Farrow Shipyard
- Charles Thrasher
- Dec 26, 2025
- 7 min read
A brutal storm raged along the New Jersey coast on January 6, 1856, and drove the schooner Pacific, homeport Washington, North Carolina, ashore on Barnegat Bay. Waves swept the schooners deck. The crew took to the rigging, sheathed in ice, hoping to survive the night but within an hour the brutal cold drove them into the cabin.
Waves stove in the companionway hatch, flooded the cabin, and carried Captain Tilman Farrow overboard. The ship’s boy, brother-in-law to the captain, drowned.
The mate, Charles Pickett, a strong man and determined, brought the captain back onboard. The surviving crew took refuge on top of the deck house, clinging to the rigging, exposed to the freezing wind and waves. The temperature plunged to near zero.
One by one the crew was swept overboard and lost. By daybreak, only the captain and mate remained. They were determined to make the shore.
The captain’s trousers were frozen stiff, immobilizing him. Pickett dragged him across the deck and into the surf, but a wave separated them, carrying the captain beyond Pickett’s reach. The mate went after him again through the freezing surf and managed to drag him, senseless, beyond reach of the waves.
On shore, the wreck-master, a man named Jennings, came to their assistance but the captain died shortly after. (A wreck-master was the first official or ship captain to arrive on the site of a wreck. They had authority over salvage and responsibility for the preservation of life and property.) [1]
They brought the body of Tilman Farrow back to the Pacific’s home port of Washington and buried him in Oakdale Cemetery.
Hezekiah’s Yard
William Farrow, Tilman’s father, built the Pacific in 1850 at the Farrow Shipyard in Washington. Hezekiah Farrow founded the yard in 1830 at the intersection of Water and Bonner Street. The shipyard, railway, and wharf were opposite his house. He lived only three years after establishing the shipyard, but the Farrow family retained ownership.
The yard featured a marine railway — a cradle running on tracks that could be lowered into the water to allow a vessel to float into place. The vessel was then pulled onto land by a heavy hawser led to a windlass and turned by a patient mule. Yard work was limited to repairs until the 1840s when they began to launch new construction. [2]
Their kinsman, Joseph Farrow, launched the 65-foot schooner Benjamin F. Hanks from the yard in 1847. He simultaneously built two other boats in the yard, one for Captain Josephus Wallace, the other for Samuel R. Fowle.
The North State Whig called him “one young townsman” at the time, but Joseph Allen Farrow would become the man most closely associated with the Farrow Shipyard for over half a century, spanning the Civil War, the Mexican War, the Spanish American War, and the beginning of the 20th century. [3]
Washington shipbuilding reached its peak in 1855. In that year Washington shipwrights produced twelve vessels: nine schooners, two steamboats, and a barge.
In 1856, Joseph Farrow bought the shipyard and marine railway from David Farrow who himself bought the waterfront lots and buildings from the other heirs of Hezekiah Farrow. Except for the years when Union troops occupied Washington, Joseph would own the shipyard until his death in 1906. [4]
And then came the war.
Civil War
In March 1862, five Union gunboats steamed up the Pamlico River. Two of them docked at Washington. Their troops marched to the courthouse led by their drum major, “a big stout man with a tremendous cap and a big feather in it,” carrying a mallet. The band played Yankee Doodle, Hail Columbia, and the Star-Spangled Banner as the Union flag was hoisted. The troops gave repeated cheers while the townspeople remained stubbornly silent. The troops destroyed the gun carriages at Myers’ & Sons shipyard and dismantled the gunboat on the stocks at Farrow’s. They would have burned it but feared firing the entire town. [5]
The war had come to Washington.
Joseph Farrow had traveled to Richmond late in 1861 and successfully solicited shipbuilding contracts from Stephen Mallory, Naval Secretary for the Confederate States. Mallory was building a mosquito fleet of 100 small, wooden, shoal draft gun platforms powered by steam engines intended to operate on bays and rivers. [6]
The gunboat destroyed by Union Forces at Farrow’s shipyard was one of those contracts.
Until April 1864, Union forces controlled Farrow’s shipyard. Union shipwrights and carpenters repaired Union vessels there. Joseph went to Wilmington to build Confederate gunboats. After the war, he claimed he was conscripted by the Confederacy. In fact, shipbuilders were too valuable to be drafted into service. They were exempt from conscription.
Farrow reportedly intended to build another Confederate gunboat in Tarboro, but none were ever built there. [7]
The schooner Pacific proved more durable than the men who sailed her. She was salvaged from the Barnegat Bay beach and refloated. Six years later, in 1862, when Union troops still occupied Washington, the Pacific, owned and captained by James Farrow, sailed for the West Indies with a cargo of shingles, the first commercial vessel to sail from Washington since the Union blockade began. [8]
In late April 1864, Federal troops withdrew from Washington after looting the town. Fires were set along the waterfront, burning wharves, warehouses, and shipyards. The fire burned much of the town. Afterwards both Union and Confederate officers condemned the unnecessary destruction.
The war wasn’t over. Confederate troops would return to Washington in April 1864, and the South’s surrender wouldn’t come until April 1865, but when Joseph Farrow returned to claim ownership of his shipyard, it was in ruins.
