USA > Massachusetts > Barnstable County > Falmouth > Suckanesset; wherein may be read a history of Falmouth, Massachusetts > Part 10
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About 1820 whaling in Nantucket and other ports had grown to such proportions that ships of 300 tons, capable of making a three or four year voyage, came into vogue, and at that news the harbor bar in Nantucket began 'moaning' in earnest, for it was not feasible for vessels of such drought to pass over the bar into Nantucket har- bor. For a while the unwieldy 'camels', or drydock barges, were used to float the laden vessels into the harbor; but it was too much to expect that some man somewhere would not be keen-witted enough to take advantage of this handicap and challenge in earnest Nantucket's su- premacy in the whaling business.
New Bedford, of course, captured the supremacy in the field and reigned as queen of the seas for many years; but Falmouth may well be proud of the degree of success which she achieved, remote as she was from the world in the days before the coming of the railroad, and with only the sparse population of the Cape to draw on for the men to man her fleet.
When Falmouth entered the lists the horizon had been pushed back by the indomitable Yankee seamen until there was no part of the ocean in the warmer lati- tudes that had not been furrowed by the keel of a whaler. American coasts and Atlantic waters were early can- vassed, and by 1815, after the war with England, American whaleships were pursuing the leviathan in the Indian and Pacific Oceans as well. In 1819, the cruising ground off the coast of Japan was opened up by Capt. Joseph Allen of the Nantucket ship Maro.
It was left, however, for Falmouth to have the honor of claiming the first white woman, so far as known, to go ashore and actually pass some time in the proud iso- lated Empire which until 1853 permitted no foreigners upon its soil under penalty of death, allegedly. About
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1845 Mrs. Cordelia Childs, of North Falmouth, wife of Captain Peter Childs, while on a voyage in her husband's vessel, put into a port in Japan where they were kindly received and supplied with the necessary supplies of fresh water and green vegetables and poultry. It must have been in Northern Hondo, or southern Yezo, where the government at Yedo which had banned foreigners, was far distant, for such an infringement of the strict law to occur, but the people proved most friendly and imbued with a naive curiosity over the white lady. Mrs. Childs' stories of how the little brown people thronged around her and fingered her garments from head to foot in their wonder are still a tradition in the family.
Restless, shrewd, venturesome Elijah Swift-he had lived in the big house opposite the Village Green where today stands the Memorial Church of St. Barnabas; the plucky, beauty-loving, executive-minded man who had been born on the bank of the Coonemessett River in Hatchville; the man who had made his start with the contract to build the first town schoolhouse in Falmouth, who had defiantly built and launched his own schooner, the Status Ante Bellum, in Falmouth rather than let the British keep him off the high seas during the War of 1812, who had rapidly accumulated a fortune 'live-oaking' in the Southern swamps to fill Navy contracts for ships of the line and men o' war-Elijah Swift was the first man to seize the fabulous possibilities of wealth in the whaling business.
With the year 1820, when the brig Sarah Herrick, of one hundred and fifty tons made a voyage in June to the Atlantic whaling grounds, returning with a modest cargo of 300 barrels of sperm oil to Falmouth, begins the whaling epoch in Falmouth, dominated for many years by the energetic figure of Elijah Swift.
Several direct descendants of this masterful person, who stamped his individuality incisively on the growth and development of the old town still live in Falmouth, including E. E. C. Swift, Jr., Water Commissioner, (1927) ; Dr. T. Lawrence Swift, of the Falmouth Board of Health (1927); Mrs. Kathryn Swift Greene, Mrs. Frances Swift Clapp, Angus V. Swift; all of whom derive their descent from Elijah Swift's second marriage, with Hannah Law- rence.
The square white mansion on the north-west corner of the Green, in which (1930) lives Mrs. Elijah Swift, is
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also linked with the whaling days of old Falmouth, having been in those days the home of Oliver C. Swift, eldest son of Elijah by his first wife, Chloe Price.
Its neighboring house, across the road, today (1930) the property of William H. Hewins, Town Clerk and Town Treasurer of Falmouth, a century ago was inhabited by John Jenkins, close friend of Elijah Swift, whose oldest son, Oliver C. Swift, married Eliza R. Jenkins, daughter of John. Oliver C. Swift purchased the house on the cor- ner of the Green in 1830, from Dr. E. P. Fearing, executor of the estate of Capt. William Bodfish.
