Baily & Montgomery, Commission Merchants

 

BAILY & MONTGOMERY,

MAR

5

1900

NEW YORK.

from the Commercial and Financial Chronicle, March 5, 1898:

from Savannah Naval Stores Review, February 13, 1904:

Naval Stores: S. P. Shotter Company

S. P. SHOTTER CO.

FEB

8

1902

Sav'h. Ga.

I didn't know the naval stores industry existed until I started to unpack a pile of bills of exchange and came upon one for Antwerp Naval Stores, which featured here on December 13.  Now a quick scan of some of my unidentified material has turned up another naval stores firm, this time one belonging to Spencer P. Shotter, a Canadian who built one of the world's largest firms processing pine tree products into naval stores.  Mr. Shotter built a grand mansion in Georgia that rivaled Biltmore, though it burned in 1923, 8 years after Shotter sold it.  

The naval stores industry was rife with problems that we would not countenance today, including labor abuse, deforestation, and pollution.  Naval stores are no longer contributing to these problems with the end of the age of wooden ships.

Growing up in south Louisiana and southern Mississippi, I was often surrounded by piney woods and their smells.  It was those woods that made men like Shotter wealthy, catering to a shipping industry dependent on wooden vessels. 

S. P. Shotter calling card for the firm's Boston office:

Advertisement in Savannah Weekly Naval Stores Review, August 15, 1905:

Bill of Exchange Fragments: Antwerp Naval Stores Company

 Back side of the bill of exchange:

A. N. S. C.

8 . 1. 1900.

Front with Spanish tax stamp:

Advertisement in Naval Stores Review, March 1923

From Barnett, James P. 2019. Naval stores: A history of an early industry created from the South's forests.  U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Southern Research Station:

Naval stores are a nearly forgotten legacy in the South, but throughout history nations have depended on them, sought them out, and fought wars over these coniferous products. These products—tar, pitch, turpentine, and rosin—long kept the wooden navies of the world afloat and found many other uses prior to petrochemical dominance. Even with the decline in sailing ships, there has been an international demand for these products. This is the story of a remarkable, but messy, industry that helped support much of the South’s economy for nearly 400 years.