Stationary Steam Engines in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands

Abstract

In Puerto Rico and each of the U.S. Virgin Islands, stationary steam engines survive on their original foundations and stand in testament to the long history of sugar production in the American territories of the Caribbean. In total, six beam engines, seven horizontal engines, one vertical engine, and a compound engine exist on the islands in various states of preservation, many amid the ruins of the plantations (haciendas) whose output they made possible. The whereabouts of an eighth horizontal engine recorded in 1976 remains unknown. Most were imported from Britain in the second half of the nineteenth century, but at least one is of American build. These machines not only provide unique examples of the adaption of steam technology to the needs of nineteenth-century sugar production but are also lasting symbols of an industry that once dominated the economy of these islands and remain deeply entwined in their history.

1. Introduction

The rapid development of Caribbean sugar production from a small-scale industry to one that dominated the economy in the nineteenth century was made possible by the use of steam engines. The steam power utilized took the form of both beam engines, whereby movement of the piston of a stationary steam engine with an upright cylinder is transferred to a flywheel by way of a rocking beam, and horizontal engines, in which the cylinder lies flat, and the beam were dispensed with. As the power sources for the roller mills used to extract the juice from sugar cane, these engines greatly increased production over the windmills and animal-powered mills used previously. Early Boulton and Watt steam engines of about 10 horsepower , for example, were capable of producing some 800 gallons of juice per hour (Hibbert 1825, p. 39) and needed no more people to operate them. They were also largely self-sufficient since the pressed cane or ‘trash’ provided most of the fuel for their operation. By comparison, a mill powered by a dozen mules might have produced 300 gallons per hour, but the animals would need to rest after producing less than twice that quantity (Hibbert 1825, p. 37). As a result, by the end of the nineteenth century, hundreds of steam engines were scattered among the plantations of the Caribbean islands (Tann 1997), and the history of their development became entwined with that of the islands themselves.

In the American territories of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, a small number of these stationary steam engines survive (

Table 1. Surviving stationary steam engines in the American territories of the Caribbean.

Location	Installed	Last Used	Size	Stroke	Type	Manufacturer
Puerto Rico
Hacienda La Esperanza	1861	1886/87?	16″	3′ 4″	Beam	West Point Foundry, Cold Spring, NY, USA
Hacienda La Igualdad	1860–70	early 1900s	12″	3′ 4″	Beam	Unknown
Hacienda La Lucía	1883	1893?	?	?	Horizontal	W. & A. McOnie, Glasgow, UK
Hacienda Maria	1865–70?	ca. 1920?	?	?	Horizontal	Finney & Hoffman, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Hacianda La Fe	late 1890s?	1936?	ca. 6″	10″	Horizontal	Houston, Stanwood & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, OH, USA
Hacianda La Fe	late 1890s?	1936?	?	?	Horizontal	Houston, Stanwood & Gamble Co., Cincinnati, OH, USA
Fundación Nuevo Mayagüez	1915?	1926?	?	?	Compound	Westinghouse Machine Co., Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Hacienda La Concepción (present location unknown)	1868 (built 1865)	1892	13″	3′ 2″	Horizontal	Mirlees & Tait, Glasgow, UK
St. Thomas, USVI
Creque Marine Railway	1843 (built 1842?)	mid-1950s	15″	30″	Beam	Benjamin Hick & Sons, Bolton, UK?
St. John, USVI
Estate Adrian	1854	1901?	ca. 13½″	2½′	Beam	McOnie & Mirrlees, Glasgow, UK
Estate Reef Bay	1861	1908	12″	2′	Horizontal	W. & A. McOnie, Glasgow, UK
St. Croix, USVI
Estate Rust Op Twist	1851 (built 1850)	1878	12½″	2′	Beam	McOnie & Mirrlees, Glasgow, UK
Estate Annaly	1863? (built 1855)	?	13″	2½′	Beam	McOnie & Mirrlees, Glasgow, UK
Estate Clifton Hill	ca. 1880?	1947?	14″	3′	Horizontal	D. Stewart and Co. Glasgow, UK
Estate Whim Museum (from Estate Mt. Stewart)	1848 (built 1847)	ca. 1876	10″	2′	Overhead crank	P. & W. McOnie, Glasgow, UK
Estate Whim Museum (from Estate Mt. Stewart)	1876 (built 1855)	ca. 1892	11″	2½′	Horizontal	McOnie & Mirrlees, Glasgow, UK

) and stand in testament to the industry that once dominated the economy of the Caribbean islands and controlled the daily lives of many of those who lived there. In Puerto Rico (Figure 1), two beam engines survive on their original foundations, one at the former sugar mill at Hacienda La Esperanza and the other at Hacienda La Igualdad. The latter engine is of unknown make, but the former is unique in being the only Caribbean beam engine known to have been built in America. It is also the only one that has been returned to operational condition. Two horizontal engines also survive on their original foundations at the former Hacienda La Lucía and Hacienda Maria sugar farms, and two more are preserved at Museo Hacienda La Fe. A fifth horizontal engine, which existed at Hacienda La Concepción in 1976, is of unknown whereabouts and may have been scrapped. All are known or thought to date from the second half of the nineteenth century. A compound steam engine, likely dating from the early twentieth century, is believed to be in storage in Mayagüez.

Derelict beam engines can also be found on their operating foundations in the U.S. Virgin Islands, one on each of St. Thomas and St. John and two in St. Croix. An additional horizontal engine survives in St. John, and two horizontal engines and an overhead crank engine can be found in St. Croix. All were exported to the Caribbean in the mid-to-late 19th century, when the islands were known as the Danish West Indies (1754–1917), and all but one were manufactured in Scotland for use in sugar mills.

The following account examines the role of the stationary steam engine in the Caribbean sugar industry by providing an illustrated guide to each of the surviving examples in the American territories, together with details of their manufacture (where known), brief histories of the plantations they served, and the industry of which they were part.