Near the Jenkins house, on the corner of Palmer Ave- nue, facing the Green, stood a small structure, insignifi- cant enough in appearance, yet through whose portal passed probably every Falmouth lad who went to sea, for in this building John Jenkins maintained a whaling sup- ply shop where were to be had sea-boots and pea jackets, tarpaulins and ditty bags, and the hundred and one little things indispensable to a sailor's outfit. John Jenkins, who succeeded Elijah Swift at a later date as President of the Falmouth National Bank, had a very sound and 'long' as the phrase goes, financial head. His especial province in the whaling business, was to estimate and compute. He could tell what supplies would be required for a given voyage, he knew the quality of stores or cloth- ing that should be purchased. If a ship's outfit had been arranged by John Jenkins, the master might sail secure in the knowledge that when three years out from home, up in the Arctic, or down in the tropic south seas, were a cask of biscuit broached or a bit of canvas needed to re- place a sail, or a card of Portland sulphur matches re- quired, it would infallibly be found among the stores just where and just what it should be.
Down in Woods Hole, on what is today the Newcomb Carlton estate stood a stone look-out tower, now in- corporated into Mr. Carlton's summer home. From Woods Hole to Plymouth stretched a series of lookouts from which signals were flashed and messages sent to Boston in the fast time of two hours when an important vessel was sighted beating up the coast. In those days, before the Canal was dug, all shipping would make into Vineyard Sound and thence round Cape Cod on its course to Boston, arriving some twenty-four hours later in Boston, so that advance information from Woods Hole would have had a very definite commercial value.
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It may have been from this look-out tower, or by some other means, that information of the arrival of a whaling vessel at Woods Hole reached Falmouth, but the tradition in the Jenkins family relates the stir and bustle that ensued in the household when such tidings arrived. The horse must be hitched, father's high hat brought out, and off John Jenkins would go, because when the vessel had docked, or anchored, as the case may be, the first business to be attended to was a conference between the Captain and John Jenkins in which Mr. Jenkins would 'figure the voyage' noting down the number of barrels of oil brought home, the pounds of whale-bone, the rare but valuable finds of ambergris. Against the proceeds must be entered the cost of outfitting the vessel, the expenses incurred on the long voyage; and then came the most arduous part of the keeping of accounts for whalers, the figuring of the profits in terms of each man's lay. In those days no man shipped on a whaler for a definite salary, but each was allotted his proportion, in accordance with his rank and duties, of the profit of the voyage.
With the successful return of the brig Sarah Herrick from the Atlantic Whaling grounds in 1821, dates the whaling industry of the port of Falmouth. That very year Elijah Swift had built in Wareham the ship Poca- hontas, which set out on her maiden voyage in December, 1821, under Captain Frederick Chase, spent three years cruising in the Pacific and brought home 2000 barrels of sperm oil.
Old Elijah Swift, for all his daring, had a spice of Yankee caution in his character, and it was not until the Pochahontas had made her second voyage, returning twice with "a greasy ship" that he launched into building the fleet of whalers, most of which bore an Indian name.
The ships Uncas, Commodore Morris and Bartholo- mew Gosnold were all built at Woods Hole, as was the bark Awashonks, and Solomon Lawrence, grandfather of Fal- mouth's present genial Deputy Sheriff, Herbert H. Law- rence was the master shipwright who presided over their building from the laying of the keel to the launching.
The Uncas, launched in 1828, was the first, and made her maiden voyage under Captain Henry C. Bunker, son- in-law of Elijah Swift, who at one time lived on Shore Street in the so-called Ludlam house.
The Bartholomew Gosnold, launched in 1832, was
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built for Ward M. Parker and her first captain was John C. Daggett.
The bark Awashonks, which was to have a cruel and bloody history, immortalised by the bravery of her third mate, Silas Jones, of Falmouth, was launched in 1830, owned by Elijah Swift and had as her first captain Obed Swain.
The ship Hobomok, which was later commanded by Captain Silas Jones of Awashonks fame, was built at Mattapoisett for Elijah Swift and made her first voyage in 1832 under a Captain Barnard.
The Commodore Morris was built in 1841, her owner Oliver C. Swift, eldest son of Elijah, and her first captain was Captain Charles Downs.
