Historic Nantucket
L o s s of t h e b a r k W . F. Marshall, M a r c h 9, 1877 , o n N a n t u c k e t ' s south s h o r e .
October 1984 Published Quarterly by Nantucket Historical Association Nantucket, Massachusetts
NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President: H. Flint Ranney First Vice President: Robert G. Metters Secretary: Richard Austin
Vice President: Robert D. Congdon Treasurer: Donald E. Terry
Honorary Vice Presidents Walter Beinecke Alcon Chadwick
Albert F. Egan, Jr.
Albert G. Brock
Mrs. R. Arthur Orleans
Mrs. Bernard Grossman Presidents Emeritus
Edouard A. Stackpole
leroy H. True
George W. Jones
COUNCIL MEMBERS Edward B. Anderson Mrs. Kenneth Baird
Mrs. George A. Fowlkes
Philip C. Murray
Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman
F. Philip Nash, Jr.
Mrs. Marshall Brenizer
Francis W. Pease
Mrs. Walker Groetzinger
Charles F. Sayle, Sr.
Reginald Levine
Mrs. Paul A. Callahan Hugh R. Chace
Mrs. Alan Newhouse
John Gilbert
Mrs. John A. Baldwin
Mrs. Jane Woodruff
Mrs. Carl M. Mueller
Mrs. Bracebridge Young, Jr.
Mrs. James F. Chase
STAFF John N. Welch, Administrator Victoria Hawkins, Curator Renny A. Stackpole, Director of Education and Whaling Museum Elizabeth Tyrer, Executive Secretary Edouard A. Stackpole, Historian; Director, Peter Foulger Museum Historic Nantucket, Editor, E. A. Stackpole Assistant Editor, Mrs. R. Arthur Orleans Librarian, Mrs. Louise Hussey Curatorial Assistant, Laura Evans Archivist, Mrs. Jacqueline Haring
Oldest House: Mrs. Margaret Crowell, Mrs. Abram Niles Hadwen House-Satler Memorial: Mrs. Richard Strong Whaling Museum: James A. Watts, Alfred N. Orpin, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Dougan, Gerald Ryder, Frank Pattison Greater Light: Dr. Selina T. Johnson Peter Foulger Museum: Registrar, Peter S. MacGlashan; Mrs. Everett Merrithew, Miss Helen Levins, Mrs. Donald MacGlashan Alcon Chadwick, Everett Finlay Macy-Christian House: Miss Dorothy Hiller, Mrs. Helen S. Soverino Old Mill: Millers: John A. Stackpole, Thomas Seager Fair Street Museum: Mrs. William Witt, Mrs. Kathleen Barcus Lightship "Nantucket": Michael Jones Archeology Department: Vice-Chairman, Mrs. John D. C. Little Museum Shop: Director, Mrs. Grace Grossman; Manager Mrs. Maria Waine
HISTORIC NANTUCKET Published Quarterly and devoted to the preservation Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage and its illustrious past as a whaling port.
Volume 32
October 1984
of
No. 2
CONTENTS Nantucket Historical Association Officers and Staff
2
Editorial — "The Old Houses Speak"
5
Our Association Receives 2-Year Grant for Archival Work and Photographs
6
Address Changes/Bequests
10
Charles O'Conor in Nantucket by Robert F. Mooney
11
The Great Point Light Story
15
Portrait of Contemporary Nantucket Artist Presented at Ceremony
19
A Most Unusual and Significant Transfer of the Order of St. George
20
Captain Josiah C. Long and His Logs Memorial to Nantucket Whaling Master by Edgar L. McCormick
22
Tony Sarg Magic: How it Touched Our Family by Hester Blatt Shapiro
27
Tony Sarg Exhibit at Fair Street Museum Outstanding
31
Historic Nantucket (USPS 246460) is published quarterly at Nantucket, Massachusetts by the Nantucket Historical Association. It is sent to Association members and exra copies may be purchased for $3.00 each. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Nantucket Historical Association, Box 1016, Nantucket Ma 02554. Membership dues are: Individual $15, Family $25, Supporting $50, Patron $100, Life $300. Second-class postage paid at Nantucket, Massachusetts. Communications pertaining to the Publication should be addressed to the Editor, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554.
