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Reviewed by Grant Leishman for Readers' Favorite
Transatlantic Train: The Untold Story of the Boston Merchant Who Launched Donald McKay to Fame by Vincent J. Miles is an enthralling biography of one of Boston’s earliest, most successful, and yet least-known businessmen and entrepreneurs. Enoch Train was born in humble circumstances yet would go on to play a major role in the building of Boston into a major U.S. maritime powerhouse. Through his contribution to the transatlantic shipping trade, with his sailing ship packet line between Boston and Liverpool in the United Kingdom, he made an enormous impact. This also involved the immigration of tens of thousands of mainly Irish people, seeking to escape famine, autocratic rule, or religious oppression and find a life of hope and enterprise in the New World. Perhaps even more important was his financial support and patronage of a young man who would become recognized as the greatest shipbuilder of the nineteenth century, Donald McKay. Enoch Train was also deeply respected and loved by his employees whom he treated as human beings rather than just a commodity to be utilized - an uncommon business practice for the time.
I love historical biographies that investigate and explain the development of societies and great cities. Transatlantic Train is such a narrative and it does a wonderful job of outlining one man’s achievements. To a large extent, these went unrecognized and uncelebrated in the city that he loved. Vincent J. Miles has extensive knowledge of the area, the era, and the man himself. He has researched the book extremely well and left a great number of footnotes and appendices for the serious historian to study. I appreciated the drawings and photographs of the early shipping pioneers and their vessels. Although primarily focused on Enoch Train’s working life as a businessman and entrepreneur, there is enough detail of his private life and conjectured personal opinions to give a rounded view of this innovative man. I connected with this story as it is another example of a man whose input to the social fabric of Boston was not appreciated or celebrated either when he was alive or after his death. He left a wonderful legacy to his city that the author has done a tremendous job of illuminating. This is a fantastic read not only for history buffs but for the general reading public. I can highly recommend this book.
