Penny, Martha Catherine

Martha married Newhook, Charles in 1820. Charles (son of Newhook, Charles W. and Wilcox, Elizabeth) was born on 12 Dec 1778 in St Pauls, Trinity, NL.; died on 13 May 1839 in St John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada; was buried on 19 May 1839 in Trinity, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, Canada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Two of the three sons of this marriage, Robert Penny Newhook and Jonas N. Newhook, became prominant master shipbuilders. They were old enough at the time of their father's fatal accidental death in 1839 to have received some training under him.

 

(9) Robert Penny Newhook, 1821

Born at New Harbour in 1821, eldest child of the second marriage of Charles Newhook (second). He was twice married, his second wife being Elizabeth Thorne of New Harbour, an d there were children by both marriages.

 

During his adult life he is known to have lived in New Harbour, Trinity, Carbonear, New Perlican, Harbour Grace and, perhaps, Bay Roberts. Harbour Grace is the place of his lengthie st abode; he was established there in 1864, and it was very likely his permanent home thereafter. He also worked at shipbuilding in Connecticut, U. S. A., and in Retchibucto, New Brunswick. His grandson, Mr. John Peddle of Harbour Grace, says tha t he used to travel around working his trade, and that he spent at least one year in White Bay.

 

In his 1934 obituary of Postmaster John Newhook quoted in section (5) above, H. F. Shortis states that Trinity Bay had been fa mous for shipbuilding for over 200 years (an exaggeration in period, I feel), and that none of the places in that bay ever came up to New Harbour when extra good foreign-going vessels were required. He mentions the barque Queen, as beating all co mpetitors on foreign voyages.

 

I have a framed painting of this barque, obviously based on some older picture of her. There is a printed card inside the glass, reading as follows: "Barque Queen, 240 Tons. Built at New Harbo ur, Trinity Bay, 1856, Robert Newhook, Master Builder." She was built for the Harbour Grace firm of Punton and Munn. Shortis also says the the Queen is mentioned in an old record as having made two trips from Harbour Grace to Brazil in twenty day s (each trip). He further says that the Queen's first voyage was to Liverpool, England, and that there were several passengers, including Postmaster John's brother (who, I find, was Thomas Lander Newhook

 

An anonymous articl e entitled "The Old Ships," in the St. John's "Daily News" of 31 January 1959, states that the Queen made a trip in 1858 from Liverpool, England, to Harbour Grace in ten days.

 

Robert Penny Newhook built at Harbour Grace the brig Maggie. "The Newfoundlander," a St. John's newspaper, in its issue of 21 January 1867, reprints the following newsitem from the Harbour Grace "Standard:-"

 

"The launch of a new and very handsomely modelled brig took p lace yesterday from the building yard of W. J. S. Donnelly, Esq ...... amid the cheers of the assembled multitude and the music of the band of the Benevolent Society ...... she was named the Maggie by the lady of the owner Mr. Donnelly. The Maggi e is a beautifully modelled and substantially built brig, coppered and copper fastened, and is intended for the foreign trade. Her builder, Mr. Robert Newhook, is favourably known to the trade, as a builder of some of the finest and fastest vesse ls sailingfrom the Island, and we feel certain that this ship is equal if not superior to any hitherto built by him ......" The builder's working model of the Maggie is now on display in the Newfoundland Museum. She was lost with all hands in the Mediterranean in 1868.

 

Rev. Arthur Pittman, a native of New Perlican, Trinity Bay, wrote an article on that place in "The Newfoundland Quarterly" of December 1935 when about 75 years old; it has this sentence: "I can reme mber the firm of Bemister & Co. having two brigantines docked and repaired by Robert Newhook at New Perlican."

 

W. A. Munn's article in "The Newfoundland Quarterly" of Autumn 1937 erroneously gives Charles Newhook as the Qu een's builder, page 24.

 

In a list of vessels built in Newfoundland, appended to the Journal of the House of Assembly (or of the Legislative Council) about 1865, there is named a schooner built at Bay Roberts with Robert P. Newhook as the builder.

 

Besides the Queen and the Maggie, Mr. Peddle recollects that his grandfather built a vessel at Carbonear, presumably for the Rorke firm there. He died suddenly about 1885 whilewalking to Harbour Gr ace from Bay Roberts, where he was building or repairing a vessel. He is buried in Harbour Grace.

 

In my Slade monograph, published in the St. John's "Evening Telegram" in 1963 (August 29th, page 20), there is listed a Serv ant's Agreement, made at Trinity in 1841, whereby Robert P(enny) Newhook agrees to serve the Slade firm as dockman, i.e. shipwright;he was then about twenty years old.

 

No names or particulars are known to me of other vesse ls that Robert Penny Newhook master-built or repaired.

Family/Spouse: Thorne, Elizabeth. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Newhook, Jonas N.

