Thomas Clyde (1812 – January 12, 1885) was a ship-owner, founder of the

Clyde Line Clyde Steamship Company was a steamship transportation company connecting New York City to Florida as well as routes to Boston and Providence, Cuba, New Orleans, and various Keys. William P. Clyde organized the company in 1874 and acquired vario ...

of steamers, and a civil and marine engineer who built the first commercial

screw steamer A screw steamer or screw steamship is an old term for a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine, using one or more propellers (also known as ''screws'') to propel it through the water. Such a ship was also known as an "iron screw steam shi ...

in America. He was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States at the age of eight. He lived in Philadelphia with his uncle until they relocated to

Chester, Pennsylvania Chester is a city in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, United States. Located within the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area, it is the only city in Delaware County and had a population of 32,605 as of the 2020 census. Incorporated in 1682, Chester i ...

in 1826. Clyde and

Edward Darlington Edward Darlington (September 17, 1795 – November 21, 1884) was a three term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania from the Anti-Masonic Party. His cousins Isaac Darlington and William Darlington were also both member ...

co-owned a spinning mill on

Chester Creek Chester Creek is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 1, 2011 tributary of the Delaware River in Delaware County, Pennsylvania in the United States.Gertler, Edward. ' ...

in Pennsylvania and another mill on the

Brandywine River Brandywine Creek (also called the Brandywine River) is a tributary of the Christina River in southeastern Pennsylvania and northern Delaware in the United States. The Lower Brandywine (the main stem) is longU.S. Geological Survey. National Hydr ...

in Delaware. He worked for his uncle's grocery business until 1832 and then took charge of a stone quarry on

Ridley Creek Ridley Creek is a tributary of the Delaware River in Chester and Delaware counties, Pennsylvania in the United States.Gertler, Edward. ''Keystone Canoeing'', Seneca Press, 2004. The entire drainage basin is in the suburban Philadelphia area, but ...

. The quarry provided huge blocks of stone ranging between two and seven tons to the U.S. Government for the construction of the Delaware Breakwater near Cape Henlopen, Delaware. The stones were carried to Cape Henlopen by large sloops. He also worked as a contractor on the construction of the

James River and Kanawha Canal The James River and Kanawha Canal was a partially built canal in Virginia intended to facilitate shipments of passengers and freight by water between the western counties of Virginia and the coast. Ultimately its towpath became the roadbed for a ...

in Virginia. In 1842, he began a

short-sea shipping The modern terms short-sea shipping (sometimes unhyphenated), marine highway, and motorways of the sea, and the more historical terms coastal trade, coastal shipping, coasting trade, and coastwise trade, all encompass the movement of cargo and pass ...

business between Philadelphia and New York. The venture initially consisted of only one steamer but quickly grew to twelve steamers running between the two ports. The business expanded to include routes to Norfolk, Richmond, Alexandria, Washington, D.C. and other ports along the Atlantic Coast of the United States. In 1844, Clyde partnered with Swedish inventor

John Ericsson John Ericsson (born Johan Ericsson; July 31, 1803 – March 8, 1889) was a Swedish-American inventor. He was active in England and the United States. Ericsson collaborated on the design of the railroad steam locomotive ''Novelty'', which co ...

and Thomas Neafie (of

Neafie & Levy Neafie, Levy & Co., commonly known as Neafie & Levy, was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania shipbuilding and engineering firm that existed from the middle of the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century. Described as United States, America's "first spe ...

) to apply Ericsson's screw-propeller technology to steam vessels. After several experimental versions, Clyde launched the twin-screw propeller steamer ''John S. McKim'' making it the first screw steamer built in the United States for commercial use. Thomas Clyde ran the shipping company from 1844 until 1861. He was at one point in that period the largest owner of steamers and steamships in the United States. At one point he controlled all steamship traffic from New York to San Francisco as well as the traffic on the Panama Railroad. He served as a director in the Delaware Mutual Safety Insurance Company and the Central National Bank. He also had holdings in railroads and real estate. His son William Pancoast Clyde took over the company and it expanded into the

Clyde Steamship Company Clyde Steamship Company was a steamship transportation company connecting New York City to Florida as well as routes to Boston and Providence, Cuba, New Orleans, and various Keys. William P. Clyde organized the company in 1874 and acquired various ...

with additional steamships and routes in the last quarter of the 19th century and into the 20th. The company was sold to Charles W. Morse in 1906. Thomas Clyde tombstone

He was married to Rebecca Pancoast. He died on January 12, 1885, and was interred at

Laurel Hill Cemetery Laurel Hill Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery in the East Falls neighborhood of Philadelphia. Founded in 1836, it was the second major rural cemetery in the United States after Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts. The cemetery is ...

in Philadelphia.

References

1812 births 1885 deaths 19th-century American businesspeople American bankers American mining businesspeople American businesspeople in shipping American company founders American manufacturing businesspeople American shipbuilders American textile industry businesspeople Burials at Laurel Hill Cemetery (Philadelphia) Businesspeople from Philadelphia People from Chester, Pennsylvania Irish emigrants to the United States {{US-business-bio-stub