The Old Houses Speak
5
THESE OLD DWELLINGS may be found in all parts of Nantucket Town. They may be large or small, or of average size, but what they can tell is the greatest story the Island can bequeath its people. It is the story of the development of one of Colonial America's native in dustries, originally called "whaling in the deep", and then given the name which best described it — "the Southern Whale Fishery" — a name that the Nantucketers gave to the maritime industry they originated and to which they gave over a century of generations of whale-hunters. At this time of year when the busy season begins to ebb, and many visitors come here because it is a more inviting time, walking through the old town is an opportunity to recapture some of the flavor of the ex citing eras these whalemen provided our historic past. Due to the ap preciation of more recent owners, the houses have been restored — revitalized — ready to carry on their story. This care and attention has provided new opportunities to recapture the life of their old-time owners, to share in the traditions, to enjoy the vigourous lives of these courageous seafarers who sought the whale in every ocean of the world. It is in the durability of these homes that the experiences of the Nantucket whaling traditions continue to bring the Island's true flavor to the present scene. Whether they are small and humble homes of the foremast hands, or the larger dwellings of the mates and harpooners, the captains' four-square houses, or the more pretentious mansions of the 19th century ship-owners — all have a story to tell. As time sweeps us far away from the past, the Town has had the good fortune to continue to reflect the true picture of our past. Whether it is a story of the shipmaster who flew the first flag of the young United States before the port of London after the Revolution, the account of the man who first uncovered the mystery of what had happened to the H. M. S. Bounty, the mariner who wrote of the sighting of the Antarctic Continent, the whaleman who married the daughter of one of the chiefs in the Feejee Islands, or the navigator who developed a new way of determining longitude at sunset — these men gave our nation exciting stories. If our old houses could speak their narratives would cover the en tire Town with a mantle of a glowing and enduring quality. — Edouard A. Stackpole
6
Our Association Receives 2-year Grant For Archival Work and Photographs
THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION is proud to announce that it has received a two-year grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to prepare appropriate finding aids and provide protective storage for the collections of historical papers and photographs housed at the Peter Foulger Museum. The grant makes it possible to hire Mrs. Jacqueline Haring, a professional archivist, who will direct and take part in the project. Mrs. Haring has been a summer visitor and resident of Nantucket since 1927 when she and her parents first fell in love with the island. After attending Vassar College and the University of Michigan, she became Administrative Assistant to the Dean of Student Affairs at the University. During World War II, she served as a Red Cross worker at tached to a combat regiment in the South Pacific, and moved with the troops through New Guinea, the Philippines and into Japan, where she was the first American woman to enter Kyoto, only ten days after the bombing of Hiroshima. Following the war, she worked as a Research Assistant for the Na tional Security Council. Marriage to a professor at Knox College took her to Galesburg, Illinois, where she became Curator of Special Collec tions of the College soon after their daughter entered school. Although she was originally responsible for only the extensive art collections belonging to the College, she assumed the duties of College Archivist as well upon the death of the retired professor formerly holding that posi tion. These duties necessitated her return to graduate school at the University of Illinois where she studied Archival Administration under Theodore Schellenberg, former Deputy Archivist of the United States and one of the early authorities in the field. When her husband retired from teaching, Mrs. Haring reduced her work at the College to cover merely the care of its manuscript collec tions. However, when the Knox County Historical Society needed help cataloguing and exhibiting its large collection, she accepted a parttime position to accomplish this for them. Meanwhile, the National En dowment of the Humanities, for whom she has been a consultant on ar chives since 1975, asked her to inventory the manuscript holdings of the Nantucket Historical Association in connection with a grant proposal they had submitted. This led indirectly to her working each summer since 1981 sorting, arranging, and writing finding aids for the Associa tion's collections of historical records.
GRANT FOR ARCHIVAL WORK
7
Mrs. Haring is a member of many archival associations and has served as President of the Midwest Archives Conference and on several committees of the Society of American Archivists. She has taught the preservation of paper at workshops at the University of Iowa and in Boston for the Marianist Training Network and has lectured on the subject for Knox and Rosary Colleges as well as various local organizations. Her publications include a "Dear Archivist" column in the Midwest Archives Conference Newsletter in which she answered fellow archivists' questions about the care of their holdings. The Association's manuscript materials date from 1660 to the pre sent. Ships' papers and logs of whaleships and trading vessels docu ment Nantucket's place in maritime history. Petitions to the British for safe passage for supply ships, and requests for release or fair treat ment of captured ships and crews during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812, are included among the collections. Letters, diaries and business records of Nantucket settlers record the Island's chang ing fortunes and the social, religious and daily lives of people. Genealogical information is found in charts, letters and handwrit ten records. Minutes of the Nantucket Society of Friends meetings from 1707 to 1944 report the growth and decline of the Quakers on the Island. Account books record the failures and successes of ship owners, sea captains and merchants. The unfortunate fate of the Island's In dians can be followed in the record books of a teacher who taught them and courts which judged and punished them. Grace Brown Gardner's scrapbooks on Nantucket have been in valuable to many researchers. The papers of Nantucket women such as Maria Mitchell, astronomer; Phebe Ann Hanaford, ordained minister and activist; Kezia Coffin Fanning, diarist; and journals of the seafar ing whalers' wives all contribute to the history of American women. Handwritten vital records of Nantucket families pre-1895 which include birth and death dates, relationships and incidental facts such as "killed by a whale", "emigrated to New York" are in constant use. Detailed notes of weather kept by harbor pilots and wharfingers, as well as the Island's farmers, provide information for studies of climate patterns. Josiah Freeman, Henry S. Wyer, Maurice Boyer, H. Marshall Gar diner, and Louis Davidson are among the well-known Nantucket photographers whose work is included. Throughout the photograph col lections, there is excellent documentation of the architectural develop ment of the island. Farms, ships, people, streets, harbor changes, and house furnishings are also pictured, as are celebrations of the 1895 centennial of the renaming of the town, the 1959 tercentennial of its founding and the 1976 bicentennial. Other events, such as sheepshearing festivals, the coming of the railroad, parades, shipwrecks, visits of nationally famous people, are on record here too.
