Shipbuilding and shipping have always been key elements in the life of Essex. Since the seventeenth century, the men and women of the lower Connecticut River Valley sustained maritime traditions that spanned the globe in splendid wooden sailing vessels. Their accomplishments include building the first warship of the Connecticut navy and the world's first submarine. They also served as packet ship captains, navigators and skilled crew members who crossed the Atlantic. The Essex area was also home to dedicated craftsmen who produced some of the finest yachts ever built. Noted historians Wick Griswold and Ruth Major detail one village's important role in American maritime history.
The waters, inlets and islands of Connecticut once swarmed with fabled corsairs like Captain Kidd and Blackbeard who may have buried their booty in Constitution State soil. In colonial times and through the nineteenth century, over one hundred privateers used the Connecticut River and waterways as a home port, influencing the geopolitics of the time. During the Revolutionary War, the infamous traitor Benedict Arnold attempted to destroy the state's privateer fleet. In 1779, Captain Elisha Hinman cleverly devised a system that allowed the large privateer ship Governor Trumbull to avoid enemy attack by becoming super-buoyant and passing over dangerous shoals. Wick Griswold uncovers the swashbuckling stories of Connecticut's pirates and privateers, brimming with historical facts and local myths.
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