PIONEERS IN DISTANT SEAS
(1775-1817)
The name of Joseph Peabody takes rank with that of Elias Hasket
Derby as an American who did much to upbuild the commerce, wealth
and prestige of his nation in its younger days. It may sound like an
old-fashioned doctrine in this present age of concentration of wealth
at the expense of a sturdy and independent citizenship, to assert
that such men as Joseph Peabody deserve much more honor for the kind
of manhood they helped to foster than for the riches they amassed for
themselves. They did not seek to crush competition, to drive out of
business the men around them who were ambitious to win a competence
on their own merits and to call themselves free citizens of a free
country. Those were the days of equal opportunities, which shining
fact finds illustration in the career of Joseph Peabody, for example,
who, during his career as a ship owner, advanced to the rank of master
thirty-five of his fellow townsmen who had entered his employ as cabin
boys or seamen. Every one of these shipmasters, “if he had the stuff
in him,” became an owner of shipping, a merchant with his own business
on shore, an employer who was eager, in his turn, to advance his own
masters and mates to positions of independence in which they might work
out their own careers.
During the early years of the nineteenth century, Joseph Peabody built
and owned eighty-three ships which he freighted on his own account and
sent to every corner of the world. The stout square-riggers which flew
the Peabody house flag made thirty-eight voyages to Calcutta, seventeen
to Canton, thirty-two to Sumatra, forty-seven to St. Petersburg, and
thirty to other ports of Europe. To man this noble fleet no fewer than
seven thousand seamen signed shipping articles in the counting room of
Joseph Peabody. The extent of his commerce is indicated by the amount
of duties paid by some of these ships. In 1825 and 1826, the _Leander_,
a small brig of two hundred and twenty-three tons, made two voyages to
Canton which paid into the Salem Custom House duties of $86,847, and
$92,392 respectively. In 1829, 1830, and 1831, the _Sumatra_, a ship
of less than three hundred tons, came home from China with cargoes,
the duties on which amounted to $128,363; $138,480, and $140,761. The
five voyages named, and all of them were made in ships no larger than a
small two-masted coasting schooner of to-day, paid in duties a total of
almost six hundred thousand dollars.
Typical of the ships which won wealth and prestige for Joseph Peabody,
was the redoubtable _George_ which was the most successful vessel of
her period. For twenty-two years she was in the East India trade,
making twenty-one round voyages with such astonishing regularity as
to challenge comparison with the schedules of the cargo tramps of
to-day. She was only one hundred and ten feet in length, with a beam
of twenty-seven feet, but during her staunch career the _George_ paid
into the United States Treasury as duties on her imports more than six
hundred thousand dollars.
She was built in 1814 by a number of Salem ship carpenters who had been
deprived of work by the stagnation of the War of 1812. They intended
to launch her as a co-operative privateer, to earn her way by force
of arms when peaceable merchantmen were driven from the high seas.
But the war ended too soon to permit these enterprising shipwrights
to seek British plunder and they sold the _George_ to Joseph Peabody.
She sailed for India in 1815, with hardly a man in her company, from
quarterdeck to forecastle, more than twenty-one years of age. Every man
aboard of her could read and write, and most of the seamen had studied
navigation.
Not always did these enterprising and adventurous Salem lads return
to their waiting mothers. In the log of the _George_ for a voyage to
Calcutta in 1824, the mate has drawn with pencil a tombstone and a
weeping willow as a tribute to one Greenleaf Perley, a young seaman who
died in that far-off port. The mate was a poet of sorts and beneath the
headstone he wrote these lines:
“The youth ambitious sought a sickly clime,
His hopes of profit banished all his fears;
His was the generous wish of love divine,
To sooth a mother’s cares and dry her tears.”
Joseph Peabody began his sea life when a lad in his teens in the hardy
school of the Revolutionary privateersmen. He made his first cruise
in Elias Hasket Derby’s privateer, _Bunker Hill_, and his second in
the _Pilgrim_ owned by the Cabots of Beverly. A little later he became
second officer of a letter of marque ship, the _Ranger_, owned by
Boston and Salem shipping merchants. It was while aboard the _Ranger_
that young Peabody won his title as a fighting seaman. Leaving Salem
in the winter of 1781-82, the _Ranger_ carried salt to Richmond, and
loaded with flour at Alexandria for Havana. Part of this cargo of flour
was from the plantation of George Washington, and the immortal story of
the hatchet and the cherry tree must have been known in Cuba even then,
for the Spanish merchants expressed a preference for this brand of
flour and showed their confidence by receiving it at the marked weight
without putting it on the scales.
The _Ranger_ returned to Alexandria for another cargo of flour, and
on July 5th, 1782, dropped down the Potomac, ready for sea. Head
winds compelled her to anchor near the mouth of the river. At three
o’clock of the following night, the seaman on watch ran aft, caught
up a speaking trumpet, and shouted down to the sleeping officers in
the cabin that two boats were making for the ship. Captain Simmons and
Lieutenant Peabody rushed up the companionway, and as they reached the
deck, received a volley of musketry from the darkness. Captain Simmons
fell, badly wounded, and Peabody ran forward in his night clothes,
calling to the crew to get their boarding pikes. He caught up a pike
and with a brave and ready seaman named Kent, sprang to the bows and
engaged in a hand to hand fight with the boarding party which was
already pouring over the rail from the boat alongside.
The _Ranger’s_ crew rallied and held the deck against this invasion
until a second boat made fast in another quarter and swept the deck
with musket fire. The first officer was in the magazine below, breaking
out ammunition, the captain was wounded, and the command of this
awkward situation fell upon Lieutenant, or Second Officer Peabody, who
was a conspicuous mark in his white nightshirt. He ordered cold shot
heaved into the boats to sink them if possible, and one of them was
smashed and sunk in short order.
Peabody then mustered his crew against the boarding party from the
other boat, and drove them overboard. After the _Ranger’s_ decks had
been cleared in fierce and bloody fashion and the fight was won, it was
found that one of her crew was dead, three wounded, the captain badly
hurt, and although Peabody had not known it in the heat of action, he
had stopped two musket balls and bore the marks of a third. One of
the very able seamen of the _Ranger_ had seen a boarder about to fire
point-blank at Peabody and with a sweep of his cutlass he cut off
the hand that held the pistol. For this service Peabody made the seaman
a life-long pensioner, showing that his heart was in the right place in
more ways than one.
