, Great Britain between 1663 and 1814, that contained approximately one-quarter of an ounce of gold. The name came from t ...

. The sensation this created brought in competitors such as 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 ...

, which also adopted fixed dates. The average passage of packets from New York to Liverpool was 23 days eastward and 40 days westward. But this was at a period where usual reported passages were 30 and 45 days respectively, while westward passages of 65 to 90 days excited no attention. The best passage from New York to Liverpool in those days was the 15 days 16 hours achieved at the end of 1823 by the ship ''New York'' (though often incorrectly reported as ''Canada''). The westward crossing had a remarkable record of 15 days 23 hours set by the Black Ball's ''Columbia'' in 1830, during an unusually prolonged spell of easterly weather which saw several other packet ships making the journey in 16 to 17 days. Captain Joseph Delano was reported to be "up with the Banks of Newfoundland in ten days". The late Captain Charles H

In 1836 the Line passed into the hands of Captain Charles H. Marshall, he gradually added the ''Columbus'', ''Oxford''. ''Cambridge'', ''New York'', ''England'', ''Yorkshire'', ''Fidelia'', ''Isaac Wright'', ''Isaac Webb'', the third ''Manhattan'', ''Montezuma'', ''Alexander Marshall'', ''Great Western'', and ''Harvest Queen'' to the fleet. The Black Ball Line is mentioned in several

sea shanties A sea shanty, chantey, or chanty () is a genre of traditional Folk music, folk song that was once commonly sung as a work song to accompany rhythmical labor aboard large Merchant vessel, merchant Sailing ship, sailing vessels. The term ''shanty ...

, such as "

Blow the Man Down "Blow the Man Down" is an English sea shanty, listed as 2624 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The lyric "Blow the man down" can be interpreted in a number of ways. Some see it as a reference to a sailor being struck with a fist. Given the shanty's ...

," "Homeward Bound", "Eliza Lee", "New York Girls", and "Hurrah for the Black Ball Line."

List of Black Ball Line (USA) ships

Similar shipping lines

*In 1851 James Baines & Co. of Liverpool entered the

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 ...

using the same name and flag as the New York company, despite its protests. Thus, for about twenty years, two "Black Ball lines" under separate ownership were operating in direct competition on the transatlantic

. James Baines & Co. also operated ships running between Liverpool and Australia, including famous

clipper A clipper was a type of mid-19th-century merchant 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 a large total sail area. "C ...

ships such as ''

Champion of the Seas ''Champion of the Seas'' was the second largest clipper ship destined for the Liverpool, England - Melbourne, Australia passenger service. ''Champion'' was ordered by James Baines (shipowner), James Baines of the Black Ball Line (Liverpool), Black ...

'', ''James Baines'', ''Lightning'', ''Indian Queen'', ''Marco Polo'' and ''Sovereign of the Seas''. *The Saint John-Liverpool Packet Line which existed for a couple of years in the 1850s was also known as the Black Ball Line. It was managed by Richard Wright, St. John, and William and James Fernie, in Liverpool.

Notes

References

External links

*
A Tribute To A Dynasty: The Black Ball Line and The Pacific NorthwestTransatlantic
WNYC Reading Room

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black Ball Line (Trans-Atlantic Packet) Transatlantic shipping companies Transport companies established in 1817 Packet (sea transport) Defunct shipping companies of the United Kingdom Defunct shipping companies of the United States Companies with year of disestablishment missing Historic transport in Merseyside