8
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
These materials have not remained unused. The Department of Pacific History at the Australian National University and the General Society of the Church of Latter Day Saints have come to Nantucket to study the manuscripts at the Peter Foulger Museum. The University of Florida has used the photograph collections in its "Preservation In stitute" to study architecture and urban design in a contemporary community noted for its historical heritage. The American Civilization Program of the University of Massachusetts — Boston offers a "Nantucket Seminar" every year. Its students rely heavily on the collection housed at the Peter Foulger. The Historic American Buildings Survey organized a major traveling ex hibit entitled The Historic Architecture and Urban Design of Nantucket for the Smithsonian Institution using the Association's col lections. Other users of the manuscripts and photographs include amateur and professional genealogists, biographers of particular Nantucketers, authors of books and articles on whaling and, of course, college and high school students doing research for their school assignments. The photograph collection was relied upon heavily in 1982 for a documen tary film entitled Nantucket — The Gray Lady which is shown daily locally. Many books carry credit lines to the Association and its staff. Unfortunately, such continued use, as desirable as it is, has threatened the life of the materials on file here because they have not been housed and prepared for use according to archival standards. The manuscript collections of the Nantucket Historical Association were housed in the Friends Meeting House on Fair Street, which became the headquarters of the newly organized Association soon after the property was acquired in 1894. When Susan E. Brock became the first Curator she immediately began her quarter century of preserving and protecting the manuscripts placed in her care. With the advent of the Whaling Museum in 1929-1930, the whaling logbooks and manuscripts were housed in the new library of the Museum on the se cond floor, where they were located for the next forty-two years. The Fair Street Museum had a small closet-like room where the other manuscripts were kept under lock and key. These continued to be the chief repository centers for the manuscript collections for over half a century in one case and forty-two years in the other. When the Peter Foulger Museum was opened in 1971, the Library of the Association was established in this new structure. A fire-proof vault served as the principal location for the manuscript collections. In 1973 the Whaling Museum's collections of logbooks, account books and shipping papers were also transferred to the Peter Foulger's new head-
GRANT FOR ARCHIVAL WORK
9
quarters. Over a period of a decade these collections grew steadily an., a number of important acquisitions were recorded. These included logbooks and account books, original manuscripts related to early Nan tucket History, genealogical records, the original Nantucket Society of Friends records, and documented drawings of Nantucket's architec tural treasures. In assuming the Directorship of the Peter Foulger Museum in 1971, Edouard A. Stackpole began arrangement of the various categories in the manuscript collections. When Mrs. Louise Hussey came from the Library of the Whaling Museum, she was appointed Librarian of the Peter Foulger Museum, a post she continues to hold. The logbook col lection and the genealogical material have been her special prerogatives, and she has been a valuable asset to the Association in these fields. Andre Aubuchon was hired in 1979 to make an inventory of certain parts of the manuscript collection. This was done over a period of a year, and the work has included the important Obed Macy papers, (one of our most important); the Phebe Bunker diaries; the Anna Gardner papers; the Easton family collection; the papers of Paul West, and other shipmasters; the Phebe Ann Hanaford papers and other impor tant Nantucket collections. The books of the Nantucket Society of Friends have been microfilmed, as has the imposing collection of Nantucket logbooks, together with some loans of logbook material; the Nantucket farms collection, and the valuable Henry Barnard Worth papers inventoried. The Walter Folger, Jr., collection has also been so itemized. Such categories as the Nantucket Arts, Entertainment and Tourism have been examined and inventoried. Considerable work with filing Nan tucket photographs and negatives has also been accomplished in the past several years. Thus, the work of preserving and making accessible our manuscript collections has continued as a regular part of the work at the Peter Foulger Museum. In recent years, the contribution of Mrs. Haring towards this work has been significant and the Association is grateful for her interest and willingness to continue in this important field. A conviction of the importance of the Association's holding led to Mrs. Haring's preparation of a grant proposal submitted to the Na tional Historical Publications and Records Commission, requesting funds to preserve, arrange, and prepare written guides for the manuscript and photograph collections housed at the Peter Foulger
10
HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Museum. The project has now officially begun. She will have working with her Peter MacGlashan, Curator of Photographs for the Associa tion. Louise Hussey will continue her important work in the Peter Foulger Library. By the end of two years, it is expected that all photographs and historical records, with the exception of the collections of Edouard Stackpole which are still reserved for his use alone, will be processed and stored by archival standards, thus preserving them while assuring easier access to them by researchers. Mrs. Haring encourages members with an interest in organizing research materials to contact her at the Peter Foulger Museum. There is challenging and important work in this project for serious volunteers.
Bequests or gifts to the Nantucket Historical Association are tax deductible. They are greatly needed and appreciated.
PLEASE — Send us your change of address if you are planning to move. You will receive your copy sooner and we are charg ed extra for all copies returned because of an incorrect address.
11
Charles O'Conor in Nantucket by Robert F. Mooney ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, the entire public debt of the Town of Nantucket was paid off by one man, the eminent retired lawyer, Charles O'Conor of New York, who spent his last years and his last public activities on the Island. A century later, the name of Charles O'Conor is all but forgotten and his famous home and library have disappeared, but the story of this illustrious man and his connection with Nantucket are worth remembering. Charles O'Conor was born in New York in 1804, the son of Irish parents who had immigrated to America to find religious and political freedom following the Act of Union with Great Britain. From his father, Thomas, a noted Irish patriot and scholar, Charles received most of his education at home. With only six months of formal school ing, he became a master of the classics, foreign languages, and the traditions of Irish and American history. His father's brilliance could not relieve the family from poverty, and Charles found that the poor Irish in America needed their own legal advocates to secure the benefits of American justice. Living through an era when Irish Catholics were victims of pre judice in the society and professions of New York, he began the study of law as an apprentice in various law offices where he worked by day and studied by night in the law libraries. He developed a prodigious memory, and it was claimed he read the entire span of Blackstone's Commentaries not once, but twice. He was admitted to the Bar at the age of twenty and although the rule required three years' service as at torney before attaining the privileged title of counsellor, he achieved that distinction in three months. At the New York Bar, he rapidly gain ed an immense reputation as a legal scholar, while upholding the highest degree of public responsibility in handling unpopular causes and representing the public interest. One judge remarked of O'Conor, "I have often heard him state the case of his adversary with greater clearness and force than the adversary was able to state it himself". The turbulent political times drew the eminent attorney into the public affairs of the day. He was a member of the convention to revise the New York Constitution and was often mentioned as a candidate for Attorney General of the United States, a post he declined. In 1872, he was nominated by a splinter group of the Democratic Party known as the American Party or "Straight-Out Democrats", to run for the Presidency against U. S. Grant and Horace Greeley. O'Conor made no
