USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Salem > Salem vessels and their voyages; a history of the "Astrea", "Mindoro", "Sooloo", "Panay", "Dragon", "Highlander", "Shirley", and "Formosa", with some account of their masters, and other reminiscences of Salem shipmasters > Part 11
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Each vessel employed a shipping master to obtain the crew, and some of the agents worked more for the sailor's interest than they did for the ship. It was a common saying among sea captains that it was difficult to tell when the ship would be ready to sail, so many annoyances arising just then, and not until the pilot left and light- house was astern, did they feel that the vessel was under their charge. It proved so in our case, as the following incident will tell. Besides having three officers, who came well recommended, I took the precaution to employ two policemen to go on board to assist in case of necd, and when I went home in the afternoon I felt all would be well. Coming up next morning on the early train, expect- ing to sail, I called into the office at the end of Lewis Wharf. One of the owners said, "Captain, have you heard the news ?" I asked "What ?" He answered, "Your ship is in charge of the revenue cutter." I did not wait to hear
محلال عاد : دعاء كمجيد
CAPT. JOHN H. SHATSWELL
CAPT. NICHOLAS T. SNELL
CAPT. HENRY GARDNER
CAPT. JAMES B. BOSWELL
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BY GEORGE GRANVILLE PUTNAM
any more, but took a boat, and when I reached the ship, found such was the case. To make the story bricf, this was the substance: Somehow rum got on board, and in a skirmish between officer and crew, a sailor threw a slung- shot, striking the mate in the eye, crippling him; this demoralized the two other officers. They went over the bow, down the chain cable onto a big cake of floating ice in contact with the chain, and the policeman was also will- ing, so "Jack" had charge. The cutter was laying close by, and seeing the fight, the lieutenant lowered his boat and came on board, put the four ringleaders in irons, and took charge. The sequel of this was, the ship had to engage another chief officer and six new men, as the four ringleaders were put in prison and two of the men de- tained as evidence, causing an extra expense to the ship of three hundred or four hundred dollars.
While we were detained, the weather was good, with fresh westerly winds. Now we were ready for the second time, it had changed; the wind was light westerly, but the sky was inky-looking, with a very low barometer. It was a Saturday afternoon, I remember. I asked the advice of some of the old sea-dogs on Commercial street, and they said, "Go." Our pilot also had the same opinion, but he said if we got under way we must go to sea; it wouldn't do to anchor in Nantucket Roads, on account of the large amount of floating icc. He had been tending on us for a week, and was impatient, wanting to get the vessel off his hands, so his opinion did not influence me much. Also asked one of the owners. His answer was, "Nothing to say." I then made up my mind to wait till Monday morning. That night a furious northeast storm set in, raging all day Sunday and evening. Had I gone out Saturday P. M. the northwest wind would not have taken me farther out than Minot's light, and after the northeast wind struck us we should have tried to work offshore, which we could not have done, and ship and all hands might have piled up on the beach, for it was a furi- ous storm. Four A. M. Monday, I looked out of my win- dow at the hotel, and found the stars shining bright, sky
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clear, wind northwest. Started for the ship and got on board in a short time; soon the pilot and two steam tugs came alongside and made fast; hove up our anchor and started. Reaching the channel of Boston lighthouse, we discharged the pilot and tugs, and with the topsails set and foresail, we swiftly passed Minot's lighthouse on our way across Boston Bay for Cape Cod, breathing freely for the first time for a weck, thankful that we really had the craft under our charge.
Passed Highland Light, Cape Cod, at 3.30 P. M., and signaled ship's name. Later on, took our departure from Nausett light and shaped our course down South channel ; weather very cold, wind and sea increasing.' Soon, dark- ness closed around us, but with good lookout, fore and aft, we sailed on all right. Through the night we had double- reefed the topsails (whole sails in those days, no double rig)', and when daylight came we were running off our pine and ten knots before a heavy northwest gale. On the third day out, in the Gulf Stream, the weather grow warmer, and I feared, as is sometimes the case in cross- ing, the wind might die out and haul easterly; but, on. the contrary, it freshened considerably, with very heavy, northwest squalls and the sea frequently combing over the rails on deck with fury, and thus it continued, gradually slackening up till the eighth day out, when we were 1600 miles from Boston Light, on our course to the E. S. E., nearly reaching the latitude of the northeast trades, which we took after a few days' baffling wind in the "horse lati- tudes."
