Historic Nantucket
Easterly end of Old South Wharf from Straight Wharf, circa 1940
APRIL, 1969
Published Quarterly by NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NANTUCKET. MASSACHUSETTS
NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President, Edouard A. Stackpole. Vice Presidents, Miss Grace Brown Gardner, W. Ripley Nelson, Albert F. Egan, Jr., Alcon Chadwick, Henry B. Coleman, George W. Jones. Honorary Vice President, Mrs. William L. Mather. Treasurer, Roger J. Roche. Secretary, Mrs. Austin Tyrer. Councillors, Edouard A. Stackpole, Chairman: Leroy H. True, Herbert I Terry, terms expire 1969; Mrs. James C. Andrews, Richard F. Swain, terms expire 1970; Mrs. Albert F. Egan, Jr., H. Errol Coffin, terms expire 1971; Albert G. Brock, John N. Welch, terms expire 1972. Executive Committee, W. Ripley Nelson, Chairman; Alcon Chadwick, Henry B. Coleman, Albert F. Egan, Jr., George W. Jones, Edouard A. Stackpole, ex officio. Advertising and Publications, W. Ripley Nelson and H. Errol Coffin. Honorary Curator, Mrs. William L. Mather. Curator, Miss Dorothy Gardner. Editor, "Historic Nantucket", A. Morris Crosby; Assistant Editors, Mrs. Margaret Fawcett Barnes, Mrs. R. A. Orleans. Chairmen of Exhibits, Historical Museum, Mrs. Elizabeth Worth; Whaling Museum, W. Ripley Nelson; Hadwen House - Satler Memorial, Albeit F. Egan, Jr.; Old Mill, Richard F. Swain; Old Jail, Albert G. Brock; 1800 House, Mrs. Herbert Foye; Fire Hose Cart House, Irving T. Bartlett; Oldest House, Mrs. J. Clinton Andrews; Franklin-Folger Seat and Memorial Bouldef, Herbert I. Terry.
HISTORIC NANTUCKET Published quarterly and devoted to the preservation of Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage and its illustrious past as a whaling port. VOLUME 16
April, 1969
No. 4
Nantucket Historical Association Officers
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Green Hand on the Susan, 1841 - 1846 Part IV. Working Westward to Roratonga By Edgar L. McCormick
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Revolutionary War Pension File of Robert Calder Introduction and Appendix by Emil F. Guba
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Glacial Formation of Nantucket By Deborah DuBock Second Honorable Mention, 1968 Historical Essay Contest
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Recent Events
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Legacies and Bequests
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Historic Nantucket is published quarterly at Nantucket, Massachusetts, by the Nantucket Historical Association. It is sent to Association Members. Extra copies $.50 each. Membership Dues are — Annual-Active $3.00 ; Sustaining $10.00 ; Life—one payment $50.00. Second-class postage paid at Nantucket, Massachusetts. Copyright, 1969, Nantucket Historical Association. Communications pertaining to the Publication should be addressed to the Editor, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Hstorical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts, 02554.
In this photograph, courtesy of the Author, these whalebone carvings illustrate Capt. Russell's skill as artist and physician. Lower right, his seal for letters; upper center, a thimble case; upper right, an ingenious instrument the good captain used for pulling his crew's teeth!
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Green Hand on the Susan, 1841-1846 IV Working Westward to Roratonga BY EDGAR L. MCCORMICK
(Continued from HISTORIC NANTUCKET, January, 1969)
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F there were no whales, ships and islands provided relief from ennui as the Susan cruised westward on the Line early in 1843. Andrew Meader, on January 12, reported the first gam of the new year: "Sail ho! by Pease just before breakfast. We run for it and at 11 o'clock find it to be the Bark Nye, New Bedford, Smith, 700 Bbls . . . now on a voyage to the nor'west with a crew of Kan akas, had got nothing since leaving port 5 weeks ago. Our Skipper went aboard, the boat returned bringing a few onions and Irish potatoes for the Cabin, and their first officer, who is a jocose character very fond of good living, music, and dogs and not be hind the door in shaking the foot. The bark can't sail with us. She has both courses and fly-jib sett [sic], while we have only fore course & jib but she can't come." With the Susan in the lead, the two whalers steered toward Maiden Island. On Saturday, January 14, the Susan's position was 154 de grees and 23 minutes West and 3 degrees, 25 minutes South. At 4 p.m. she ran for the Nye whose skipper came aboard at 6 p.m. for a gam "while Mr. Pitman changes crews and gams with their mate. Kill two hogs for fore and aft. Nothing in sight," wrote Meader, "and dull music at that." No wonder that Captain Rus sell at 1 p.m. on Sunday found the entire watch asleep. But at 3 p.m., Chadwick's "Land Ho!" awakened everyone. There was Maiden, bearing right ahead, 10 miles distant. From the masthead Meader saw this long low island and its central lagoon, "its sur face being perfectly green — like a grass lot without a single tree except it be to the lee side. . . . This spot situated so far from any other land, and bearing very much the same aspect as a little sand heap in America called Nantucket, I could not help feeling sad when I thought of the distance between these two little places." The Nye was in sight just at dark, nine miles to windward. The next day, with the Nye in company, the Susan sighted Maiden again at 9 o'clock, but by noon it was evident that the strong breeze would keep her from "fetching it" and she passed two miles off its western point. Thereupon Captain Russell gave up the idea of pausing at Maiden. On Tuesday, January 17, Meader recorded some information gotten previously from the Nye about a "disturbance between the Americans and the Californian Spaniards. The cause was the American residents at Mont erey had nearly all been massacred by the Spaniards and an American man-of-war had stopped all intercourse with the place
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
and demanding either a surrender of the port or possession of the murderers that they might be tried according to American laws. . . . After supper Mr. Starbuck struck two and saved one porpoise the meat of which will have to serve us three meals tomorrow. Sett up the Main Top Mast backstays and that's about all the work done today. No sail taken in at night for it is a clear moonlight and we are in a hurry to work westward of this bad weather." The rugged weather persisted, but the breeze was more mod erate. The overhauling continued, with the mizzen stay and the Starboard fore-top mast backstays getting the most attention. By Friday, the 20th, the Susan was 160 degrees and 17 minutes West and 26 minutes South. The weather was fine and Captain Russell was aloft when at 11 o'clock Jarvis Island appeared right ahead. Meader was among those going ashore. "At 1 o'clock . . . lower the starboard and waist boats equipped with guns, axe, and fish lines and ... at length found a landing on the West side, the shore is rock-bound and surf-bound, but picking a good chance, we landed safely. The low, uninhabited spot of one mile wide and two long is called Jarvis Island. It is a barren, sandy place show ing no signs of vegetation except a few small spots of green weed. There is not a tree or shrub to be seen and it looks quite as barren as Maiden Island does fruitful. It is inhabited only by birds, thousands upon thousands making it their resting place, hatching eggs and bringing up their young. The kinds are principally Boobies, Gulls, and Man-of-War hawks. When we landed and routed them from their eggs which we wanted, the air was fairly black with them, flying over our heads and making a hideous noise. After getting some eggs a few curious shells and pland [planted?] half a dozen cocoanuts, we shoved off from the shore and anch ored among the rocks to fish, first shooting