18 minute read
by Nancy Grant Adams
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Nancy Grant Adams, 1887 - 1968
"MY SEA-FARING FAMILY" was completed in 1957 by Mrs. Nancy Grant Adams, who had retired the previous year as President of the Nantucket Historical Association. She had been a vital part of the Association's growth for over thirty years, serving in various capacities - curator, librarian, custodian of collections, chairman of the Whaling Museum, and, finally, as President in 1953.
Her activities in Nantucket also included the Abiah Folger Franklin Chapter, D.A.R., Nantucket Civic League, Nantucket Atheneum Library, American Red Cross, and as a member of the Nantucket Finance Committee.
As a daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Nantucket whaling captains, she had collected over the years a remarkable number of logbooks, letters and stories from which she wrote "My Sea-Faring Family". It is with pleasure and pride that we present in this issue of "Historic Nantucket the first installment of her book, a major achievement of a remarkable woman.
Merle T. Orleans, Assistant Editor
MY SEA-FARING FAMILY: A true account of the whalemen:
Charles Grant Nancy J. Grant Charles W. Grant George A. Grant 1814-1906 1823-1905 1850-1882 1857-1942
by Nancy Grant Adams 1887-1968 daughter of George A. Grant
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My Sea-Faring Family
Dedicated to all the Descendants of Charles and Nancy Grant who were Sea-farers
The close watch at night
At the dark prow in danger
Of dashing on rock.
The wide joy of waters The whirl of salt spray.
There is no man among us So proud in his mind, Nor so good in his gifts, Nor so gay in his youth, Nor so daring in deeds, Nor so dear to his Lord That his soul is not stirred By the thought of Sea-Faring."
From: Sea-farer, Morley's Translation
INTRODUCTION
TRISTRAM COFFIN was one of the early settlers of the Town of Sherburne, on the island of Nantucket, located thirty miles off the coast of Massachusetts.
Tristram married about 1630 Dionis Stevens of Brixton and had nine children. He moved to Nantucket in 1659, just three hundred years ago.
In direct line from Tristram and Dionis through their first child Peter who married Abagail Starbuck came the maternal line of the Grant family.
Jethro and Mary; Robert and Susanna; Ephraim and Sarah; Hepsabeth Coffin and John Ellis; whose daughter Elizabeth married James Grant, the Scotsman, the first of the line of Grants in Nantucket.
The Wyer branch of the Sea-Faring family got its start through another Scotsman named Edward Wyer, who was born in 1622 in Scotland and who came to America as early as 1646. He was a tailor and settled in Charlestown, Mass., in 1658. In 1659 he married Elizabeth Johnson. They had eleven children and the Nantucket branch came from Robert, the 3rd child born in 1664. He was also a tailor and an Inn-Holder.
He married in 1688 Elizabeth Fowle who died without issue. Then he married for his second wife in 1692 - Ruth Johnson. Through their son Robert, Jr., born in Charlestown in 1695 and who moved to Nantucket when he married Katherine Swain in 1720, the line of Nantucket Wyers
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originated.
Zachariah and Abagail; Obed Wyer and Polly; Obed Jr. and Polly Gorham; Benjamin and Eliza Ann Hull.
Benjamin Wyer was born in 1797 and married Eliza Ann Hull in 1821. They were married by Seth Swift in the Unitarian Church. They had children: Benjamin; Charlotte M.; Ann Eliza; William and Nancy Jay.
Grandmother Nancy Jay was born in 1823 and married Charles Grant August 28, 1839, when she was 16 years old.
These two families, Grant and Wyer, were the ancestors of George A. Grant and his sister Eleanor Baker Peirce whose children are the third generation.
The son of George, Arthur Burbank Grant, is a Sea-Farer and Ensign in World War I. And presently owner of fishing boat Madeline. His son Robert Swain is a deep sea fisherman and presently employed in the U.S. Fish & Wild Life Service with duties on the "Delaware", of Gloucester, Mass.
His second son, Philip Baron, is also a deep sea fisherman and manager with his brother-in-law of a very successful seasonal fish market in Nantucket.
This is the background and the introduction to my Sea-Faring Family.
MY SEA-FARING FAMILY Chapter I
Wi' their pipers gaun before 'em
Proud the Mothers are that bore 'em.
Next the Grants of Rothirmutvhus Every man his sword and dirk has; Every man as proud's a Turk is."