Having always been a firm believer in Lieut. M. F. Maury's U. S. N. sailing directions, I had a few days previously pricked off on the chart our course to the equator, by his route for the month of February. No doubt Lieutenant Maury shortened the distance from the Atlantic ports to the equator ten days. In my carlier voyages we used to go well to the eastward, sometimes sighting the Cape Verde Islands, so as to clear Capo St. Roque, the northeast cape of Brazil, and the Rocas, a very low and dangerous shoal about 130 miles northeast
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BY GEORGE GRANVILLE PUTNAM
of the cape. It was so low you discovered the breakers before the low sand islands right in the track of vessels. This shoal has a lighthouse on it now, so with a good look- out on shipboard all danger is removed. These two places, in older times, used to be the great bugbear to the ship- master, and filled him with anxiety till he had passed . them. Lieutenant Maury dispelled this doubt, and mar- iners sail on with little or no fear.
One voyage I crossed the equator in longitude 35 de- grees west, made the land to leeward of Cape St. Roque, beat round close inshore and cleared it in 48 hours. Another voyage I crossed in 35 degrees 35 minutes west, and cleared it in one week. Twice I have passed to loe- ward of the Rocas shoal, and several times to the leeward of Fernando de Norouka Island, and I always came by all right; so that I have little or no fears of that corner. This voyage, after leaving the horse latitudes, we took the trade wind well to the eastward, braced up the yards and sailed on a wind to the S. S. E. with moderate trades and pleasant weather, nothing of note occurring. Crossing the equator in longitude 2S degrees 27 minutes west, 231/2 days from Boston, distance sailed 3,620 miles,-which for a full ship, deeply laden and drawing 21 feet 26 inches, was very satisfactory. Once I had crossed before in 23 days, and another voyage in 24, but both of these passages the ship was not so deep. I think an extreme clipper with our chance would have made it in 17 days. If I remember right, the shortest passage ever made was by the Great Republic, in 15 days 19 hours. But we must hurry up and reach the "experiences," fearing your read- ers will get tired of this sea voyage.
On the fourth day from the equator passed Pernam- buco, and keeping her clean rap full, we sailed swiftly down the coast of Brazil, reaching the latitude of Rio de Janeiro in good time. Here the wind hauled free; set the studding sails and headed down for the Rio de la Plata with little or no change, save occasionally speaking a vessel, or the wind shifting round, sometimes suddenly to the southwest, giving us a little excitement for a few
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hours, and detaining us for a day or so, when it would die out or haul northerly, starting us on our course again ; heading, after we passed the river, for Patagonia, the weather growing cooler and about our only companions were the squeaking penguins, bobbing their heads out of. the water like a big cork on a fishing line, and the alba- tross, that noble, graceful bird, soaring aloft through the heavens as quickly and easily in the heavy gale as in the calm, some of them measuring 10 feet from tip to tip. The cape pigeons, a very pretty, graceful bird about the size and build of our home pigeons, were also our com- panions through storm or calm, and although away in these dreary regions we had a plenty of company.
By keeping well in with the land, westerly winds pre- vailing, we made good progress to the south-southwest; occasionally had a header from that quarter, sometimes suddenly, when the big whole topsails had as much as they could stand; this held us sometimes for a day or two, checking our headway. We made, however, good time down the coast of Tierra Del Fuego, approaching the Strait of Le Marie and Staten Island, when the weather came on thick, wind hauling to the southwest, so we were obliged to keep away for Cape St. John, the easternmost land on the island. I felt disappointed in not being able to go through this strait, which was over 15 miles wide and clear of all danger, and would have been a saving of 40 miles on our voyage.
A voyage or two later I came down and entered the strait in the afternoon, with a leading wind, and by mid- night we were half way through, when we came suddenly into a very heavy head sca, and I was fearful the wind would haul southwest and we should have to run back under the lee of the island, but fortunately it held to the westward, and when daylight came we were through all right, heading over for Cape Horn. I have no doubt the heavy head sea was caused by the meeting of the currents, which run very strong sometimes in this strait. Staten Island is the southeastern extremity of the continent, is about forty miles long, and on a clear day is seen seventy
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SHIP "RINGLEADER" Captain J. Clifford Entwisle. From the original in possession of the Salem Marine Society.
