Robert Kermit

Robert Kermit (September 4, 1794 in New York City – March 13, 1855 in New York City) was an American shipowner and owner of the Red Star Line (also called the Kermit Line).

Kermit was the son of Captain Henry Kermit and Elizabeth (Ferguson) Kermit. His father had been master of the brig Morning Star[1] (which traded to the West Indies) for many years.[1]

Robert Kermit gained a mercantile training in the shipping house of William Codman. With his brother Henry – a skilled bookkeeper – he went into business in 1817 at 84 Greenwich Street in New York. They purchased the ship Aurora to run in the Liverpool packet trade. In 1827, following the death of his brother, Kermit carried on business as an agent for packet ships to and from Liverpool. Within a few years he rapidly increased the number of his ships and soon became one of the largest ship-owners in the country.[1]

On December 4, 1832, Kermit married Ann Eliza Carow, eldest daughter of his business partner[2] Isaac Quentin Carow and Eliza Mowatt.[3]

Kermit and Carow

By 1834, Robert Kermit already owned St. George, and persuaded Stephen Whitney and Nathaniel Prime to become owners in a new ship, St. Andrew.[4][5] This was the birth of the Saint Line. Despite making some highly profitable deals, Kermit, Prime, and Whitney could not keep the Saint Line went afloat.[5]

After the Saint Line foundered, Kermit moved his company to 74 South Street,[1] and on September 11, 1835 purchased the old and popular Red Star Line of Liverpool packets, established in 1818 by Byrnes, Trimble & Co.[6] In 1837, Kermit became a director of the Mutual Insurance Company and in 1847 director of the Knickerbocker Fire Insurance Company.[1]

In this period, he commissioned the construction of a few new ships, including West Point (or Westpoint), that finally sailed under the flag of the Red Star Line. Other Red Star ships included John R. Skeddy (1845), Constellation (1849), Underwriter (1850), Waterloo, John Jay, England, Virginian, Samuel Hicks, Stephen Whitney, United States, and Sheffield.[7]

Unlike other operators, Kermit owned shares in all the ships of the line, while the rest of them were mainly owned by various ship builders and ship captains.[8] Under Kermit's management, several misadventures and shipwrecks occurred, but in the quality of the ships, and their speed and regularity, the performance of Red Star Line was better than it had been.


In the pressure of hard competition, packet schedules were tightened when reorganizing sailings 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. West Point, Waterloo, and especially Virginian were among the fastest on the North Atlantic route.[9] Virginian also was one of the most susceptible ships and often ended in reporting problems and misadventures.

For many years, Kermit operated the line in his own name (it was often called Kermit Line too). In 1850, Kermit's father-in-law, Isaac Quentin Carow, died.[10] Kermit never had children of his own;[1] this is part of the reason Kermit developed an almost paternal relationship with his brother-in-law, Charles Carow, who was 21 years younger than his sister Ann Eliza. Kemit took Carow into partnership as Kermit & Carow, to carry on the business of general ship-owning, commission, and commercial trading.[1] After 1851 he was associated with his brother-in-law, Charles Carow.[11]

Kermit died at his residence, 50 East 14th Street, age 60.

Notes
  1. MacBean, William M. Biographical register of Saint Andrew's society of the state of New York (1922) pp. 169-170
  2. Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt: Portrait of a First Lady by Sylvia J. Morris, p. 10
  3. New York, Marriage Newspaper Extracts, 1801–1880 (Barber Collection): New York Evening Post, December 6, 1832
  4. Lubbock, Basil. Western Ocean Packets p. 26
  5. Scoville, Joseph. The old merchants of New York City (1863) pp. 26-27
  6. Wilson, George. Portrait gallery of the Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York: catalogue and biographical sketches (1890), pp. 206–208.
  7. Laakso, Seija-Riitta. Across the Oceans pp. 50 and 356-357; Scoville, p. 358; "Days of the Old Packet" in the New York Daily Times from December 13, 1891. A transcribed version of this article can be found on "theshipslist.com". Both websites accessed March 28, 2009.
  8. Across the Oceans by Seija-Riitta Laakso
  9. Square-riggers on schedule by Robert Greenhalgh Albion, pp. 276-281, ASIN: B0006AO5QE
  10. New York, Death Newspaper Extracts, 1801–1890 (Barber Collection): New York Evening Post, September 1, 1850
  11. Biography of the First Lady Edith Kermit Carow Roosevelt "White House" in Washington. Accessed 16 March 2009.
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