The Honorable Charles O'Conor
CHARLES O'CONOR IN NANTUCKET
13
campaign but received 29,489 votes, together with the honor of becom ing the first Catholic to run for the highest office in the land. Despite his fame and growing fortune, Charles O'Conor continued to maintain his interest in the last of his ancestors. He visited Ireland and studied the history of his family, tracing his ancestors back to Roderick, the last King of All Ireland in 1200 A. D. He commented bit terly on the conditions in Ireland during the Great Famine of 1846. As part of his research, he changed the spelling of his land name from the common form of "O'Connor" to the ancient form using one "n" and softly explained the change by saying "Did you ever know an Irishman who could make both n's meet?" O'Conor's fame as a lawyer is based upon two great causes which stand as milestones in American political history. After the Civil War, he served as counsel to Jefferson Davis, former president of the Con federacy, who had been arrested and imprisoned in Fortress Monroe on charges of treason. As a graduate of West Point and a former Secretary of War, Davis had taken the oath of loyalty to the United States of America and realized that only a courageous lawyer would undertake his defense in the face of popular sentiment in the country. O'Conor undertook the case and based his defense on the Fourteenth Amendment, one of the post Civil War amendments usually interpreted as the final nail in the coffin of the Confederacy. By one of its provi sions, the amendment barred any Confederate official from holding any Federal office. O'Conor carried his argument before Chief Justice Chase of the Supreme Court and successfully argued that Davis had been fully and finally punished by the Constitution itself. The Govern ment attorneys saw technical difficulties in every other charge, and Davis was never brought to trial. He was finally released on bond in 1867, and both Charles O'Conor and Horace Greeley were sureties on his bond. In the era of the 1870's, the political corruption in New York City masterminded by William Marcy Tweed and his powerful allies became a public scandal involving scores of politicians and the loss of millions in public funds. Governor Samuel B. Tilden conceived the master stroke of enlisting the venerable Charles O'Conor to lend his great moral and legal talent to the cause of political reform. O'Conor served as Special Assistant Attorney General and was opposed by the eminent David Dudley Field. His strategy produced a barrage of million-dollar civil suits and multiple prosecutions lasting over several years, which finally resulted in the destruction of Boss Tweed and his ring of cronies. O'Conor gained national fame for his brilliance and thoroughness. On the last day of the final trial, Charles O'Conor, aged 72 and in frail health, rose from a sick bed to speak, and one witness wrote, "I saw the tall form of Charles O'Conor, pale, emaciated, and
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
feeble looking, with the collar of his greatcoat raised about his neck, slowly and painfully walking toward the bench. Almost every man in the Courtroom rose to his feet, but maintained a respectful silence". Rich in honors but poor in health, 0'Conor determined to retire from the forum. Widowered and childless, he summered in Nantucket in 1880, staying at the Ocean House, and announced he had found "the finest and most healthful spot on the Atlantic Coast". He purchased an outstanding homesite on Sherburne Heights, overlooking Nantucket Sound from the North Cliff, and began the construction of a large Vic torian home. The house had marble fireplaces imported from Italy, and its construction was carefully documented by the weekly I n q u i r e r and Mirror. The paper reported that O'Conor had chartered the schooner Onward to transport his law library to Nantucket. This was a collection of over 18,000 volumes, reputedly the greatest private law library in the United States, containing a comprehensive collection of Irish law books and the leatherbound volumes of O'Conor's greatest cases. To house the library, a separate brick building was constructed near the gate on Sherburne Turnpike. The people of Nantucket looked with awe upon the great man who had come to live among them. Nantucket was then just starting to realize its possibilities as a summer resort, and the distinguished at torney became its first retiree in residence, thus launching a move ment which has continued to the present day. On Nantucket, O'Conor lived a quiet life, interrupting his reading and writing to take long, solitary walks about the Town. The natives welcomed the tall man with the fine Irish face and white beard, who became a familiar figure on his lonely strolls, but few were aware of his innermost thoughts. Some citizens hoped the great lawyer might be induced to undertake their legal business, but he soon made it plain he had come to Nantucket to escape clients, not to get them. After the years of publicity and con troversy, Charles O'Conor was finding the "quiet and more genial climate" he had long sought. In April of 1884, the Town of Nantucket received an anonymous donation from a private citizen in the amount of $7,000 — a vast sum in those days — sufficient to pay off the entire public debt of the Town, ac companied by a strong admonition that its townspeople never again burden themselves with that root of all evil, public debt. Charles O'Conor died on May 12, 1884, and not until his death did the Town learn the name of its benefactor. He was praised for his ac complishments in the Nantucket paper, and his Will, filed in the Nan tucket Probate Court, was reprinted in full. Testimonials in the New York Supreme Court honored him as "the embodiment of the qualities, mental and moral, which should enter into and constitute the character of a great jurist and advocate".
CHARLES O'CONOR IN NANTUCKET
15
After Charles O'Conor passed from the scene, his famous mansion remained for years as one of the most familiar landmarks on the north shore of Nantucket. It was later acquired and occupied for many sum mers by Ambassador Breckinridge Long and remained in his family until it was demolished in 1962 and replaced by a modern summer home. The great brick building which housed his library was removed, brick by brick, and in accordance with his Will, his great law library was delivered to the New York Law Institute. The man who rose from poverty to devote much of his life to unselfish public service made his final public act by his gift to his adopted home of Nantucket. Today his sole memorial on the Island is his fine portrait by Matthew Brady in the Peter Foulger Museum.
The Great Point Light Story THE SEVERAL COMMENTS received from our members concerning the story of Great Point Light, which appeared in our last (July) issue are very much appreciated. It should be noted that the historic white tower was destroyed by the northeast gale on the 29th of March, 1984, and not on the 28th as stated. The excellent photograph of the length of beach, with the ruins of the tower depicted, was taken by H. Flint Ranney on April 1,1984, rather than on March 29, and becomes one of the scenes which dramatically shows, with two photographs, the end of this Island landmark.