[Illustration: Joseph Peabody]
The _Ranger_ carried twenty men and seven guns at this time, and the
enemy attempted to carry the ship with sixty men in two barges, their
loss being more than forty in killed and wounded. They were later
ascertained to be a band of Tories who had infested the bay of the
mouth of the Potomac for some time, and had captured a brig of ten
guns and thirty men a few days before this. The _Ranger_ sailed up to
Alexandria to refit and land her wounded, and the merchants of the town
presented the ship with a silver mounted boarding-pike in token of
their admiring gratitude for her stout defense. This trophy became the
property of Joseph Peabody and was highly prized as an adornment of his
Salem mansion in later years.
When the _Ranger_ went to sea again, Thomas Perkins of Salem, her first
officer, was given the command and Peabody sailed with him as chief
mate. Thus began a friendship which later became a business partnership
in which Perkins amassed a large fortune of his own. Peabody sailed as
a shipmaster for a Salem firm for several years after peace came, and
at length bought a schooner, the _Three Friends_, in which he traded to
the West Indies and Europe. The story of his career thereafter was one
of successful speculation in ships and cargoes and of a growing fleet
of deep-water vessels until his death in 1844, a venerable man of large
public spirit, and shining integrity, a pillar of his state and town,
whose fortune had been won in the golden age of American enterprise in
remote seas.
William Gray completed the triumvirate of Salem ship owners of
surpassing sagacity and success, his name being rightfully linked
with those of Elias Hasket Derby and Joseph Peabody. He served his
apprenticeship in the counting room of Richard Derby and was one of the
earliest American shipping merchants to seek the trade of Canton and
the ports of the East Indies. In 1807 he owned fifteen ships, seven
barks, thirteen brigs, and one schooner, or one-fourth of the tonnage
of the port. He became the lieutenant governor of the Commonwealth and
left a princely fortune as the product of his farsighted industry.
For the information of those unfamiliar with the records of that epoch
on the seas, the rapidity with which these lords of maritime trade
acquired their fleets and the capital needed to freight and man them,
it may be worth while to give a concrete example of the profits to
be won in those ventures of large risks and larger stakes. A letter
written from the great shipping house of the Messrs. Perkins in Boston
to their agents in Canton in 1814, goes to show that the operations
of the captains of industry of the days of Derby and Gray and Peabody
would have been respected by the capitalists of this twentieth century.
Here is the kind of Arabian Night’s Entertainment in the way of
dazzling rewards which these old-time merchants planned to reap:
“To MESSERS. PERKINS AND CO.
CANTON, Jan. 1, 1814.
“You say a cargo laid at Canton would bring three for one in South
America, and your copper would give two prices back. Thus, $30,000
laid out in China would give you $90,000 in South America, one half of
which laid out in copper would give one hundred per cent, or $90,000,
making $135,000 for $30,000.
“60,000 pounds of indigo even at 80 cents, $48,000; 120 tons of sugar
at $60, or $7,200, and cotton or some other light freight, say skin
tea, $20,000, in all $75,000, would be worth $400,000 here, and not
employ the profits of the voyage to South America. Manila sugar is
worth $400 or $500 per ton here, clear of duty. The ship should be
flying light, her bottom in good order, the greatest vigilance used on
the voyage and make any port north of New York.
“(signed) THOMAS H. PERKINS and JAMES PERKINS.”
It was the heyday of opportunity for youth. Robert Bennet Forbes,
by way of example, was the nephew of this Thomas Perkins of Boston,
and likewise became a wealthy merchant and ship owner. Young Forbes
went to sea before the mast as a boy of thirteen. He has told how his
mother equipped him with a supply of thread, needles, buttons, etc.,
in his ditty-bag, also some well-darned socks, a Testament, a bottle
of lavender water, one of essence of peppermint, a small box of broken
sugar and a barrel of apples. “She wanted to give me a pillow and some
sheets and pillow cases,” he writes, “but I scorned the idea, having
been told that sailors never used them, but usually slept with a stick
of wood with the bark on for a pillow. My good mother who had been at
sea herself and fully realized the dangers and temptations to which I
should be exposed, felt that there could be but one more severe trial
for her, and that was to put me in my grave. My uncle contributed a
letter full of excellent advice, recommending me to fit myself to be a
good captain and promising to keep me in mind. William Sturgiss, who
had much experience of the sea, took an interest in me and gave me this
advice:
“‘Always go straight forward, and if you meet the Devil cut him in
two and go between the pieces; if any one imposes on you, tell him to
whistle against a northwester and to bottle up moonshine.’”
Forbes was 15 years old when Mr. Cushing, of the firm’s shipping house
in Canton, wrote to Thomas H. Perkins in Boston:
“I have omitted in my letters per _Nautilus_, mentioning our young
friend Bennet Forbes, recommending his being promoted to be an officer
on the return of the Canton packet. He is without exception the finest
lad I have ever known, and has already the stability of a man of
thirty. During the stay of the ship I have had him in the office and
have found him as useful as if he had been regularly brought up in the
business; he has profited so much by the little intercourse he has had
with the Chinese that he is now more competent to transact business
than one half of the supercargoes sent out.”
The Crowninshield family of Salem earned very unusual distinction on
salt water and a national fame as men of affairs and statecraft. There
were six brothers of them, born of a seafaring father and grandfather,
and this stalwart half dozen Crowninshields one and all, went to sea
as boys. One died of fever at Guadaloupe at the age of fourteen while
captain’s clerk of a Salem ship. The five surviving brothers commanded
ships before they were old enough to vote, and at one time the five
were absent from Salem, each in his own vessel, and three of them in
the East India trade.
“When little boys they were all sent to a common school and about their
eleventh year began their first particular study which should develop
them as sailors and ship captains. These boys studied their navigation
as little chaps of twelve years old and were required to thoroughly
master the subject before being sent to sea. It was common in those
days to pursue their studies by much writing out of problems, and boys
kept their books until full. Several such are among our family records
and are interesting in the extreme, beautifully written, without blots
or dog’s ears, and all the problems of navigation as practised then,
are drawn out in a neat and in many cases a remarkably handsome manner.
The designing of vessels was also studied and the general principles of
construction mastered.
