_Gideon Crawford, Commander_.
Now lying at Mrs. Hayley’s Wharff, will sail in 10 or 12 days. For
Freight or Passage apply to the Master on board or to Joseph and
William Russell. She has good accommodations for Passengers.
PROVIDENCE, Jan. 14, 1786.
Here again “passage” is advertised, it will be noted. Soon after a news
item appeared in the _Gazette_, stating that “the ship _Tristram_,
Captain Crawford, sails this day for Dublin.” It appears that the
_Tristram_ made many voyages to and from Ireland. On April 26, 1788,
over two years after the trip just mentioned, the _Gazette_ had the
following budget of marine news:
The ship Tristram, Capt. Warner, of this port, is arrived at
Dublin.—The ship Mary, Capt. Rathbun, and Brig Little John, Capt.
Ambrose, of Newport, are also arrived at Dublin.—The Brig Recovery,
Capt. Taggart, of Newport, is arrived at Newry.
In June, 1791, Joseph and William Russell of Providence had an
assortment of Irish linens “Just imported in the ship _Tristram_ from
Dublin.” The _Gazette_, under date of Providence, April 13, 1776, says:
“Capt. Cook, from Belfast, informs that recruiting parties had been
beating up there from September till January to reinforce the
ministerial army in America, but they had only inlisted ten men.” This
helps the reader to form a good idea as to the direction of Irish
sympathies at that time.
The quotations in the remainder of this chapter are from the Providence
_Gazette_. A news paragraph, dated Newport, states that on “Monday last
arrived here the ship _Mary_, Captain Ambrose, in fifty-nine days from
Cork.” On February 14, 1789, under the head of Providence, we are told
that “On Wednesday also arrived the brig _Happy Return_, Capt. Dring,
from Dublin, Isle of May, and St. Eustatia.” The _Happy Return_ has
frequent mention, sometimes as arriving from Dublin and again from other
ports. But there came a time when she returned no more. The incident
occurred in 1790, and is thus narrated: “The brig _Happy Return_, Capt.
Dring, of this port (Providence), bound for Dublin, is lost near that
port. The crew and a part of the cargo were saved.” In April, 1790, is
chronicled the arrival at Dublin of the brig _Sally_, Captain Davis, of
Providence, “after a short passage of twenty two days.” In November of
the same year, the ship _Tristram_, Captain Warner, is again mentioned
as having cleared for Dublin from Providence. Among the arrivals in the
port of Providence in May, 1791, was the “ship _Tristram_, Warner,
Dublin.” In November, 1791, the _Tristram_, commanded by Captain
Holowell, departed from Providence for Newry. December 14, 1792, the
brig _Betsy_ left Providence for Newry and in May of the next year, her
arrival at Providence is noted “from Newry, which she left the 5th of
March, having touched at the Cape de Verds.”
In April, 1796, the brig _Lydia_, Capt. John Cook, arrived at Providence
from Cork in forty-nine days. We find it recorded December 21, 1799,
that “A ship from Cork put into Newport on Sunday evening last, and
sailed next morning. She brought Cork papers to the 24th of October.”
Elsewhere it is stated that earlier in that year the ship _Palmyra_,
Captain Trotter, of Providence, for Hamburg, put into “the Cove of
Cork.”
The schooner _Mayflower_ left Providence for Dublin in February, 1801.
In 1809, among the departures from the port of Providence was the “Ship
_Neptune_, Staples, Ireland.” The same year it is stated that the “ship
_Nancy_, of Rhode Island, 14 days from Richmond for Cork, was spoke July
6, lat. 43:52.” In October, 1809, the brig _Orient_ arrived at New York
“53 days from Dublin. Left there among others, ship _Nancy_, Capt.
Noyes, just arrived from Providence.” These Rhode Island captains became
great favorites in Irish ports. They were frequently entertained and
were treated in a hospitable manner generally. In 1811, Capt. Peregrine
Howland of Newport, died in Belfast. He was in his thirty-ninth year at
the time, and his passing away caused much sorrow. The ship _Robert
Burns_, Captain Coffin, arrived at Newport January 3, 1820, “in 39 days
from Ireland.” The ship _George Washington_, of Providence, is noted as
having arrived at Cork March 26, 1820, “from Madeira in 15 days.” She
was commanded by Captain Allen. Under a Newport date of January 6, 1820,
we find the following: “Arrived on Tuesday last, in distress, ship
_William and Jane_, Brown, from N. York, with flaxseed, bound to
Londonderry,—Sailed from N. York, Dec. 24, and next day the ship sprung
a leak, which continued to increase, and was compelled to throw over
part of the cargo, and put into this port.”
It will thus be seen that flaxseed was exported to Ireland from this
country. That is perhaps what Black & Stewart, Irish merchants of
Providence, intended to do with the “2000 bushels of good and well
clean’d flax seed” they advertised for in 1763.
From facts here adduced it will be seen that for a great many years,
until Irish manufacturing industries were crushed by English law,
commercial relations existed between Ireland and Rhode Island. Irish
goods and Irish passengers were landed on the wharves in Newport and
Providence, while outgoing ships took goods and passengers for the old
land. Too long have these facts been forgotten or ignored. But a new era
has dawned and the sun of investigation will yet bring forth even
greater and more interesting developments.