Ezra Western was the most famous of the old time Boston ship-owners. He began business in 1764, and owned his own shipyard, sail-loft, and extensive rope-walk at Duxbury, Massachusetts, where his vessels were built and equipped. In 1798 his son Ezra became a partner, and this firm continued until the death of the father in 1822. The son Ezra then went on in his own name until 1842, when his sons Gersham, Alden, and Ezra, were taken into the firm, and they continued it until 1858, in all some ninety-three years, the last place of business being Nos. 37 and 38, Commercial Wharf. From the year 1800 to 1846 the Westerns owned twenty-one ships, ranging in tonnage from the _Hope_, of 880 tons, to the _Minerva_, of 250 tons; one barque, the _Pallas_, of 209 tons; thirty brigs, from the _Two Friends_, of 240 tons, to the _Federal Eagle_, of 120 tons; thirty-five schooners, from the _St. Michael_, of 132 tons, to the _Star_, of 20 tons; and ten sloops, from the _Union_, of 63 tons, to the _Linnet_, of 50 tons. The brig _Smyrna_, one of the Western fleet, built in 1825, of 160 tons, was the first American vessel to bear the flag of the United States into the Black Sea after it was opened to commerce. She arrived at Odessa July 17, 1830. The Westerns were easily the largest ship-owners of their time in the United States, and not only built but loaded their own vessels. Their house-flag was red, white, and blue horizontal stripes. In the year 1791, Stephen Girard, who was born near Bordeaux in 1750 and had risen from cabin-boy to be captain of his own vessel, built four beautiful ships at Philadelphia for the China and India trade--the _Helvetia_, _Montesquieu_, _Rousseau_, and _Voltaire_. These vessels, long the pride of Philadelphia, greatly enriched their owner. The sloop _Enterprise_, of eighty tons, built at Albany and commanded by Captain Stewart Dean, was sent from New York to China in 1785. This was the first vessel to make the direct voyage from the United States to Canton. She returned during the following year with her crew of seven men and two boys all in excellent condition. When she warped alongside the wharf at New York, Captain Dean and his crew were in full uniform, and the scene, which was witnessed by an admiring throng, was enlivened by “martial music and the boatswain’s whistle.”