“As soon as the theory of navigation was mastered, the youngsters
were sent to sea, sometimes as common sailors, but commonly as ship’s
clerks, in which position they were enabled to learn everything about
the management of a ship without actually being a common sailor.”[25]
[Illustration: Hon. Jacob Crowninshield]
This method of nautical education was of course open only to those of
considerable influence who wished to fit their sons to become merchants
as well as shipmasters. It seems to have been remarkably efficient in
training the five Crowninshields. One of these shipmasters, Benjamin
W., became Secretary of the Navy under Jefferson, and United States
Congressman, while another brother, Jacob, was a Congressman from 1803
to 1805 and had the honor of declining a seat in Jefferson’s Cabinet.
Jacob Crowninshield, however, earned a more popular kind of fame by
bringing home from India in 1796, the first live elephant ever seen
in America. It is probable that words would be wholly inadequate to
describe the sensation created by this distinguished animal when led
through the streets of Salem, with a thousand children clamoring their
awe and jubilation.[26] It is recorded that this unique and historical
elephant was sold for ten thousand dollars.
The eldest of these brothers, Captain George Crowninshield, who served
his years at sea, from forecastle to cabin, and then retired ashore
to become a shipping merchant, was the patriotic son of Salem who
chartered the brig _Henry_, manned her with a crew of shipmasters and
sailed to Halifax to bring home the bodies of Lawrence and Ludlow
after the defeat of the _Chesapeake_ by the _Shannon_. Those who knew
him have handed down a vivid description of his unusual personality.
He was robust and daring beyond the ordinary, and a great dandy in
his small clothes and Hessian boots with gold tassels. “His coat was
wonderful in cloth, pattern, trimmings and buttons, and his waistcoat
was a work of art. He wore a pigtail and on top of all a bell-crowned
beaver hat, not what is called a beaver to-day, but made of beaver
skin, shaggy like a terrier dog.”
Captain George has the distinction of being the first American yacht
owner. As early as 1801 he had built in Salem a sloop called the
_Jefferson_ in which he cruised for several years. She was turned into
a privateer in the War of 1812. While the _Jefferson_ was beyond doubt
the first vessel built for pleasure in this country, and the first
yacht that ever flew the Stars and Stripes, her fame is overshadowed
by that of the renowned _Cleopatra’s Barge_, the second yacht owned by
Captain Crowninshield, and the first of her nation to cruise in foreign
waters. The _Cleopatra’s Barge_ was a nine-days’ wonder from Salem to
the Mediterranean, and was in many ways one of the most remarkable
vessels ever launched.
Her owner found himself at forty-nine years in the prime of his
adventurous energy with his occupation gone. The shipping firm founded
by his father had been dissolved, and this member of the house fell
heir to much wealth and leisure. Passionately fond of the sea and
sailors he determined to build the finest vessel ever dreamed of by
a sober-minded American, and to cruise and live aboard her for the
remainder of his days. There were no other yachts to pattern after,
wherefore the _Cleopatra’s Barge_ was modeled and rigged after the
fashion of a smart privateer, or sloop-of-war.
When she was launched in Salem harbor in 1817, at least a thousand
curious people visited her every day she lay in port. Her fittings
were gorgeous for her time, what with Oriental draperies, plate glass
mirrors, sideboards, and plate. She was eighty-seven feet long, and in
dimensions almost the counterpart of the famous sloop _Mayflower_ of
modern times. When she was ready for sea, this yacht had cost her owner
fifty thousand dollars. She was rigged as a brigantine, and carried
a mighty press of sail, studding-sails on the fore-yards, sky-sail,
“ring-tail,” “water-sail,” and other handkerchiefs now unknown.
With that bold individuality of taste responsible for the yellow
curricle in which Captain George was wont to dazzle Salem, when he
drove through the streets, he painted his yacht in different colors
and patterns along her two sides. To starboard she showed a hull of
horizontal stripes laid on in most of the colors of the rainbow. To
port she was a curious “herring-bone” pattern of brilliant hues. Her
stern was wide and pierced with little cabin windows.
With his cousin Benjamin as skipper, and a friend, Samuel Curwen
Ward, the owner sailed for the Mediterranean on what was destined to
be a triumphant voyage. He had prepared himself with no fewer than
three hundred letters of introduction to eminent civil, military and
naval persons of Italy, Spain and other countries. The cook of the
_Cleopatra’s Barge_ was a master of his craft, the stock of wine was
choice and abundant, and if ever an open-handed yachtsman sailed the
deep it was this Salem pioneer of them all.
The vessel was the sensation of the hour in every port. Her journal
recorded that an average of more than three thousand visitors came
aboard on every pleasant day while she was in foreign ports, and that
in Barcelona eight thousand people came off to inspect her in one day.
Wherever possible the owner chartered a band of music or devised other
entertainment for his guests. His yacht was more than a pleasure barge,
for he had the pleasure of beating the crack frigate _United States_
in a run from Carthagena to Port Mahone, and on the way to Genoa she
logged thirteen knots for twelve hours on end.
It was at Genoa that an Italian astronomer of considerable distinction,
Baron von Zack, paid a visit on board and several years later recorded
his impressions of the _Cleopatra’s Barge_ in a volume, written in
French, and published in Genoa in 1820.
“How does it happen that the Commanders of French vessels, with
thirty-four schools of Hydrography established in the Kingdom, either
know not, or do not wish to know, how to calculate the longitude of
their vessels by Lunar distances, while even the cooks and negroes of
American vessels understand it?
“I will now relate what I once witnessed on board an American vessel,
the _Cleopatra’s Barge_, which arrived in the month of July, 1817, at
the port of Genoa from Salem, one of the handsomest Towns in the State
of Massachusetts, U. S. A., Lat. 42° 35′ 20″ N., Long. 73° 9′ 30″ W.
All the city crowded to see this magnificent palace of Neptune; more
than 20,000 persons had visited this superb floating palace, and were
astonished at its beauty, luxury and magnificence. I went among others.
The owner was on board; he was a gentleman of fortune of Salem, who had
amassed great riches during the late war with Great Britain. He was
brother to the Secretary of the Navy of the United States.