a boobie which served for bait, then we caught a few small fish weighing each about 2 pounds of a blood red colour and shaped some like a fresh water shad. I was fortunate enough to get one, and on coming on board the doctor [cook?] made me a small mess of first rate chowder, which my pale-faced chums and myself devoured at a very short notice. I doubt whether Gid's bitters ever tasted better to him than this did to us." On Saturday, January 21, "at 3 o'clock Rouce raised a breech, but," Meader lamented, "it amounts to naught . . . pretty idle day except Osborne strikes a porpoise and he draws. There are three officers forrard with irons, but don't succeed." The painting of the starboard boat was the only thing accomplished. Nothing hap pened on Sunday, but the weather was fine and the Susan contin ued westward. Then came three unhurried days of fitting, rigging and painting; the larboard, waist, and bow boats all being finished by Wednesday. "Easy times," said Meader; "little or nothing do ing." Two members of the crew, Pease and Louis were off duty. On Thursday, just after the waist boat returned from a fruitless chase after blackfish, Captain Russell "performs a surgical opera tion upon Cisco, taking a sewing needle from the calf of his leg, to which place it had worked from well up on the thigh. He had
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been troubled with it for near six months, but never enough to put him off duty. When extracted it bore a black colour, was about an inch and a half long, with quite a crook near its point. On seeing it everyone was surprised that he had been on duty while that needle was working its way." At 8 p.m. on Saturday, January 28, the Susan "took a heavy squall of wind and lightning which threw us aback," wrote Meader, who found the weather "very much like the pitch of Cape Horn other than it is some warmer here." It rained through the night. The Captain ended his brief entry for the day with "no whales, no whales." Sunday continued squally. ". . . at night clew down the topsails to double reefing, as soon as the mate sings out 'reef topsails' the Starboard watch jumps aft to the Mains, and the Larboard forrard to the Fore — then from the time the word is passed the race begins, and whichever has its topsail hoisted aloft first is the best fellows, and forms a subject for discussion and dispute, yet it is a very poor plan for the interest of the own ers, for everyone is in a hurry and can't stop to do their work well. The Starboard watch comes off best tonight for a rarity." "Whales tomorrow," declared Andrew on Monday, "for they all shook their feet in the forecastle to the tune of Zip Coon, and that's a sign of fish." Tuesday a fair day, was "good enough for whaling, but last night's sign fails, a rare thing but all signs fail in dry weather." That night, under a new moon, there was "great dancing in the waist." The next morning, February 1, it seemed for a moment as if the foot shaking was indeed propitious. "Cook raises blackfish before breakfast, Wood and Mr. Macy aloft at the Main and John Gee forward. Lower the larboard boat but get none. The water seemed quite lively with Porpoises, Finbacks and Blackfish," Meader observed, "and the Captain stands a forenoon loft calcu lating to see whales. In the afternoon kill one of the Brava hogs which had been with us 13 months and is in fine order, weighing about 180 lb. He is for fore and aft," Meader added, always conscious of the distribution of food between forecastle and cabin. On February 2 the Susan made all sail and steered S.W. at 173 degrees and 16 minutes West and 7 minutes South. "At 10 o'clock while all the watch were working round the hatches, the man at the wheel sang out 'Dog overboard' and the Main Yard was hauled aback and the Starboard Boat lowered and in about ten minutes our little pet dog 'Roler' or as we call him 'Freshpork-watcher' a name he has got from his habit of standing watch all night over a piece of pork hung on the quarter deck, and jump ing at the first one who attempts to touch it after dark, well, as I was telling, in ten minutes he was landed on deck, and dog never seemed more overjoyed than him on finding himself once more safe on deck and caressed by his master the Captain and by his companion the other dog 'Sailor.' The Skipper prizes these two dogs very highly, and well he might, for they afford hours of amusement for him and in fact for all on board. The Junk eats first rate for dinner with some good Marataar potatoes and Oahu
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
onions." The Captain noted the event too in the ship's log: "the small dog fell overboard, lowered a boat & saved him." Working westward, they made sail in a good breeze and kept the Susan South. "Dull music or no music," said Meader, adding that "Cocoa-nut pies flourish to a great degree and they taste extra." On Saturday, February 4, they saw diamond fish and most of the watch were on deck idle," there not being enough work to keep them busy." On Sunday they sighted a school of small blackfish going fast to windward, and Meader recalled that "about on this ground this ship got three whales last voyage but now it looks as though there never was whales got in these diggins. Pease gets a skipjack or Bonito and we had a fine chowder from it. These small fish and Albercore deserted us on going into port and this is the first of their appearance this cruise, and right glad we are to see them for now we can have a fresh fish mess once in a while, which will be first chop as we are getting somewhat tired of Salt-junk the old standard mess." Meat and fish were also matters of concern. On Monday, February 6, Meader reported that "one of our fine pigs, weighing about 15 lbs broke his leg so to save him the skipper had him killed for the sanctuary, i.e. cabin. Osborne & Mr. Starbuck strike a cowfish apiece, just after dark, we save them and soon have them cleaned, the blubber to try out and the meat to eat. These fish are just like a porpoise in every way but a good deal larger, the blub ber from them will make about 15 Galls while the blubber from two porpoises would only make as many pints. Under sail all night with a good look-out forrard." Tuesday it rained from noon until dusk and the crew saved a dozen barrels of fresh water, mostly from the overhead boats. "The confounded porpoise cheats us out of a better dinner of Salt-junk," lamented Andrew. "Even salt-junk is milk and honey compared with this Jerusalem stew." Squalls and bad weather continued. "All hands of the opinion this is a hard place to cruise for whales." On Friday, the 10th, "it looked black as tar all round the horizon . . . and ... it did not only rain but blow. We at 10 o'clock see a smart squall coming from astern and by the time or in fact before we could clew up and furl M.T.G. Sail, clew down and double reef the fore and Main Topsails, the Mizen Topsail & sett the fore Top Mast Staysail, before all this was done, it was hard onto us, giving us all, every one, as thorough a wetting as we ever had. The wind was not so powerful as was expected, for we calculated something pretty strong at least will make us furl the mizen topsail, but the rain 'oh Caesar' how it came down. One might almost as well have been under Niagara Falls and attempted to keep dry as to have been on deck and tried to be in any other than a drenching condition, but the worst of it only lasted two hours, till dinner (I would have said Salt Junk and Duif time) and then they were rather more sparing of their water but . . . for once we had 'enough.' After noon sett mizen topsail, wove round from N. to