2. Stationary Steam and the Puerto Rican Sugar Industry

The cultivation of sugar cane in Puerto Rico began with the establishment of the first sugar mill (San Juan de las Palmas) near Añasco on the island’s northwest coast in ca. 1522, and by 1582, about 11 sugar plantations had been established (Pumarada O’Neill 2019, p. 17; EnciclopediaPR 2022). However, livestock farming and the export of leather and ginger would continue to dominate the economy for more than a century. Widespread sugar production began in the 18th century, by the end of which sugar had become a major export. It would remain central to the island’s economy until the mid-20th century.

The industry was initially based on small farms (haciendas) that both grew the cane and had facilities (ingenios) for crushing it using vertical water- or animal-powered mills (trapiches) and for processing the resulting juice. By the 1820s, when steam was first introduced, almost 1500 haciendas were in operation (Montilla 2024), reaching 1552 in 1830 (Pumarada O’Neill 2019, p. 34). Steam was first used at Hacienda Cintrona in Ponce, on the island’s south coast, in ca. 1823. By 1834, the English traveler George Flinter reported six steam-operated sugar mills, all near Ponce, and by 1848, the number had increased to 48 (EnciclopediaPR 2022). Steam power, and the horizontal roller mill that was introduced with it, greatly increased production. However, falling sugar prices, mainly due to competition from European sugar beet, coupled with an epidemic of cholera that decimated the slave population in 1855, significantly reduced the number of haciendas between 1840 and 1860, and the tally of active ingenios fell to some 550 in the subsequent decade. Nevertheless, steam engines continued to be introduced at a rate of about nine per year, and in 1870, in response to an expansion in sugar investment, 36 were imported.

The year 1873 saw both the emancipation from slavery, which significantly increased the running costs of haciendas, and the introduction of centralized and more technically advanced sugar mills (Centrals) in place of the less efficient ingenios. As a result, the number of active ingenios dropped to 385 by 1879 and, in 1886, the number of steam mills was reduced to 139 (Pumarada O’Neill 2019, p. 48). By the early 1900s, when coffee had overtaken sugar as the island’s principal export, ingenios had disappeared altogether, and milling had become entirely centralized.

Renewed investment and the establishment of large sugar emporia following the American invasion of Puerto Rico in 1898 re-established the island as a major sugar exporter as demand increased and prices rose. In the 1940s, however, falling sugar prices, this time accompanied by financial crises and labor disputes, led to the industry’s decline and, despite a record cane harvest in 1952, almost half of the 35 Centrals in existence in 1940 ceased operation between 1951 and 1968. An attempt to rescue the industry through nationalization in 1973 failed to halt this decline, and the last two centralized plants ceased operations in 2000 (EnciclopediaPR 2022).

2.1. Hacienda La Esperanza

The operational sugar mill beam engine (Figure 2) that survives amid the ruins of Hacienda La Esperanza near Barceloneta on the north coast of Puerto Rico (see Figure 1) was built in 1861 by the West Point Foundry, the former site of which is now a National Historic Landmark on the east bank of the Hudson River in Cold Spring, New York. This decorative six-column 16-inch cylinder rotative engine (3-foot-4-inch stroke) is the only existing Caribbean beam engine known to have come from America and the only West Point beam engine known to survive. It is also the only surviving six-column beam engine built in America and the only one to use parallel motion rather than crosshead guides and, in contrast to all but the ‘Gothic engine’ at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan (Nance 1996), it is highly ornate, its six quatrefoil columns being connected by intricately decorated Tudor arches (Figure 3).

The engine is non-condensing with eccentric-actuated drop valves and a governor mounted on a column in front of the cylinder. The latter is connected to the engine by step pulleys of three different diameters, allowing it to operate at any of three speeds (Blanco 1976, p. 2). Running on steam supplied by a single Lancashire boiler at a pressure of 60 psi, the engine typically turned its 6-spoke 20-foot diameter flywheel at about 25 rpm, which, in turn, turned the rollers of the adjacent cane mill at a little under 2 rpm through double reduction gears. The reduction involved gear ratios of 4.2 to 1 between the crankshaft and the shaft of the intermediate gear and 2.4 to 1 between the intermediate shaft and the bull-gear shaft of the cane mill (Historic American Engineering Record 1976, p. 3). The engine and mill were designated a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark in 1979 (American Society of Mechanical Engineers 1979).

The Hacienda la Esperanza sugar plantation, a 2265-acre estate in the fertile valley of the Río Grande de Manatí near Barceloneta, was founded in the 1830s by Fernando Fernández, a naval captain who was granted land in Puerto Rico in recognition of his service to Spain. In the 1850s, the plantation was inherited by Fernando’s eldest son, José Ramon Fernández y Martínez, who greatly expanded the hacienda and, in 1861, installed the West Point steam engine to run the plantation’s ingenio. In order to avoid customs duty, the engine and accompanying horizontal three-roller mill (Figure 4) were reputedly offloaded clandestinely at La Boca, a small community northwest of the plantation at the mouth of the Rio Grande. The new milling arrangement, which replaced an earlier steam mill installed in or before 1841, more than doubled the plantation’s production from 200 tons per harvest to 500–600 tons (Muller 2016), making the hacienda, which was valued at about $300,000 in 1862, one of the largest sugar producers in Puerto Rico. It also made Fernández, who either bought or was granted the title of Marqués de la Esperanza, one of the wealthiest men in Puerto Rico and one of the most powerful men in the Spanish Caribbean.

By the 1870s, the hacienda was possibly the most advanced sugar factory in Puerto Rico. However, slaves played a major role in sugar production, with as many as 175 at work on the hacienda at the time of emancipation in 1873. Consequently, output fell sharply and sugar production became much less profitable following emancipation; thus, the hacienda slowly fell into decay. The engine is thought to have been last operated in 1886 or 1887, when the hacienda was converted to a cattle farm (Montilla 2022).