“This elegant vessel was built for his own amusement, after his own
ideas, upon a plan and model new in very many respects, and was
considered the swiftest sailer in America. He had traveled or sailed
for his pleasure in this costly jewel (_bijou_) that appeared more
the model of a cabinet of curiosities than a real vessel. He had left
America in this charming shell (_coquille_) for the purpose of visiting
Europe and making the tour of the Mediterranean _&_ had already touched
at the ports of Spain, France, Italy, the Archipelago, Dardanelles,
coasts of Asia, Africa, etc. We have since heard of the death of this
gentleman, a short time after his return to Salem. His name was George
Crowninshield—he was of German origin—his ancestor was a Saxon
officer who, having the misfortune to kill his adversary in a duel,
sought refuge in America. The captain of this beautiful vessel was a
lively old gentleman, a cousin to Mr. Crowninshield—his son, a young
man, was also on board. I shall not here enter into detail concerning
the remarkable construction of this vessel, still less her splendor—the
public journals have already noticed them.
[Illustration: Benjamin Crowninshield]
“In making some enquiries respecting my friends and correspondents in
Philadelphia and Boston, among others I mentioned Dr. Bowditch. ‘He is
the friend of our family, and our neighbor in Salem,’ replied the old
Captain. ‘My son, whom you see there, was his pupil; it is properly he,
and not myself, that navigates this vessel; question him and see if he
has profited by his instructions.’
“I observed to this young man, ‘you have had so excellent a teacher
in Hydrography that you cannot fail of being well acquainted with the
science. In making Gibralter what was the error in your longitude?’
The young man replied, ‘Six miles.’ ‘Your calculations were then very
correct; how did you keep your ship’s accounts?’ ‘By chronometers and
by Lunar observations.’ ‘You then can ascertain your Longitude by Lunar
distances?’
“Here my young captain appearing to be offended with my question,
replied with some warmth, ‘What! I know how to calculate Lunar
distances! Our cook can do that!’ ‘Your cook!’ Here Mr. Crowninshield
and the old Captain assured me, that the cook on board could calculate
Longitude quite well; that his taste for it frequently led him to do
it. ‘That is he,’ said the young man, pointing to a Negro in the after
part of the vessel, with a white apron about his waist, a fowl in one
hand, and a carving knife in the other.
‘Come here, John,’ said the old Captain to him, ‘this gentleman
is surprised that you understand Lunar observations. Answer his
questions.’ I asked, ‘By what method do you calculate Lunar distances?’
The cook answered, ‘It is immaterial—I use some time the method of
Maskelyne, Lyons, or Bowditch, but I prefer that of Dunthorne, as I am
more accustomed to it.’ I could hardly express my surprise at hearing
that black-face answer in such a manner, with a bloody fowl and carving
knife in his hands.
“‘Go,’ said Mr. Crowninshield, ‘lay aside your fowl and bring your
books and journal and show your calculations to the gentleman.’ The
cook returned with his books under his arms, consisting of Bowditch’s
Practical Navigator, Maskelyne’s Requisite Tables, Hutton’s Logarithms
and the Nautical Almanack, abridged from the Greenwich Edition. I saw
all the calculations this Negro had made on his passage, of Latitude,
Longitude, Apparent Time, etc. He replied to all my questions with
admirable precision, not merely in the phrases of a cook, but in
correct nautical language.
“This cook had sailed as cabin-boy with Captain Cook in his last voyage
round the world and was acquainted with several facts relative to
the assassination of the celebrated navigator at Owhyhee, February,
1779. ‘The greatest part of the seamen on board the Barge,’ said Mr.
Crowninshield, ‘can use the sextant and make nautical calculations.’
“Indeed Mr. Crowninshield had with him many instructors. At Genoa
he had taken one acquainted with Italian—he had also on board an
instructor in the French language, a young man who had lost his
fingers in the Russian campaign. What instruction! what order! what
correctness! what magnificence was to be observed in this Barge; I
could relate many more interesting particulars concerning this true
Barque of _Cleopatra_.”
The editor of the _Diario di Roma_ newspaper of Rome considered the
_Cleopatra’s Barge_ worthy of a eulogistic notice, a translation of
which was printed in the _Essex Register_ of October 11, 1817:
“Soon after the visit of the fleet, there anchored in our port a
schooner from America, of a most beautiful construction, elegantly
found, very light, and formed for fast sailing, and armed like our
light armed vessels. It was named the _Cleopatra_, belonging to a
very rich traveller, George Crowninshield, of Salem, who constructed
her for his own use, and for the voyages he had undertaken in company
with Captain Benjamin Crowninshield, his cousin. Besides the extreme
neatness of everything about the vessel to fit her for sea, her
accommodations were surprising and wonderful. Below was a hall of
uncommon extent, in which the luxury of taste, the riches and elegance
of the furniture, the harmony of the drapery, and of all the ornaments,
inspired pleasure and gallantry. The apartment of the stern was equally
rich and interesting. Five convenient bed chambers displayed with that
same elegance, were at the service of the Captain, with an apartment
for the plate of every kind, with which it was filled. Near was another
apartment which admitted all the offices of a kitchen, and in it was a
pump with three tubes which passed through the vessel, to supply water
from the sea, or discharge what they pleased, with the greatest ease.
“The rich and distinguished owner had with him beside his family
servants, several linguists, persons of high talent in music, and
an excellent painter. Everything to amuse makes a part of the daily
entertainment. The owner and Captain were affable, pleasing and civil,
and gave full evidence of the talents, the industry and the good taste
of their nation, which yields to none in good sense and true civility.
The above travellers having complied with the usual rules of the city,
upon receiving a particular invitation, he visited the _Cleopatra_ in
company with many persons of distinction, and partook of an elegant
collation.”
The _Salem Gazette_ of Sept. 26, 1817, contained the following “extract
of a letter from a gentleman on board the _Cleopatra’s Barge_”:
“BARCELONA, June 8.
“You have undoubtedly heard of our movements in the Mediterranean;
indeed you must have heard of us, from every place at which we have
touched—for the _Cleopatra’s Barge_ is more celebrated abroad than
at home. Even the Moors of Tangier visited us tho’ they abhor the
Christians. At Gibralter the Englishmen were astonished. In Malaga,
Carthagena and this place the Spaniards have been thunderstruck. For
these four days past the whole of this great city has been in an
uproar. They begin to crowd on board at daylight, and continue to
press upon us till night. This morning the Mole was so crowded with
people waiting to come on board, that we have been obliged to get
under weigh, and stand out of the Mole, yet the boats, with men, women
and children, are rowing after us. Thus it has been in every place we
have visited. In Port Mahon we were visited by all the officers of our
squadron.”