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BY GEORGE GRANVILLE PUTNAM
miles off, with its lofty, ragged summits, covered with snow, rising to the height of three thousand feet.
After rounding Cape St. John, we met the long westerly. swell of the South Pacific ocean, wind from the west- southwest, thick and squally weather, so that we made slow . progress for twenty-four hours. The next day it hauled northerly, and with all sail set we headed over for Cape Horn, passing about ten miles south of it, feeling encour- aged by this start that we might be favored, but in this we were disappointed, for in a few hours it hauled ahead again, and for ten or fifteen days we had all we wanted of Cape Horn weather. Some days we were under close- reefed topsails and storm stay-sails, hammering into the heavy head sea, hardly holding our own. The wind whistled through the rigging, not to the tune of the aeolian harp, but as though a thousand serpents were holding rev- elry. The ship tugged and strained with her hears load, as the seas dashed furiously against her sides and on deck ; but with a good ship, well found in sails and rigging, all was well.
I could but contrast this passage with one I made in 1848, my first voyage as master, off here, in a little vessel only 106 tons burden, so small that if you wanted a bucket of salt water, all you had to do was to step on the lec side, reach over the rail, and bail up. In this craft we were forty-two days to the southward of 50 degrees south latitude, owing to our fit-out from home. We started on a trading voyage to the Society and Sandwich Islands and California. The ship's husband, who superintended the loading and fitting away, was an old sea captain, very economical and also part owner. Being a young man, I did not like to ask many questions, feeling that his experi- ence would provide the necessaries. After we sailed, the chief officer informed me that we had only one suit of sail, which had made two voyages to the coast of Africa. One day, when about a fortnight out, pitching into a head sca, our topmast and top-gallant mast settled, owing to the hounds or shoulders of the mast giving out. These we secured in place by lashings of chain through the fid-hole,
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over the mast-heads. In looking over the bow, a day or so later, I found the copper on the vessel's bottom started and ragged.
This was a bad beginning for a Cape Horn trip. The consequence was, when we reached the Cape, and it came on to blow, our sails gave out, and after the gale we had to lower them on deck and repair them. Ships would come up and pass us with their new sails, soon leaving us out of sight astern, working away on our old rags, with mittens on. It was a wonder we ever weathered the Cape. The experience of that cruise taught me a lesson,-to know, before I sailed, the condition of our outfit.
I should have gone into Rio de Janiero, purchased a new suit of sails and coppered the vessel, but to save expense and port charges, I called at the island of St. Catherine, a small port to the south of Rio. I took on board a boatload of wood, another of oranges, several casks of water, with a little fresh meat and vegetables, and, after two days' detention, started out again, our disburse- ments amounting to $85, which I balanced by taking a Spaniard by the name of Pogie, as a passenger. A most amiable gentlemen, he never asked where we were bound, expressed no curiosity; only through the interpreter, as he could not talk English, said he would like to go, paid his passage money, and went on board. I feared he might complain of the fare on the passage, as, forty-five years ago, sailors knew nothing about the luxuries of modern ships, and the delicacies that owners put on board now. No vegetables, fruits, fresh meats or soups, in tins and bottles ; no stove in the cabin to warm us (sailors have one in the forecastle, now). It wasn't considered safe, in those days, to have a fire, except to cook the food. I think I made four voyages round Cape Horn before I could be prevailed upon to have a store. Good solid salt beef, well pickled with a mixture of saltpetre and salt, salt pork, and bread baked strong enough to keep two years, with baked beans and a fried rasher of salt pork, with duff as our dessert,-a pudding made by mixing flour and water together, with occasionally a few raisins or dried apples
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BY GEORGE GRANVILLE PUTNAM
dropped in to give it a flavor, boiled for three or four hours in a canvas bag,-these were our luxuries twice a week. No lard allowed, the owner informing me that salt pork was better. Our list of stores for this cruise was as follows: six barrels of salt beef, three barrels of salt pork, three barrels of flour, a box of codfish and one of Union coffee, a small box of tea, two bushels of beans, six hams, and perhaps fifty dollars' worth of small gro- ceries. Sometimes our passenger did not care to turn out to his meals, but twice a week, the days of luxuries, I always summoned him, and, together with the mate, we partook of the banquet. Of course our conversation was limited, and never did I hear one word of complaint; blow high or low, it was all the same to Mr. Pogie.
