210 The Story of The Bronx 



nineteen miles from New York, by Land, and about fifteen 

 by Water; and a Water-passage may be had almost every 

 Day, when the Weather will permit, in good safe Boats." 

 There was a regular sloop trade also to Eastchester, even 

 during the Revolution ; and it was by first capturing the market 

 sloop engaged in this trade with New York that the Darien 

 whale-boatmen were able to effect the capture of the Schuldam, 

 the British guard-ship. 



The building of these vessels began very early. Shonnard, 

 in his History of Westchester County, on the authority of the 

 Reverend Theodore A. Leggett, a descendant of one of the 

 patentees of the West Farms, states that John Leggett, a 

 ship-builder, executed, November 30, 1676, a bill of sale as 

 follows : 



"John Leggett of Westchester, within the Province of 

 N. Y., ship-wright, to Jacob Leysler of N. Y. City, merchant, 

 a good Puick, or ship, 'Susannah' of New York now laying 

 [sic] in this harbour, and by the said Leggett built in Bronck's 

 river near Westchester, together with masts, Lay boat, and 

 other materials." 



The ship-building industry, thus begun in 1676, or earlier, 

 has continued to the present day; but it is now princi- 

 pally carried on in the ancient manor of Pelham at City 

 Island, where yachts and pleasure craft are built, repaired, 

 and laid up out of season. 



There was also boat communication by way of the Harlem 

 River and Spuyten Duyvil Creek; for in November, 1776, 

 Lord Cornwallis carried his troops in a flotilla of boats through 

 the river and creek to the Hudson for the attack on Fort 

 Washington from the Hudson River side. That these streams 

 had always been navigable was one of the principal arguments 