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which point we had steered at the commencement of the squall and steered the old course South. ... at suppertime it breezes up and we have ... a plenty of black clouds indicating bad weather, but I hope we have had the last of bad weather, for I want to get on the ground for whaling, and in good weather where we can see whales a few miles, and when we get them have good weather enough to take care of them." But on the 11th there was cloudy, squally weather with heavy black clouds all around the Susan. The squalls continued through the night and into the next morning when "Mr. Starbuck on tak ing his first loft discovers land right ahead, 5 miles distant." It could not be accounted for on the Susan's charts, and Captain Russell speculated that it might be Quivos Island (Longitude 171 degrees, 20 minutes West and Lattitude 10 degrees and 50 min utes South), "erroneously layed down IV2 degrees too far east." "It is quite a high Island," continued Meader, "about 10 miles long with a plenty of trees on it. . . . Just before dark the sea runs high and looks like worse weather so we close reef the topsails, hoist to the davitt heads the Starboard and Bow boats, lash every thing on deck and prepare for something of a gale. At 10 at night wind blowing a screamer and seas mountainous high, furl Mizen topsail & put in and lash solid the Cabin dead-lights." Thus began four days of strong gales with heavy squalls of rain. At 2 o'clock in the morning on February IS, they took the bow boat in on deck. The gale increased in the forenoon. "About 2 o'clock P.M. take a very heavy squall of thunder, lightning, rain, and wind. We thought it the clear up shower, but we were mistaken for the weather was more severe after than before it. Just before dark furled the Topsail. Some of us who thought it needless in sending the yards on deck this forenoon now have a different opinion for the ship wallowing and rolling plankshear to and sometimes even the lower dead-eyes are under water. The Casks between decks in the Forehold fetch away and keep up a continual thumping in moving about. So to better the matter ... we send down the four barrels of oil off deck, leaving the deck clear of things liable to fetch away. All night the squalls follow each other in quick succession. . . . The moon fulls about eleven at night which we thought would turn the gale but in this too we were disap pointed although we had the advantage of her light, which by the by, was much consolation." On Tuesday the gale continued as strong as before "and the feather-white seas run pretty big, mountains high, each sea chacing us as though they would bury us in their furious velocity, but we are favoured with a good sea-boat of a ship, or else we could not steer our course and carry the sail that we have on, which is close reef fore and main topsails and staysails, steering E.S.E. wind N.N.W. The cutting tubs in the Blubberroom have fetched away and are knocking round there to the tune of Old hundred, but as it is dangerous to undertake to go down there to secure them, and as they can't do much damage, we let them keep up their spree till better weather. About 10 o'clock in the
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forenoon the sun shows itself for a few moments, long enough to get some altitudes, and if we have the same favour about noon it can be ascertained where we are. The wind backs into the N.W. We succeeded in getting an observation at noon but owing to its being so rugged there can be no dependence on its being correct, the lattitude observed was 15 degrees, 9 minutes, 16 degrees, 6 min utes, & 16 degrees but the Skipper put it down at 14 degrees 30 minutes S. In the afternoon the gale from 2 to 8 o'clock seems to be at its highest pitch, most every sea breaking in over one rail or the other upon deck and the ship labouring through them at a great rate. A number of birds called Whale-birds fly aboard and light, appearing to be most beat out by the wind and rain. They are easily taken by hand and put under the boats, there to rest till better weather. After midnight the wind backed still further into West and the moon shows itself through a thick mist for the rest of the night." Although the rugged weather continued through Wednes day, by sundown the Susan was under nearly all sail with the mainsail set after having been furled a fortnight. Her position was 15 degrees and 6 minutes South. On Thursday a "There she blows" from Kanaka Jim forward and Osborn at the Main proved inconclusive, for there seemed to be a single rising and "some call it Sperm whale while other call it ... a finback." Later, "white water" four miles off the lee bow sends Mr. Pitman aloft and "he calls it blackfish or finbacks. Kill two small pigs for fore and aft. . . . Put the Bow-Boat on her cranes again. Pease and Louis after being sick a month enter on duty today but don't join their boats." On Friday, February 17 there was a "light baffling wind" from S.S.E. to E.S.E. and the Susan moved eastward under full sail. "The Skipper and Mr. Macy commenced making a new Fo[re] topgallant yard, the old one being sprung in the middle." On Saturday while steering N.N.E. in a fine moderate breeze from the East, work on the fore topgallant yard continued and they sent aloft the main royal and the mizen topgallant yard. The Sudan's position was 161 degrees West and 15 degrees South. Just before dinner she encountered a "short but sweet shower of rain." Then "at % past 4, with all sail sett, it's 'there she blows' from the fore topgallant head by Meader ... a mile and a half off, 3 points on lee bow. Run off and at V2 past 4 we had all four boats in the water giving chace. Upon a wrong signal being given the Starboard and Waist boats go aboard. We soon lowered again and we all four chaced the little things to leeward till we lost sight of them in the dark. The largest would make no more than 12 Bbls. and the smallest not more than two or three, but they were 'thick as hops,' and were bound to a wedding at Kingsville group by the way they were making tracks. ... In lowering the Bow Boat steered by Jack Russell, fell astern under our boat's bow and stove a hole in her (the Waist Boat's) bottom and set her to leaking badly but not enough to stop us from trying the chace." Sunday brought weather fine "as ever struck axe in tree." "After dinner Wood raised a school of killers that come very
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near the ship and we have a full view of them. They are of a dark colour, shaped like a Sperm whale, except their sharper pointed head, and a very high fin or hump on their back. They are seldom seen but singly and are about the size of a thirty barrel whale. It is said they will attack and kill a whale of the largest size and it is quite common for them to carry off a whale by getting hold of its tongue after it has been killed and is being towed to the ship. In such case when the boat's crew perceive Killers round the boat and their whale they immediately cut away from it, knowing it to be useless to attempt holding on to a whale after the killers have a hold. The day is fine and high hopes of seeing whales." The optimism was not entirely in vain. At 9 o'clock the next morning Mr. Pitman, Pease, and John Gee sang out "There she breaches!" The whales were five miles off, going to leeward. By eleven o'clock the Susan was near enough to lower the lar board and waist boats "and in ten minutes the mate was fast to the only whale that was in sight after we lowered, but before we lowered they were breaching all round us. Now the Bow Boat lowered to pick an oar up, lost from the mate's boat. The mate didn't kill his whale for some time, but let him run in hopes of some others coming up, but they can't come. So he kills him and by noon had him alongside. He is a good sized bull whale. After noon double reef topsails, cut in the whale, cut him up. David [Osborn?] overboard. Lash the wheel, steering E.S.E. Larboard's first watch. They cut up the junk and stow away the cutting falls, blocks and gear. Here's hoping we may have a better day's work tomorrow than we have had to-day, but give us as good and we won't grumble." At daylight on Tuesday (February 21), they made all sail, with "Blind Jack" steering