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Portrait of Contemporary Nantucket Artist Presented at Ceremony
19
ON MONDAY MORNING, September 10, at an interesting and quiet ceremony at the Peter Foulger Museum, the portrait of a well-known Nantucket artist — John Egle — was presented to the Nantucket Historical Association by Leeds Mitchell, Jr. The colorful portrait in oils was only recently completed by Mary Sarg Murphy, who was also on hand to receive deserved praise for her highly successful work. Of especial moment was the fact the Captain Egle, who will be 98 years of age on his next birthday, was present to enjoy the occasion and to hear the many expressions of pleasure by his friends on hand. Mr. Mitchell made the presentation of the portrait, and the in troduction of Mary Sarg Murphy and Mr. Egle then took place. The ar tist has been a summer resident for a number of years and first came to the Island with her father, the famous illustrator and puppeteer, Tony Sarg, and has many friends on Nantucket. The portrait is a remarkably faithful study of John Egle, glowing in color and warm with the per sonality of the subject. Mr. Egle responded to the applause of the gathering by expressing his "great pleasure for the honor of having such a testimonial by his friends", and declaring he was not conscious of the weight of over nine ty years. In his retirement from an active life, he has devoted much of his time to paintings on a variety of subjects, enjoying to the fullest this new medium which has earned him the title of Nantucket's "Grandma Moses". In presenting the portrait, Mr. Mitchell paid tribute to John Egle as a warm human being and friend. He stated it was an especial pleasure to have Mary Sarg Murphy create this "unique bit of artistry in captur ing the warmth and enthusiasm of a man I have always admired". On behalf of the Nantucket Historical Association, the portrait was accepted with appreciation by Edouard A. Stackpole, the Director of the Peter Foulger Museum.
20
A Most Unusual and Significant Transfer of the Order of St. George
WHEN A VISITOR from London entered the Whaling Museum early in June, and quietly announced he had come for the specific purpose of presenting the famous British medal, the Order of St. George, to the whalemen of Nantucket, he was promptly introduced to the Director of the Whaling Museum, Renny Stackpole, who listened to the story with no little amazement. The visitor had come to Nantucket for the purpose he had mention ed. His name was John Slater, and he was the owner of this prestigious medal, which had been presented to him in London by Queen Elizabeth II, for his work in establishing the Common Market. He did not mention that the award of the Order of St. Michael and St. George was but a step away from knighthood. Instead he told of his discovery of Melville and Moby Dick. "As I read this magnificent volume," he explained, "I was amazed by its many allusions to Nantucket and this Island's whaling history, But, when I arrived at Chapter 82, Knights and Squires, the idea of coming to Nantucket struck me." He took from his pocket a copy of the book and read the following passage:
The Order of St. George
21
"Akin to the adventure of Perseus and Andromeda — indeed, by some supposed to be indirectly derived from it — is that famous story of St. George and the Dragon; which dragon I maintain to have been a whale; for in many old chronicles whales and dragons are strangely jumbled together, and often stand for each other. 'Thou art as a lion of the waters, and as a dragon of the sea,' said Ezekiel; hereby, plainly meaning a whale; in truth, some versions of the Bible use that word itself. Besides, it would much subtract from the glory of the exploit had St. George but encountered a crawling reptile of the land, instead of do ing battle with the great monster of the deep. Any man may kill a snake, but only a Perseus, a St. George, a Coffin, have the heart in them to march boldly up to a whale." Mr. Slater then produced from another pocket the medal itself, in its original box, and announced: "I am proud to present my Order of St. George to the Nantucket whalemen in Melville's name. I believe the Nantucket Whaling Museum is the proper place to so display it." Without delay, Renny Stackpole rounded up members of his staff, invited some associates from the Peter Foulger Museum (including his father, Edouard Stackpole) and with some of the Whaling Museum guests also at hand, conducted the presentation ceremony. "This satisfies me greatly," declared Mr. Slater, "and I know that Herman Melville would have approved." Mention was made of a ceremony held at the Whaling Museum some forty years earlier, when Melville's grand-daughter, Mrs. Metcalf, of Cambridge, had been present. "This actually gives Melville a claim to citizenship in Nantucket," declared Renny Stackpole. "Through his own words he places a strong approval on this unusual procedure which you have made possible, Mr. Slater." "I am in hearty agreement," declared John Slater, "and let me conclude the presentation with Melville's own words." He quoted: "Thus, then, one of our own noble stamp, even a whaleman, is the tutelary guardian of England: and by good rights, we harpooneers of Nantucket should be enrolled in the most noble order of St. George. And therefore, let not the knights of that honorable company (none of whom, I venture to say, have ever had to do with a whale like their great patron), let them never eye a Nantucketer with disdain, since even in our woolen frocks and tarred trowsers we are much better en titled to St. George's decoration than they." Thus, in this manner, an unusual and significant ceremony was brought to a fitting conclusion.
