Movers & Sellers: The International Trade of Mahogany
By the early 18th century, Rhode Island was deeply involved in the expanding world of Atlantic maritime trade. In the colony’s busy seaports, merchants engaged in coastal trading, supplying food and provisions to Caribbean sugar plantations in exchange for enormous quantities of sugar and rum. During this period, they also began importing mahogany and introducing their neighbors to this novel tropical hardwood that was available only in limited parts of the Caribbean and Central America.
James Card worked up the ranks of the merchant marine, serving as first mate on the ships of several prominent Rhode Island merchants. His command of the Rising Sun (owned by Aaron Chase & Bros. in Newport) in 1764 was a typical voyage. He took mahogany from Belize City (on the east coast of the Yucatan Peninsula) to Charleston, South Carolina, reloaded with rice and “Indian corn,” and returned home to Rhode Island. Increasingly, his voyages took him to the Bay of Honduras to deliver supplies and woodcutting tools and collect loads of mahogany.
A captain had to carefully time each aspect of his voyage, especially making sure to arrive when the Baymen (white woodcutters) floated their logs downriver. If too early, he wasted time waiting; if too late, he missed the best timber to other ships. He also had to keep a sufficient crew of men—both free and enslaved—together and out of trouble.
This bill of lading lists cargo (including about 300 gallons of rum and a cask of gunpowder) that James Card was carrying to the Bay of Honduras on a voyage to obtain mahogany. A bill of lading was a standard maritime document signed by the shipmaster, acknowledging receipt of the cargo described on the document. There were usually three copies created: one each for the master, shipper, and consignee.
Invoice for mahogany shipped in the schooner Betsey on the account of Mr. Oliver Ring Warner, merchant in Rhode Island, issued by James Card from the Bay of Honduras, July 29, 1770—totaling 3,885 feet of timber.
Advertisement by Goddard and Engs, Newport cabinet makers, for mahogany furniture for sale in their Providence shop “on the wharf,” in the Providence Gazette, June 15, 1782.
Advertisement by Hoppin & Snow’s auction store for a furniture sale, including items such as a mahogany bookcase, mahogany chairs, and mahogany tables, in the Providence Gazette, December 16, 1791.
Receipt of Mr. James Card Onboard of the Schooner Betsey Samuel Thurston Master on the proper account & risk of Mr. Oliver Ring Warner Merchant of Rhode Island Three Thousand Eight Hundred Eighty four feet of Log Mahogany To Be Delivered to Mr. Oliver Ring Warner in Rhode Island Dangers of the Seas Excepted.
Bay Honduras July 29th 1770 [signed] Samuel Thurston