S.E. by S. and "run off for white water raised by Wood and luff by for breaches raised by Pease. The water seems lively and I think there is a plenty of whales about here. ... At night stand 5 hour watches — Starboard's first — fine weather through the night. At daylight turn up and finish. It makes 22 Bbls clear and 3 bbls fat-lean." On Wednesday "after two hours hard scrubbing decks in the morning, we are allowed a plenty of fresh water to wash with," reported Meader. Then Mr. Coleman at the main raised "land ho!" S.W., 35 miles distant. It proved to be "Wytutuckie," one of the Harvey Islands. Meader's account of the island shows again his detailed observation: "At midnight stand in and at 8 o'clock lower the Waist & Starboard boats — send them ashore for Recruits [Supplies]. On nearing the shore we find a large reef extending round the Island a mile from the shore, with a heavy surf breaking over it. Yet nature has formed but one way of access to this fertile place and that is by a channel or river seemed cut directly through the coral reef and fed by the water which flows over the reef. The reef slopes gradually to the sides of the channel side and causes a strong current of 3 knots to run out all times. The passage is deep but inside of it you find a few sunken coral
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rocks nearly bare at low water. At the shore is built quite a re spectable pier with a level top — built of large stones and its whole length is more than twenty rods, but it is a disgrace to its inhabitants inasmuch as it was built by the women who for any tribal offence are condemned to work a given number of days on any road — pier — or public work that is underway while the men do the least work and for any crime take a few stripes on the back rather than work, the penalty being with the men either work or flogging. Upon landing at the beach we were im mediately beset by a large throng of half-naked boys and men who were welcoming us by beating on sticks of wood, making a hideous noise and crying out 'Merican Mitucky, pemi te kiki ta akar' which as near as I find is 'Americans are very good. Come here and eat our victuals.' Little trading could be done this the first day, so we had a little time to look round. We found three white men here who were Americans and had got their discharge from the Ship Martha, Sayer, New Bedford. Two of them wanted to leave the Island, but the third, a boatsteerer, had been presented a farm by the English missionary and received consent from the King to marry his daughter. Also saw a coloured English fellow. He had resided at this Island these 7 years past, was married, had a family, a nice house and was doing well, owning a share in a schooner of 45 tons, the only vessel belonging to the group. He called his name English Joe and said he should never go home but was well contented and he should end his days on this Island. The natives were very fond of him and anxious for him to stay. There is no mistake, but they are blessed with a beautiful rich spot to live on, but as is the case most always are too lazy to make good any better. They are good looking and try all means to be sociable with the whites. Both sexes go nearly naked and pretend to have a strict regard for morality. The Brig Cyprus of Salem 14 months from America lies off and on today. She is a trader and we get no news by her. At night she makes sail and under royals and stun-sails steers a course of about N.W." "Send aloft the fore topgallant yard minus the sail. The two boats bring back a few Sweet Potatoes, yams, green Cocoanuts — green Bananas, Limes, green Pumpkins, and green Popoeyeas [sic] or Mummy Apples, which when ripe is a most de licious fruit the size and shape of a citron melon. The Yams are like Irish Potatoes only they are larger, some weighing from 20 to 100 lbs [!] The tea-root is the colour of Lickorish stick, juicy, and tastes like molasses candy. When I first tasted it I called it cookies. Sugar-Cane is a principle [sic] part of the natives living. The heavy gale that visited this place a short time ago not only prostrated all of the houses but it laid low most of the fruit trees . . . and it will be 3 years when they arrive at the state they were before the gale." On Friday (February 24), the Susan, was laying off and on, in good weather. After breakfast, Captain Russell dispatched the starboard, waist and bow boats after "recruits." "The two inferior boats [the bow and waist, the latter with Meader among its crew]
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take to transporting wood, a kind called Iron Wood, and rightly named, for if dropped overboard it sinks quick as Iron, but first rate to burn and if well ignited nothing less than water will put it out. We got about 12 tons of it while the Starboard boat with the skipper was trading for ducks, fowl, and Turkeys and pigs. 4 pigs — 4 turkeys — 50 ducks — 50 fowl. The boats' crews had liberty of about an hour and while we were up trading a few leetle things, a native stole a fathom of cotton from one of our boatsteerers, who immediately informed a constable or motoa and the crim inal was soon brought forth to await a court-marshal [sic] at the King's house. Our Skipper was one of the bench of judges and the culprit was made to pay 50 Cocoanuts, 10 bushels potatoes and 10 fowl to our Captain, the penalty being more than ten times the worth of the property stolen. So we had to go off without it as we were bound to Rorotongo [Rarotonga] an Island two degrees south of this. We are bound to Rorotongo for Potatoes, we take a native missionary and child as passengers. He pays potatoes for his passage. With a light breeze we steer S. by E., giving the reef wide berth." Saturday, February 25, was the missionary's Sabbath, Meader observed. Under all sail the Susan steered S.S.E. After a night of thunder and lightning, fair weather came with Sunday morning, and Boatsteerer Valentine B. Pease at daybreak sighted Rarotonga ahead, 45 miles off. Before breakfast he raised a sail off the lee beam, the Leonides, Nye, New Bedford, 13 mos. out, 160 barrels, leaving Rarontonga for Wytutuckie. There was time for an hour of gamming and then the Susan tacked through the night in fair weather, just off the smooth bay on the Island's northern side. (To Be Continued)
NOTICE With the 1969 Season rushing toward us, the opening dates for the Exhibits of the Nantucket Historical Asso ciation are announced as follows: Whaling Museum, Fri day, May 30th; all others, Monday, June 9th. Hadwen House-Satler Memorial, however, will be specially opened Friday, May 30th, Saturday, May 31st, and Sunday, June 1st, from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. then closed again until June 9th. The weekly and hourly schedules and admission fees will be published later.
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Photo by R. Loren Graham
Built at Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1928, on plans drawn by Albert Haas, Marine Superintendent of the Fall River Line and other N. E. Steamship Company lines, SS Netv Bedford served the Islands out of New Bedford for 14 years until, at our entry into World War II, she was taken over by the U. S. Navy and converted into a warship.
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Photo by R. Loren Graham
After her conversion by the Navy, SS New Bedford served four years in counter-submarine work and, it is said, sank the German U-Boat which had torpedoed the large overnight coastal steamers Boston, New York, and Yorktown. After the war she was reconverted, with some alterations, to passenger service and ran for twenty years in Rhode Island between Newport and Block Island. Now she idles on the marshes near Newark, N. J., hardly a fitting end for so gallant a ship. We are indebted to Mr. Graham, Regional Vice-President for New England of the Steamship Historical Society of America, for these and other photographs of SS New Bedford.
