TRANSATLANTIC TRAIN

A brief but thorough biography of Enoch Train, the American entrepreneur who financially backed famed shipbuilder Donald McKay.

Donald McKay was a renowned shipbuilder in the 1850s—his clippers set sailing records that at the time seemed unbeatable. Yet as we learn from Miles’ biography, McKay’s career was nearly unthinkable without the enthusiastic support of Train, an energetic leader in maritime commerce who would eventually become the famed shipbuilder’s chief customer. When the two men met in 1844, Train was looking to expand his fleet of ships and was immediately taken with McKay. Within an hour, Train had ordered a 620-ton packet ship, the Joshua Bates, the first of many such commissions. In fact, Train was so pleased with McKay’s work that he helped him finance his own shipyard in Boston. Miles effectively captures not only the symbiotic relationship between Train and McKay, but also the shifting landscape of the shipping industry in the mid-19th century, an industry being transformed by the rising dominance of steam-propulsion technology. Train emerges as a complex figure—he was an indefatigable and adventurous entrepreneur who transcended inauspicious beginnings; after the death of his mother, Hannah, he was left parentless at only 12 years old. Miles achieves an extraordinary comprehensiveness given the brevity of the book, covering Train’s personal tragedies, political career, and final financial collapse. In fact, Miles’ impressive rigor can be a liability—it’s easy to become dazed by the flood of granular information that engorges the book, especially regarding financial details. The author’s biography remains a thoughtful, sensitive historical portrait. But this is certainly not hagiography either. While the author generally presents Train in favorable terms, he is also taken to task for participating in the slave trade: “For some reason, the compassion he showed in multiple other contexts was lacking in his views about slavery.” Miles is surely correct to point out this moral transgression—one that seems incongruent with Train’s character in general.

An impressive feat of historical research that illuminates the life of an unjustly neglected historical figure.