Joseph Raphael De Lamar

Joseph Raphael De Lamar (September 2, 1843 – December 1, 1918), was a prominent mine owner and operator in the western United States and Canada, as well as a financier and speculator, from the late 1870s until his death in 1918.

De Lamar was born in Amsterdam, Holland, September 2, 1843. His father, a banker in Amsterdam, died when the boy was six years of age. In search of adventure, De Lamar stowed away aboard a Dutch vessel heading to the West Indies. When he was discovered, he was put to work without pay as assistant to the cook.

De Lamar worked as a seaman until he was twenty, when he became master of a ship, and three years later received a captain's command. He visited many of the world's ports and acquired an education through his observations in foreign countries. He was attracted to submarine work, which was profitable owing to the American Civil War, so he abandoned the merchant service and became a submarine contractor. He was headquartered at Vineyard Haven, Massachusetts, operating along the entire east coast to the West Indies.

De Lamarr received several contracts for raising sunken ships, and was very successful. In 1872 he raised the Charlotte, a transatlantic steamship that had foundered off the Bermudas loaded with Italian marble, and which had baffled the attempts of three previous wrecking companies. He nearly lost him his life at Martha's Vineyard, going down in a diving suit to examine personally the damage to the Steamer William Tibbitts, in which he was imprisoned for thirty-six hours. This led De Lamar to give up submarine work.

He then studied the opportunities of trade with Africa. Trading companies had confined their operations to the Coast, with natives from the interior bringing their goods to the Coast on the shoulders of bearers at considerable expense. De Lamar decided to do his trading in the interior. He equipped a small vessel capable of navigating the African rivers, stocked with goods and armed with four small cannon, a dozen blunderbusses, rifles and ammunition. He pushed into the interior, exercising constant vigilance to prevent attacks from hostile tribes. His venture was rewarded with complete success. He traded principally on the Gambia and Great Jeba Rivers in West Africa. After three successful years he gave up this trade because of the climate. Many of his crew died every year of African fever. He sold his outfit to an English company.

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