Farrow's Shipyard After the War
President Andrew Johnson’s Amnesty Proclamation (May 29, 1865) required presidential pardons for several classes of southerners: Civil and military leaders, those who left U.S. government posts to join the Confederacy, and men with taxable property valued at more than $20,000. Without a pardon, a shipbuilder couldn’t buy, sell, or recover his confiscated property.
Joseph Farrow didn’t apply for a pardon, probably because his property was valued at less than $20,000. He made claims for property seized by Union forces, however. There is no record that his claims were honored. [9]
In February 1869, Joseph A. Farrow petitioned the court for bankruptcy in the Pamlico District of North Carolina. His petition was granted. [10]
Despite his bankruptcy, he persisted, and in the 1870 census, the only shipyard listed in Washington was Joseph Farrow’s. He had two employees. [11]
For nearly ten years after the war, no vessel of any size was built in Washington.
In 1860, before the war, Farrow’s shipyard and marine railway had an accessed tax value of $2,000. In 1886, the tax value had collapsed to $500. It wouldn’t be until 1896 that the shipyard regained its pre-war value. [12]
He rebuilt and enlarged the shipyard and added another marine railway in 1884, then leased part of his waterfront property to a small sawmill in 1887. A machine shop and foundry were added later. [13]
The yard was partially damaged by fire in 1890 [14], then destroyed in the catastrophic fire of 1900 that burned Water Street and part of Market (see A Surging Holocaust for more information on the 1900 fire.)
He continued building ships, despite his advanced age, living with his son-in-law, William Miles Chauncey, during the last years of his life. W. M. Chauncey and his brother ran a livery service for several years before William married Farrow’s daughter Ellen sometime in the 1890s. In 1899, Farrow made him a partner in the shipbuilding business. Ellen died in 1904. [15]
Joseph died in 1906, survived by his daughter, Elizabeth (Bettie) Farrow, the only one of three daughters still living, and three grandchildren. He was eighty-four. They buried him in Oakdale Cemetery.
Chauncey inherited the business, having previously loaned Joseph $2,000 at 6% interest. [16]
In 1912, Chauncey built the James Adams Floating Theater, the “Showboat,” a topic that deserves its own article.
Ecosystem of a Shipyard
The Farrow Shipyard was important contributor to the economy of Washington. It employed numerous specialized skills:
Shipwrights who oversaw the entire construction, the architects and engineers of wooden shipbuilding.
Carpenters who cut, shaped and assembled the wooden frames, planking, and decks.
Caulkers who drove oakum (hemp soaked in tar) into the cracks between hull planks to seal the hull.
Riggers who installed masts, spars and rigging.
Sailmakers who shaped sails from heavy canvas that fit the schooner’s unique configuration.
Blacksmiths who forged fittings, fastenings, anchor and chain.
Joiners who built the interior cabins, bunks and storage compartments.
Painters & Varnishers who protected the vessel with tar, pitch, and paint against the harsh marine environment.
Laborers who did the heavy lifting, timber hauling, and unskilled work.
There was, as well, an ecosystem of independent trades that supported wooden ship construction.
Coopers who supplied barrels for water, food, and cargo storage.
Blockmakers who fashioned wooden pulley blocks for running rigging.
Ropemakers who worked the rope walks, making cordage for rigging and anchor rode.
Sparmakers who specialized in shaping masts and booms from timber.
Wheelwrights who built steering wheels and carts for use in shipyards.
Loggers who felled the timber in the surrounding forests.
Tugboat crews that hauled the cut timber to the mill.
Millworkers who sawed the timber into usable planks.
At one time, Washington was second only to Wilmington in the importance of its shipyards. The North State Whig pompously claimed in 1855 that Washington’s shipbuilding facilities were surpassed “by no place on the globe.”
Time and technology ultimately made local shipbuilding redundant. Trains and trucks took the place of wooden boats, and steel ships carried freight overseas. The character and culture of Washington, however, was strongly influenced by the boats built here and the men who built them.
Notes
Wilmington Journal, January 25, 1856: 4
Still, Jr., W.N. and Stephenson, R.A., Shipbuilding in North Carolina 1688—1918
North State Whig, April 27, 1853: 2
Still, Jr., W.N. and Stephenson, R.A., ibid
The Daily Bulletin (Charlotte), April 1, 1862: 2
Still, Jr., W.N. and Stephenson, R.A., ibid
Charlotte Daily Observer, April 13, 1901: 8
The New Era (Washington), July 3, 1862: 2
Still, Jr., W.N. and Stephenson, R.A., ibid
Charlotte Daily Observer, April 13, 1901: 8
North Carolina Standard (Raleigh), February 26, 1869: 3
Still, Jr., W.N. and Stephenson, R.A., ibid
Still, Jr., W.N. and Stephenson, R.A., ibid
Washington Gazette, January 23, 1890: 3
Daily Industrial News (Greensboro), November 21, 1906: 3
Beaufort County Record Book 78, page 331
Still, Jr., W.N. and Stephenson, R.A., ibid
Comments