Jacob Aaron Westervelt (January 20, 1800 – February 21, 1879) was a renowned and prolific shipbuilder who constructed 247 vesselsShips and Shipping of Old New York (1915) by the Bank of the Manhattan Company, page 48. of all descriptions during his career of over 50 years. From 1853 until 1855 he was Mayor of New York City."Mayors of New York City" . Official website of the Department of Citywide Administrative Services — The Green Book. Retrieved on March 14, 2009.Several publications (i.e. History of the city of New York: its origin, rise and progress from Martha J. Lamb and Burton Harrison) incorrectly state that Mayor Jacob A. Westervelt previously served as Sheriff of New York County. The man who was elected High Sheriff was Jacob Westervelt, born July 27, 1794, buried May 10, 1881. During the years 1837–38 he was Assistant Alderman of the 9th Ward, and after retiring from the Shrievalty, he became president of the Lafayette Bank. Information found in Genealogy of the Westervelt family by Walter Tallman Westervelt, page 86.

Together with his partners (Westervelt & MacKay and Westervelt & Sons) he designed some of the fastest and most successful sailing packets, clippers and steamships ever built, among these the screw sloop and the clipper , as well as many vessels for foreign governments and Royal Houses. Westervelt was awarded the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the Queen of Spain for the preparation of models and plans for three Spanish frigates. For many years he was the president of the Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen, a member of the Chamber of Commerce, the Marine Society, the Port Society and the St. Nicholas Society. He was also President of the Board of Dock Commissioners for several years. After Westervelt's death, the flags at City Hall were lowered to half-mast.

Early life (1800–1817) Westervelt was the eldest son of Ari and Vrowti Westervelt. Ari Westervelt was a builder by occupation. He built several houses in Franklin Street, New York, and constructed the South Church in Schraalenburgh in today's borough of Bergenfield, New Jersey .Locate the church on "archiplanet.org" . Retrieved on March 14, 2009. Westervelt was born in Tenafly, on January 20, 1800, and was baptized at Schraalenburgh on February 16, being the first child to receive that sacrament after the completion of the new church. The Westervelts then resided at the old family homestead on Tenafly Road midway between Englewood and Tenafly. When Ari Westervelt was working on improving the riverfront, he moved, together with his infant son, to New York in 1804, to be nearer his work.The author of the article "Death of an ex-Mayor — career of Jacob A. Westervelt" in The New York Times wrote that the family moved to New York in 1804. Walter Tallman Westervelt wrote in his book that the Westervelts moved in 1805. It was to his father that Jacob Aaron owed his good education. His father died when Westervelt was only 14.

The sources differ as to Westervelt's further education and early career. He received additional education under the tutelage of James P. Forrester, then headmaster of the school connected with the Collegiate (Dutch) Church in New York, and was afforded greater educational opportunities under Barron & Brown, in a special course on surveying and navigation. Afterwards he went to sea, serving on ships for more than two years. He left the sea in 1817 and became an apprentice under Christian Bergh, a prosperous shipbuilder on the East River. A differing source reports that he went to sea directly after his father's death,Steamboat Days (1925), by Dayton, Fred Erving, chapter 19. while another states that he was already apprenticed to Christian Bergh in 1814."Death of an ex-Mayor — career of Jacob A. Westervelt" in The New York Times from February 22, 1879, page 2. Retrieved on March 16, 2009.

Christian Bergh's shipyard (1817–1836) Westervelt learned the "art, trade and mystery" of his profession in a most independent way—as a teenage sailor and as an apprentice to Christian Bergh, for whom he worked at the very latest from the year 1817. Such was his talent that he was in Bergh's absolute confidence. Before even graduating from his apprenticeship, Westervelt accepted an offer to start business in Charleston, where he undertook the construction of two schooners, with the help of African American slaves from planters in and around Charleston (with his employer's consent). He was so successful during those few months that he continued in business there, but he found the environment too confining for his ambitions and in 1822 he returned to New York, where he formed a partnership with Robert Carnley and his old master under the name of C. Bergh & Co. Some of the ships built by Bergh and Westervelt were Hope (1825), Henry IV (1826), Charlemagne (1828), Albany (1831), Philadelphia (1832), Utica (1833), Westminster (1835), and Toronto (1835). Christian Bergh retired a wealthy man in 1837,According to Fred Irving Dayton (Steamboat Days), Christian Bergh retired in 1835 (and not 1837), which can not be true, as there must have been a collaboration between Christian Bergh and his son Henry who went into business after 1835 (he matriculated in the class of 1834 at Columbia College, but left before graduating). and was succeeded by his sons Henry and Edwin Bergh, who continued the business until just after their father's death in 1843.History of New York ship yards (1909) by John Harrison Morrison, page 44, reprint by University of Michigan Library 2006, .Heritage of Care (2007) by Marion S. Lane, Stephen Zawistowski, Marty (FRW) Beck, page 3, .

