On The Waterfront

Category Archives: Historic Highlights

On The Waterfront Map

On the Waterfront was filmed almost entirely in Hoboken, New Jersey. This map marks locations found in the movie. Much has changed since On the Waterfront was filmed in 1953.

View On the Waterfront Locations by Hoboken Historical Museum in a larger map.

On the Waterfront: A Classic Film Created in Hoboken

The 1954 film On the Waterfront was shaped by its setting in Hoboken. On the Waterfront featured Marlon Brando as Terry Malloy, a tough guy struggling with his conscience and his loyalty to a waterfront gang. While most movies at the time were filmed on studio stages, On the Waterfront was filmed on location, mostly in Hoboken. Many Hoboken residents played extras or even minor characters.

The Hoboken Historical Museum has compiled a map of film locations in town. Click here to view the map.

On the Waterfront won numerous Academy Awards including best picture, best director (Elia Kazan), best story and screenplay (Budd Schulberg), best actor (Marlon Brando), and best supporting actress (Eva Marie Saint). It also won awards for best black and white cinematography (Boris Kaufman) and best black and white art direction and set direction (Richard Day).

Hoboken was an ideal setting for a bold display of gritty realism. Barely recognizable from today’s waterfront with its upscale buildings and picturesque parks, Hoboken’s waterfront in the 1950s was a working port where longshoremen would daily “shape-up” to be selected for jobs by a mob-connected hiring boss. The sounds and backgrounds captured by the filmmakers helped immerse the viewer in the story in a way that would have been difficult to create on an isolated sound stage.

Many of Hoboken’s past and current landmarks are seen in the film, but at least one important scene was not shot in Hoboken. The filmmakers had a hard time getting inside a ship in Hoboken’s busy port, so the scene inside a ship’s hold were filmed at Red Hook in Brooklyn. Sources differ on whether the car in which Terry tells Charley that he “could have been a contender” was parked in Hoboken or in a studio outside of town. Either way, Marlon Brando exits the car on Hoboken’s River Street.

Many Hoboken residents left their imprint on the film. Most were non-speaking extras who silently added their presence to various scenes. Others had more recognizable or unique roles.

During the first shape-up in the film, Hoboken longshoreman Marty Russo cries out “Who do you have to see to get a day’s pay around here?” Russo, who said he was expressing actual frustration with the hiring system, went onto minor roles in other films. Police officers in the film were real members of the Hoboken Police department. Officer Pete King restrained Johnny Friendly in the courtroom, and later told a resentful Malloy that he “oughta be glad we’re following you.” Frank Marnell, a gym teacher at Rue School, played the nameless overlord who turned off the television during Johnny Friendly’s testimony. He reappeared in the end of the film to say “All right. Let’s go to work.”

Tommy Hanley was thirteen years old when he noticed a crew working on the roof at his apartment building at 105 Hudson Street. When he went to investigate, he found men setting up a pigeon coop for a movie they were making. The carpenter, a local man, hired Tommy to feed the pigeons.

Tom Hanley long believed that his father had been murdered by waterfront gangsters. Longshoreman Arthur “Brownie” Brown had much respect for Hanley’s father and wanted to get Tommy into the movie. He set up a meeting with Kazan and Schulberg, who cast Hanley as Tommy, a young friend of Terry who looks over the pigeon coop. Hanley recalled in a interview that Brando was easy to work with, nice to him and his mother, and took the train to the set wearing his costume.

Hanley said that people commended him for his role in the movie, but that he did not like it because his character wasn’t tough enough for his liking. Hanley later became a longshoreman, a job he held until 2009.

Other Hobokenites left their marks. The jacket that passed from Joey Dugan to Terry Malloy actually belonged to a Hoboken longshoreman named Johnny Sanducci. Jimmy Francis, a longshoreman and ex-boxer, watched director Elia Kazan make Brando do multiple takes of a scene where his character walks away from a severe beating. Francis, who was no stranger to getting punched, demonstrated how he would walk after a tough match. Kazan then had Brando follow Jimmy Francis’s example.

Hoboken longshoreman Anthony “Tony Mike” DiVincenzo had a big influence on the film. Writer Budd Schulberg had spent a lot of time in Hoboken,hanging out in waterfront bars and following developments in crime stories. A major witness against corrupt union bosses emerged. Tony Mike boldly and plainly spoke of the corruption and violence within the union, and received threats against his life that were never successfully carried out.

