User:Gatoclass/SB/IJ Merritt

Israel J. Merritt
Occupation	Marine salvage
Years active	1840–1911

Israel John Merritt (1829–1911) was an American shipmaster, businessman and pioneer in the field of marine salvage. In 1860, he established what would eventually become the largest marine salvage company in the United States, Merritt-Chapman & Scott.

Life and career

Israel John Merritt was born near Grand Street, Manhattan, on August 23, 1829. His father Hamilton was reportedly of French and Native American descent, and his mother of French descent; Israel was the first of their six children. One of his grandfathers fought as a patriot in the American Revolutionary War.

Israel received a limited education before entering the workforce at the age of ten as a mule-driver for a canal boat on the Raritan Canal. Over the next few years he worked in a variety of positions until, at the age of fifteen, he joined the crew of a salvage ship, thus entering the field that would become his vocation. Over the next few years, Merritt improved his experience and qualifications until, by the age of twenty, he was a shipmaster in charge of his own schooner.

By the early 1850s, Merritt had already established himself as a leader in the field of marine salvage. In 1852, for example, he organized the salvage of the new packet ship Cornelius Grinnell, and later the same year, was credited with the rescue of the passengers and crew of the ship Chauncey Jerome.

References

refs

• partial genealogy[1]
• professionalised trade; children[2]
• raritan canal, spanish fleet[3]
• personally supervised more than 200 ships, more than any other; l'amerique one of the greatest; in charge of st. paul[4]
• history of long island bio[5]
• 1882 bio, l'amerique description, record depth salvage of city of norwich etc[6]
• bio 1896? p437[7]
• 1901 bio[8]
• bio 1902 with image p227[9]
• formation of coast wrecking p6 - also, extensive discussionn of merrit-chapman co. in WWII, salvage of S-19 etc[10]
• more on coast wrecking etc p108[11]

• canal mule driver age 10[12]
• sun obit[13]
• merrit bio 1936 -npc
• merritt image[14] another[15]
• big house 1879 -npc
• figurehead[16] images[17]
• liberty ship[18]
• Matthew J, Merritt a relative?

• will details[19]
• 10k to one son[20]

• company history mystic[21]
• section f - a puzzle[22]
• useful but no sources[23]

• see also "20,000 jobs under the sea :a history of diving and underwater engineering" - over 100 refs to merritt co.
• also "lore of the wreckers"