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Capt. Josiah C. Long and His Logs Memorial to Nantucket Whaling Master by Edgar L. McCormick
IN 1887, THE ATWATER correspondent for the Ravenna, Ohio, Republican, had never seen such sea-journals: ledger-like books fill ed with daily notations about weather and navigation, sprinkled liberally with drawings, often in color, of whales, flukes, ships, and landfalls. The Nantucketers who had come to Portage County from 1839 on into the 1850's were familiar with such records in this inland farming community. Captain Josiah C.Long had brought them with him to Atwater township late in 1886 when he came as an invalid to be cared for by his daughter, Mary Frances, and her husband, Ira Jackson. Captain Long and his wife, Mary Ray, and their three children, Josiah C., Jr., Charles William, and Mary Frances, had come from Nantucket to Ravenna, Ohio, in 1853, immediately after Josiah's return from his eighth voyage to the Pacific. He preferred life in town to life on a farm, and soon found employment in Stowe's Steam Hub Factory, making bent materials for carriages and wagons. He was also actively engaged for years as sexton and treasurer of the Ravenna Congrega tional Church. Captain Long was 80 years old when he fell on the pavement late in 1886 and injured himself critically. His wife, Mary, and son Charles W. were dead. Charles, a Civil War veteran, had died on September 1,1868, just four hours after he managed to get home from Minnesota where he had spent the summer, hoping that a change of climate would help him overcome tuberculosis. Josiah C., Jr., the other son, and his wife, Em ma Reed, had left Ravenna in 1874, and were living in New York. So it was his daughter, Mary, who cared for the invalid Captain in her home about ten miles southeast of Ravenna. He died there on February 16, 1887. Although the Ravenna Republican took note of his death im mediately and carried a long obituary on February 23, it was the paper's Atwater correspondent who fortuitously let the dead captain's logs speak for him about his long career in the whale fishery. Everything the obituary said about the Captain always being "at his post" was vague and general beside the specific details in the journals he kept during thirty years at sea. The township correspondent found these records "very interesting
CAPTAIN JOSIAH C. LONG
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to peruse", and proceeded to quote about 1000 words from them, choos ing entries that were usually concerned with the taking of whales, en counters with other ships, and unusual happenings at sea. On March 2 and March 9,1887, the Atwater column in the county paper was filled with extracts from at least three of Captain Long's voyages as Master, those of the Foster (1837-1841), the Richard Mitchell (1843-1847), and the Charles Carroll (1848-1852). There were also quotations from jour nals kept by Long, apparently when he was a member of the crew on the Foster in 1822-24 and in 1828-29. It is quite understandable that this inland journalist was greatly impressed by these unusual records of life at sea. Among the logs was that of the Charles Carroll's 1848-52 voyage, which was to be describ ed nearly a century later in a Sotheby's catalogue (December 16-17, 1983) as the "ultimate whaling journal . . . completely illustrated, whales taken, and many other subjects. . . .These illustrations have a particular charm because Long tried to convey perspective and shadings ..." The log, being auctioned, was estimated to be worth be tween $20,000.00 and $40,000.00. It seems certain that the township correspondent had no thought at all of any such potential monetary value. Rather the logs were records of difficult voyages to far away places, documents to be marveled at and shared. And so the correspondent chose excerpts from them to fill two columns of Atwater news in the Ravenna Republican less than a fortnight after the captain's death. The two columns are reproduced here much as they appeared in the newspaper, with some comment by the correspondent deleted. What are basically Captain Long's entries are now enclosed in single quotation marks. It is evident that the passages were chosen for con tent and arranged in random order, but the reference to voyages, ships, and masters correspond with the data given by Alexander Starbuck in the History of the American Whale Fishery . . . to the Year 1876 (Washington, D.C., 1878). "Atwater News", Ravenna Republican, March 2,1887: ". . . On the first of September, 1837 (Josiah C. Long), embarked on board the ship Foster, as captain,... from Nantucket for the Pacific Ocean April 21,1839, when north of the equator, his journal says, 'Most tired of cruising here. Saw whales struck one which stove two boats, killing one man. Lost one boat with oars ... and all that belonged to her. Took in sail, and when all things were ready performed the burial service.' " 'In the Gulf, April 13,1841 — Lowered the boat to try the current, found it setting to west half a knot. Sent down a junk bottle well corked, and it came up full of water with the cork in, the other end up. Sent
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
down a square bottle and it came up with the cork gone and the bottle broken.' This was Captain Long's sixth voyage (the ship was the Foster) and he reached Nantucket April 28,1841, after an absence of forty-four months, bringing 2100 barrels of sperm oil. Captain Long's last voyage was commenced on ship Charles Carroll, December 1848. 'On the 23rd of March, 1849, when west of Cape Horn, a native of the Sandwich Islands died. Laid him out preparatory to burial. At 8 p.m. committed the remains to the deep, there to rest until the sea shall give up her dead. April 9, 1851, when near the equator, saw a shoal of whales. Lowered, struck five and got three, first we have got for seven months, from which were taken fifty barrels of oil.' "On the 16th of June, 1850, when near the Island of Huaheine, 'while we were down to dinner eating a roast pig, saw whales. Lowered, struck four, and saved two cow whales and one large fellow, from which were taken 110 barrels of oil. Sunday, August 24,1851, saw — Pitcarnes (sic) Island. Lowered two boats, went ashore, saw the people who are a very nice sort of people, and went to church. October 12,1852, when off Cape Horn, discovered a ship with torn topsail, aback and ly ing in an awkward position. Ran for him and found him to be a French ship, abandoned and loaded with dry goods. Loaded two boats with such goods as we could get at, broad cloths, shawls, bombazines, tablecloths, muslins, calicos, raisins, etc., and returned on board. Made all sail and steered northeast. At 10 discovered a sail near to us. Kept off and got clear of him. Set a light and kept it burning all night. December 29,1852, reached home after an absence of forty-eight mon ths and twenty-four days with a cargo of 1085 barrels sperm and 300 barrels whale oil.' " "Atwater News", Ravenna Republican, March 9,1887: "Capt. J. C. Long's journal (apparently from the Foster, 1822-24) says 'April 7, 1823, came to anchor at Woahoo (Oahu), about thirty sail of ships at an chor. The Francis of Nantucket, Captain Whippy, came at anchor with 250 barrels. April 18, got underway bound on Japan in company with the Franklin, of Nantucket, Capt. E. Coffin, with the intention of hav ing our chances together ... until about the 22nd of September.' " 'May 17, got a large whale. May 24, got two large whales. June 1st, spoke the Atlantic, Capt. (Sylvanus) Russell, and Ocean, Capt. Fitchgerrald (Timothy Fitzgerald), both of Nantucket. June 6, got four small whales and one large whale in company with Franklin... June 24th, struck a large whale, he bit off the line and we lost him. July 4th, got five whales between the two ships 19th got five and on the 24th got a large whale and got a boat stove. Aug. 1st, spoke the Stonington of (New London?) Capt. Ray, with 1600 barrels. ... the 7th got two sixty-barrel whales Sept. 11, got a whale in company, 14th got four between the two ships. On the 22nd dissolved partnership with the
CAPTAIN JOSIAH C. LONG
Franklin ths.'