People who worked on the movie largely recall Hoboken as a welcoming place to work. Many residents were enthusiastic about the project. Gangs were less powerful on Hoboken’s shores than they were on the docks across the Hudson, and film crews were well protected.

On the Waterfront is a beautifully produced snapshot of Hoboken heritage featuring many of the mile square city’s attractive locations and honest people. Hoboken was the setting for an inspiring story of redemption and people coming together to defeat corruption and intimidation.

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Sources:

DVD: On the Waterfront, The Criterion Collection, 2013.
Supplement: Criterion Collection interview with Thomas Hanley, 2012
Supplement: Richard Schickel interview with Elia Kazan, 2001.

“Hoboken’s Waterfront,” an essay by Sada Fretz. From the book On the Waterfront: Starring Hoboken, New Jersey. Hoboken Historical Museum, 2004.

On The Waterfront at Imdb.com.

“On the Waterfront,” Hoboken History, Number 18, 1997.

Oscar Legacy: The 27th Academy Awards (1955) Nominees and Winners. Oscars.org.

This digital exhibit was created by Darian Worden for the Hoboken Historical Museum, 2014.

Thank you for visiting our page. Come visit us at 1301 Hudson Street for changing exhibits about Hoboken’s rich and varied history.

Full List of Sources

“The Stevens Family” is a digital exhibit created by Darian Worden for the Hoboken Historical Museum, January 2014.

Books

Hans, Jim. 100 Hoboken Firsts. Hoboken Historical Museum, 2005.

Iles, George. Leading American Inventors. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1912.
https://archive.org/details/leadingamericani00iles

Lane, Wheaton J. From Indian Trail to Iron Horse: Travel and Transportation in New Jersey, 1620-1860. Princeton, 1939.

Turnbull, Archibald Douglas. John Stevens: An American Record. New York: The Century Co., 1928.
https://openlibrary.org/books/OL6714817M/John_Stevens

Ziegler-McPherson, Christina A. Immigrants in Hoboken: One-Way Ticket, 1845-1985. Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2011. 28-32.

Articles and Pamphlets

Campus Guide, Stevens Institute of Technology. http://www.stevens.edu/sit/sites/default/files/Stevens-3D-map.pdf

Famous Hobokenites: Millicent Fenwick, Hoboken History, No. 24, 1999, 5. HHM Collections Database

History, Stevens Institute of Technology. http://www.stevens.edu/sit/about/history.cfm

Mack, Pamela. “Engineering Education in the 19th Century.” September 2, 2005. http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/PamMack/lec122/eng19.htm

Lambert, Bruce. “Millicent Fenwick, 82, Dies; Gave Character to Congress,” The New York Times. Article Collections: Helsinki Accords. September 17, 1992
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/17/nyregion/millicent-fenwick-82-dies-gave-character-to-congress.html

“Points of Interest,” Hoboken Historical Museum. https://www.hobokenmuseum.org/self-guided-walking-tours/points-of-interest

Documents, Digital

Stevens, John. “Documents Tending to prove the Superior Advantages of Rail-ways and Steam Carriages Over Canal Navigation.” Stanford & Swords, 1852. Introduction by Chas. King.
https://archive.org/details/documentstendin00stevgoog

Documents, Archived

Stevens Family Collection

Samuel C. Williams Library, Stevens Institute of Technology

Thanks to Leah Loscutoff, Archivist and Special Collections Librarian.

Box 6: Hoboken Land and Improvement Co.

“An Act to Incorporate the Hoboken Land and Improvement Co., Supplements and other Acts.” Hoboken: Hudson County Democrat Print, 1859.

Box 7: Historic Primary Documents

Folder 6, Letter, Robert L. Stevens to US Navy, March 1824.

Box 13: Printed Materials, Stevens Battery.

Folder 1, Description of the Stevens Battery.

Folder 2, Article, Michael Orth, “The Stevens Battery.” The Stevens Indicator, Alumni Association of Stevens Institute of Technology. Vol 84, No 3, Summer 1967, Pgs 4-9. Reprinted from Proceedings, US Naval Institute.

Box 15: Pamphlets

Folder 1, “John Stevens and His Sons: Early American Engineers.” Watkins, J. Elfreth, Read Before the Philosophical Society of Washington, Washington: Press of W.F. Roberts, 1892.

Folder 6, Mary Stevens Baird Recollections, Compiled by Grace Bayard Stevens Sutton. New York, 1988. Stevens Family Genealogy Chart, Pgs I-IVb.