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Revolutionary War Pension File of Robert Calder Introduction and Appendix BY EMIL F. GUBA
ROBERT CALDER of Nantucket was a seaman on the U.S. Frigate Alliance, United States Navy, one of a squadron of war vessels under the command of Commodore John Paul Jones. Cap tain Peter Landais, a French national and rival of Jones, com manded the Alliance. The squadron engaged in a voyage of de struction of British shipping around the British Isles in 1779, which was climaxed in September 1779 by the historic naval battle between the American Bon Homme Richard and the Brit ish Frigate Serapis in the North Sea off the Coast of York, England. Robert Calder, born Nantucket December 11, 1757, was one of seven children of Samuel Calder, a Scotsman Nantucket set tler and Ruth Coffin, daughter of Major Josiah Coffin and Eliza beth (Coffin). Robert married Lydia Brock of Nantucket on December 12, 1782. The deposition by Joseph Chase of Nantucket in support of Calder's pension refers to Calder as a seaman on the Rebecca under his command, captured by the British, taken to the Island of Guernsey in the English Channel, then on to England. Calder went to Brest, France. Chase later met up with Calder at Brest, where he learned that he had entered the Alliance in the naval service of the United States. The testimony of Gardner Hammond, also on the roster of the Alliance, is submitted in support of Cal der's pension, together with legal documents which are reprinted in the following pages, all from the General Services Administra tion, National Archives and Records Service, Washington, D. C. Deposition of Joseph Chase of Nantucket April 6, 1818 I Joseph Chase of Nantucket in the County of Nantucket, Commonwealth of Massachusetts, merchant, do testify and say, that Robert Calder in the year 1778, in the month of July or Au gust was taken with me in the Ship Rebecca which I commanded, and carried to Guernsey — that the deponent was sent from Guernsey to England, and from England the deponent went into France, and in the month of April, 1779 in the Port of Brest. I saw the said Robert Calder on board the Alliance Frigate of the United States, acting as a seaman on board. I do further testify that the said Calder, by means of his reduced circumstances in life,
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stands in need of assistance from his country for support and that in the opinion of the deponent he is entitled to the pension pro vided by the late Act of Congress. Nantucket, April 6, 1818 Joseph Chase Testimony of Gardner Hammond of Boston May 12, 1818 I Gardner Hammond of Boston in the State of Massachu setts, of lawful age do give evidence, do testify and say that in the month of February in the year 1779, Robert Calder of Nantucket and myself entered on board the Alliance Frigate of the United States in France, as seaman, and we both continued on board in said capacity until the month of July or August 1780, at which time said Frigate arrived at Boston, and at which time we both received our discharge . . . and for this the deponent saith not. G. Hammond Suffolk ss. Boston 12 May, 1818. Then personally appeared Gardner Hammond and made solemn oath to the above by him subscribed. before me Wm. Alline, J. Peace The above named William Alline is a magistrate in the Com monwealth of Massachusetts and authorized to administer oaths. Nahum Mitchell, Judge Robert Calder, Nantucket Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Plymouth, ss. May 13, 1818. The within named Joseph Chase, President of a Bank at Nantucket, personally appeared before me and made solemn oath to the truth of the within deposition by him subscribed, who is a creditable witness, and so also is Gard ner Hammond, who has testified in this case according to the best information I have obtained of him. Nahum Mitchell, Judge Schedule of the Property of Robert Calder of Nantucket, a pensioner of the United States under the act of the 18th of March, A.D. 1820. Real Estate — none 6 old chairs $1.50 1 old bureau $2.00 2 tables $1.50 crockery . $1.00 cooking utensils $2.00 $8.00
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
I am sixty-three years of age and have followed the seas, till my infirmities prevented — I have a wife fifty-eight years of age and is now and has been for some time very infirm. I have one daughter sixteen years of age. Robert Calder Commomvealth of Massachusetts Plymouth ss. On this 13th day of May A.D. 1818, before me the subscriber, one of the Judges of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the Southern Circuit, personally appeared Robert Calder of Nantucket, Co. of Nantucket, aged sixty years, resident in the said Circuit, who being by me first duly cautioned according to law, on his oath made the following declaration, by him signed, in order to obtain the provision made by the late act of Congress, entitled, "An Act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States in the revolutionary war" . that he entered into the said naval service in Feb ruary 1779 on board the Alliance Frigate of the United States, in France as a sailor, and continued to serve therein as a seaman till the month of July or August, 1780, at which time said Frigate arrived at Boston and he obtained his discharge — and that from his reduced circumstances he needs the assistance of his country for support. The affidavits of Gardner Hammond and Joseph Chase Esq. are forwarded herewith. And I, the said Judge, do certify, that it appears to my satisfaction that the said Robert Calder did serve in the revolu tionary war, as stated in the preceding declaration, against the common enemy, for the term of nine months, on the continental establishment; and I now transmit the proceedings and testimony taken and had before me, to the Secretary for the Department of War, pusuant to the directions of the aforementioned Act of Con gress ; and he is poor and needs the assistance of his country for support. Nahum Mitchell Commonwealth of Massachusetts ss. 1818 I certify, That is one of the Judges of the Circuit Court of Common Pleas for the Southern Circuit, consist ing of the Counties of Plymouth, Norfolk, Bristol, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket in said Commonwealth — that the same Court of Common Pleas is a Court of record — that the signa ture of the said Judge, and the seal thereunto affixed is the seal of the said Court. Clerk of the Judicial Court for the County of . Robert Calder, Nantucket, Seaman, Frigate Alliance, Febr. 1779 to July or August, 1780. Document bears the following statement: "Official character and signature of the Magistrate not at tested by the County Clerk."
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Commonwealth of Massachusetts Nantucket, Mass. Circuit Court, Common Pleas, Nov. Term, 1820 On this eleventh day of November 1820, personally appeared in open court, being a Court of record for said county, Robert Calder of Nantucket in said county, aged sixty-three years, resident in Nantucket in said county, who being first duly sworn according to law, doth, in his oath, declare that he served in the Revolution ary War as follows; He served as a mariner on board the Frigate Alliance from Febr. 1779 and was discharged in September 1780, one Peter Landais being commander as will more fully appear by his original declaration May 13, 1818, for which service he received a pension certificate No. 7207 dated 5th of March 1819.
And I do solemnly swear that I was a resident citizen of the United States on the 10th day of March 1818 and that I have not since that time by gift sale or in any manner, disposed of my property, or any part thereof, with intent thereby so to diminish it as to bring myself within the provisions of an act of Congress, entitled An Act to provide for certain persons engaged in the land and naval service of the United States, in the Revolutionary War," passed on the 18th day of March 1818; and that I have not, nor has any person in trust for me, any property, or secur ities, contracts or debts, due to me, nor have I any income other than what is contained in the schedule hereto annexed and by me subscribed. Signed Robert Calder Sworn to and declared, on the eleventh day of November 1820 before James Ware, judge of Circuit Court of Common Pleas for S. Circuit. I, Benjamin Gardner, Clerk of the Circuit Court of Com mon Pleas for southern circuit do here by certify that the fore going oath and the schedule thereto annexed are truly copied from the record of said court; and I do further certify that it is the opinion of the said court that the total amount in value of the property exhibited on the aforesaid schedule is Eight Dollars and cents. In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and affixed the seal of the said court on this fourth day of December 1820. Benjamin Gardner Clerk of the Court for the County of Nantucket No. 7207 Robert Calder of Nantucket in the State of Massachusetts who was a mariner in Alliance Frigate for the term of one year, Navy, inscribed on the.Roll of Massachusetts at the rate of eight dollars per month, to commence on the 13 of May, 1818.