Westervelt & Co. shipyard (1836–1864)

In 1836 Westervelt built at least two ships under his own name, the Baltimore and Mediator, in partnership with the 22-year-old ship chandler Marshall Owen Roberts as Westervelt & Roberts."Palmer List of Merchant Vessels". Retrieved on March 28, 2009. (Archived by WebCite at ). Soon after Christian Bergh's retirement, Westervelt and Robert Carnley made an extensive tour of Europe, visiting the principal shipbuilding points, where Westervelt gathered information that he subsequently put to good use. Westervelt found an inactive life disagreeable and, after a year of travel, returned to the dry docks in 1838 and resumed shipbuilding.

There are differing reports as to the start of this new chapter of Westervelt's life. On one side it is stated that Westervelt bought out his former partners Carnley and the Bergh brothers and took control of the Bergh shipyard,"Era of the clipper ships" by Donald Gunn Ross III. Retrieved on March 28, 2009. at the foot of Gouverneur Street and extending to Water Street and up to Scammel.Article in The New York Times from March 18, 1888. Retrieved on March 29, 2009. Other sources state that Westervelt and William MacKay (not to be confused with Canadian shipbuilder Donald McKay) established one of a few new yards at Corlear's Hook (the block bounded by Third, Goerck and Houston Streets) in 1841 and moved to Lewis and Seventh Street in 1844.History of New York ship yards (1909) by John Harrison Morrison, pages 95–97, reprint by University of Michigan Library 2006, . Westervelt may also have designed and built ships in connection with Edward Mills.

The shipyard Westervelt & MacKay, later Westervelt & Sons (which Westervelt formed with his sons Aaron J. and Daniel),The clipper ship era: an epitome of famous American and British clipper ships, their owners, builders, commanders, and crews, 1843–1869 (1910) by Arthur Hamilton Clark, page 48, . became prominent and prospered. Together with MacKay and his sons he built 50 steamships, 93 traditional sailing vessels and clippers, 5 barques, 14 schooners, one sloop, two lightships, and 11 pilot boats—a total of 181 vessels of 150,624 tons.

Some of his noteworthy pilot boats are: Mary and Catherine (1848) Christian Bergh (1851) Enchantress (1851) George W. Blunt (1856) Edwin Forrest (1855) Abraham Leggett (1870)

Westervelt built more vessels of medium tonnage than any builder of his time.

Some of his noteworthy sailing packets are: The Constellation (1849), built for the Robert Kermit Red Star Line—1,534 tons; 201 feet 10 inches x 41 feet x 28 feet (length x beam x depth of hold); 3 decks; draft 23 feet. This was the largest sailing vessel in the New York–Liverpool packet service at that time. The Constellation carried between 800 and 900 steerage passengers per passage on the lower deck (the 912 steerage passengers she discharged on 29 May 1851 was a record at the time). The and the Waterloo were among the fastest on the North Atlantic route.Square-riggers on schedule by Robert Greenhalgh Albion, pages 276–281, ASIN B0006AO5QE. (Under the pressure of competition, packet schedules were tightened and sailings reorganized due to disasters, new launchings, etc. In 1844–1848, several ships made three-month round trips instead of the traditional four months, calculated from one Liverpool departure to the following one.) The , a packet sailing between New York and London on a regular schedule. She was built in 1846 in New York by Westervelt & MacKay and owned by E. E. Morgan.Mentionend in the "New York Marine Register (1858)", found on the website of the Mystic Seaport Museum. Retrieved on March 26, 2009. The ship is renowned because of the sea shanty "Clear the track", also called "Clear the track, let the bullgine run" or simply "Margaret Evans".

Clipper ships

Westervelt also built clippers, for example Contest (1852), Hornet (1851), N.B. Palmer (1851), Kathay (1853), and . Clipper bows were distinctively narrow and heavily raked forward, allowing them to rapidly clip through the waves. The first archetypal clipper, with sharply raked stem, counter stern and square rig, was Ann McKim,"The Ann McKim". eraoftheclipperships.com. Retrieved on March 30, 2009. built in Baltimore in 1833 by Kennard & Williamson.Baltimore Republican and Commercial Advertiser, June 3, 1833. For some historians, the Rainbow was the first true "Yankee clipper". She was built in 1845 to a new design by the American naval architect John Willis Griffiths who is said to have based his design on the owner's previous ship Ann McKim. This type of vessel had been in demand for the China trade, but they were rather small. From the experience gained in the service of these first clippers, the builder soon found the changes that were necessary in the design for the building of larger and faster ships demanded in 1850 for the California, China and Australia clipper routes.

Westervelt's clippers