James Grant was a Scotman, born in the year 1782 in the little town of Tomintoul, Banff Co., in the highlands of Scotland. The reason why he left Scotland bound for America is not known. However, we do know that early in the nineteenth century, prior to 1806, he was presumed to have been travelling on a ship loaded with wine and molasses and that ship was wrecked.
The family story was that he was cast ashore off the island of Nantucket and was brought in to the town and went directly to the poor house until he found a home.
Another idea was that he was on the ship FAME, a British ship, Captain Timothy Folger, Mate James Grant, and that ship was wrecked off the coast of Patagonia, near the Isle of Sol, and the Nantucket ship
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FAME, with Capt. David Folger took off some of the oil and the members of the crew and brought them to Nantucket, in the year 1804-5.
The latter is a more romantic idea, but the writer cannot vouch for the latter historical fact.
James decided to stay in Nantucket and became a ship rigger, a trade that was quite necessary in this busy whaling town. He became acquainted with an Englishman, John Ellis by name, who had a daughter Elizabeth, and they became engaged and in the year 1806 they were married.
James at this time was twenty-four years and Elizabeth was only sixteen. She had the care of her mother who was in poor health and also of her grandfather old Ephraim Coffin, who lived with the Ellis family.
In the year 1810 both of them passed away, and James and Elizabeth and their year-old baby William, who was born in 1809, moved into a large double house in the section of town known as Poverty Point, on the West Monomoy lots.
The house was known as Fort Sumter because of its square architecture. In later years James purchased one half of this house for the sum of two hundred and fifty dollars, from one Allen Fuller. In the year 1870 this house was burned down.
From the year 1810 to 1815 Nantucket was suffering from the effects of the war. The population was 6,907. Of this number there were 210 people over 70 years of age and 379 were widows.
There was much suffering and in the winter of 1814-15 there was a scarcity of food. A soup house was established in a building near the corner of Main and Gardner streets, where soup was dispensed free to the poor families.
James was having his troubles, too, a family to raise and not much work for him. It was during this time of suffering that a new baby was born to Elizabeth and James. He arrived on the 14th of June, 1814. He was named Charles and he was destined to be a man of the sea, as were the other members of James' family. The other children came along as the years advanced. There were Thomas, John, James, George and Eliza. All the boys who lived were all to take to the sea. In the year 1815, twenty-six ships and twenty-four vessels were cleared from the port of Nantucket.
Some of these were whalers bound for the Pacific. In the year 1819 the famous Japan grounds were discovered and by 1820 there were seventy-two whalers owned at the island.
Of James' sons, George died at sea, James was drowned in 1834, and John went to California.
Charles was lingering around the docks at a very early age. He was a tall gangling boy with red hair and freckles. His first childish instinct
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was to make a boat of wood and sail it in the creeks near his home. He learned to swim in this same creek.
When the whaleships arrived in port he was on hand to see all that was going on. The arrival of these great ships from a four-year voyage was the cause of great excitement among the island people. Young and old, friend and foe, gathered on or near the dock to greet husbands, fathers, sons and brothers, who had been gone for so long a time, and to see the great ships unload.
When the ships came in the dock, men came off in boats to take the lines and warp the ship in and make her fast. Sails were furled and all made snug, below and aloft, and then all hands went below to get their chests and belongings and go ashore.
It is not long before the members of the crew, who have lived together most intimately for forty-eight months or more, will be gone on their merry way. Some will wait for another ship and some will be promoted in rating on the same ship on which they have just returned.
It was to this sort of life that Charles had set his heart. He wanted to go to sea. To him it would be a very romantic life to ship as cabin boy, and then go on up the line and perhaps some day to be Master of a ship.
Charles had, up to the age of eleven years, very little schooling; a Cent school was about all he had where he learned the alphabet and a very brief time in primary school.
In the fall of 1825, when he was eleven and a half years old, he was down on the dock with his father when the good ship JOHN JAY arrived in port. James was helping with the unloading and had asked for a chance to go on the ship when she sailed again. Charles wanted to go also. So they were both signed on, James as Boatsteerer and Charles as Cabin Boy.
Charles' mother was not too happy to learn that her husband and son were going to sea. There was nothing she could do about it but just bear it. Charles was rather young to have to suffer the hardships on a ship, but at least his father would be with him.