Further tidings were conveyed to the admiring townspeople of Salem by
means of an article in the _Essex Register_ under date of Oct. 25th:
“Having noticed the attention paid to the American barge _Cleopatra_,
at Rome, we could not refuse the pleasure of assuring our friends
that Capt. G. Crowninshield had been equally successful in arresting
attention in France. The following is an extract from a Letter dated
at Marseilles, 14th July, 1817, from a person long residing in
France: ‘Capt. G. Crowninshield left this port in the beginning of
this month, for Toulon and Italy. During his stay here, thousands of
both sexes were on board of his beautiful Vessel. Every day it was
like a continual procession. It gave me the utmost pleasure, as the
universal opinion was that no vessel could compare with this Vessel.
I felt proud that such a splendid specimen of what could be done in
the United States was thus exhibited in Europe. We consider it as an
act of patriotism. The Vessel was admired. The exquisite taste in her
apartments greatly astonished the French for their _amour propre_
had inclined them to believe that only in France the true _gout_ was
known.’”
[Illustration:
Ship _Ulysses_—This painting shows a jury rudder about to be put in
place at sea, in 1806. So ingenious was the display of seamanship in
the rigging of this emergency rudder that her commander, Capt. Wm.
Mugford was awarded a medal by the American Philosophical Society
]
[Illustration: Yacht _Cleopatra’s Barge_, 191 tons, built in Salem,
1816, shows the “herring-bone” design painted in bright colors on side
of the yacht]
The _Cleopatra’s Barge_ returned to Salem in triumph, but Captain
George Crowninshield died on board while making ready for a second
voyage abroad. She was sold and converted into a merchantman, made a
voyage to Rio, then rounded the Horn, and at the Sandwich Islands was
sold to King Kamehameha to be used as a royal yacht. Only a year later
her native crew put her on a reef and the career of the _Cleopatra’s
Barge_ was ended in this picturesque but inglorious fashion.
In reading the old-time stories of the sea, one is apt to forget that
wives and sweethearts were left at home to wait and yearn for their
loved ones, for these logs and journals deal with the day’s work of
strong men as they fought and sailed and traded in many seas. Few
letters which they sent home have been preserved. It is therefore the
more appealing and even touching to find in a fragment of the log of
the ship _Rubicon_, the expression of such sentiment as most of these
seamen must have felt during the lonely watches in midocean. It is a
curious document, this log, written by a shipmaster whose name cannot
be found in the bundle of tattered sheets rescued from the rubbish of
an old Salem garret.
On the fly leaf is scrawled:
“Boston, May the 11th, 1816. Took a pilot on board the Ship _Rubicon_
and sailed from Charlestown. 12th of May at 3 P. M. came to an anchor
above the Castle, the wind S.E.”
The ship was bound from Boston to St. Petersburg, and after he had
been a week at sea, her master began to write at the bottom of the
pages of his log certain intimately personal sentiments which he sought
to conceal in a crude cipher of his own devising. The first of these
entries reads as follows as the captain set it down, letter by letter:
“L nb wvzi druv what hszoo R dirgv go uroo gsrh hsvvg R droo gvoo blf
gszg R ollp blfi ovgvih levi zmw levi zmw drhs nv rm blf zinh yfg R
dzng rm kzgrvmxv gsrmprmt lm Z szkb nvvgrmt——R zn dvoo.”
It is not easy to fathom why the captain of the good ship _Rubicon_
should have chosen to make such entries as this in the log. This much
is clear, however, that he longed to say what was in his heart and he
wished to keep it safe from prying eyes. He left no key to his cipher,
but his code was almost childish in its simplicity, and was promptly
unraveled by the finder of the manuscript, David Mason Little of Salem.
The old shipmaster reversed the alphabet, setting down “Z” for “A,” “Y”
for “B,” and so on, or for convenience in working it out, the letters
may be placed as follows:
A—Z
B—Y
C—X
D—W
E—V
F—U
G—T
H—S
I—R
J—Q
K—P
L—O
M—N
N—M
O—L
P—K
Q—J
R—I
S—H
T—G
U—F
V—E
W—D
X—C
Y—B
Z—A
Reading from the top of the column, the letters of the reversed
alphabet are to be substituted for the letters standing opposite
them in their normal order. The passage already quoted therefore
translates itself as follows:
“O, Dear Wife, what shall I write to fill this sheet. I will tell you
that I look your letters over and over and wish me in your arms, but I
wait in patience, thinking on a happy meeting. I am well.”
[Illustration: Log of the good ship _Rubicon_, showing the captain’s
cipher at the bottom of the page]
Other messages which this sailor wrote from his heart and confided to
his cipher in the log of the _Rubicon_ read in this wise:
“My Heart within me (is) ashes. I want to see my loving Wife and press
her to my bosom. But, O, my days are gone and past no more to return
forever.”
* * * * *
“True, undivided and sincere love united with its own object is one of
the most happy Passions that possesses the human heart.”
* * * * *
“Joanna, this day brings to my mind grateful reflections.
“This is the day that numbers thirty years of my Dear’s life. O, that
I could lay in her arms to-night and recount the days that have passed
away in youthful love and pleasure.”
* * * * *
“The seed is sown, it springs up and grows to maturity, then drops its
seed and dies away, while the young shoot comes up and takes its place.
And so it is with Man that is born to die.”
Now and then a sea tragedy is so related in these old log books that
the heart is touched with a genuine sympathy for the victim, as if he
were more than a name, as if he were a friend or a neighbor. It is
almost certain that no one alive to-day has ever heard of Aaron Lufkin,
able seaman, who sailed from Calcutta for the Cape of Good Hope in
the year 1799. The ship’s clerk, William Cleveland of Salem, who kept
a journal of the voyage, wrote of this sailor in such a way that you
will be able to see him for what he was, and will perhaps wish no
better epitaph for yourself:
“Aaron Lufkin, one of the most active of our seamen held out till he
was scarcely able to walk, but as this appeared to be fatigue, his
case was not particularly observed by the Captain nor officers. When
he first complained he said he had been unwell for some days but that
there were so few on duty he would stand it out. Unfortunately his zeal
for his duty cost him his life, for on the 17th of April he died after
lingering in torment for several days. He was often out of his head and
continually on the fly when no person was attending him, and constantly
talking of his father, mother and sisters, which shewed how fond he was
of them. Indeed his little purchases in Calcutta for his sisters were a
sufficient proof. He was the only son of a respectable tradesman in the
town of Freeport (Maine) and the brother of eight or nine sisters, all
of which were younger than himself, though he was but twenty years old.”