This little craft was the best sea boat I was ever in; would lie-to like a Cape pigeon. I had the worst weather I ever experienced in twenty-four times passing Cape Horn. In a heavy west-southwest gale, lasting three days, at midnight of the second day in wearing ship our main boom broke short off in the middle, owing to the careless- ness of not making boom tackle fast; we put tarpaulin on main rigging and fished it with one of the anchor stock, as we had nothing else ou board. In this gale we drifted to leeward nearly one hundred miles; still we kept at it, and at last got round.
After reaching the latitude of Valparaiso the mate thought it would be a good thing to go in and recruit, but we sailed on, soon reaching the southeast trades, and sailed away for the Society Islands, reaching the beau- tiful island of Otaheite, covered with verdure like green velvet from summit to base, and seen fifty miles off. A glad sight to us. Run in between two reefs and let go our anchor in a landlocked harbor, 181 days passage, with only fifteen gallons of water left. But not one of the cight souls on board showed any signs of scurvey (no lime juice law then), which might have been owing to our good blood or the regular exercise of the ship; perhaps the diet had most to do with it, --- can't say which. Our passenger left, giving the vessel a good name; report said
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SALEM VESSELS AND THEIR VOYAGES
bringing on shore a big bag of doubloons, a Spanish coin worth sixteen dollars each. This may account for his sticking so close to his berth most of the time, like a setting hen. I hope your readers will pardon me for this digression, and will now go on.
After this bad spell of weather, we had occasional starts ahead with favorable breezes for a short time, reaching the longitude of 78 degrees west; when the wind hauled to the W.S.W. wore ship head to the north, with Cape Horn 400 miles astern. We eased the braces a little, keeping her clean full with a strong gale abeam; let ber go for all she was worth, every mile shortening our time in this uncomfortable region. Quickly we passed the west- ern entrance to the Straits of Magellan and up the coast of Patagonia and Chili, weather softening daily with a head wind occasionally for a change, when it would shift again to the westward, starting us afresh on our way.
Wo passed the island of Juan Fernandez, which was right in our track. This island is four miles wide and about 12 miles long, some parts of it towering up in the sky 3,000 feet, and as we sailed along by it bringing back the days of youth, when we revelled in the story of Robin- son Crusoe with his goats and man Friday.
Took the southeast trade winds in about latitude 30 degrees south, and with all sail set, including studding sails alow and aloft, steering on a north course, passing Chili, Bolivia and Peru from 300 to 500 miles to the east of us. We sailed along over the smoothest sea I ever traversed, even the seabirds breathing it in and flying lazily, the clouds light and airy, the air pure and acting like a tonic. All the way between Coquimbo and Payata, a distance of 1,500 miles, quict reigns supreme over this ocean, and there is seldom if ever any rain.
Lieutenant Maury attributes this to the Andes (the backbone of the continent) drawing the last drop of water from the clouds as they pass over this mountainous range, over 12,000 feet high. In over 35 passages made in and out of these ports, I have never experienced a bona fide squall. Of course, on a wind, sailing through the trades,
معحو لملاء نو
BARK SAPPHO Stone, Silsbee, Pickman & Allen, owners ; Richard D. Rogers, master. 1844: From painting owned by George S. Silsbee.
SHIP THOMAS PERKINS Pingree & Johnson, owners; William Graves, Jr., master. 1837.
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BY GEORGE GRANVILLE PUTNAM
you will have strong flaws, as much as top-gallant sails would stand, but if ever there was a spot on earth akin to heaven, it is the ocean between these parallels.
On shore, among the people, you notice the same quiet ; no hurry or push, and plenty of time to chat,-only occa- sionally, when the tidal wave rolls in from the sca, or the earthquake opens the earth with ghastly seams, causing it to tremble, then fear and dismay comes over them. Even the very animals realize that something dreadful is taking place.