Box 20: Stevens Locomotives & Railroads

Folder 1, Correspondence with librarians, Pennsylvania Railroad History.

Folder 3, Newspaper Clippings:

“Steam Carriage,” New-York Evening Post for the Country. May 23, 1826. Reprint, Hoboken Bicentennial Committee and Stevens Institute of Technology, May 13, 1976.

“Steam Carriage,” New York Commercial Advertiser, May 15, 1826. Copy of Article in Library of New York Historical Society.

Box 21: Mary Stevens Baird Interviews & Transcripts

Folder 3 and Folder 4, Interview Transcript, Millicent H. Fenwick, Mary Stevens Baird, and Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Stevens Alexander, Stevens Institute of Technology, December 12, 1974.

Box 30: Stevens Family & Hoboken

Folder 1, Copies of newspaper clippings:

“Mrs. Wittpenn Dies in Sleep.” Jersey Observer, December 5, 1932

“Mrs. Wittpenn’s Death Had Its Historical Importance” Hudson Dispatch, December 8, 1932

“Mrs. Wittpenn Death Deplored at White House” Hudson Dispatch, December 6, 1932

Folder 5, The New York World’s Fair Bulletin: Issued in the Interest of “Transportation” as the Theme for a New Jersey State Exhibit, Hoboken Chamber of Commerce, 1939.

Images

Archive.org, Archibald Douglass Turnbull, John Stevens: An American Record. Water Pipe Image. https://archive.org/stream/johnstevensameri00turn#page/n183/mode/2up

Hoboken Historical Museum, Online Collections. https://www.hobokenmuseum.org/research/collections

Stevens Digital Collections, Samuel C. Williams Library. http://librarycollections.stevens.edu/

Stevens Family Archives, Samuel C. Williams Library, Box 34 and Box 35, Unordered Photographs of Stevens Castle, Book: Castle Point, April 1899.

Legacy

While the descendants of Colonel Stevens no longer live in Hoboken, the family’s legacy can be seen around town.

The Stevens Institute overlooks the river along Castle Point and stretches across the last lands the Stevens family bequeathed. At the university’s Davidson Laboratory, experiments in ship design echo the work of the Stevens brothers in improving maritime engineering. The Church of the Holy Innocents, the charming small homes on Willow Terrace, and the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company building are all fruits of the Stevens’ work, as are many of the parklands within the Mile Square City.

The ferry to Manhattan, an enterprise so important to the Stevens family and the early history of Hoboken, still runs from piers in the city, and the dock at Lackawanna Terminal is still in the style pioneered by Robert Stevens. The railroad tracks that stretch out of the Lackawanna Terminal are shaped as Robert Stevens designed them when he made the pioneering work of his father into a practical mode of transportation.

Colonel John Stevens, as the treasurer of New Jersey during the Revolution and the founder of an important port city, left a lasting mark on the United States. His descendents in public service continued the legacy of civic-minded activity.

Thousands of people have made Hoboken into the city it is today, and countless people have made steam travel and railroads a reality. Yet the activities of Colonel John Stevens and his descendents form a large part of these stories. Hoboken’s first family left a large mark on the town they founded and on a transportation revolution, both of which have had worldwide significance.

Civic Engagement

Continuing the civic sprit demonstrated by Hoboken’s founder in war and peace, several descendents of Colonel John Stevens have had important roles in philanthropy and politics.

The Stevens family never served in elected offices in Hoboken, preferring other roles in civic life. Edwin Stevens served as tax commissioner, public works commissioner and trustee of the local Episcopal Church. He also served the State of New Jersey as chairman of the commission that established the Interstate Palisades Park, a green space just outside the busy New York City metro area that preserves the natural beauty of the Hudson shoreline.

Edwin’s wife, Martha Bayard Stevens, showed a generous hand to the city her family had founded. She commissioned the construction of compact row houses at Willow Terrace. They were patterned after similar workers’ homes she had seen on a trip to Scotland and were meant to be more appropriate living quarters for low-income families than were crowded tenements. The Church of the Holy Innocents, at Willow Avenue and Sixth Street, was completed in 1874. Unlike many churches of the time, it did not charge a pew fee to be seated.

The current building that houses the Hoboken Public Library, at the corner of Fifth Street and Park Avenue, sits on land donated by the Stevens family. Martha Bayard Stevens laid the cornerstone on April 20, 1896.