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on the 24th... 1750 barrels and out but fifteen mon
"November 28,1829 (on the Foster?) 'got a whale that proved to be a dry skin, had no oil in his blubber, and was obliged to heave it over board, got about seven barrels of black oil from the lips and throat.' "June 30th, 1838 (from the log of the Foster), 'struck and got our first whale, ten months out. I was never gladder to get a whale in my life. June 22nd, 1839, the smallpox broke out among the crew and we were obliged to go back to anchor (at Payta. See "Marine News", Nan tucket Inquirer, November 9, 1839). On the 23rd got all the sick on shore, five in number, left them in care of Mr. Charles Higgerson (sic). Acting American Consul. . ..' " 'April 13,1844 (from the log of the Richard Mitchell) saw the island of Martea. At three o'clock a.m. the alarm of fire was given which proved to be in the fore hold between the decks. Found by ex amination that some evil-minded person had attempted to fire the ship, but we extinguished it without much damage.' " 'April 30th got under way and went to Tahiti and put a man on shore who we suspected set fire to the ship and shipped two others. July 14th, 1845, struck a fin-back, killed him and he sank, lost two irons, two lancets and thirty fathoms of line. On the 30th we got a whale that made us 100 barrels, noble fellow.' " 'July 15,1846, got a whale, found the head of an iron in him mark ed Y. H. which we concluded was Young Hero. April 6, 1847, ship struck a drift, let go another anchor, the first one got hooked to another anchor, could not get it up, the shakle broke and lost it. Went on shore and bought another which cost $140.00. Aug. 3rd, ship pitched into a sea and carried away the jibboom sprit sail yard, fore and main top gallant mast.' " Thus abruptly the excerpts ended, with only a final observation that "Capt. Long made eight voyages to the Pacific Ocean which resulted in securing the aggregate of 14,567 barrels of oil." This final reference to success seems like an afterthought. In trigued by the reality and drama summed up in the logs, the correspon dent had written the captain's best obituary. The people of Ravenna had known and respected Josiah C. Long for thirty-three years as an unassuming hub factory hand, devoted to his family and church. As they read the columns in the Republican on March 2 and 9, 1887, they knew at last what his true calling had been.
One of Nantucket's seldom seen areas — The Hidden Forest, off Polpis Road.
TONY SARG MAGIC: How it Touched Our Family by Hester Blatt Shapiro HOW MANY TV VIEWERS who adore the Muppets, Kukla, Fran, and Ollie, and Bil Baird's huge puppet family are aware that all of them are the grandchildren of Tony Sarg's marionettes? Indeed, it was the great Tony Sarg, more than anyone, who awakened the American public to the uniqueness of puppetry. During the 20's and 30's he travelled the length and breadth of America with his marionette company, produc ing all kinds of shows, from fairy tales to serious drama. Familiar as I was with Tony Sarg's marionettes, I didn't learn until recently that one of his major inventions was the enormous heliumfilled Macy Parade balloons, and that he was a prolific illustrator of books and magazines. Nor did I know that my favorite island was also his. In August, 1983, three generations of our family vacationed on Nan tucket (a "first" for our third generation). Everyone had a fabulous time. By coincidence, it was also, for me, pure nostalgia. And ex hilarating. Because I learned that 1984 had been proclaimed "Tony Sarg Year on Nantucket". On a casual visit to the island in 1920, Tony Sarg, enchanted by its silvery whimsy, had made it his family's sum mer home for many years thereafter. Some of his drawings and paint ings were on exhibit there at the time of our vacation. Tony Sarg... that name evoked ancient memories; memories that were highly personal. I had not heard his name since, perhaps, the ear ly thirties, when the Blatt family presented weekly marionette shows at home. Our theatre, the first private marionette theatre in Boston, was in operation for about eight years. It probably would never have come into being were it not for the inspiration and guidance of Tony Sarg's books. So . . . let m e tell you about it: Anyone who has been a part of the touchable, pretend world of marionettes is forever caught. That mini-world is real as well as makebelieve. This combination is the essence of its charm. Puppets afford possibilities of expression unlike any others: "your characters may say whatever you want them to, yet each puppet is his own person and bears the "responsibility" for what he says.