In 1975, the hacienda was acquired and restored by the Conservation Trust of Puerto Rico (now Para la Naturaleza), and in 1976, the site was documented by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER). It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. In 2000, the Conservation Trust initiated a plan to restore the engine to steam, a project that involved experts from both the USA and the UK (London Museum of Water & Steam) and required the engine to be re-erected on a new foundation. The stack, which stands to its full height, and the remaining walls of the engine house were also stabilized. By 2009, the trapiche was operating with a hydraulic pump, and the entire roofed steam power exhibit (Figure 5) was inaugurated on 15 November 2015. Steam is provided by a diesel-fired 35 hp vertical boiler manufactured by the Columbia Boiler Co, Pennsylvania, which operates at 60 psi steam pressure and can generate 25 hp at 20 rpm, although the engine is operated at half of its normal speed (Muller 2016, p. 11).

2.2. Hacienda La Igualdad

A derelict sugar mill beam engine (Figure 6) stands amid the ruins of Hacienda La Igualdad near Guanica on the southwest coast of Puerto Rico (see Figure 1). This 12-inch cylinder single (box)-column rotative engine (3-foot-4-inch stroke) was documented by the Historic American Engineering Record (1977a) (Figure 7). It is of unknown make, although it has been attributed to the foundry of Lancashire-born John Cockerill in Seraing, Belgium. It drove a surviving horizontal mill and is thought to date from between 1860 and 1870 (Montilla 2020). Of the building that housed it, only partial walls remain, but the stack survived to its full height until 2020, when it suffered substantial damage during a series of earthquakes (Crowley 1982, p. 132).

The engine is of unusual design, with the beam supported by an open, decorative, single pedestal column that resembles an A-frame (Figure 8). It is non-condensing, with an eccentric-actuated slide valve, crosshead guide bars strutted to the entablature by tension rods, and a 15-foot diameter flywheel, the six spokes and rim castings of which are bolted together. Likely to have turned at about 20 rpm, the flywheel crankshaft is connected to a single 15-foot diameter reduction gear coupled to a three-roller cane crushing mill (Figure 9).

Little historical information exists about this plantation. It was established by Quintín Ramirez de Arellano Falto de Armedo in ca. 1840, who was likely responsible for installing the beam engine and mill. By 1891, the 1068-acre plantation was owned by his son Ubaldino Ramirez de Arellano Lugo. It was later inherited by Ubaldino’s son, Alfredo Ramirez de Arellano Rosell, who leased the property to the South Puerto Rico Sugar Co. in the early 1900s, after which milling operations at the hacienda were terminated and the plantation’s sugarcane was processed at the nearby Central Guanica sugar mill (Montilla 2020).

2.3. Hacienda La Lucía

A small horizontal engine of unknown size survives on its original foundations at Hacienda La Lucía, an old sugar mill near Yabucoa on the island’s southeastern coast (see Figure 1). The site was photographed (but not recorded) by the Historic American Engineering Record (1977b) (Figure 10) and has changed little since then (Figure 11).

Built by W. & A. McOnie in Glasgow in 1883, the engine is complete, with its flywheel (one half of which has fallen, likely in an effort to salvage the bolted segment), slide valves, a pump system for the cane juice, and the assembly by which the engine was geared down to the cane mill (Ruiz 2013). The flywheel rim is embellished with baring holes. The mill itself, however, is missing, as is the flyball governor, which was still present in 1977.

Hacienda La Lucía was established by Gustave Dausó (formerly Daussau), a French immigrant, in 1852, who named it in honor of his daughter Lucía (Ruiz 2013; Montilla 2019). Having married Frenchman Luis Lavergne, Lucía Dausó de Lavergne inherited the plantation upon the death of her father and, together with Luis and his brother, was responsible for installing the steam mill in 1883. However, as a result of a court case brought against her by José Facundo Cintrón (likely for an unpaid debt), the 320-acre hacienda was publicly auctioned in 1885. It was acquired by Cintrón, the owner of the nearby ingenio Laura, for 82,035 pesos. It is not known when the mill ceased to be used, but Hurricane San Roque caused substantial damage to the hacienda in 1893. Reputedly, however, sugarcane continued to grow on the plantation until the 1930s but was processed at the Central Mercedita (later Central Roig) in nearby Yabucoa.

In May 2014, the municipal government of Yabucoa was granted permission to develop and maintain this property as a tourist attraction, highlighting the importance of the hacienda in Yabucoa’s rich sugar industry history. Beyond clearing the site, however, no work had been conducted in this regard (Montilla 2019).

2.4. Hacienda Maria

Another small horizontal engine of unknown size survives on its original foundations on private grounds at Hacienda Maria, an old sugar mill in north-central Puerto Rico near the town of Morovis (see Figure 1). This engine, which is geared down to a three-roller horizontal mill, is important because it is the only surviving horizontal engine in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands known to have come from America (Figure 12). It was manufactured by the New York firm of Finney & Hoffman, a Brooklyn steam engine, boiler, and machinery manufacturing company run by William Finney (1831–1913) and Henry Hoffman at 167–175 Water Street (Center for Brooklyn History n.d.). The engine is of unknown date, but it is likely to have been imported during the opening ownership of the plantation in ca. 1865–1870. A boiler built by the Chandler & Taylor Co. in Indianapolis, Indiana between 1865 (when the partnership was established) and 1888 (when the firm incorporated as the Chandler-Taylor Co.) (Cope 2006, pp. 51–53) also survives on the site (Montilla 2015). The sugar mill that the engine drove was built by the Abarca Foundry in San Juan in 1919 (Jamie Montilla, pers. comm., 14 February 2024).

Hacienda Maria is thought to date to 1865 and was established in the Barrio San Lorenzo of Morovis by Juan Suro Juliá, a Spanish immigrant from Rubí, a municipality northwest of Barcelona (Montilla 2015). Upon his death in 1870, the plantation passed to his widow, Encarnación Prado, who is recorded to have mortgaged the property in 1879. However, less than a decade later, approximately in 1887, the hacienda passed to Joaquina Juliá following foreclosure proceedings against Encarnación Prado for the recovery of the mortgage. In 1888, as a result of another court case, the property passed to Alonso del Rio Diaz (and later, his estate), a Spanish immigrant from Asturias and a recent major of Morovis. In 1894, it produced muscovado sugar and molasses, and it is reported to have had a trapiche house. The hacienda also had a small distillery for the manufacture of rum. By 1920, the ownership had passed to Hortensia de León Espinet, Alonso’s second wife.