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Certificate of pension issued the 5th of March 1820 and sent to Nahum Mitchell, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Arrears to the 4th of March, 1819 $ 77.96 Semi-annual allowance ending 4 Sept. 1819 — $ 48.00 $125.96 Revolutionary Claim Act 13th March, 1818 Notification sent January 3, 1821 to Honorable Walter Folger, Jr. House of Representatives, U.S. Appendix Robert Calder might have written an account or diary of his exciting service on the Alliance about the British Isles, the cap ture of British prize vessels, naval engagements, entry into Ber gen, Norway, the naval battle of the Serapis and Bon Homme Richard, arrival at the Texel, Holland, and the return to L'Orient, France. He left nothing and his naval service, unlike his fellow Nantucketer under John Paul Jones, that of Reuben Chase, was never publicized. Some of the significant events of the Alliance, however, and the traitorous behavior of Captain Peter Landais can be mentioned here. The Alliance, Bon Homme Richard, Pallas, Serf, and Ven geance comprised the formidable naval force assembled by John Paul Jones at L'Orient, France. There was rivalry and disagree ment between Jones and Landais. On January 20, 1779 the Alli ance ran foul of the Bon Homme Richard necessitating repairs to both vessels and delay in their departure. The squadron left L'Orient, France, on August 14, 1779. Two days out, the British vessel Mayflower was taken. Midshipman Reuben Chase of the Bon Homme Richard and Nantucket brought the prize into L'Or ient and there awaited for many months the return of the Bon Homme Richard. The squadron voyaged on to the Solway Firth, the scene of Jones' birth and boyhood, landed there and attempted to destroy Whitehaven, Scotland. The Alliance entered Bergen, Norway, where Peter Landais sought to exchange British prize vessels for an Admiralty in the British Navy. In September, 1779, Jones came into Leith, the seaport of Edinburgh, and there destroyed many vessels in the Firth. In the course of the voyage Landais committed numerous acts of insubordination. He turned out to be a traitor. The next encounter came with the British Frigates Serapis and the Countess of Scarborough in the North Sea. The Countess surrendered to the Pallas. The Bon Homme Richard and the Se rapis were lashed together in battle and the human slaughter was murderous. The Alliance came alongside and poured 12-pound cannon balls into the Bon Homme Richard. The Serapis sur rendered and the Bon Homme Richard sank. The Alliance fired at the wrong ship. The Alliance, Pallas, and Vengeance, with the
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Serapis and Countess of Scarborough and some 500 prisoners, were brought to the Texel near the entrance to the Zuyder Zee, Holland, then on to L'Orient, arriving in February 1779. Here Reuben Chase learned the fate of the Bon Homme Richard. Jones was honored throughout France. Landais was stripped of his command but regained it following a petition by the Alli ance crew and the intercession of Benjamin Franklin, one of the American commissioners at Paris and one of Nantucket Peter Folger's grandsons. Benjamin had many Nantucket cousins, Quakers who wanted no part of the American Revolution and of Benjamin either. The mutiny on the Alliance came with a demand for some of the prize money from the sale of the captured British prize ves sels. The mutiny was promoted by Arthur Lee, one of the three American commissioners who was insanely jealous of Franklin. Lee and Landais conspired to return the Alliance to America to the surprise of Jones . . . Landais, insane, lost control of the vessel enroute to Boston, where it arrived, with Lee aboard, in August 1779. Landais was tried at Boston, denounced as a traitor, insane, and was dismissed from the United States Navy. Jones arrived at Philadelphia on February 18, 1780, to a hero's wel come.
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Glacial Formation of Nantucket Second Honorable Mention, 1968 Historical Essay Contest BY DEBORAH DUBOCK
NANTUCKET ISLAND, lying thirty-five miles east-southeast of Wood's Hole on Cape Cod, is a geological and scenic misfit. Al though on a map it appears to be a simple extension and an out rider of the mainland, it is one of the world's most unusual is lands. Graphically it belongs to New England, but its landscape and visible geology place it in a group apart from the rest of New England. (Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard make up the remaining part of the group.) Nantucket, along with Cape Cod and Martha's Vineyard, was formed by three massive processes. The first can be traced back to the subterranean molding of an unseen bedrock founda tion, but no visible record of this event has been left on the Cape and Islands. Some one hundred million years ago the framework was raised on this foundation. Seawashed sediments and the seesaw relationships of land and restless sea began the first visible record here. This can only be viewed on the Vineyard for it lies deeply buried on Nantucket and the Cape. In this period Martha's Vine yard reveals the hidden past of all of New England. The last and most recent process was the most abrupt and dramatic of all; it was caused by a series of huge Ice Age glaciers. These glaciers formed Nantucket as we see it today. New England lies upon a rocky foundation of solid bedrock. This bedrock lies very deep below the surface in only a few places, one of these being Nantucket. The depth of the bedrock increases to the east across the Cape and seaward. In the winter of 1961-1962, the drilling of two thousand-foot holes on Cape Cod in Brewster and Harwich finally hit the Cape's foundation at 435 feet below the surface. Just off Gay Head, the southwest tip of Martha's Vineyard, it lies 770 feet below sea level and on Nantucket, it may be several hundred feet deeper. This bedrock plain is not quiet, for it is slightly unstable, for earthquakes, though uncommon for this area, have occurred. The submerged edge of the New England part of the conti nent is supported by the bedrock. Together they form the conti nental shelf which suddenly ends at the continental slope, where the sea floor drops more than a mile into a deep abyss. About a quarter of a billion years ago, pressure began to act on the more ancient of these rocks. Because it was not a sudden pressure, the rocks yielded slowly. One mineral transmuted into another better able to bear the strain. The rock itself had changed
GLACIAL FORMATION OF NANTUCKET
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and at the same time it became a chain of mountains. These mountains may have risen more than two miles high. Due to erosion the mountains gradually disappeared. There now remained only a broad plain of rock, crumpled and hardened by the pressure. The rising ocean spread over it. This was the foundation of Nantucket. Nantucket has a foggy past during the Cretaceous period which began about 120,000,000 years ago and ended about 70,000,000 years ago. Stands of luxuriant forests existed. These were swamped and drowned by rising seas. Clay accumulated on the sea bottom. Sea life arrived and low grade fuel plant remains called lignite is refined. The Cretaceous sea then receded leaving a bare clayey floor. The next period is the Tertiary (known as the Eocene Epoch). During the early Tertiary period, rivers meandered across the present Cape Cod, then a flat swampy forest land. Some thirty million years ago, the land again sank and the sea flowed over it. These deposits make up part of Nantucket's foundation, perhaps forming the clay which comprises the deep cores of some of the glacial hills, such as those along the eastern shore and in the western part of Nantucket Town. In the glacial deposits, clumps of green sand (Glauconite, a mineral, green when freshly exposed to the air, oxidizing to a reddish color after ex posure to air and rain water) can be found. They may have come from Nantucket itself or from north of it, scraped up from the wide sheet of Tertiary sediment on the sea floor. There is at least one ancient swamp deposit thought to be Tertiary. There are embedded drops of fine, pale, wine-colored amber, up to a pound in size in it. A tree leaf, a fly, and some ants have been found fossilized in the amber. The seas withdrew again and left a newly created coastal plain. Today it still makes up the seacoast south of New England. However, near the coast, there are low hills which stretch in wave-like ripples parallel to the shore and are separated by flat, valley-like lowlands. Erosion carved this pattern during the long interval between the withdrawal of the Tertiary seas and the coming of the glaciers. As the glacier traveled across New England, the ice which was loaded with incalculable tons of earth waste, stumbled over those hills. Thus slowed up and made sluggish by the warmer lat itudes, the ice dumped its load on these hills which gives us today's Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the Cape. Now came a new period, the Quaternary, which is divided into two epochs, the Pleistocene and today's Recent. The early Pleistocene apparently has left no record on the Cape or Islands. This .epoch has earned the popular name of the Ice Age, in which there were distinct glacial stages. Each of these stages lasted only twenty or thirty thousand years. The interglacial stages which separated them were many times that long.