Richard Stevens, son of Edwin and Mary, was deeply interested in social service work. In 1896 he founded the first probation office in New Jersey, in a modest office on Newark Street in Hoboken. While the probation office had no legal standing at first, it was a powerful demonstration of a possible option in criminal justice. In 1900 New Jersey became the fourth state to establish probation as an adjunct to the courts, and Richard’s office was absorbed by the county government.

Caroline Bayard Stevens, the last surviving child of Edwin and Mary, was a lifelong social reformer. Caroline had taken the last name of Wittpenn from her second husband, a former mayor of Jersey City and naval officer of the Port of New York. Her 1932 death at Castle Point made local headlines, as Mrs. Wittpenn was not only the last Stevens to live in Hoboken, but was so well known for her civic work that Eleanor Roosevelt and Herbert Hoover sent telegrams mourning her passing.

In a December 15, 1932 article on Caroline’s life, the Jersey Observer declared that “Throughout her life she devoted herself to social welfare work and was recognized as one of the foremost women in this work in the United States.” She had been active in numerous civic organizations. During the First World War, she held important posts in the administration of Liberty Bonds and the Red Cross. She worked at an almshouse and led reforms of the poor relief system. Together with her brother Robert she successfully advocated the creation of separate courts for juvenile delinquents and a new reformatory system. In 1930 and 1931, President Hoover appointed her to represent the United States at an international conference on prison and crime. Her life’s work was recognized with a gold medal from the National Institute of Social Science.

At Caroline’s last birthday party she moved all the guests of the surprise affair by telling short anecdotes about their relationship. She may have summed up the Stevens spirit when she said “I have always been curious. I like to know how things are going on. Perhaps that’s why I have so many interests.”

Though the Stevens family moved out of Hoboken, one descendent with memories of Castle Point was Millicent Fenwick. Born Millicent Vernon Hammond in 1910, she was one of Edwin Stevens’ great grandchildren. Millicent worked briefly as a fashion model and had a successful career of writing for Vogue, but she was most well known for her life in politics. She stood out for her quick wit, her eccentric but dignified manner, and her championing of reforms. While serving in the United States Congress, she took a leading role in creating the commission to monitor the 1975 Helsinki accords on human rights. Though she would make her home in Bernardsville, New Jersey, she said in a 1974 interview that Castle Point had been a “focal point” that the family had been attached to and that Bernardsville was not too far to stretch the imagination. Almost two centuries after Colonel John Stevens had explored the old farm on the Hudson, Hoboken still mattered to his civic-minded descendant.

Sources

Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens, an American Record. Archive.org.

Bruce Lambert, “Millicent Fenwick, 82, Dies; Gave Character to Congress,” The New York Times. September 17, 1992.

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/17/nyregion/millicent-fenwick-82-dies-gave-character-to-congress.html

“Famous Hobokenites: Millicent Fenwick,” Hoboken History, No. 24, 1999, 5. Hoboken Historical Museum Collections.

Interview Transcript, Millicent H. Fenwick, Mary Stevens Baird, and Mr. and Mrs. Archibald Stevens Alexander, Stevens Institute of Technology, December 12, 1974. Stevens Family Collection.

Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts, 66-67.

Mary Stevens Baird Interviews & Transcripts, Stevens Family Collection.

“Mrs. Wittpenn Dies in Sleep.” Jersey Observer, December 5, 1932, Stevens Family Collection.

“Mrs. Wittpenn’s Death Had Its Historical Importance” Hudson Dispatch, December 8, 1932, Stevens Family Collection.

“Mrs. Wittpenn Death Deplored at White House” Hudson Dispatch, December 6, 1932, Stevens Family Collection.

“Points of Interest.” Hoboken Historical Museum. Self-guided walking tours/points of interest

Stevens Institute of Technology

Appropriate for a family of pioneering engineers, the first college in America dedicated to mechanical engineering carries the Stevens name.

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Edwin Augustus Stevens died in 1868, leaving a legacy of innovation and successful business management. His will provided for the establishment of a technical university, the first of its kind in America. In 1870, the Stevens Institute of Technology opened its doors to students. The university offered a rigorous course of study in engineering, scientific principles, and humanities leading to the degree of Mechanical Engineer.

Edwin A. Stevens Hall, facing Fifth Street at the corner of Hudson Street, was the main building on campus. The federally registered historic landmark was designed by Richard Upjohn. To commemorate the Institute’s 125th anniversary, a 40 foot spire was added to the center.