2.5. Hacienda La Fe

The site of the former Hacienda Le Fe on the northern outskirts of San Sebastián in northwestern Puerto Rico (see Figure 1) is now an adventure park that includes a museum building in which two small horizontal engines manufactured by the Houston, Stanwood & Gamble Co. in Cincinnati, Ohio are preserved (Figure 13). The museum also houses a three-roller sugar mill built by Cincinnati’s Blymer Iron Works, along with a 4-foot by 10-foot boiler. The larger engine (Figure 13a) has an estimated cylinder diameter of 6 inches and a 10-inch stroke. It sits on its original masonry (brick, lime, and sand) base and is coupled to a 3-foot-3-inch diameter flywheel with an 8½-inch rim that turns an 18-inch by 8-inch pulley wheel. According to the museum, the engine dates to ca. 1890; however, the Houston, Stanwood, and Gamble Co. was only established in 1891 (Cope 2006, pp. 124–25), and it was only in the late 1890s that the hacienda began growing sugar cane (Montilla 2014). It is therefore likely that both engines (and the sugar mill) date to this later period. The smaller engine (Figure 13b) is of unknown size, and its function is uncertain, although it could have been associated with coffee production.

The history of Hacienda La Fe dates to 1822, when Juan Bautista Echeandia de Azpiazu, an immigrant from the Basque Country in Spain, arrived from Venezuela with his family and leased the property to grow coffee, which was then in high demand (Montilla 2014). Within two years, he was the town’s second-highest taxpayer and, in 1828, he was able to purchase the property. Following his death, in 1828, his wife Isabel and sons Cecilio and Agustín Echeandia Mendoza took over, growing bananas, rice, sugar cane, and cotton, in addition to coffee. In 1835, Isabel leased the property to her son-in-law Bartolomé Iriarte Echenique, who purchased it in 1845. In 1854, however, it was lost to foreclosure, after which it went through five ownerships over a period of 21 years before being returned to the Encheandia family.

According to the museum, the return took place in 1875, when it was purchased by Cecilio’s son Pedro Antonio Echeandia Medina. Pedro Antonio had great success growing coffee and, by 1884, had become the largest landowner in San Sebastián. However, a crisis in the coffee market in 1887, which caused a sharp drop in coffee prices at the very time the sugar industry was expanding, led Pedro Antonio to convert the hacienda to sugar production, a decision borne out of Hurricane San Ciriaco, which permanently damaged coffee production in 1899. To do so, he imported new machinery for a steam-powered sugar mill and began producing sugar, rum, and other products.

Unfortunately, this investment did not pay off, and in 1907, Pedro Antonio relinquished the property to his son Cecilio Damasco Echeandia Velez, who named the recently established ingenio Hacienda La Fe. Forced to mortgage the property to cover the damage caused by an earthquake in 1918, Cecilio chose to sell the hacienda to his son Pedro Antonio Echeandia Font in 1922. Mortgaged once again, this time to repair damage caused by Hurricane San Felipe Segundo in 1928, the property was sold to the principal shareholder of the nearby Central Plata in 1936. The hacienda finally closed in 1942 and has recently been acquired by the Municipal Government of San Sebastian, which operates it as a museum.

2.6. Fundación Nuevo Mayagüez

Another steam engine (Figure 14) is believed to be stored in a warehouse in the commercial district of Mayagüez (Dickinson 2020; Héctor Ruiz, pers. comm., 4 December 2023) on Puerto Rico’s west coast (see Figure 1). This a Westinghouse Machine Co. compound engine (No. 255) of unknown size that was used to charge the battery-powered trams of the Mayagüez Tramway Company, three of which were supplied by the Jackson & Sharp Co. in Wilmington, Delaware in January 1915 (Morrison 2010). Built in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the engine is almost identical to the one described (The Westinghouse Compound Engine 1889) in the magazine Science in May 1889 (inset, Figure 14).

The tram company was in operation from 1915 to 1926, and it is likely that the Westinghouse engine was installed at the beginning of this period. It was rescued, along with other artifacts and a small diesel locomotive, by Manuel Durán-Durán and preserved by his private agency, the Fundación Nuevo Mayagüez, which is not open to the public.

2.7. Hacienda La Concepción

At the time of the HAER Survey in 1976, the well-preserved remains of an additional horizontal engine (Figure 15) with a horizontal three-roller mill (No. 571) and cylindrical multitubular boiler, all dating to 1865, survived at Hacienda La Concepción on the banks of the Culebrinas River in Victoria, just south of Aguadilla on the island’s northwest coast (see Figure 1). The area has since been cleared and the machinery, which is now of unknown whereabouts, was likely scrapped. The HAER record and photographs, however, have survived (U.S. Library of Congress 1976).

The engine, mill, and boiler were all built in Glasgow in 1865 by Mirlees and Tait (the name that the McOnie and Mirlees firm acquired in 1858) and were so inscribed. The engine (Figure 16), with a top chest, slide valve, and box bed, had a 13-inch cylinder with a 3-foot-2-inch stroke and was designed to operate at 100 psi, developing about 40 hp at 30 rpm. The flywheel was 7 feet in diameter, with baring holes in the rim. With a gear ratio of 2.6 to 1 between the crankshaft and intermediate shaft and 3.5 to 1 between the latter shaft and the mill driveshaft, the sugar mill’s three rollers turned at about 3.3 rpm (Figure 17).

