Neptune's Needle

...served in the Revolution, on board the frigate Deane and in the land forces, and at the close of the war turned his attention to the coasting trade. In 1788 he established a packet line between Boston and Albany, a business then thought in danger of being crowded because of the two sloops engaged in it. In 1808 his famous sloop Ten Sisters was built in the yard of Richard Hill at Catskill, NY, and for many years sailed as a fast packet between New York and Boston. ...Shortly after the War of 1812, on the deck of the Ten Sisters, anchored in Coenties Slip, NY, he [a prominent...Baptists...layman] held his first religious service for seamen. This was at the beginning of the movement for religious and social work among seamen later known as the Bethel Movement. At first it consisted of services on the decks of ships, announced by a special flag displayed on the masthead. Most New York ministers were not at first in sympathy with the project, and left it entirely to laymen of whom Hallett was one of the leading spirits. After several years of successful work in New York, he took his Bethel flag to Boston. After his retirement to his farm in Barnstable, the work ceased to consist of deck services and was transferred to chapels for seamen, seamen’s Bethels which became numerous in Boston, New York, and other cities.

Sources

Compiler

Peter Richards