He went to bed on the night of December 2,1825, knowing that it would be a long time before he would climb into bed at home and have his mother kiss him good night. The next morning it was with a sad heart that she bade good-bye to her son Charles and her husband James as they took their departure carrying their chests to the old wagon that a neighbor had offered, to drive them to the dock.
Charles Grant was on his way to a sea-faring life. Little did he know how many times he would "round the Horn" and double it.
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Chapter II
CABIN BOY ON THE SHIP JOHN JAY
"In the old days when the sea was old
And the builders lithe and young From timber that gleamed like gold
This carpet of chips was flung. Here rested the noble ships
Keel-frame and towering spar,
And where the horizon dips
They sailed and vanished afar." From Youth's Companion, Jan. 30, 1908
Charles Grant sailed away from Nantucket on his first voyage on a whaler on the 3rd day of December, 1825, at the age of 11% years. He had shipped as cabin boy on the JOHN JAY with Alexander Drew, Master, and Moses Coffin, 1st Mate, Charles H. Clark 2nd Mate, and James Grant, Boatsteerer. *1.
All on board were soon to learn that their skipper was a hard task master and a heavy drinker as well. Charles soon learned that he must jump when he was spoken to and do no "sojering" on the job. He learned the duties as cabin boy which were to wait on the cabin table, set the table and wash the dishes, as well as to help the cook in his culinary tasks.
He learned sailoring too, tying knots, boxing the compass, splicing the rope, sail-mending and other duties. Also, he had to wash and mend his own clothes. When the Captain visited a ship at sea, gamming they call it, Charles went with him.
At first he was a little squeamish and had difficulty in getting used to the fare on board ship. It was quite different from that which he had at home. He delighted in going forward to listen to the tales told by the old and experienced sailors. He was eager to learn but in the past had little opportunity to do any studying. There were books aboard but none that interested him. Those that were available were mostly religious books and none that he could understand.
The sailors on board a whaler are kept busy, there being little time for leisure. They are employed in mending and bending sails, painting the outside and inside of the ship and the boats, making spun-yarn, breaking out water and provisions from the hold, and they spent some time picking over potatoes.
When the oil is boiled out and cooled, it has to be put in casks and stored in the hold and the try-works have to be kept repaired and cared for.
When they do have leisure, it is spent in having a little fun. Among their amusements are singing and dancing on deck. There is always some one who can play the fiddle or a harmonica or even a jew's harp.
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There is much swapping stories and lies. One of the popular pastimes is carving the bone taken from the whale's jaw, making it into knives, stilettos, lamp picks and jagging wheels for crimping the edges of pies. A great deal of ingenuity is manifested in this intricate carving. It is done mostly with jack knives and files but some sailors are lucky enough to have tools similar to dentists' tools. This carving is called "Scrimshaw". Favorite designs on the handles of some of these articles are a hand or fist and a female leg or foot.
Another pastime is writing letters home to their loved ones. In those days all mail was carried back home by any ship which they met at sea, or in port which would be likely to reach home before they did. All ships that sail carry mail out from the home port, in hopes that they might meet the ship for which it is destined. It is more than likely that ships will meet on the whaling grounds, as there are certain times in the year when whaling is "in season" at particular locations. Many months would pass sometimes without either receiving letters or being able to send any home. Sometimes letters would be left at a port likely to be touched by other ships, such as Galapagos Islands or Bay of Islands in New Zealand.
The Galapagos are a cluster of 14 or 15 isles in Lat. 21' west; Long. 91. At Post Office Bay, named so in the old whaling days, there was an unofficial mail station, for the Pacific Ocean. Here is a box nailed to a tree, labeled "Hathaway's P.O." - set up by one Hathaway of New Bedford. Later a barrel was set up on a stake.
Whalemen would come to look for letters from home and to leave some to be picked up.
The JOHN JAY cruised off the coast of Chile, Peru and in the Pacific. Charles passed the dangerous Cape Horn westward for the first time in February, 1826. Little did he realize then how many times he would round the Horn and double it in the years to come. It has been claimed that the passage round the Horn from the eastward is the most difficult and attended with more hardship than that of the same distance in any part of the world.
In March, 1827, the JOHN JAY was reported to have been up at Tumbez, on the north coast of Peru.