The history of Hacienda La Concepción dates to at least 1817 and, by 1835, it was valued at 44,750 pesos and had 214 acres planted with cane or grasses, with a vertical sugar mill. The hacienda had been established by the family of Eualia Quiñones Silva, whose husband, José Néstor Cardona Ramirez, installed the steam-driven cane mill in 1868. The mill continued to process cane until 1892, after which, due to the failure of the boiler, milling operations were transferred to the Central Coloso in nearby Aguada. By 1902, the management of the hacienda had passed to Francisco de Cardona Quiñones, one of José Néstor and Eulalia’s twelve children (Pumarada O’Neill 2019, pp. 38–39; Montilla 2024).

3. Stationary Steam Engines in St. Thomas

Creque Marine Railway

At the northern tip of Hassel Island, just off the southern shore of St. Thomas opposite Frenchtown, lie the remains of a pioneering enterprise known as the Creque (pronounced “creaky”) Marine Railway. The installation, which was originally called the St. Thomas Marine Repair Facility, was a Danish-built inclined-plane ship railway that began commercial service in 1844. The rail line, which runs 156 feet into a 31-foot-deep cradling dock (Zabriskie 1918) (Figure 18), is consequently one of the oldest marine railways to survive. The island on which the site lies was, at that time, a peninsula on the west side of Charlotte Amalie Harbour but was separated from the main island of St. Thomas in 1864 when the Danish government dug a channel across its northern end to improve circulation within the harbour in the hope that this would alleviate the epidemics that were then afflicting the town. The repair facility consisted of a ballasted cradle on four rails, into which a ship could be floated before being winched from the 200-foot dock up an inclined 30-foot-wide slipway so that repairs and maintenance could be made on dry land (Figure 19). The power source, to which the winch was geared down, was a walking beam engine (Figure 20). In the years following 1844, the facility serviced some 50 vessels annually and, after renovations, necessitated by a devastating hurricane in 1867, was capable of hauling out vessels of 1200 tons (Rumm 1977a). However, the business eventually ran into financial difficulties and, in 1910, it was bought at an auction by Henry Creque and restored. Successfully restarted in 1912 under the name of Creque’s Maritime Railway Dock, the facility was used by the U.S. Navy during both world wars and finally closed in the 1960s. In 1978, the site, along with a large part of Hassel Island, was sold to the U.S. Department of the Interior as part of the Virgin Islands National Park by the Paiewonsky family, and since 2006, efforts to repair and maintain the island’s structures have been entrusted to the St. Thomas Historical Trust (Hassel Island 2022).

The A-frame beam engine, much of which survives in the ruins of a combined powerhouse and residence at the head of the slip (Figure 21), is of uncertain date and origin. However, given that construction of the facility began in 1841 and several trial runs utilizing steam power were made before the end of 1843 (Rumm 1977a), the imported engine is likely to have been built in 1842. As for the engine’s builder, the site assessment by the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) refers to a “well-preserved Bolton beam engine from the 1840s”, and in its description of the site, the National Park Service (2007) states that “the beam engine powering the winch was built by the Bolton Company, Hamburg, Germany”. Other records refer to the maker as Boulton of Hamburg (Wikipedia 2021) and even Boulton and Watt (Waite 2013). However, they are all likely to be incorrect.

The attribution to Hamburg is of unknown source, but the reference to Bolton likely stems from an article published soon after the facility was restarted in 1912 (Nautical Gazette 1912), in which an experienced expert in marine engineering is quoted to have said that “the machinery, though of the old type, sustains the worldwide reputation of the Bolton builders, whose work combine silence and durability”. Although a shipping business owned by August Bolten existed in Hamburg in 1841, the company did not build beam engines and, according to Chris Allen (International Stationary Steam Engine Society), there is no record of Boulton and Watt exporting an A-frame beam engine to St. Thomas. Instead, as suggested by George Drake (pers. comm., 31 January 2022) on the basis of its similarity to a surviving ca. 1845 example at the Leeds Industrial Museum at Armley Mills (Figure 22), the “Bolton Company” is much more likely to refer to Benjamin Hick & Sons, a well-established builder of stationary steam engines in Bolton, Lancashire, founded in 1833. Hence, the engine was almost certainly built by Hick and Sons in 1842.

The 15-inch (30-inch stroke), single-cylinder, and non-condensing engine that operated the Creque Marine Railway (Figure 23) is equipped with parallel motion, a D-slide valve, a cruciform connecting rod (disconnected), a single eccentric, and a 14-foot diameter flywheel (cast in six segments) inset into the brick wall separating the engine from the winch. Since it was operated under constant load, the engine was designed without a governor. A device on the eccentric, which was free to turn on the crankshaft, enabled the operator to reverse the engine. This was achieved, according to the HAER report (Rumm 1977a), by unlatching the eccentric rod so that the slide valve could be operated manually. The engineman then allowed the eccentric to slip on the crankshaft until a stop on the eccentric engaged dogs fixed to the crankshaft. This advanced or retarded the motion of the eccentric by roughly 180 degrees with respect to the piston, reversing the engine’s direction so that the chains on the cradle could be payed out to lower it on the rails. The box end bearings, along with the linkages joining the beam to the connecting rod and piston rod, are the only major missing parts.

The engine was coupled to the winch through a system of reduction gears and could be operated using one of two gears, the ratio shift being accomplished manually through a moveable gear set splined to the driveshaft (Figure 24). Hauling was accomplished using an iron chain that passed beneath and around a drive cog gear on the forward gear wheel. According to the HAER survey, the chain was returned from the Head House over an idler cog gear, with a loop and a keeper connected to the pulling chain. During pulling, when the keeper reached the drive cog gear, the engine was stopped, the boat was choked, and the engine was reversed to pay out the chain until the keeper reached the idler cog gear ready for the next pull. The pulling chain did not extend all the way to the cradle but was shackled to a series of 23-foot wrought iron rods. Latterly, a steel cable was used.

Steam was originally provided by a single wood-fired cast-iron boiler of Cornish design with a single fire tube. To this, a larger Lancashire-type boiler with two fire tubes was added as a part of the facility’s renovations prior to its reopening in 1912. Both boilers survive adjacent to the engine (Figure 25). One of the boilers, presumably the older of the two, failed in about 1940, and steam was supplied by the other until it also failed in the mid-1950s. Following this, a gasoline winch was used; an attempt to operate the winch with compressed air from a gas compressor following the failure of the first boiler having been unseccessful (Rumm 1977a).