The death of an able seaman, under such peaceful circumstances as
these, was a matter of no importance except to his kindred and his
shipmates. It is significant of the spirit and singularly dramatic
activity of those times that the loss of a whole ship’s company might
be given not so much space in the chronicles of the town as the
foregoing tribute to poor Aaron Lufkin. Indeed “Felt’s Annals of Salem”
is fairly crowded with appalling tragedies, told in a few bald lines,
of which the following are quoted as examples of condensed narration:
“News is received here that Captain Joseph Orne in the ship _Essex_ had
arrived at Mocha, with $60,000 to purchase coffee, and that Mahomet
Ikle, commander of an armed ship, persuaded him to trade at Hadidido,
and to take on board 30 of his Arabs to help navigate her thither while
his vessel kept her company; that on the approach of night, and at a
concerted signal, the Arabs attacked the crew of the _Essex_, and
Ikle laid his ship alongside, and that the result was the slaughter of
Captain Orne, and all his men, except a Dutch boy named John Hermann
Poll. The _Essex_ was plundered and burnt. The headless corpse of Capt.
Orne and the mutilated remains of a merchant floated on shore and were
decently buried. It was soon after ascertained that the faithless
Mahomet was a notorious pirate of that country. He kept the lad whose
life he had spared, as a slave until 1812, when Death kindly freed him
from his cruel bondage.”
On the 13th of November, 1807, “the ship _Marquis de Somereulas_[27]
arrives hither from Cronstadt and Elsinore. She brings in eleven men,
a woman called Joanna Evans, and her child, which were picked up Oct.
28th in a long-boat. The rest being eight in number, were rescued at
the same time on board a ship from Philadelphia. They had been in the
boat six days, during which seven of their company died of starvation.
The living, in order to sustain themselves, fed upon the dead. They
were the remains of one hundred and ten souls on board an English
transport which was waterlogged and then blew up and foundered. The
captain and some of his men, being in a small boat, by some means or
other separated from those in the long boat and were never afterwards
heard of. After the sad story of these shipwrecked sufferers was
generally known among our citizens, they experienced from them the most
kindly sympathy and substantial aid to the amount of between two and
three hundred dollars.”
A more cheerful story, and one which may be called an old-fashioned
sea yarn, was told with much detail by a writer in the Salem _Evening
Journal_ in 1855, who had received it at first hand from a shipmate
of the hero. In 1808, when England was nominally at peace with the
United States, but molesting her commerce and impressing her seamen
with the most pernicious energy, the bark _Active_, of Salem, arrived
at Martha’s Vineyard and Captain Richardson reported that “while on his
course for Europe he was captured by an English letter-of-marque, whose
commander put seven men on board with Captain Richardson and three of
his crew, the rest of his men being taken from him and the bark ordered
to Nevis. When near that port the Americans seized upon the arms of the
English, confined them in irons, and put away for home where Captain
Richardson afterwards arrived in safety.”
“A few years ago,” narrates the loquacious contributor to the Salem
_Evening Journal_ of 1855, “the writer heard from one who was on board
the barque _Active_ on the above mentioned voyage a somewhat amusing
account of one of the crew, who came down from New Hampshire, when
she was about ready to sail, and not being able to find any work on
shore, shipped with Capt. Richardson and went to sea. As a matter of
course, our country friend, as far as regarded nautical phrases and
the ‘ropes’ generally, was extremely verdant. To use his own words, he
‘didn’t really know t’other from which.’” Capt. Richardson knew all
this beforehand, but he also knew that our Yankee friend was a tall,
stout, and very smart young man and so he did not hesitate at all about
taking him on board his vessel. The chief mate, however, not being so
well aware of Peleg’s verdancy as the Captain, and observing that he
stood with his hands in his pockets gazing curiously around the ship,
whilst the rest of the crew were engaged in getting the anchor secured,
addressed him thus:
“‘Who are you?’
“‘Peleg Sampson, from away up in Moultonboro, State of New Hampshire. I
say, it’s a dernation mighty curious place this, ain’t it?’
“Rather surprised at the familiar manner of our Yankee friend, the mate
replied:
“‘I guess you’ll find it curious enough before the voyage is up. Lay
forward there and help cat that anchor.’
“Whilst the mate stepped on the forecastle for the purpose of
superintending this necessary operation, Peleg began to search all
around the deck with a minuteness that would have done honor to an
experienced gold-hunter. After he had been for a few minutes thus
engaged, he followed the mate to the forecastle deck and said:
“‘I say, mister, I cack’late there ain’t any of them critters here.’
“‘What critters? You d—n land-lubber,’ said the mate.
“‘Cats,’ returned Peleg, with an innocent gravity of tone and manner,
which made the sailors turn from their work and gaze, open-mouthed,
upon their verdant shipmate.
“‘Who the —— said anything about cats?’ asked the mate.
“‘Why you, you tarnal goslin,’ returned Peleg somewhat tartly. ‘Didn’t
you tell me to help cat the anchor, and before I could do that ere,
hadn’t I got to find the animal to do it with, hey, what?’
“On hearing this reply to the mate’s question, the old salts burst out
in a loud, uproarious guffaw, in which the chief officer most heartily
joined, as he had by this time become most fully aware that Peleg was
nothing more nor less than a ‘green hand.’
“About a week afterwards, when the _Active_ had got well out to sea,
and Peleg had recovered from a severe fit of seasickness so as to be
able to be about the decks, the mate, being in want of an article from
aloft, said to Peleg:
“‘Go up in the main-top there, and bring down a slush bucket that’s
made fast to the topmast rigging.’
“‘What, up these rope-ladders do you want me to go?’ asked Peleg, with
a scared look at the main-rigging.
“‘Yes,’ returned the mate, ‘and be spry about it, too.’
“‘Can’t do any such business,’ returned Peleg, in a very decided tone
of voice. ‘Why don’t you tell me to run overboard. I should jest as
soon think on’t, really. Now I’m ready to pull and haul, or wrestle,
back to back, Indian hug, or any way you like, fight the darnation
Englishers till I’m knocked down, or do anything I _kin_ do, but as to
going up them darnation littleish rope-ladders, I can’t think of it
no_how_.’
