By
1861, the name of one-time ferryboat captain Cornelius Vanderbilt was becoming
familiar in the U.S. shipping circles. Men who knew the business predicted that
he would find a way to double the money he had made when he sold his
California-to-Nicaragua shipping line.
One
month after Fort Sumter, he surprised Federal authorities. In a letter to W. O.
Bartlett, who was about to go to Washington, Vanderbilt authorized him to say
that the steamer Vanderbilt would be
turned over to the government on its own terms. As president of the Atlantic
and Pacific Steamship Company, he offered the U.S. Navy four additional
vessels. With the price of these ships to be determined by a “board of
commodores,” he offered the Ocean Queen,
Ariel, Champion, and Daniel Webster.
Just
one year later, Vanderbilt bought a controlling interest in the New York and
Harlem Railroad. From that point he had clear sailing in his quest to become
one of the nation’s wealthiest men.
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