The Stevens Institute ensured that the family’s legacy of innovation would say grounded in Hoboken. The Institute has grown to a university hosting more than 6,100 undergraduate and graduate students and more than 350 faculty members.

Sources

Campus Guide, Stevens Institute of Technology. www.stevens.edu

History, Stevens Institute of Technology. www.stevens.edu

Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 42.

Pamela Mack, “Engineering Education in the 19th Century.” www.clemson.edu

The Castle

The family built the Stevens Castle in the 1850s. The new family residence was designed by Alexander Jackson Davis, a prominent architect of the time. It stood on the highest point in Hoboken, on a bluff overlooking the Hudson River.

The Castle contained numerous rooms for the many members of the Stevens family, as well as rooms for entertaining guests. Rooms were decorated with portraits of the family and ornate flourishes. A greenhouse was on the grounds as well. The floating staircase might be the best architectural demonstration of the family’s commitment to design.

A large domestic staff kept life at the Castle running smoothly. More than ten people filling a variety of roles from maid to doorman worked at the Castle. Among them was a man named Peter Lee. Peter was an African-American slave of the Stevenses who decided to return to work for the family after being emancipated. When Peter died in 1902 at nearly 100 years of age, the Stevens family agreed to have him buried in the family plot in North Bergen.

The gate house at the Sixth Street entrance to the Stevens Institute grounds is the original gateway through which guests would pass on their way to the Castle. It is built from rocks quarried on site, most likely the same rock noted for its green serpentine character in accounts of Henry Hudson’s first voyage on the river.

On May 27, 1911, Edwin Augustus Stevens II, son of the Institute’s founder, conveyed the Castle and its grounds to the Stevens Institute. Over the years the building would house dorm rooms, a student café, and various administrative offices. As the university grew, the Castle was seen as an outdated building lacking in capacity. In 1959, it was demolished to be replaced with the much larger Wesley J. Howe Center.

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Sources

“Points of Interest.” Hoboken Historical Museum. https://www.hobokenmuseum.org/self-guided-walking-tours/points-of-interest

Stevens Family Collection, Book: Castle Point, April 1899; Unordered Photographs.

Horticulture and Water Works

Though their fame is primarily the result of work in other areas, the Stevens’ contributions to American horticulture and water supply infrastructure are fascinating examples of their broad interests.

Colonel John Stevens had a keen interest in horticulture. Early after clearing the land at Hoboken, he planted many fruit trees that were new to the region. In 1797 he imported the first red camellia from England to America, and in 1798 he imported the first chrysanthemum in the country. The Elysian Fields were thoughtfully landscaped with an eye for beauty. Colonel Stevens took passionate interest in getting new seeds and the latest publications on plants, often exchanging specimens with other plant collectors. He even experimented with different fertilizers and greenhouses.

While John’s sons were not known for following his interest in plants, it is notable that Edwin, with the assistance of his brother Robert, invented a new kind of cast-iron plow. It was curved so that soil would not stick to it and was designed to be less weighty. The model sold well for years.

Colonel John’s interest in improving land and living conditions brought him into the Manhattan Company, which was formed to supply fresh water to the growing population of New York City. Water would flow from the company’s wells through mains made of pine logs then into buildings through lead pipes. John was the engineer responsible for laying the mains and connecting them to the wells. The system eventually supplied two thousand homes through twenty five miles of mains. John Stevens was also involved in the company’s work to pump water for fire fighting and street cleaning.

A hollowed out log that was part of New York City’s early water mains.

Sources

Archibald Douglas Turnbull, John Stevens, an American Record. Gardening, 144-146; Water Supply 147-149. Archive.org.

George Iles, Leading American Inventors. Curved plow, 25. Archive.org.

Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. First Chrysanthemum, 4.

Hoboken Grows

As the Stevens family’s innovations and businesses continued to blossom, the town they founded grew.

Attracted in part by the efforts of the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company, big European shipping companies began establishing docks in Hoboken in the 1840s. The town’s population swelled, in large part from German and Irish immigrants. In 1849, the township of Hoboken was formed and its boundaries separated from North Bergen. On March 28, 1855, Hoboken was incorporated as a city.

Between 1850 and 1860, the population jumped from 2,668 to 9,662. It again increased to 20,297 in 1870 and continued to grow throughout the nineteenth century.