“Thinking it would be as well not to urge the matter farther at that
time, the mate sent another hand for the slush bucket, and thus
the affair ended. Afterwards, however, as we learned from the same
authority, Peleg became one of the smartest sailors on board the
vessel, and in the affair of retaking the ship from English, did most
excellent and efficient service.”
In Felt’s Annals of Salem, it is related under date of February 21,
1802, “the ships _Ulysses_, Captain James Cook; _Brutus_, Captain
William Brown, owned by the Messrs. Crowninshield; and the _Valusia_,
Captain Samuel Cook, belonging to Israel Williams and others sailed
for Europe (on the same day). Though when they departed the weather
was remarkably pleasant for the season, in a few hours a snowstorm
commenced. After using every exertion to clear Cape Cod the tempest
forced them the next day upon its perilous shore. The most sad of all
in this threefold catastrophe was the loss of life in the _Brutus_. One
hand was killed by the fore-yard prior to the ship striking; another
was drowned while attempting to reach the shore, and the commander with
six men perished with the cold after they had landed, while anxiously
seeking some shelter for their wet, chilled, and exhausted bodies.”
“(1819) July 16. A few days since one of our sailors was exceedingly
frightened by meeting in the street what he really believed to be the
ghost of a shipmate. This person was Peter Jackson, whose worth as a
cook was no less because he had a black skin. He had belonged to the
brig _Ceres_. As she was coming down the river from Calcutta, she was
thrown on her beam ends and Peter fell overboard. Among the things
thrown to him was a sail-boom on which he was carried away from the
vessel by the rapid current. Of course all on board concluded that he
was drowned or eaten by crocodiles, and so they reported when reaching
home. Administration had been taken on his goods and chattels and he
was dead in the eye of the law. But after floating twelve hours he was
cast ashore and as soon as possible hastened homeward. Notwithstanding
he had hard work to do away with the impression of his being dead, he
succeeded and was allowed the rights and privileges of the living.”
While Newport and Bristol, of all the New England ports, did the most
roaring trade in slaves and rum with the west coast of Africa, Salem
appears to have had comparatively few dealings with this kind of
commerce. Slavers were fitted out and owned in Salem, but they were
an inconsiderable part of the shipping activity, and almost the only
records left to portray this darker side of seafaring America in the
olden times are fragmentary references such as those already quoted
and these which follow. There has been preserved a singularly pitiful
letter from a Salem boy to his mother at home. It reads:
“CAYENNE, April 23, 1789.
“HONOUR’D PARENT:
“I take this Opportunity to write Unto you to let you know of a very
bad accident that Happen’d on our late passage from Cape Mount, on the
Coast of Africa, bound to Cayenne. We sailed from Cape Mount the 13th
of March with 36 Slaves on bord. The 26th day of March the Slaves Rised
upon us. At half-past seven, my Sire and Hands being foreward Except
the Man at the helm, and myself, three of the Slaves took Possession
of the Caben, and two upon the Quarter Deck. Them in the Caben took
Possession of the fier Arms, and them on the quarter Deck with the Ax
and Cutlash and Other Weapons. Them in the Caben handed up Pistels to
them on the quarter Deck.
“One of them fired and killed my Honoured Sire, and still we strove for
to subdue them, and then we got on the Quarter Deck and killed two of
them. One that was in the Caben was Comeing out at the Caben Windows in
order to get on Deck, and we discovered him and Knock’d him overbord.
Two being in the Caben we confined the Caben Doors so that they should
not kill us.
“Then three men went foreward and got the three that was down their
and brought them aft. And their being a Doctor on board, a Passenger
that could Speak the Tongue, he sent one of the boys down and Brought
up some of the fier Arms and Powder. And then we cal’d them up and one
came up, and he Cal’d the other and he Came up. We put them In Irons
and Chained them and then the Doctor Dres’d the People’s Wounds, they
being Slightly Wounded. Then it was one o’clock.
“They buried my Honoured Parent, he was buried as decent as he could
be at Sea, the 16th of this Month. I scalt myself with hot Chocolate
but now I am abel to walk about again. So I remain in good Health and
hope to find you the Same and all my Sisters and Brothers and all that
Inquires after Me. We have sold part of the Slaves and I hope to be
home soon. So I Remain your Most Dutiful Son,
“WM. FAIRFIELD.
“Addressed to Mrs. Rebecca Fairfield,
Salem, New England.”
Under date of May 29, 1789, Doctor Bentley wrote in his diary:
“On Wednesday went to Boston and returned on Friday. News of the death
of Captain William Fairfield who commanded the Schooner which sailed in
Captain Joseph White’s employ in the African Slave Trade. He was killed
by the Negroes on board.”
This following letter of instructions to one of the few Salem captains
in the slave trade was written in 1785, under date of November 12th:
“Our brig of which you have the command, being cleared at the office,
and being in every other respect complete for sea, our orders are that
you embrace the first fair wind and make the best of your way to the
Coast of Africa and there invest your cargo in slaves. As slaves, like
other articles when brought to market, generally appear to the best
advantage, therefore too critical an inspection cannot be paid to them
before purchase; to see that no dangerous distemper is lurking about
them, to attend particularly to their age, to their countenance, to
the strength of their limbs, and as far as possible to the goodness or
badness of their constitutions, etc., will be very considerable objects.
“Male or female slaves, whether full grown, or not, we cannot
particularly instruct you about, and on this head shall only observe
that prime male slaves generally sell best in any market. No people
require more kind and tender treatment to exhilarate their spirits than
the Africans, and while on the one hand you are attentive to this,
remember that, on the other hand, too much circumspection cannot be
observed by yourself and people to prevent their taking advantage of
such treatment by insurrection and so forth. When you consider that on
the health of your slaves almost your whole voyage depends, you will
particularly attend to smoking your vessel, washing her with vinegar,
to the clarifying your water with lime or brimstone, and to cleanliness
among your own people as well as among the slaves.”
These singularly humane instructions are more or less typical of the
conduct of the slave trade from New England during the eighteenth
century when pious owners expressed the hope that “under the blessing
of God” they might obtain full cargoes of negroes. The ships were
roomy, comparatively comfortable quarters were provided, and every
effort made to prevent losses by disease and shortage of water and
provisions. It was not until the nations combined to drive the traffic
from the high seas that slavers were built for speed, crammed to the
hatches with tortured negroes and hard-driven for the West Indies and
Liverpool and Charleston through the unspeakable horrors of the Middle
Passage.