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HISTORIC NANTUCKET
Our theatre's raison d'etre was somewhat unusual. My father, William (Billy) Blatt, a prominent Boston lawyer, teacher of law, judge, playright, raconteur, could not afford to be a writer by profession. But, while practising law, he managed to write articles on the law, epigrams, and thirty-six three-act plays. Some of the last were published and produced locally. My mother, Lucy, had been a student in my father's night class on Shakespeare. He thought she was beautiful. She thought he was brilliant. They married and had three daughters: Hester, Josephine (Jo) and Ouida. For years my mother tried to sell a play - long distance - to a Broadway producer. She did succeed five or six times, even to the point of advance royalties, but each time something happened — like a war, the Crash, the Depression — to prevent a Broadway opening. Finally,' when one of his plays had been "doctored" mercilessly, my father was so frustrated that he exclaimed to his four female fans, "Let's have our own theatre! We'll have a marionette theatre and produce whatever we want to". We, in our early teens, agreed it was some kind of solution. The first big problem was how to make the marionettes. In the not toodistant past puppeteers had been secretive about their methods. My father searched the libraries, asked around, found no practical direc tions. He began to experiment. What an ordeal for a lawyer-poet who couldn't turn a screw-driver without scraping a finger. One day, however, he came home with a new book by Tony Sarg Sarg's instructions were clear and workable. From those diagrams came our own marionettes, about fourteen inches in height, modelled after Tony Sarg's. We even had in our company an Arabian princess who bled to death, much like one of Tony Sarg's. Our Theater was sturdy and handsome because it was custommade by a builder, one of my father's clients. He owed him a legal fee and offered to build the theatre as payment. A-A ^a^er an<^ sister Jo, an artist and poet, made the marionettes. I did the sets. Lucy, erstwhile actress, was casting director and coach from the audience of thirty or more, Lucy might choose a judge a pediatrician, a starving musician, a singer to read the parts backstage. But not before she gave them a whirlwind lesson in elocution. (Thev inS/nS "instant" hams.) My sister Ouida, an accomplished musician, played piano interludes before the show and during intermis sion. All of us, except Lucy, worked the marionettes. Among our reper toire were reveries after three Shakespeare plays and a verse play by Billy Blatt, an Arabian Nights tale, a Lord Dunsany one-acter. Accor ding to my father we had nearly ten thousand guests (no repeats) dur ing the eight years that we presented the shows.
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Eventually we did, of course, go our separate ways. We teenage daughters went on to the dating game plus theatre and biochemical research for Hester; teaching piano and concertizing for Ouida; both commercial and fine arts for Jo. Lucy and Billy, lacking their family staff, sought other involvements. Something about my August 1983 "encounter with Tony Sarg" il lustrates what happens — but should not — in our wide-ranging NOW world: Too few today — with the exception of those in puppetry and theatre arts — know the name Tony Sarg. His books, his scripts, his part in our country's artistic history should not be lost. Nor should that of any prime artistic mover. Why aren't there accessible spots (not withstanding the Library of Congress) where historic books are preserved and available to everyone? It's a shame that library shelves are either over-crowded or that libraries lack funds to maintain shelves of historically important books like Tony Sarg's. To discover that books are "out of print", "nowhere to be found" (at least in the five sizable libraries in which I searched) is maddening. A fertile, productive future depends upon knowledge of the past. Even today Sarg's direc tions would be wondrous to young people who want to experiment. In fact, I myself recently found answers to some puppetry ques tions in a remarkable book that should never be "out of print". I refer to "The Art of the Puppet" by Bil Baird. The photographs are superb, the text engaging. Baird, an early associate of Tony Sarg, gives a com prehensive view of puppetry, past and present, including anecdotes and little known facts: Puppetry, an ancient art hundreds of years old, developed in unbelievable corners of the world. (Puppets were even found in Nazi concentration camps.) During the nineteenth century, travelling troupes emphasized "magic tricks" in their shows and jealously guarded their technical ef fects from each other as well as from the public. But by the 20th cen tury it became clear that puppetry could do more than simply surprise audiences. Today puppetry is a high art. Today the dramatic impact of the story and the characters is as important as theatrical effects. Tony Sarg played a crucial role in this transition to sophistication. He ex perimented and pioneered on his own. His audiences were stimulated to appreciate the range and scope of marionette theatre. George Bernard Shaw and Arthur Schnitzler wrote for puppets. Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Gian-Carlo Menotti, George Sand and many other great artists expressed themselves through puppetry. Pup petry answers man's urge to recreate life. A many-layered art, it is more diverse than painting, sculpture, dance, song or story, for it has something of all of them.
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As a consequence of my fortuitous "happening" in August of 1983,1 have a permanent reminder of the eight sparkling show-business years in the life of the Blatts: a Tony Sarg etching of Main Street, Nantucket. Finally, I leave you with a proper ending: We now have another Lucy, our granddaughter, named after Lucy Blatt. She is nine. I made a cardboard puppet theatre for her a year ago. She is at present eagerly writing and producing delightful one-woman puppet shows. So . . . we have come full circle, helped along, no doubt, by a few scattered genes.
Tony Sarg Exhibit at Fair Street Museum Outstanding THE TONY SARG exhibit now on display at the Fair Street Museum is an outstanding display. Appropriately termed "Travels with Tony Sarg", it is a fitting collection of the amazing contribution this extraor dinary man made to the times in which he lived. Arranged most effec tively are displays of his talent and skill, ranging from posters, watercolors, maps, children's books, hand-painted boxes, bird's-eye views (particularly Main Street) to marionettes, and a wide variety of sket ches. Mary Sarg Murphy, Tony Sarg's daughter, was on hand for the opening day. A portrait artist in her own right, she represented that essential link to Mr. Sarg's genius. Some of his books were a part of her childhood, bringing much pleasure to many children everywhere. The Tony Sarg Collection was made possible as an acquisition to the Nantucket Historical Association by the generous gift of Mr. and Mrs. Philip Murray, of Nantucket. Mr. Murray's grandfather is the subject of one sketch. The exhibition was prepared, matted and framed by a group using archival techniques. The paper conservation, cleaning, repair, etc., was supervised by Anne Lockwood of the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University. Julie Stackpole executed the binding repair of several books, including one of the original Sarg manuscripts. Victoria Hawkins, Curator of the Nantucket Historical Association, arranged the exhibition, assisted by Mrs. Martha Blackwood Groetzinger, Guest Curator, aided by Laura Evans and Sarah Parson, Curatorial Assistants, and David Cowles and G. T. Burke, framing experts. To these people both credit and appreciation is certainly due for a most satisfying show.