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
The warming temperatures melted the glaciers back until they disappeared. The land once again became green and populated with animal life. Evidence indicates that the Ice Age story began immediately before the fourth of the glacial stages, the Wisconsin Stage, on Nantucket. Glaciers are conceived in high latitudes, where a cold, wet climate produces large quantities of snow. Little of this snow melts from year to year. Glaciers can reach one or two hundred feet after many bliz zards have accumulated their snow so that the mass presses down on the oldest of snows on the bottom, compressing the delicate, six-rayed flakes. These recrystalize into compact, mosaically interlocking crystals. These are cemented together even more firmly by water from the surface snow. When the weight of the additional snow becomes so heavy that the lower snow cannot withstand its weight the ice spreads out in all directions. The glaciers of the Pleistocene Age were formed by a series of global climate shifts. They became giant polar ice caps. The glaciers tended to split around obstacles at the advanc ing front, then the thick central part of the ice might ride over the obstacles, but the forward margin usually kept its irregular, scalloped shape as it advances. Soils, parts of frozen forests, sand, mud, clay, pebbles, and boulders, were all picked up and as they were processed into the glacier, pebbles and cobbles were ground into sand and fine powder (rock flour). Larger and tougher boulders survived, al though they were scratched. They were dropped many miles from their place of origin in an erratic plan. Along its route the ice lost much of its load as ground mo raine, where friction against the land surface tore loose debris from the bottom of the ice and left it veneering the ground after the ice had melted and gone. The rest of the load ended as thick ridges wherever a warming climate melted the ice margin back as fast as the main mass could push forward. There would be a con tinual supply of new debris to the front, where the front edge, while melting, would drop it. During the early part of the Wisconsin Stage of the Pleisto cene Epoch, the first ice invaded the New England coastal plain. This advance has been termed the Jameco substage of the Wisconsin Stage. This early glacier did not reach the Cape Cod-Nantucket area, but stopped on the frontier on the low plains, miles to the northwest and west. A long intermission took place at the end of the Jameco period in which, through a slow process, marine deposition made a thick layer. Sankaty Light on Nantucket is supported by a foundation of the same layer from this era. Nantucket has a distinctive bed of sand unlike the Cape
GLACIAL FORMATION OF NANTUCKET
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or Vineyard. Variable in color, it is streaked with motley patterns of white, brown, red, yellow, and gray. Although somewhat tilted and distorted, it shows up best today a few hundred yards south of the lighthouse in the bluffs that run from Sankaty Head to Squam Head. It is called Sankaty Sand. Among the cliffs, there are many fossils. Oysters with barn acle shells still clinging to their closed shells, quahog shells, steamer clams still closed and sitting upright, and tiny snail shells can all be found in the Bluffs. Another layer called the Serpula bed, contains the remains of the shelled sea worm, Serpula, and the riddled shells of mol lusc on which these worms fed. More shells and fragments that are species northern in habi tat are found in the remaining top layers. There is an assortment of whelks, barnacles, and mussels. At this time there were, at the most, only tiny islands in the eastern region. Margins of Nantucket were covered by shallow waters. Gradually this Sankaty Sand covered the sea floor and grew in thickness to more than one hundred and sixty feet. The environment was perfect for shell life, but the water temperature began to lower. Life zones moved South and animals from the north began to arrive and make these waters their home, but some of the original creatures, such as clams, stayed on. The Manhasset Ice came next, but it missed Nantucket be cause it lay so far south and east of the ice. Only the melt-waters of the glacier reached Sankaty, where they left their gravel deposits. The Manhasset ice lobes were melted and receded by a warming of the climate. The ice returned again, and the terminal moraine of the Cape Cod Bay Lobe rises as part of Nantucket itself and remains hidden to the Southeast of the island to create the dangerous Nantucket Shoals. The moraine is open and gentle. It runs along the northern part of the island. The gentle hills of the island are especially common in the southern part of Nantucket Town. The Oldest House, built in 1686 on Sunset Hill, is built upon one such hill. By taking Polpis Road, we can see the moraine at close range with the Shawkemo Hills on our left. Where Shawkemo Hills, Altar Rock, Saul's and Folger Hills all rise, the moraine hills lie on parallel, curved, pushed-up ridges. These trend generally northwest along the western side of a line drawn south from Polpis Harbor. The moraine west of Nantucket Harbor is on a more gentle scale. While traveling on the Cliff Road or Madaket Road, we can travel between the miniature Trots Hills, which rise no more than sixty-five feet. The hills continue to drop as they reach Madaket Harbor, where they are only twenty-five feet.
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Clay is rare in this sandy till which is only three spades' depth. The layered sand and gravel outwash from the earlier Manhasset glaciation lie here. Small basins are hidden between ridges and hills. These low areas happened to be surrounded by ice debris. Some of them have been filled by springs, turning into ponds. Later these ponds were filled with vegetation, then became swamps which eventually dried out. They can be identified by the lighter green color of the vegetation. There is a great scarcity of boulders, thus making the island glacial terrain incomplete. Yet there is evidence that this was not always so. Because of the scarcity of building materials such as clay and wood, the stones were naturally used for building pur poses, thus using most of the rock supply. The Milestone Road, running from Nantucket Town to Siasconset, is the flattest part of the island. This is an outwash plain — a desert of sand filled with wild flowers. Low growing plants, such as broom, plum vines, daisies, pitch pines, scrub oaks, hug the ground to avoid the sea winds that blow across the plain. Some twenty-five vertical feet of outwash sands and gravels lie underneath the moors. Ponds like Tom Nevers, Mioxes, Miacomet, Hummock, Long, Sheep, and Gibbs were first carved out as valleys by meltwater streams, and then drowned at the mouths by rising seas and finally dammed by sandbars. At the end of the glacial period, the climate continued to warm. Tundra animals and plants pressed northward. Some animals and plants, such as bearberries, bunchberries and checkerberries, golden heather and poverty grass, leather leaf and water lobelia, remained and are still growing today. The sea rose again, filling the lowlands of Nantucket Sound and connected the large Bays to the sea. Nantucket was an almost-island of the Cape. The sea had imprisoned the small ani mals on the island by the body of water and a steep wall that only the larger animals could climb. This isolation developed a subspecies and species distinct from their ancestral types on the mainland. On Nantucket there are two subspecies of the tiny short-tailed shrew. Now the sea had approached its present level and filled in the Nantucket Sound. The island could be barely recognized if drawn on a map at that time. Nantucket did not have its fine harbor, for there was no Coatue Beach to protect it. On the west, Eel and Smith Points were missing, so that Madaket Harbor did not exist. To the east and south, the island reached an unknown distance farther to the sea and the present ponds were only salt-water fingers of the Atlantic. Before the white settlers came to Nantucket, the Indians
GLACIAL FORMATION OF NANTUCKET
27 burned the forest periodically to clear land for cornfields. The hard-to-work clay zones were uncovered. This is the type of land condition that the settlers found on the island. It was necessary to fertilize the soil with fish, horseshoe crabs or any other suit able fertilizer available. Overplowing of the land, tired the soil. Erosion took its toll. Even by 1670, logs were being imported to Nantucket The once thriving forests are now peat beds. Thirteen thousand sheep ruined the grass so that unchecked winds diluted the rich soils with sand, dried them out, and blew them away. In a desperate attempt to keep the soil intact, the Nantucketers planted pitch pine seeds in rows across the fields. These trees have managed to survive the blasting winds, salt spray, and sandy soil, but unlike the pines of Cape Cod, they only grow to twenty feet in height at most forests. This is not the end of the creation of the island of Nan tucket, for erosion is constantly building and taking away the sand of Nantucket. Perhaps in another four or five thousand years, the island of Nantucket might not exist.