Salem records are not proud of even the small share of the town in this
kind of commerce, and most of the family papers which dealt with slave
trading have been purposely destroyed. It is true also that public
sentiment opposed the traffic at an earlier date than in such other
New England ports as Bristol and Newport. Slaves captured in British
privateers during the Revolution were not permitted to be sold as
property, but were treated as prisoners of war. The refusal of Elias
Hasket Derby to let his ship _Grand Turk_ take slaves aboard on her
first voyage to the Gold Coast was an unusual proceeding for a shipping
merchant of that time. Nor according to Doctor Bentley was the slave
trade in the best repute among the people of the place.
While Salem commerce was rising in a flood tide of enterprising
achievement in the conquest of remote and mysterious markets on the
other side of the globe, and the wounds left by the Revolution were
scarcely healed, her ships began to bring home new tales of outrage at
the hands of British, French and Spanish privateers and men-of-war.
There was peace only in name. In 1790, or only seven years after the
end of the Revolution, seamen were bitterly complaining of seizures and
impressments by English ships, and the war with France was clouding
the American horizon. The Algerine pirates also had renewed their
informal activities against American shipping, and the shipmasters of
Salem found themselves between several kinds of devils and the deep sea
wherever they laid their courses.
The history of the sea holds few more extraordinary stories than that
related of a Salem sailor and cherished in the maritime chronicles of
the town.
“On the 14th of August, 1785, a French vessel from Martinique, bound
to Bordeaux came up with the body of a man floating at some fifty rods
distance. The captain ordered four men into the boat to pick it up.
When brought on board, to the great surprise of the crew, the supposed
dead body breathed. Half an hour afterwards the man opened his eyes and
exclaimed: ‘O God, where am I?’ On taking off his clothes to put him
to bed it was discovered that he had on a cork jacket and trousers.
It was afterwards ascertained that he had sailed from Salem in a brig
bound to Madrid. The brig was attacked by Sallee pirates and captured.
This sailor, pretending to be lame, was neglected by the Moors who
had captured him. About 11 o’clock at night, having put on his cork
apparatus, he let himself down from the forechains into the water
unperceived. He swam about two days when he being quite exhausted, his
senses left him, in which state he was discovered by the men from the
Frigate. On his arrival at Bordeaux he was presented by the Chamber of
Commerce with a purse of 300 crowns.”
On February 10th, 1795, the following appeal was posted in the streets
of Salem:
“For the purpose of taking into consideration the _unhappy situation_
of the _unfortunate prisoners_ at Algiers, and to devise some Method
for carrying into effect a General Collection for their Relief on
Thursday, the 19th day of the present Month!
“The Meeting is called by the desire of the Reverend Clergy and other
Respectable Citizens of this Town who wish to have some System formed
that will meet the Acceptance of the Inhabitants previous to the Day of
Contribution.
“The _truly deplorable fate of these miserable captives_ loudly calls
for your Commiseration, and the Fervent Prayers they have addressed
to you from their Gloomy Prisons ought to soften the most Adamantine
Heart. They intreat you in the most Impassioned Language not to leave
them to dispair, but as _Prisoners of Hope_, let those of them who
still survive the Plague, Pestilence, and Famine, anticipate the day
that shall relieve them from the Cruel scourge of an Infidel, and
restore them to the Arms of their long-bereaved Friends and Country.
“It is hoped that the Humane and Benevolent will attend that Charity
may not be defeated of her intended Sacrifice in the auspicious
Festival, when the New World shall all be assembled, and the United
States shall offer her tribute of Praise and Thanksgiving at the Altars
of God.”[28]
An item of the date of February 16th, 1794, records that “information
is received that Edward Harwood, mate, James Peas and Samuel Henry
of Salem, lately returned from Algerine captivity were apportioned
shares of a benefit previously taken for such sufferers at the Boston
Theatre.”
FOOTNOTES:
[25] From “An Account of the Yacht _Cleopatra’s Barge_.” by Benjamin
W. Crowninshield, Historical Collections of the Essex Institute, from
which much of the information in this chapter is derived.
[26] (1797) “Aug. 30.—Went to the Market House to see the Elephant.
The crowd of spectators forbade me any but a general and superficial
view of him. He was six feet four inches high. Of large Volume, his
skin black as tho’ lately oiled. A short hair was on every part but
not sufficient for a covering. His tail hung one third of his height,
but without any long hair at the end of it. His legs were still at
command at the Joints but he could not be persuaded to lie down. The
Keeper repeatedly mounted him but he persisted in shaking him off.
Bread and Hay were given him and he took bread out of the pockets of
the spectators. He also drank porter and drew the cork, conveying the
liquor from his trunk into his throat. His Tusks were just to be seen
beyond the flesh and it was said had been broken. We say _his_ because
this is the common language. It is a female, and teats appeared just
behind the fore legs.” (From the Diary of Dr. William Bentley.)
[27] “A narrative dated Sept. 18, 1806, is published. It relates that
the ship _Marquis de Somereulas_, Captain William Story, on the coast
of Sumatra, had a narrow escape from being surprised by some of the
natives. Two proas came alongside with fourteen men who were allowed
to come on board. Only five of the ship’s company were left on deck.
The mate and rest of the hands were stowing the cargo. The captain,
being in the cabin, heard Mr. Bromfield, the clerk who was above,
exclaim that he was cresed. The sailmaker ran to his rescue, but was
dangerously wounded and jumped down the hatchway. All the hands below
were ordered to gain the deck, though they had scarcely any arms. The
captain, while endeavoring to ascend the companionway, was attacked
with boarding pikes. His men attempted to get up but were repulsed
with several of them wounded. They were rallied and another effort
was about to be made. The injunction was given that if they did not
succeed, and the Malays took possession of the ship, a match should be
applied to the magazine to blow her up. In the meanwhile the natives
had retreated, which was immediately discovered by the crew who got on
deck with the expectation of a deadly contest. Mr. Bromfield was found
dead. The carpenter and cook were missing, but these two had escaped in
a boat and soon returned to unite with their comrades.” (Felt’s “Annals
of Salem.”)
[28] The 19th of February, 1795, was a day of National Thanksgiving
ordered by proclamation of President Washington.