Ship Building

Dennis Creek Landing Ship Building

Dennis Creek in years past the creek was spanned by a covered bridge. The Dennis Creek Landing was the Port of the area with a number of wharves, stores and most importantly three very productive and prosperous ship yards from which many ships were built, launched and towed out the Dennis Creek to the Delaware Bay and on to either Philadelphia or Delaware for outfitting of their sails. The Dennis Township School House Museum contains a number of displays of some of these early vessels as well as a list of the ships built and the names of the hearty souls who were the Sea Captains from the surrounding villages of the Township.

In the second half of the 19th century; the Dennis Creek Landing shipyards are estimated to have built upwards of 50 vessels.

Ultimately, shipbuilding at the landing fell victim to competition from larger urban shipyards, the transition from sail to steam, and the use of iron and steel in place of wood. The gristmill closed down sometime in the early 1890s, around the same time that the Sea Coast Railroad Company constructed a rail line through North and South Dennisville, bypassing Dennis Creek Landing. Before long, the causeway was largely reduced to its original primary function, that of providing a crossing over the creek and tidal marsh. By the late 1920s, when the bridge over the creek was replaced for the fourth time, the landing and its related industrial and commercial facilities had all but vanished from the landscape, leaving behind a line of abandoned wharves for sporadic usage by local fishermen and recreational boaters.

History of the Schooner PROVIDENCE – The PROVIDENCE was a 379 ton schooner, built by G. P. Wentzel of Dennisville, N.J. in 1874. She appears in the A.B.S. RECORD through 1889, with R.S. Leaming listed as owner. During the period covered by these papers PROVIDENCE made approximately 132 trips from the Philadelphia/New Jersey area to various ports along the coast, carrying coal and other bulk cargo. Included is a voyage to Mantanzas, Cuba for sugar, but most trips were to ports in Massachusetts and Maine with loads of coal. Lewis C. Gandy’s name appears throughout this collection. He was master of the PROVIDENCE for awhile, and later seems to have been the vessel’s agent.

A.J. Meerwald – 1928: The Meerwald family of South Dennis commissioned Charles H. Stowman & Sons shipyard to build the A.J. Meerwald. The Schooner A.J. Meerwald is New Jersey’s official Tall Ship. Today, the A.J. Meerwald is used by the Bayshore Center at Bivalve for onboard educational programs in the Delaware Bay near Bivalve, and at other ports in the New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware region. The A.J. Meerwald was added to the National Register of Historic Places on November 7, 1995. Visit the Bayshore Center at Bivalve.

“Mary E. Crosby” was built in 1873, thus at the start of the boom in tern schooners. She was launched as the “Imogene Divert” in Dennisville, New Jersey. She was not a large schooner: 111.3 feet in length, 23.4 feet in breadth, 8.6 feet in depth, and of 188 gross tons. She was of oak and pine, and iron-framed. She had a center board. The “Imogene Divert” had a twin sister, the “Deborah H. Divert”, built the following year. The “Deborah” and the “Imogene” stayed together in New Jersey until 1884, when “Imogene” came to Nantucket as her new home port. Her new owner-master, John L. Brooks, changed her name to the “Mary E. Crosby.” Details are sparse.

Historic Photos

Ships Built At Dennis Creek

  1. 1848 – Nathaniel Holmes
  2. 1849 – Charles A. Grain
  3. 1852 – Sarah M. Smith
  4. 1853 – Mount Vernon
  5. 1857 – John T. Ferguson
  6. 1857 – James Diverty
  7. 1857 – Anna Marie
  8. 1858 – Alabama
  9. 1861 – Charles Robbins
  10. 1862 – Lizzie Diverty
  11. 1864 – Amelia H. Leaming
  12. 1864 – James William Haig
  13. 1866 – Beulah B. Ludlam
  14. 1866 – Mary L. VanKirk
  15. 1867 – C. B. Wood
  16. 1867 – Ella Matthews
  1. 1868 – Hiran Tucker
  2. 1869 – J. K. Manning
  3. 1870 – Liffey
  4. 1871 – William L. Abbott
  5. 1871 – John G. Fell
  6. 1872 – Eva Diverty
  7. 1872 – Harry B. Diverty
  8. 1873 – Irene A. B. Crawford
  9. 1873 – Mary E. Crosby
  10. 1873 – Helen Rommel
  11. 1873 – Imogene Diverty
  12. 1873 – Frank Leaming
  13. 1873 – William L. Elkins
  14. 1873 – Maria S.
  15. 1874 – Deborah H. Diverty
  1. 1874 – Jennie R. Diverty
  2. 1874 – Providence
  3. 1874 – Joanna Doughty
  4. 1875 – Mary C. Carroll
  5. 1875 – Anna M. Carey
  6. 1876 – Cora S. Van Gilder
  7. 1877 – William E. Lee
  8. 1880 – Richard S. Leaming
  9. 1880 – T. G. Cruse
  10. 1881 – Hattie Nickerson
  11. 1881 – Sallie Young
  12. 1882 – Ann R. Ludlam
  13. 1882 – Edward W. Perry
  14. 1882 – Gertrude Abbott
  15. 1883 – Marcus Edwards
  1. 1883 – Amelia P. Schmidt
  2. 1883 – Lizzie Babcock
  3. 1883 – Edith T. Gandy
  4. 1884 – Emily S. Baymore
  5. 1884 – Nantisco
  6. 1884 – Isaac H. Tilyer
  7. 1887 – Rhoda B.
  8. 1889 – John M. Moore
  9. 1890 – Thomas F. Pollard
  10. 1890 – J. Henry Edmunds
  11. 1891 – Samuel B. Marts
  12. 1891 – Douglass Gregory
  13. 1891 – Mary Meerwald
  14. 1901 – Lewis C. Leaming
  15. 1901 – Flora Van Gilder