I made a voyage to Arica, Peru, a short time after the great tidal wave swept all the way across the Pacific ocean, rolling in with fearful force on the whole western side of Peru and Bolivia. If I remember right, there were eight vessels at this time in the port, at anchor in cight fathoms of water. One of them, an American man-of-war with a crew of 200 men, one of the double-enders, built to cruise up the rivers in the South in the days of the Rebel- lion; also the Fredonia, an American naval store ship, an old vessel sent up from Valparaiso, where it was not considered safe for her to remain in the winter season, as northerly gales created a heavy sea in that harbor. The air was sluggish and heavy, with little or no wind, and no warning of what was coming, when suddenly the heavy sea rolled in like an embankment, sweeping every- thing before it up over the beach in-shore for a mile or more. Several of the vessels foundered at their anchors ; others were dashed to pieces on the reef. Report said that when the sea receded it was dry ground where the vessels lay in eight fathoms of water, till the second roller came in. The captain of the American store-ship was on shore, but his wife, who was on board, was lost with all hands. The whole bottom of the ship was fairly torn out of her when she struck on the reef. The man- of-war was more fortunate. By good management they kept her head to the sea, and when the last roller came in, it carried her in-shore three-quarters of a mile from the beach and left her perfectly upright in a field, and she stood in the same position when I visited the port. At
----
.
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SALEM VESSELS AND THEIR VOYAGES
the same time of the tidal wave, the earthquake shook the city, and the walls of the buildings crumbled to the ground in ruins ; the people losing all energy and pluck to build again after this fearful visitation. But enough of this.
We are now 107 days out, in latitude three degrees south of the equator, 150 miles west of the Gulf of Guaya- quil, and I begin to plan what I will do upon arrival. Of course, I expect to find a pleasant, agreeable agent to assist me in discharging; with whom, sitting on his verandah, I shall have many pleasant chats; also watching the mail steamers from San Francisco landing their pas- sengers, and those coming to town over the road, via Lake Granada, from New York; and meeting perhaps some old friends. In all these anticipations I was disappointed, as later on will tell. I was troubled a little, in looking over my charter, party. It read as follows: "The ship to receive $22 per ton freight, $5,000 in gold coin payable upon arrival, balance of freight payable by a certificate from the agent upon the right delivery of cargo, at the company's office in New York 10 days after the receipt of same." From the $22 the owner of the ship must pay $8 per ton to a firm in New York that shipped the coal, this leaving $14 to the ship. I could not understand how a company of such standing, supposed to be A-1, as the Accessory Transit Company of Nicaragua, with such an able financier as the late Commodore W. H. Vanderbilt as its president, should allow an outside party to receive $8, when the same coal could have been put on board the ship in New York for less than $4. This puzzled me somewhat, but it was not my business to question the owners' or charterers' intentions; all I had to do was to carry out the terms of the charter party. So I tried to feel all was well.
.
Crossed the equator in longitude 84 degrees west. A few days after, one afternoon, ship going about 10 knots, weather squally and rainy, we being about 400 miles to the west of the Bay of Panama, that fearful cry which strikes terror to the sailor's heart, was sounded fore and aft the deck, "Man overboard!" Quickly the life-buoy
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BY GEORGE GRANVILLE PUTNAM
went over the stern, a man sent to the royal yard on the lookout; courses hauled up and yards braced, and ship hauled on a wind, topsail aback, boat lowered, and four strong arms with the mate pulled swiftly in the direction pointed out by the man on the lookout, where the poor fellow was last seen. After pulling about ten minutes, they suddenly stopped. With breathless anxiety we watched them. Life or death seemed to hang on their movements. Again they started broad off from the direc- tion they had been pulling, with seemingly a stronger stroke of the oar. A faint cry had reached their ears over the water, and in a short time, with the aid of the spyglass, we saw him, to our great joy, pulled into the boat. The poor fellow was well tired out. It was 45 minutes by the watch from the time the alarm was sounded till he reached the ship. So he must have been 30 min- utes in the water, and how fortunate that he could swim and that the sharks didn't swallow him, for this ocean is full of them. Gave him a warm drink and let him turn in, and the next morning he was on deck, happy as a lark. It seems he went over the bow in the head to have a bath, when his foot slipped and he fell into the sea. Lucky thing all his clothing was off.
We are now approaching our port of destination, the high land to the south of it is in sight, and with a light fair wind we expect soon to see the entrance to the harbor, which is only one-third of a mile across. With no land- marks or houses to distinguish it, it was not easy to make out, but having visited this port three years previous, with 140 passengers on our vessel from San Francisco, I was acquainted with the lay of the land. When about six miles off, we noticed, with the spyglass, a canoe with two men -- one of theni had on a cloth cap with a gold band round it -- paddling towards us. It had been a long time since we had had a chat with any human being outside of our ship's circle, and we longed for a change, and in this we were not disappointed. When they reached us, we put over the gangway ladder and welcomed them on deck.
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