A whaleship must be a little world unto itself and carry everything needed for a four-year voyage. The provisions consistently carried are mainly: about 40 bbls. of salt provisions, 3¥2 tons of bread in casks, 30 bushels of beans and peas, 1000 lbs. of rice, 40 gallons of molasses, 24 bbls. of flour, as well as potatoes, dried apples, coffee, tea, chocolate, corn, butter and some fresh beef.
It was a sad day for Charles when the Captain, one early morning, when they were alone in the cabin, said to him, "Are you afraid of me?" Charles replied, "No, Sir, I am not afraid of you." The Captain then bran-
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dished a knife toward him. Charles made up his mind then and there that he was afraid of him.
It was during one of the Captain's prolonged spells of drinking that he committed a ghastly crime, which ended his career as Master of a ship.
During breakfast when the Captain and his 2nd Mate, Mr. Clark, were eating in the cabin, Charles came in with the coffee pot and was pouring into the cups. The Captain said to the Mate, "Get up from this table and go up on deck." Mate Clark replied, "Yes, Sir, when I have finished my breakfast." The Captain took up a long knife from the table and lunged at the Mate, stabbing him in the chest. Poor Charles was a witness to this proceeding and heard the knife strike the bone in the Mate's chest. He was terrified and ran to the deck, the coffee pot still in his hands and gave the alarm. Some of the men made for the cabin, but then Mate Clark came up on deck and fell in a faint from loss of blood. The Captain was seized and put in irons and the ship was headed for shore.
The 1st Mate Moses Coffin was now in charge of the ship and he headed her for Payta, Peru, where they put in and obtained a doctor. Mate Clark was beyond help and died about a week later. This tragedy broke up the voyage and the ship sailed for home, arriving at Martha's Vineyard on March 31st, 1828, with Moses Coffin as Master. Her cargo was 648 bbls. of Sperm Oil and 261 bbls. of Head Oil. The Captain, being still in irons, was brought to Boston under custody of the United States Marshall. The prisoner was fully committed to trial, was afterwards acquitted and died years later in Nantucket.
Mate Clark was 24 years old and son of William Clark, of Chilmark. It is believed he left a wife and one child.
This was anything but a bright beginning for Charles. He returned home to his family and spent the next six months thinking things over. He was now fourteen years old and still had the call of the sea in his blood. He returned to his old haunts on the wharves and hoped he might be lucky enough to strike a ship soon to sail "a-whalin".
Drinking in the smell of salt water and tar, oakum and cordage, he would climb the spiles and wait eagerly for a ship to come in.
When the ship MARIA came in port, Charles was on hand when she docked. He heard that Captain Gardner was not to sail her for the next voyage, so he questioned the frequenters of the wharves to find out who was to be her master. When he heard that Captain Benjamin Ray was the man, he promptly ran home to ask his father if he could ship with him on the voyage. His father reluctantly gave his consent and Charles hurried off to see Captain Ray and get the chance to go on her. Captain Ray was very much pleased with the appearance of Charles and thought him a husky lad, so he shipped him "fore the Mast". *2
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NOTES
Chapter 2; Ship JOHN JAY
1. The owners of the JOHN JAY were Zenas Coffin and Gilbert Coffin.
The lays of Captain Drew and crew members were: Capt. Drew 1/17 M. Pocknet 1/85 Joseph Macy 1/27 T. Pocknet 1/85 Moses Coffin 1/33 E. Coombs 1/85 Charles L. Clark 1/55 A. Coombs 1/85 James Grant 1/75 F. Jarritt 1/100 Obed Gardner deserted Geo. Calloway 1/46 Reuben Swain 1/130 Charles Grant 1/130 Wages paid to: D. Luther 1/120 W. Thompson R. Mitton 1/120 G. Wilkinson W. Holbeck 1/120 J. Carroll
J. L. Smith 1/120 L. Lavett H. P. Barker 1/130 Alex. Bunker Charles Jay 1/130 Coman Drew 1/130 Share of sperm oil: James Grant 265 Charles Grant 153
Share of head oil: James Grant 107 Charles Grant 62
Cash paid to Charles L. Clark's Administrator $231.08
Dr. Charles Grant -1825 to cleaning ship 1.80
Am't of outfit 80.38
Bal. to book 44.96 127.14
Dr. James Grant to E. Jones bill labor 17.00
Moses Coffin 13.50
Cleaning ship 1.08
Bill credit to acct. 189.16 220.74
For cleaning ship: Robert Ratliffe 6.00
For watching ship:
Barnabas Bunker 3.00