The two-story building at the top of the incline that housed the engine, winch, and boilers also served as a residence, first for the superintendent of the St. Thomas Marine Repair Facility and, from 1910 to the mid-1940s, for Henry Creque and his family. The building faces north-northeast towards the slip and is made up of six bays (see Figure 19), the boiler room occupying the two easternmost bays, the engine and winch room occupying the next two, and the living quarters occupying the two westernmost ones. Already damaged by fire in the 1960s, the building sustained significant damage as a result of back-to-back category 5 hurricanes (Irma and Maria) in September 2017 (see Figure 20), which caused the north wall to collapse and the 75-foot chimney attached to the rear of the boiler room to fall. This damage has yet to be cleared, and while a $1 million contract has been made with an Ohio firm to restore the site, according to Vincent “Doc” Palancia, chair of the Hassel Island Task Force, the building is now unstable, the engine and boilers are under much rubble, and the site is currently off-limits.

4. Stationary Steam Engines in St. John

4.1. Estate Adrian

Hidden in the jungle amid the overgrown ruins of Estate Adrian, in an abandoned and largely forgotten sugar plantation in St. John just south of Centerline Road (Highway 10), between Susannaberg and Catherineberg, there is a small (10 horsepower) A-frame sugar mill beam engine (Figure 26). Still on its original foundations, the ca. 13½-inch (15½ –15¾-inch outside diameter), 2½-foot stroke, single-cylinder, non-condensing engine is equipped with parallel motion, a short D-slide valve worked by a single eccentric, a water pump worked off the beam, a cruciform connecting rod cranked to a 12-foot diameter flywheel cast in two halves, and a tank bed (Figure 27). The engine’s Watt-type governor, only the main axle of which survives, is mounted inside the A-frame, driven by a belt from the crankshaft. For reverse working, which might occasionally be needed to clear the rollers of the cane crusher, the engine could be worked by hand and has an arrangement for ungrabbing and a hand- operating lever. Steam was supplied by a single boiler, which also served the boiling house and remains in place (Figure 28).

The engine’s builder is not obvious from the engine itself, although it has been identified as No. 140 (Hayes 1982), but the makers’ names are cast on the pedestal of the three-roller cane crusher. Interestingly, the names are given as McOnie & Mirrlees, Engineers, Glasgow, 1854, on the side furthest from the beam engine, and Mirrlees & Tait, Engineers, Glasgow, 1864, on the near side. The two makers and dates suggest the addition of a replacement component following a casting failure approximately ten years after the mill was installed, by which time the firm of McOnie & Mirrlees had changed its name to Mirrlees and Tait. Peter McOnie and James Buchanan Mirrlees established the Glasgow sugar machinery firm of McOnie and Mirrlees in 1848. However, following the death of McOnie in 1850, William Tait was taken on as a new partner, and in 1858, the firm’s name was changed to Mirrlees and Tait.

The mill, which is identified as No. 163, is separated from the engine by a wall that anchors the axle of the 12-foot diameter reduction gear wheel (Figure 29). The eight spokes and axle of this gear wheel are a single casting, but there are eight numbered rim segments, each with 19 teeth. This was turned by a small 13-tooth gear wheel on the engine’s crankshaft, giving a reduction ratio of about 12 to 1. When working, the three rollers, all of which are in place and measure 21 inches in diameter by 42 inches long, would have probably rotated at 1 to 2 revolutions per minute.

The Estate Adrian sugar plantation was founded in 1718 by Adrian Runnels, after whom it is named and, after his death in 1728, was managed by his widow until 1755 (Kellar 2004). Following a succession of ownerships, the plantation was put up for auction by the Danish crown in 1847, when it was purchased by John Elliot of St. Croix, who remained the manager until his death in 1868. With the emancipation of the island in 1848 and competition from cheaper beet sugar production, Elliot renovated the estate in order to increase efficiency and offset the decrease in the labor force. Substantial improvements were made to all aspects of sugar production in 1851, including a new cooling room and a new 50-foot brick-lined chimney for the boiling house. A new steam engine and mill were installed to crush the cane in 1854, and a new addition to the curing house was erected in 1856. Louis Delinois was the estate’s final manager from 1884 to 1901, after which the property was abandoned.

4.2. Estate Reef Bay

At Genti Bay, on the south coast of St. John, only a mile southeast of Estate Adrian at the southern end of the Reef Bay Trail, the sugar mill of the well-preserved Estate Reef Bay was likewise powered by a McOnie steam engine (Figure 30), which survives on its original foundation (Rumm 1977b). In this case, however, the engine is a horizontal one (12-inch cylinder and 2-foot stroke), advertised in 1864 as being of 8 horsepower, and both the engine’s valve chest and the pedestal of the three-roller cane crusher are inscribed “W. & A. McOnie, Glasgow, 1861”. The engine and crusher, which were installed the following year, are numbered 286 and 291, respectively. The engine (Figure 31) is equipped with a D-slide valve operated by a single eccentric, a Watt-type governor, and a 10-foot diameter flywheel that drove two reduction gears with a ratio of 11:1. Steam was supplied from a steam separator over a boiler that also served the boiling room. The crusher’s three rollers have diameters of 19 inches, with the two bottom rollers being slightly longer than the 36-inch top roller (Figure 32).

Despite having the same name, the Glasgow engineering firm of W & A McOnie was distinct from that of McOnie and Mirrlees, having been established by Peter McOnie brothers, William and Andrew, in 1851. It was, however, another important supplier of sugar mill equipment, producing 820 steam engines, 1650 sugar mills, and 1200 steam boilers between 1851 and 1875, and went on to become the last of Scotland’s sugar machinery manufacturers (Archives Hub Website n.d.).