Sea Captains Of Dennis Township

  1. Allen, John – Dennisville
  2. Blizzard, Brooks – Dennisville
  3. Bushnell, Milo – Dennisville
  4. Bushnell, Fred – Dennisville
  5. Cain, Frank – Clermont
  6. Cain, John – Clermont
  7. Cain, Maurice – Clermont
  8. Carroll, Charles – Dennisville
  9. Carroll, Herbert M. – Dennisville
  10. Carroll, John – Dennisville
  11. Cherry, William – Clermont
  12. Chester, Hosea – Dennisville
  13. Chester, Harry – Dennisville
  14. Chester, Joseph R. – Dennisville
  15. Corson, Baker – South Seaville
  16. Corson, Frederick – S. Seaville
  17. Corson, Henry – South Seaville
  18. Corson, Reuben G. – S. Seaville
  19. Douglass, Elezaar – Dennisville
  20. Douglass, John – Dennisville
  21. Douglass, Lewis H. – Dennisville
  22. Earnest, Frank – Dennisville
  23. Edwards, Lewis – Dennisville
  1. Fidler, Charles – Dennisville
  2. Fidler, Daniel L. – Dennisville
  3. Gandy, Frank – Ocean View
  4. Gandy, Lewis – Ocean View
  5. Gandy, Ogden – Dennisville
  6. Gandy, Uriah – Dennisville
  7. Gay, Henry N. – South Seaville
  8. Grace, Robert C. – Dennisville
  9. Grace, Walton – Eldora
  10. Grace, Seth T. – Dennisville
  11. Grace, William – Dennisville
  12. Grace, William T. – Dennisville
  13. Hagan, Charles – Dennisville
  14. Hagan, Stephen – Dennisville
  15. Hand, Jesse – Dennisville
  16. Hand, Somers – Dennisville
  17. Henderson, John – S. Dennis
  18. Hewitt, Thomas T. – S. Seaville
  19. Hickman, Charles – Dennisville
  20. Hickman, Larry – South Dennis
  21. Holmes, James – Clermont
  22. James, George – Dennisville
  23. Johnson, Jacob – Dennisville
  24. Kates, Charles – Clermont
  1. Little, James S. – Dennisville
  2. Lloyd, Charles – South Seaville
  3. Ludlam, Furman L. – S. Dennis
  4. Ludlam, Richard – Dennisville
  5. McCormick, Isaac – S. Dennis
  6. McCormick, Robert – S. Dennis
  7. McKeague, Charles P. – Eldora
  8. Morton, Samuel – South Dennis
  9. Nickelson, Hugh H. – Eldora
  10. Nickerson, Aaron – S. Dennis
  11. Nickerson, Harvey – S. Dennis
  12. Nickerson, James D. – S. Dennis
  13. Nickerson, James Jr. – South Dennis
  14. Nickerson, T. H. – Eldora
  15. Peterson, Albert – South Dennis
  16. Powell, Jacob – Eldora
  17. Robinson, Charles – S. Dennis
  18. Sayers, George – South Seaville
  19. Scull, Andrew – Dennisville
  20. Shaw, DeMott – Clermont
  21. Shaw, Henry – Ocean View
  22. Smith, Charles S. – S. Seaville
  23. Smith, Jacob – Clermont
  1. Smith, John L. – Ocean View
  2. Smith, Stillwell – Ocean View
  3. Steelman, Westley – S. Seaville
  4. Stiles, Smith – South Dennis
  5. Stiles, Vermont – South Dennis
  6. Taylor, John – Dennisville
  7. Taylor, Seth – Dennisville
  8. Taylor, William – Dennisville
  9. Thompson, William G. – Dennisville
  10. Townsend, David – Ocean View
  11. Townsend, Enoch – Ocean View
  12. Townsend, Thomas – S. Seaville
  13. Van Gilder, Thompson – Ocean View
  14. Van Kirk, Aaron – Dennisville
  15. Van Kirk, William – S. Dennis
  16. Westcott, Coleman – Dennisville
  17. Westcott, John Piper – Dennisville
  18. Westcott, Samuel – Dennisville
  19. Williams, Edward – Dennisville
  20. Williams, John H. – Dennisville
  21. Williams, Joseph – Ocean View