Another whaler built in Falmouth township was the bark Popmunett, of 200 tons, whose keel was laid at White's Landing, the timber hewn in the neighboring for- ests, and the work carried out by Abner Hinckley, master shipwright. She sailed July 6, 1836, under Captain Stan- ton Fish but was unlucky on her first voyage on the At- lantic grounds, being forced to put back in November, with only 90 barrels of oil, owing to the serious illness of Captain Fish.
By a coincidence the other whaler built in town by Abner Hinckley also had an unlucky maiden voyage. She was built at West Falmouth for Stephen Dillingham and tradition records that before she was launched the pious Quakers of West Falmouth predicted she would be un- lucky "because too much Sunday work went into her." This was the William Penn, 370 ton, who sailed in 1833 under Captain John C. Lincoln. At the Navigator Islands in the Pacific, Mr. Eldredge, the first mate, was killed and two boats' crews captured by natives; and though the Penn came home with 1200 barrels of oil to show for her three-year voyage, Captain Lincoln was sorely ill when they returned.
The William Penn was finally lost in a disastrous shipwreck on the Island of Whytbotask on November 26, 1847, though 1200 of her cargo of 1800 barrels of oil was salvaged and sold for fifty cents a barrel, or just about half-price. In this connection a quaint and interesting excerpt from the affidavit of the Second Mate on the last voyage of the Penn has been preserved, which we append herewith.
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AFFIDAVIT OF SECOND MATE TO INSURANCE CO.
"On the 19th day of July A. D. 1840, the said ship William Penn being tight, strong and staunch and properly officered, manned and provisioned and in all respects well and duly fitted for her voyage, whaling then contemplated, sailed from the Port of Falmouth with the appearer on board, together with her officers and crew, in their several capacities, bound on a voyage whaling to the Pacific Ocean and else- where; That nothing worthy of note occurred to the ship until the occurrences hereinafter stated; That on or about the 15th of October, A. D. 1847 the said ship with the ap- pearer on board together with her other officers and crew left Honolulu on a cruise for New Zealand; that on their passage arrived off the Island of Whylootacha aforesaid, and touched there for some supplies on the 25th of November A. D. 1847; at about 3 o'clock P. M. they stood off shore to the sea tack, the weather being rather squally; and so continued till about 1 o'clock the same evening; at that hour they tacked in again until about 2 o'clock A. M. tacking in towards shore; at that time they attempted again tacking off shore; but in so doing they misstayed and in trying to wear, ship being in irons, she soon after struck on the Reef; This was about 2 o'clock A. M. She first struck her larboard counter, that held her & sea drove her broadside on the Reef, there being a heavy swell at the time and a strong current setting in shore; immediately they cut her weather riggins and the masts went over her side-in order to ease the ship; but they found it impossible to relieve the vessel; and the sea was so heavy & position dangerous that she began immediately to break up. Finding it impossible to save the ship & sea mak- ing a breach over her continuously & finding their own lives in imminent danger, the officers and crew took to two boats and pulled down the reef & succeeded in reaching the landing which was eight miles distant in safety; the ship went to pieces within an hour after she struck and became a total wreck.
To wit :- Whereupon I, the said Notary, at the request afore- said have protested and by these presents do protest against the aforesaid winds, waves, seas, shoals, bars & reefs & every other cause for all & every damage, costs, & charges that have been sustained or may be sustained by said cargo or by said vessel or otherwise aforesaid, that the same may be bourne, sustained, submitted to and suffered by those to whom it doth or may in any wise belong. Thus done & Pro-
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tested by me the said Notary at said New Bedford on the day and year aforesaid. (Signed) Jno. Adam Kasson Not. Pub.
He speaks also of a letter in the original from the Class Chiefs of Aitutaki to the ship owners, these men having apparently succored the ship's crew.
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CHAPTER XII
MASSACRE ON THE AWASHONKS
C APTAIN SILAS JONES, son of Captain Silas and Love Shiverick Jones, was born in Falmouth, Mass., Feb. 25, 1814, and attended local schools till 1827.
In October of that year he embarked on board the brig, Brunette, as steward, Silas Jones Bourne, master, bound for St. Marys, Georgia, with about seventy passen- gers who were to engage in the Live Oak Lumber trade. After landing the passengers, a cargo of Live Oak timber was taken on board and shipped to the Brooklyn, New York, Navy Yard.
