Capt. Thomas Waterman was one of the most prolific of shipbuilders at Fox Hill.  Between 1819 and 1856 he build on his own, or in partnership with others, at least 24 ships.  

He was born in 1791 and died in 1861, aged 70 yrs.  His father, Thomas, born 1765, was grandson of Thomas of Marshfield, and son of Capt. Anthony, who came from Marshfield in 1760.  Capt. Thomas Waterman resided east of the brook, at the ancient Copeland place.  He had two children: Thomas B., who mar. Clara Crooker of Norwell (then So. Scituate), and succeeded  his father at the yard, and Sylvia, who d. in August, 1844. 

Son Thomas B. had two children: Thomas W., b. May 4, 1868, taken from the family by typhoid fever in the fall of 1888, just as he was attaining manhood; and George, b. Oct. 30, 1870, who worked in a bank in Boston. 

In 1819 he built the ship "Cashier," in partnership with William Copeland, and Joseph S. Bates.   In 1833 he formed a partnership with Bates, with whom, in their first year, he built the ships "Ontario" and "Hilo," at 390 tons the largest ship ever to be built at Fox Hill Shipyard.  After building two more ships with Bates, Capt. Waterman carried on the business alone until 1846, during which time be built 6 ships: 1837: "Vintage;" 1838: "Otho;" 1840: "Lake;" 1841: "Wave; " 1842: "Manson;" and in 1845 "St. Paul."

Captain Elijah Barstow, who until about 1846 had been building ships in the old Barstow Yard back of Edmund Q. Sylvester's in Hanover, was approached about that time by George M. Allen of Scituate Harbor with a proposition to build for him a vessel of 250 tons.  On account of the great expense necessary to get the vessels over the shoals below his yard, which would consume the small profits of those days, Capt. Barstow decided it would not pay to build the vessel at his yard, and therefore invited Capt. Waterman to build her in company at Capt. Waterman's yard, Fox Hill.  He accepted, and they began their partnership which lasted until 1859, when Thomas B. Waterman succeeded his father, and in company with Capt. Barstow, built until 1869, when the last vessel was built at this yard.