Flamboyant, ostentatiously wealthy international trading merchant, ship owner and maritime adventurer. He commissioned the first two private yachts built in America: Jefferson, 1n 1801, and the opulently appointed Cleopatra's Barge, which was launched in 1816 and sailed by Crowninshield across the Atlantic for a tour of the Mediterranean. An unapologetic admirer of Napoleon, it was freely rumored that the vessel was built with the aim to use it to rescue the ex-emperor and spirit him from captivity on St. Helena. No such plot was ever proven. A recreation of the interior of Cleopatra's Barge is a permanent exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem.
Crowninshield also fully financed a voyage to retrieve the bodies of Capt. James Lawrence ('Don't Give Up the Ship'), commander of the USS Chesapeake, and his second-in-command, Lt. Augustus Ludlow, who were both killed in Chesapeake's engagement with HMS Shannon during the War of 1812, and interred by the British in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Crowninshield arranged a truce ship to sail to the British naval base and return with the heroes' remains to Salem, where they were deposited in Crowninshield's own tomb after an elaborate funeral. Lawrence was later reinterred in a special tomb in the burying yard of Trinity Church in New York City.
Crowninshield never married, but had a daughter with Elizabeth Rowell. Her name was Clarissa, but went by Clara. She became a lifelong friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Capt. Crowninshield died of a heart attack aboard Cleopatra's Barge, while it was moored at Crowninshield Wharf in Salem.
(The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem by Ralph D. Paine/A. C. McClurg, Chicago, 1912.; Maritime Salem in the Age of Sail - National Park Service/Salem National Maritime Site; "A Million Pounds of Sandalwood" by Paul Forsythe Johnson/American Neptune, May 2002; Peabody Essex Museum; Essex Institute - Philips Library; early vital records of Salem to 1849)
Crowninshield also fully financed a voyage to retrieve the bodies of Capt. James Lawrence ('Don't Give Up the Ship'), commander of the USS Chesapeake, and his second-in-command, Lt. Augustus Ludlow, who were both killed in Chesapeake's engagement with HMS Shannon during the War of 1812, and interred by the British in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Crowninshield arranged a truce ship to sail to the British naval base and return with the heroes' remains to Salem, where they were deposited in Crowninshield's own tomb after an elaborate funeral. Lawrence was later reinterred in a special tomb in the burying yard of Trinity Church in New York City.
Crowninshield never married, but had a daughter with Elizabeth Rowell. Her name was Clarissa, but went by Clara. She became a lifelong friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Capt. Crowninshield died of a heart attack aboard Cleopatra's Barge, while it was moored at Crowninshield Wharf in Salem.
(The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem by Ralph D. Paine/A. C. McClurg, Chicago, 1912.; Maritime Salem in the Age of Sail - National Park Service/Salem National Maritime Site; "A Million Pounds of Sandalwood" by Paul Forsythe Johnson/American Neptune, May 2002; Peabody Essex Museum; Essex Institute - Philips Library; early vital records of Salem to 1849)
Flamboyant, ostentatiously wealthy international trading merchant, ship owner and maritime adventurer. He commissioned the first two private yachts built in America: Jefferson, 1n 1801, and the opulently appointed Cleopatra's Barge, which was launched in 1816 and sailed by Crowninshield across the Atlantic for a tour of the Mediterranean. An unapologetic admirer of Napoleon, it was freely rumored that the vessel was built with the aim to use it to rescue the ex-emperor and spirit him from captivity on St. Helena. No such plot was ever proven. A recreation of the interior of Cleopatra's Barge is a permanent exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem.
Crowninshield also fully financed a voyage to retrieve the bodies of Capt. James Lawrence ('Don't Give Up the Ship'), commander of the USS Chesapeake, and his second-in-command, Lt. Augustus Ludlow, who were both killed in Chesapeake's engagement with HMS Shannon during the War of 1812, and interred by the British in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Crowninshield arranged a truce ship to sail to the British naval base and return with the heroes' remains to Salem, where they were deposited in Crowninshield's own tomb after an elaborate funeral. Lawrence was later reinterred in a special tomb in the burying yard of Trinity Church in New York City.
Crowninshield never married, but had a daughter with Elizabeth Rowell. Her name was Clarissa, but went by Clara. She became a lifelong friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Capt. Crowninshield died of a heart attack aboard Cleopatra's Barge, while it was moored at Crowninshield Wharf in Salem.
(The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem by Ralph D. Paine/A. C. McClurg, Chicago, 1912.; Maritime Salem in the Age of Sail - National Park Service/Salem National Maritime Site; "A Million Pounds of Sandalwood" by Paul Forsythe Johnson/American Neptune, May 2002; Peabody Essex Museum; Essex Institute - Philips Library; early vital records of Salem to 1849)
Crowninshield also fully financed a voyage to retrieve the bodies of Capt. James Lawrence ('Don't Give Up the Ship'), commander of the USS Chesapeake, and his second-in-command, Lt. Augustus Ludlow, who were both killed in Chesapeake's engagement with HMS Shannon during the War of 1812, and interred by the British in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Crowninshield arranged a truce ship to sail to the British naval base and return with the heroes' remains to Salem, where they were deposited in Crowninshield's own tomb after an elaborate funeral. Lawrence was later reinterred in a special tomb in the burying yard of Trinity Church in New York City.
Crowninshield never married, but had a daughter with Elizabeth Rowell. Her name was Clarissa, but went by Clara. She became a lifelong friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Capt. Crowninshield died of a heart attack aboard Cleopatra's Barge, while it was moored at Crowninshield Wharf in Salem.
(The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem by Ralph D. Paine/A. C. McClurg, Chicago, 1912.; Maritime Salem in the Age of Sail - National Park Service/Salem National Maritime Site; "A Million Pounds of Sandalwood" by Paul Forsythe Johnson/American Neptune, May 2002; Peabody Essex Museum; Essex Institute - Philips Library; early vital records of Salem to 1849)
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