The plantation at Reef Bay dates to 1725, but its conversion to sugar cane production took place in the first half of the 19th century, when it was combined with the adjacent Estate Par Force and a new factory was built for processing sugarcane and distilling rum using an animal-powered mill. Purchased by O.I. Burguest and Co. in 1855 under the management of William H. March, the factory was modernized and converted to steam in 1862. In 1864, March purchased the factory at auction and continued to operate it until 1908, by which time it was the last to produce sugar on the island. The site was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in 1981.

5. Stationary Steam Engines in St. Croix

On the island of St. Croix, two derelict beam engines, respectively dating to 1850 and 1855, survive on their working foundations at Estate Rust Op Twist and Estate Annaly. In addition, a ca. 1880 horizontal engine survives at Estate Clifton Hill, and an 1847 overhead crank engine and an 1855 horizontal engine are preserved at the Estate Whim Museum. Only those at the Estate Whim Museum are open to the public.

5.1. Estate Rust Op Twist

Estate Rust Op Twist (Dutch for “rest after work”) overlooks the Caribbean above North Shore Road (Highway 80) in St. Croix’s Northside B Quarter between Belvedere and Clairmont. The grounds now feature a very desirable Airbnb rental property that stands amid the ruins of the great house, factory, and windmill of the former sugar and rum estate, which was worked for 130 years before being abandoned in 1881. Although modified and rebuilt since that time, one of the factory buildings still houses a well-preserved single-column beam engine (Figure 33) coupled to an incomplete cane crusher through reduction gearing. Still on its original foundations, the 12½-inch (2-foot stroke), single-cylinder beam engine was ordered from McOnie and Mirrlees in Glasgow on October 29, 1850 and erected the following year (Rumm 1977c). It is non-condensing and equipped with crosshead guides, a Watt-type governor, which is complete and mounted between the column and cylinder, a D-slide valve worked by a single eccentric, a hand operating lever, a water pump worked off the beam, and a cruciform connecting rod cranked to a 10-foot diameter flywheel with eight wrought iron spokes and a cast-iron hub and rim (Figure 34). The slide valve, valve box cover, and various linkages are missing. The engine sits on a box base and is thought to have delivered about 20 horsepower. The three-roller cane crusher (No. 85), of which only the frame and a single roller (measuring 21 inches in diameter and 42 inches long) remain (Figure 35), was driven through two reduction gears with a reduction ratio of 12 to 1. Rotating at about 1½ to 2 revolutions per minute, the mill is thought to have had a capacity of some 5 tons of cane per hour.

Estate Rust Op Twist had a checkered history (Rumm 1977c). The plantation was first purchased by Nicolai Tuit and Company in 1751 but remained uncultivated until it was acquired by Johann Uytendaal of St. Thomas in 1757. By 1766, it was being worked with an animal-powered mill, the remains of which can still be seen. The estate remained in the hands of Uytendaal and his sons until 1880 when, heavily indebted, the ownership passed to Hans Winding and William Woods. Despite debt and a major decline in the great sugar industry, Winding and his heirs hung on to the estate until 1834, when it was sold to Nicolai Jurgenson. In 1840, Jurgenson sold the plantation to Count Adam Moltke, who held it until the year following emancipation in 1848, when it came under the control of the Royal West Indies Loan Commission. It was under their tenure that the beam engine was ordered, which significantly increased production. By 1855, ownership had passed to H. Nelthropp, and in 1874, it was taken on by Julius Arendrup. However, production throughout this period was plagued by hurricanes, earthquakes, droughts, and epidemics, and to cap it off, the house and works were burned to the ground during the St. Croix labor riot of 1878. The estate was put up for auction the following year, but by 1881, sugar production had ceased for good.

5.2. Estate Annaly

At the north end of Annaly Road, close to its junction with Highway 58 (Creque Dam Road) at Rose Hill in St. Croix’s Northside A Quarter, another well-preserved single-column beam engine (Figure 36) and cane crusher (Figure 37), dating to 1855, can be found amid the sugar factory ruins at Estate Annaly. Also on its working foundations, the 13-inch (2½-foot stroke) single-cylinder beam engine (No. 159) is similar to that at Estate Rust Op Twist but has parallel motion rather than crosshead guides, a flywheel with six rather than eight spokes, and a (broken) belt drive wheel on the crankshaft. Like that at Rust Op Twist, the engine was built by McOnie and Mirrlees in Glasgow; it is non-condensing and equipped with a Watt-type governor between the column and cylinder, a D-slide valve worked by a single eccentric, a hand operating lever, a water pump worked off the beam, and a cruciform connecting rod, and it sits on a box base. It is not, however, on its original foundation, having been moved to its present site, probably in 1863, when the estate to which it was delivered closed down (Hayes 1982).

The cane crusher (No. 183), with three 21-inch by 42-inch rollers, is intact but has suffered past damage and has been repaired with parts from other mills. It is also distinctive in having an intermediate support on the driveshaft and a juice pump worked off the crankshaft gear. Steam was supplied by a fire tube boiler equipped with a collection chamber and pressure relief valves, all of which survive adjacent to the engine and remain connected to it (Figure 38).

5.3. Estate Clifton Hill

In addition to these two sites, a well-preserved horizontal engine and cane mill described by HAER in 1977 reportedly survive on their working foundations at Estate Clifton Hill, now a renovated rental property off Highway 663 at Kingshill in St. Croix’s King’s Quarter. The 14-inch (3-foot stroke) engine was built by D. Stewart and Co. Ltd., Glasgow but is undated. It was moved to its present location from Estate Mount Pleasant, a little over 2 miles to the northeast, in 1915 by Axel Hoffmann and is thought to date to about 1880. An earlier 11-inch (2½-foot stroke) horizontal engine purchased by Estate Clifton Hill in 1868 had been scrapped around the turn of the century. Hoffmann, who had acquired the estate in 1884, installed the engine for the purpose of rum production and, at the end of prohibition, Estate Clifton Hill was one of the first legal distilleries in America. Rum production continued until 1947 when labor costs forced the factory to close.