Land sales and development plans were largely worked out at the Hoboken Land and Improvement Company’s offices at 1 Newark Street. The handsome building was designed by architect Charles Fall and features detailed brickwork on the outside. The Stevens family had requested the central staircase inside to resemble a ferry’s staircase. The HLI Co logo remains on the south side of the building in a design featuring a clock and sea motifs.

The HLI Co and the Stevens family donated land for public buildings, schools, and parks as the city grew. Over the course of the nineteenth century the Stevens family divested itself of much of the land they still personally held, which included areas between Washington Street and the Hudson River. By 1900 the family held only a parcel of land between seventh and tenth streets. While they had been enormously successful and influential in business, they never tried to make Hoboken into a company town, content to let others build flourishing enterprises on the lands they laid out and sold.

The Stevens family had launched the development of Hoboken, a city that within a century rose from a broken down old farm to a busy metropolis known internationally as a center of shipping.

Sources

History, Stevens Institute of Technology.

www.stevens.edu

“Points of Interest.” Hoboken Historical Museum.

Self-guided Walking Tours Points of interest

Header image: Hudson Square Park, Hoboken, ca. 1880.Hoboken Historical Museum Collections.

Naval Warfare

The pioneering work of Robert and Edwin Stevens in warship engineering was not as successful as the railroad, but it likely influenced advances in naval warfare in the mid nineteenth century. The Stevens Battery, an ironclad warship that was planned but never completed, demonstrated and likely inspired advances in warship construction.

The battery had a long history. During the War of 1812, Colonel John Stevens wrote a proposal for a circular iron-plated battery that would be anchored in a harbor. The battery would spin under the power of steam propellers and fire successive guns at the enemy. The battery and other ironclads John Stevens later proposed were not pursued by the Navy. In 1824, Robert Stevens wrote to the Navy advocating that they purchase long steel shells that he designed, as well as support the construction of a mobile “steam battery.” He cited the threats of European expansion and despotism, and noted that America’s military was weak compared to England and France.

In the 1840s, Congress began to show interest in the kind of warship construction that the Stevens family had advocated. In 1841 Congress sent a board of army and navy officers to observe Edwin’s experiments with iron armor. The layered iron plates that he had riveted together resisted shots from the most powerful guns in common use at the time. The next year, Congress passed the “Act Authorizing the Construction of a Steamer for Harbor Defense.” Robert Stevens was contracted to build an ironclad. The proposed design was changed multiple times over many years as construction was unable to keep pace with advances in naval armament. When Robert Stevens died in 1856, only the hull was completed and the project was already far over budget.

The outbreak of the Civil War and Confederate experiments with ironclad warships led to more agitation to complete the Stevens Battery. An article in Scientific American noted that luxurious passenger steamers had cost more money than had been spent on the Battery. Edwin Stevens lobbied for its completion. Funding was appropriated, but in July 1862 the Secretary of the Navy vetoed the funding and the battery was given to heirs of Robert Stevens. By 1863 other ironclads had been built and the Navy did not think the Stevens Battery could fill any need they had.

In 1868 Edwin died and he willed the Battery to the State of New Jersey along with a million dollars to complete it. The money was not spent effectively and the hull was finally scrapped in 1881.

The design and purpose of the Battery changed over time. Robert originally intended it to be a mobile gun battery for the defense of New York harbor. Later it was changed to be an ocean-going cruiser. The iron hull was 420 feet long, 53 feet wide, and 23.5 ft deep. Plans called for ballast tanks so that much of the hull could be submerged during battle. The use of screws instead of paddlewheels meant that the entire propulsion system would be underwater. The ship would be outfitted with turreted guns that could be trained in any direction.

If completed, the Battery would have been faster than other ironclads and effectively armed. However, it had little use in the Civil War, as it had too deep a draught to navigate shallow Southern waterways and had limited range and survivability on the open ocean. The experiments and designs of the Stevens brothers likely influenced French warship designers who put slow steaming ironclads to use during the Crimean War in 1854. The Stevens Battery, though it was not successful, did inspire later innovation.

Sources

J. Elfreth Watkins, “John Stevens and His Sons,” 10-11. Stevens Family Collection.

Jim Hans, 100 Hoboken Firsts. 21-22

Michael Orth, “The Stevens Battery,” Stevens Indicator, 1967. Stevens Family Collection.

Robert Stevens Letters, Stevens Family Collection.