Captain Rose’s House, Later Kit Burn’s Sportsman’s Hall
On my way to an informal gathering of water-bloggers on Saturday, I passed by Captain Joseph Rose’s House at 273 Water Street in Lower Manhattan. I wanted to stop by because one scene in my next novel, The Shantyman, is set in the building. The scene takes place long after the Rose family had decamped, when the building was Kit Burn’s notorious Sportman’s Hall, better known as simply the “Rat Pit.”
Captain Rose had the house built in 1773. It is said to be the third oldest surviving building in Manhattan. (The oldest is apparently St. Paul’s Chapel, not far away at 209 Broadway, between Fulton and Vesey Streets. The second oldest is the Morris-Jumel Mansion in Washington Heights.) Captain Rose was a successful importer of Honduran mahogany. In those days, the East River ran directly behind his house on the aptly named, Water Street. Captain Rose kept his brig, Industry, just out his back door, at a pier that he shared with his neighbor and fellow ship owner, William Laight.
By the 1840s, Water Street and nearby South and Cherry Streets were the heart of New York’s “Sailortown.” The streets were lined with boarding houses, bars, brothels and gambling dens. Continue reading
It is remarkably difficult to grasp how large ships can be. I remember, many years ago, being amazed how a full sized city bus, which looked so large on the pier, seemed to shrink dramatically as it was hoisted and lowered into the hold of a ship. The ship was not particularly large by today’s standards, yet the bus seem so small as it disappeared into the hold. This memory was triggered by the recent 
Stepping away for a moment from the unfolding current events in the Ukraine and Russia, it might be worthwhile to look at the history of the region, which was shaped by the arrival of merchant adventurers rowing long ships. As with so much of European history, it began with the Vikings. The Norse Vikings, from the region that we now call Sweden, rowed their long ships deep into the rivers of Central and Eastern Europe; pushing up the Volga, the Dnieper, the Volkhov and the Neva rivers, among others. Using rivers and lakes connected to the
Update: 
Last July, I was pleased, and more than a bit surprised, to see a play in New York City about a shipyard. It was Off-Broadway and only a two man play, but nevertheless, it was about a shipyard. The play, 
Last Wednesday, 
The Navy plans to deploy its first laser weapons on the