Stewart and Co. was yet another well-known Glasgow engineering firm, founded by Duncan Stewart in 1864 at the London Road Ironworks, which remained the firm’s headquarters until 1962. Major features of the single-cylinder engine (Figure 39) include a circular-section connecting rod with box ends, a D-slide valve, a single base-plate slide guide, a three-weight governor on a spring suspension, a non-counter-weighted crank arm, and integral base, frame, and cylinder castings (Rumm 1977d). The cast-iron flywheel is 14 feet in diameter with the flywheel hub, rim, and six spokes cast in four units and bolted together. At the time of the HAER survey, the engine was only missing a pressure gauge and a few nuts and bolts, and the cylinder and steambox covers had been removed but were still on site.

Steam was provided through an overhead pipe, which is still in place, from a single fire tube boiler, the surviving one (now rusted out) having replaced the one installed in 1915, which blew out shortly after installation. The engine’s cylinder ends are equipped with spring-loaded safety valves and have piping beneath to separate and remove condensate. The exhaust passed through a pipe in a floor trench to the adjacent sugar works room for use in various pumps before being released into the atmosphere. The engine is connected through double reduction gears (16 to 60 and 16 to 113) to a three-roller cane crusher with 24-inch by 48-inch rollers (Figure 40). A crank attached to the centre reduction gear axle works as a juice pump.

Sugar and rum production at Estate Clifton Hill dates to its initial settlement by the Marcoe family in the early 1750s. An animal-powered mill for crushing cane was established by 1754, which was replaced a few years later by a windmill and, in 1868, by a steam engine. The original sugar factory was built in 1808 and worked by the Marcoe family until 1836, when the property was auctioned. In 1847, it was acquired by Charles Donocho, whose heir, Joseph Quaile, later purchased the steam engine. Quaile operated the estate until 1877 and, in 1878, it was burned down during the Great Riot. From 1879 to 1884, when Hoffmann acquired it, it was worked by Charles Leevy. By the turn of the century, however, production had ceased, and the original steam engine was scrapped. Reopened by Hoffmann as a rum distillery in 1915 following major renovations and the addition of the surviving steam mill, it was worked by the Hoffmann family until 1947.

5.4. Estate Whim Museum

In addition to these engines, the St. Croix Landmark Society’s Estate Whim Museum on Centerline Road (Highway 70), southeast of Frederiksted in St. Croix’s West End Quarter, has two steam mills on display. Both were retrieved from Estate Mt. Stewart, a little over half a mile southeast of Estate Annaly, in 1976. Largely reassembled, they include an overhead crank engine built by P. & W. McOnie, Glasgow in 1847 and a horizontal engine built by Glasgow’s McOnie and Mirrlees in 1855. Both are geared to horizontal three-roller mills.

5.4.1. P. & W. McOnie Mill

The history of the museum’s vertical engine is not known. According to the P. & W. McOnie books, it is reported to have been sent to another island but was found disassembled in a collapsed warehouse at Estate Mt. Stewart by David Hayes and co-workers from the St. Croix Landmark Society while they were planning the removal of the museum’s other engine in 1975 (Hayes 1982). It had been formerly used at Estate Mt. Stewart and, in Hayes’ opinion, was likely installed in 1848. Around 1876, the engine either failed to function or had proven to be too small and was replaced with the museum’s other engine, acquired from the then-defunct Estate Spring Garden, a little over half a mile northwest of Estate Annaly. The factory and warehouses at Estate Mt. Stewart were burned down during the labor riots of 1878, which put the estate out of business.

The 10-inch (2-foot stroke) engine (No. 48) is equipped with crosshead guides, one of which is missing, slide valves worked by an eccentric on the crankshaft, and a flywheel with a diameter of 9 foot 10 inches and eight round spokes (Figure 41). The crankshaft also carries a gear for a missing governor and a second eccentric for a pump, which is also missing (Figure 42). The cane crusher has three 19½-inch by 34-inch rollers driven through two reduction gears (10¼ inches and 10-foot 8-inches in diameter) with a reduction ratio of 9:1 (Figure 43).

P. & W. McOnie was the parent company of both McOnie and Mirrlees and W. & A. McOnie, which were founded to repair sugar machinery and supply spares by brothers Peter and William in 1840. This partnership, however, dissolved in 1848, when Peter joined James Mirrlees to form McOnie and Mirrlees, while William joined his younger brother Andrew to form the W. & A. McOnie Company.

5.4.2. McOnie and Mirrlees Mill

The museum’s horizontal engine (No. 160) was shipped to the owner of Estate Spring Garden, William Moore, in July 1855. However, by 1876, the estate was out of production and the engine was sold to J. Thompson at nearby Estate Mt. Stewart, where it worked until ca. 1892, when the estate stopped producing sugar. It was moved to Estate Whim in 1976. The 11-inch (2½-foot stroke) engine was worked at 40–60 psi and is thought to have developed about 25 horsepower . However, it has since suffered damage. The governor and governor linkage are missing, as is the cylinder relief valve, and the vertical shaft for the governor is bent. The six-spoke flywheel lies alongside them but has not been reassembled (Figure 44). However, the cane mill (No. 185) and its three 20-inch by 36-inch rollers are in good condition (Figure 45) and are estimated to have been able to crush 20–30 tons of cane in a 12–14-h day. An animal-powered mill and windmill are also displayed on the property where the museum is located.

6. Conclusions

The surviving stationary steam engines in the American territories of the Caribbean are of great importance for several reasons. They are, in their own right, important examples of nineteenth-century steam technology. Indeed, 11 of the 15 sites described in this article were deemed of sufficient engineering interest by the U.S. government to be selected for inclusion in the Historic American Engineering Record. All but one of the engines also represent lasting symbols of the sugar industry that once dominated the economy of these islands, the productivity of which they greatly influenced. Finally, many of the engines survive on former plantations, the histories of which are entwined with that of the islands themselves. Hence, the engines represent tangible records of the islands’ fascinating and often turbulent past.