In September 1810, Henry Eckford took on the 16-year-old Isaac Webb as an apprentice at his shipyard in New York.

In the following years, Eckford would take on many other apprentices who would become important naval architects and shipbuilders, including Jacob Bell, William Bennett, David Brown, Andrew Craft, John Dimon, John Englis, Thomas Megson, Stephen Smith, and Sidney Wright.

In 1822, Isaac Webb built the three-masted ship Superior for the Black Ball Line.

[8][9] For the first couple of years at the helm, the Webb & Allen shipyard, relocated between Fifth and Seventh Streets on the East River, built a variety of mostly small sailing ships, including ferries, sloops and schooners.

On 14 January 1840, Webb died in New York City, at the age of 46, of inflammation of the lungs.

In 1871, the firm built and sank the underwater Caissons used for the foundation of the Brooklyn Bridge.