(1823-1901). Shipwright. Born New Harbour T.B., son of Martha (Penny) and Charles Newhook qv. Married Rachel Knight. From a long line of renowned shipbuilders, Newhook asa young man settled in Jackson's Cove, Green Bay, where he continued the family tradition. His barque Fleetwing, a 249-ton vessel, was described in the Telegraph of St. John's:

...coppered high to the bends, of a very superior build, all juniper frame, topsides, rails and covering boards of Baltimore white oak, keelson of white oak and Demerara greenheart with greenheart treenails. This vessel will bear the strictest examination and is, without exception, the fastest vessel in the trade.'' In his sailing autobiography, Wh en Ships Were Ships, Captain William Morris Barnes termed the barque

the fastest thing ever sailed salt water''. It apparently made numerous trips from Harbour Grace to Pernambuco in record time. Newhook also built the Tasso, another vessel of legendary speed. J.R. Smallwood (1937), ET (June 17, 1965), Newfoundland Historical Society (Newhooks; New Harbour).

 

 

(10) Jonas N. Newhook, 1823-1901

Born at New Harbour in 1823, second child of the secon d marriage of Charles Newhook (second). He married Rachel Knight of St. John's. Early in adult life, he settled in Jackson's Cove, Green Bay, where he was a master shipbuilder, and where he died in 1901 and is buried. His grandson, Mr. Chesley Ra lph Newhook of that place only recalls the name of one of the vessels he built, the Fleetwing.

 

In his salty autobiography "When Ships were Ships," sea-captain William Morris Barnes, born in St. John's in 1850, tells on pag e 9 of the building of this vessel for his family firm of supplying merchants and shipowners, and of her first foreign voyage. He writes, "...... this beautiful bark, the Fleetwing ...... she was the fastest thing ever sailed salt water. She was built down in a place called Green Bay, built by a man called Newhook; he was a smart carpenter ......" Of her first voyage, Barnes writes, "She started out for Brazil and she made a very quick run down, thirty-two days to Pernambuco from St. Jo hn's ...... the captain said that he saw nothing on the whole trip that he didn't come up with and pass, and nothing ever came up and passed him."

 

In his article "Storms and Ships," page 270 of volume one of Smallwood's "B ook of Newfoundland," captain John P. Horwood writes, "The barque Fleetwing, 249 tons, was built at Green Bay by Jonas Newhook and launched in 1856 ...... she is said to have made three different passages from Harbour Grace to Pernambuco in twent y-one days each passage. An average passage would be about thirty days."

 

Messrs J. B. Barnes & Co., Captain Barnes' family firm, advertised five vessels for sale by auction in "The Telegraph" of St. John's on 22 September 1858. The advertisement thus describes this vessel: "The well-known Barque Fleetwing, 248 tons, coppered high to the bends, of very supierior build, all juniper frame, topsides, rails and covering boards of Baltimore white oak, keelson of white oak and Demerara greenheart, with greenheart treenails. This vessel will bear the strictest examination, and is, without exception, the fastest vessel in the Trade."

 

She came to be owned byPunton and Munn, and a newsitem in "The Star" of Harbour Grace, 10 December 1872, reads as follows: "Messrs. Punton and Munn's barque the Fleetwing arrived here yesterday from New York. This fine vessel, now under command of Captain James Pike, made the passage in six days and four hours; the quickest run we believe on record made by any sailing vessel from thence to this port. Captain Pike has of late made some very fast voyages ......"

 

In the 1934 obituary quoted in section (5) above, Shortis states that the Newhooks also built the Tasso for the firm Stabb, Row and Holmwood, St. John's, the great rival of Kearney's barque Rothesay (meaning that Michael Kearney was the master-builder of that vessel).

 

In his boo k "Sea Stories from Newfoundland," Michael F. Harrington devotes most of a chapter to a neck-and-neck race between the Rothesay and the Tasso from Demerara, British Guiana, to Cape Spear, Newfoundland. Both barques left Damerara the same day. On the fourteenth day out, August 27th, the Tasso sighted Cape Race and soon afterwards saw another ship nearby, which proved to be the Rothesay and which won the race to Cape Spear by a very few minutes. The author states that the Tasso was then a bout three years old, being "the crowning achievement of the lifework of Jonas Newhook, of New Harbour." This is, of course, Jonas N. Newhook, and he evidently built the Tasso in his native place before moving north to Jackson's Cove.

&nbs p

Captain Barnes also writes that there was only one bark that "ever did anything with the Fleetwing," and that was the Tasso. He goes on to say that the captain of the Tasso said that the Fleetwing was the only thing that could ever b eat the Tasso.

 

To sum up, the credit for producing these two masterpieces of shipbuilding art, the Fleetwing and the Tasso, belongs to Jonas N. Newhook of Jackson's Cove.

 

No names or particulars are known to me of other vessels that Jonas N. Newhook master-built or repaired.

Family/Spouse: Knight, Rachael R.. Rachael was born on 4 Aug 1832 in Jackson Cove, Newfoundland; died on 23 Oct 1914. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]