They then returned for a supply for the Charlestown, Mass., Navy Yard. Later in the season he made two other trips south, this time with Captain B. B. Bourne in the schooner Eliza and Mary.
November 6, 1830 he started on his first whaling voy- age, sailing from Woods Hole as a sailor before the mast on board ship Awashonks, Obed Swain of Nantucket, mas- ter. This ship was built at Woods Hole (as were the other two ships in which he sailed) and was launched about two months previous to sailing. It was constructed of live oak timber, copper fastened, and in every respect a fine vessel of three hundred and forty one tons, valued with outfit at $48,000. This splendid ship remained in the whaling service until 1871, when she, with thirty three other whalers, was lost in the Arctic Ocean. On this trip he was promoted to the office of boat-steerer and at the close of the voyage, Captain Swain gave him a letter recommending him as qualified for the position of second mate. He was then nineteen years old.
December 28, 1833, he embarked again on board the Awashonks as third mate, for a voyage of bloody and harrowing experiences. On returning to Woods Hole, May 20, 1836, he was met by Mr. Thomas Swift, who had
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been appointed by the other owners, to meet and take him to the Village Reading Room where he was given a most cordial reception by the owners and townspeople. He made one more voyage in the Awashonks.
In 1840 he sailed in the Hobomok as Captain, being then twenty-six years old-the youngest captain sailing the high seas in the whaling service.
Later he made two voyages in the Commodore Morris. On his last trip home in 1864 he was chased by the Ala- bama, necessitating a detour of five hundred miles to avoid capture, thus extending the length of the voyage to a period of five years.
He spent about twenty-five years on the great ocean but his knowledge was not confined to sea life. He was a man of dignity and command-his judgment and state- ments rarely questioned. He took active interest in his home town, filling with ability every office the town sup- ported, yet he never applied for a position of any kind in his whole life career. -
About 1850 he served on the Committee to move the First Congregational Church from the Village Green to its present site, and was always interested in the pros- perity of the church and for many years was a chairman of the Prudential Committee.
He represented his town in the State Legislature, 1864-1866, and was urged to serve another term which he did not think best to do.
He was a charter member of the Oak Grove Cemetery Association and succeeded the late Hon. Erasmus Gould as president about 1881, retaining the office up to the time of his death. He also succeeded Mr. Gould as presi- dent of the Falmouth National Bank and held that office until the time of his death, January 4, 1896.
Through the courtesy of Captain Silas Jones' daugh- ter, Miss Ellen M. Jones of Los Angeles, California, we reproduce the true account of "The Awashonks massacre."
NARRATIVE OF CAPTAIN SILAS JONES
FROM THE LOG OF THE AWASHONKS
On the 28th of December 1833, I sailed on the ship Awashonks of Falmouth, bound to the Pacific on a sperm- whaling voyage. The Awashonks was one of the first class ships in the whaling business, owned by Captain Elijah Swift and others of Falmouth, and commanded by Captain Prince Coffin of Nantucket. The first officer was
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Alexander H. Gardner and the second William Swain, also from Nantucket. I joined the ship in the capacity of third officer, and belonged to Falmouth.
The ship's company consisted of twenty-eight men, including the officers. A young man named Daniel Wood and a lad named John Parker were from Nantucket, and one lad named Thomas Gifford belonged to Falmouth. The remainder were from almost every section of the country.
During the first part of our voyage nothing of im- portance had occurred, except that ill-fortune seemed to accompany us while pursuing the object we sailed for. We doubled Cape Horn after an ordinary passage, cruised down the western coast of South America and stopped at a port in lower Peru for refreshments. After leaving that port, we ran westerly ,and whenever we had occasion to go to any port during the remainder of the voyage, it was to some of the islands in the middle and western part of the Pacific Ocean.
In May, 1835, after having made several unsuccessful cruises, we set sail from the island of Tahiti bound to the northward, soon reaching the Equator. We cruised west- ward, and for three months were favored by fortune, hav- ing obtained in that time about four hundred barrels of sperm-oil. We had touched in the mean time at a number of islands in the King Mills group, and were accustomed to seeing many natives on board. At one time, in par- ticular, while near one of the group, we captured three whales, and took them in; and the next day, while passing the islands, the wind fell away and left us becalmed about two miles distant.