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Recent Events CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER said that everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it. Here, this past winter, nobody did anything about it because there was nothing to do anything about. Following the pattern of the previous winter, Nantucket had virtually no snow until the first week in March, when a fast-moving no'theaster favored us with some five inches of snow, which, as usual on this Gulf Stream-lapped island, lasted only briefly. But we did a lot of talking about the three great storms which almost buried our mainland friends in a series of record-breaking snow falls. We viewed their misfortunes, featured on television and in the newspapers, with sympathy and understanding, yet not without a certain smugness. We remember the great storm of a few winters ago that dumped 17 inches of snow on Nantucket and nowhere else in New England, and how the good people of America made merry over this unique event with cartoons, pictures, and facetious comment. However, all that is past and gone and, with April here, can summer be far behind? In all other respects Nantucket experienced its normally quiet and uneventful winter. jJC
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From time to time the Nantucket Historical Association re ceives gratis from the U. S. Government Printing Office in Wash ington, D. C., publications issued by a department or commission related to the purpose and aims of the Association. Two such works were received the past winter, one, "From Sea to Shining Sea"; the other, "Pearl Harbor." The former, borrowing its title, of course, from "America the Beautiful," is described on the title page as a "Report on the American Environment — Our National Heritage," by the President's Council on Recreation and Natural Beauty, Washington, D. C. 1968. Profusely illustrated with many photographs, it is concerned with the many-sided problems of pre serving the beauty of America and eliminating its ugliness. These problems, searchingly analyzed, are reflected by such headlines as "The Environment, Urban Areas, Rural Areas, Transportation, Sharing Responsibility for Action, Summary, and Keys to Ac tion." This report is presented both as a careful and thorough review of a very grave situation facing all of us, and a suggested working plan with a long list of helpful books and pamphlets, films, governmental agencies both Federal and State, and pri vate organizations. "Pearl Harbor," also well illustrated, amplifies its title to "Why, How, Fleet Salvage and Final Appraisal, by Vice Admiral Homer A. Wallin, U.S.N. (Retired), with a Foreword by Rear Admiral Ernest McNeill Eller, U.S.N. (Retired), Director of Na val History." It is published by Naval History Division, Wash ington, 1968.
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At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor Vice Admiral Wallin was a Captain on active duty at that base. He writes, therefore, as an eyewitness; also he had been given full access to U.S. Naval documents and to material captured from the Japanese. The result is a very complete and fascinating ac count of what happened on that "Day of Infamy," much of which was not known in the States at the time or even later, especially the fantastic work of repair and replacement which put the huge base back in a completely operable condition, with full restoration to service of most of the damaged naval vessels, even some of the battleships that had at first been thought totally destroyed. The author reaches one conclusion that will be startling to many read ers : namely, that the fact that Admiral Kimmel's fleet was in the relatively shallow waters of Pearl Harbor at the time of the attack, despite the apparently calamitous losses, was really a blessing in disguise, militarily speaking; for, had our ships been at sea and met the Japanese task force head-on in deep water, they would doubtless have been completely destroyed together with an enormous and irreplaceable loss of life. The Japanese fleet was superior to ours in every respect — speed, newness, fire power, and air-support. Pearl Harbor would have been wide open to further attack and possible occupation. The effect on our conduct of the war can only be imagined. Both of these valuable books may be purchased from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C. 20402: "From Sea to Shining Sea," Price $2.50, 304 pp. (paper cover) ; "Pearl Harbor," (Hard Cover) 377 pp. $4.00. *
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We were intrigued at a diplomatic warning from East Germany to West Berlin on the eve of the recent West German election in West Berlin that "those who live on an island would be well advised not to make an enemy of the sea." Well said, perhaps. But in our experience the sea has always done what it wanted to without regard to any islanders. Aircraft engineers are designing a new version of passengercarrying dirigible balloons. These modern Zeppelins will be used for cruises to the West Indies, as a growing number of vacation ers want travel faster than steamer yet more leisurely than by jet. Russia is already using this type of lighter-than-air craft to trans port men and materials to the far reaches of Siberia. With all this and the growing use of old-time sailing vessels, or replicas, in the increasingly popular tourist business of "windjamming," it is plain that one phase at least of the "horse and buggy days" is here again. (The Hindenburg, last of the great Zeppelins, on a regular run from Germany to the United States, caught fire while docking at Lakehurst, N. J., and was destroyed with heavy loss of life.)
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
While on the subject of transportation, we should mention an article in the January-February number of Sea Frontiers, the bi-monthly magazine of the International Oceanographic Founda tion, on the Princess Margaret, largest hovercraft in the world. British-owned and operated, over 130 feet long, 165 tons, with a capacity of thirty cars and 254 people, she scoots back and forth across the English Channel between Dover and Boulogne, at a speed of 70 m.p.h., elapsed time less than forty minutes. This de ceptively clumsy-looking craft sits on a ramp, snuggled down on thick, black skirts designed to enclose its great cushion of air and looking, as the author says, "like a sedate and overstuffed ma tron." Then he continues: "Once the doors are secured, the fan tastic looking craft gives a mighty 3500 horsepower whoosh — pushes itself seven feet in the air by sheer blower power and the topside propellers take over and sweep it down the ramp and over the water." It copes easily with 12-foot waves with practically no sea-motion, thus affording an "exhilerating" ride. The only dis comfort results from the high whine of the engines making con versation difficult. At present the British are building five more hovercraft for cross-channel operation, each to cost three million dollars. If it is successful, export orders are expected to pour in. The United States apparently has big plans for military and civilian hovercraft, and a network on the Great Lakes is a definite possibility. Meanwhile, enthusiastic advocates of this revolution ary machine are outdoing science-fiction writers, with designs for monster, ocean-going hovercraft weighing 40,000 tons and skim ming just above the surface of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at speeds up to 170 m.p.h. — Shades of Jules Verne!
RANDOM HARPOONINGS: The largest shark is the Whale Shark. Forty to fifty feet long, it is toothless and quite docile, feeding on plankton and small fishes . . . Marine architects are using cerro-cement more and more for the hulls of vessels, which has been found to be much better, in all ways, than other kinds of material The Tuna cannot float — it must keep swimming in order to avoid sinking into the ocean depths, where it would die from lack of oxygen. ... Of all the nations hunting seals in the Arctic, the U.S. is the only one prohibiting the killing of baby seals. Judicial note: Seems some Straight Wharf barnacles, when brought into District Court in a charge of chasing snails, de manded to be tried by a jury of their piers. . . . %
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Tempora mutantur — but Nantucket should go easy, chang ing with them.
Legacies and Bequests Membership in our Association proves that you are interested in its program for the preservation of Nantucket's famed heritage and its illustrious past, which so profoundly affected the development of our country. You can perpetuate that interest by giving to the Association a legacy under your will, which will help to insure the Association's carrying on. Counsel advises that legacies to the Nantucket Historical Association are allowable deductions under the Federal Estate Tax law. Legacies will be used for general or specific purposes as directed bv the donor. A sample form may read as follows: "I give, devise, and bequeath to the Nantucket Historical Association, a corporation duly or ganized under the laws of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and located in the Town of Nantucket, in said Commonwealth, the sum °f Dollars."
Legacies may be made also in real estate, bonds, stocks, books, paint ings, or any objects having historical value, in which event a brief descrip tion of the same should' be inserted instead of a sum of money. Please send all communications to the Secretary, Box 1016, Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554. Office, Fair Street Museum.
Part of the Harbor looking Northwest from Old North Wharf.