The natives came off in great numbers, and I pre- sume that at one time the number on board would exceed one hundred. They were the most destitute, degraded set of beings I ever saw, taking every piece of meat they could get hold of and eating it with as much eagerness as carrion hawks. But we never received any harm from them, always keeping men on station ready to suppress any assault from them.
On the first of October we were in 168 degrees of east longitude, on the Equator. Captain Coffin had deter- mined to leave the ground, proceed to the northward to the coast of Japan, thence to the Sandwich Islands. We had been a few days on the passage when one evening he observed to me, while I was on my watch, that we should
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probably see an island before morning, and gave me orders to keep a sharp lookout for it through the night. I asked him some questions about the island, but he had no knowledge of it except that he received from the chart. It was there called Baring's Island, in latitude 5 0 35' N., longitude 168 o 13' E., not inhabited.
The next morning, on the fifth of October, about sun- rise, the man from masthead discovered the island ahead, about twenty miles distant, bearing N. N. E., wind from east. We made a course directly for it until night, when a squall came over and obscured the island till ten o'clock, the wind in the meantime being near southerly. We had expected to pass to windward of it, but when the clouds had passed off we found that we could not weather it with safety. Consequently we ran before the wind near the south shore to pass under its lee. The south shore ex- tended from east to west about six miles, there it ter- minated in a sharp point around which on the west side of the island, was an opening to a large lagoon, which extended a distance of four or five miles, leaving but a narrow belt of land or sea-wall of coral formation, no part of which would exceed half a mile in crossing.
When running down the south shore, we noticed among the rich foliage, which gave the island a very in- teresting appearance, many cocoanut trees and plantains. We also saw many natives running along the beach in the same direction as ourselves. When abreast of the en- trance of the lagoon, three canoes were seen approaching. The captain then observed to the third officer that he would stop there an hour or two and endeavor to get some fruit, and gave directions to heave the ship to, headed from the land, a half mile distant, with the main topsail to the mast.
The three canoes came alongside directly, each with three or four natives on board. Their contents, which were not more than three or four dozen cocoanuts and two bunches of plantains, were passed on board by them, they receiving in exchange many pieces of hook, iron, ivory and the like. They appeared satisfied with their trade and were all allowed to come on board.
The first who came up the side was the chief, as we supposed, by his seeming to exercise some control over the others and by his personal appearance. He was decorated with a string of teeth of some fish which he wore around his neck as beads are worn, his hair was done
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up in a peculiar style, and the lobes of his ears had been bored and the holes extended to the enormous size of two inches in diameter, in which was placed on either side, a roll of yellow plantain leaf, not unlike a scroll or parchment. Around his loins he wore a string of grass which extended to his knees. The other men were in precisely the same dress with which nature had clothed them.
We endeavored to converse with them, but could not understand a word of their language, although we had natives of Tahiti on board. They were all well-formed, muscular men, of somewhat darker complexion than South Sea Islanders generally, but in features and com- plexion approaching the Malay.
Directly after their coming on board, the captain ordered dinner although it still wanted a few moments to noon. He then, with the first two officers, went below to dine, ordering me to remain on deck, keep a lookout, and get an observation as the sun passed the meridian. The decks were left except by the helmsmen and myself.
While I was engaged in getting an observation, the natives appeared to be somewhat frightened by the quad- rant I held in my hand. It was new and shone very brightly. I presume they took it to be an instrument of warfare.
In a few minutes the officers came on deck. I then went below. I told the captain other canoes were on their way to the ship. He went on to the deck also. In the course of ten or fifteen minutes I went on deck and found that their number had increased to about thirty.
From the first of their coming on board, they appear- ed to give much of their attention to the iron work about the ship, and seemed to covet the articles in any form whatever. Attached to spars over the quarterdeck was a box containing fourteen cutting-spades, which it would be well here to describe. A cutting spade is formed of a thin plate of steel, triangular in shape, having a long socket on the end, in which is inserted a pole. When completed it is about fifteen feet in length. When used for cutting whale overboard it is brought to a fine edge, and the mode of use is by a thrust, the same as a spear is used. As these spades were highly polished, the natives' eyes had rested upon them, and the captain, to gratify their curiosity, took one down and by signs showed them
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