Historic Nantucket
Lewis J. Clark's Antiques on Lower Main Street, c. 1920 From the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association.
October 1989 Published Quarterly by Nantucket Historical Association
NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President: H. Flint Ranney Vice President: Mr. Robert F. Mooney Secretary: Mrs. Walker Groetzinger
Vice President: Mrs. Carl M. Mueller Treasurer: Mr. Max N. Berry
Honorary Chairman: Robert Congdon
Walter Beinecke, Jr. Mrs. Bernard Grossman
George W. Jones
Mrs. C. Marshall Beale Mrs. Dwight Beman Mrs. Richard L. Brecker Charles C. Butt • Kimberly Corkran-Miller John W. Eckman Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman
Mrs. Robert Bailey Mrs. Charles Balas Mrs. Donna Beasley Patricia A. Butler Mrs. James F. Chase Mrs. Herbert Gutterson William A. Hance
Honorary Vice Presidents Albert F. Egan, Jr.
Presidents Emeritus Leroy H. True COUNCIL MEMBERS Erwin L. Greenberg Mrs. Hamilton Heard, Jr. Mrs. Arthur Jacobsen Reginald E. Levine Mrs. Earle MacAusland Mrs. William B. Macomber
ADVISORY BOARD Mrs. Robert Hellman Mrs. John Husted Andrew J. Leddy Mrs. Thomas Loring William B. Macomber Paul H. Madden
Alcon Chadwick Mrs. R. Arthur Orleans
Edouard A. Stackpole
Nancy A. Martin Joseph Mc Laughlin Philip C. Murray David M. Ogden Mrs. Judith Powers Susan K. Spring Richard S. Sylvia
Mrs. William Pullman F. Blair Reeves Susan Tate Donald E. Terry Mrs. Mark White John S. Winter Mrs. Joseph C. Woodle
STAFF John N. Welch, Administrator Elizabeth A. Codding Asst. Curator of Collections
Louise R. Hussey Librarian
Richard E. Morcom Asst. Plant Mgr.
Bruce A. Courson Curator of Museums & Interpretation
Lorraine Kenward Asst. Shop Manager
Trisha Murphy Bookkeeper
Thomas W. Dickson Merchandise Manager
Wynn Lee Director of Development & Public Affairs
Edouard A. Stackpole Historian
Mark W. Fortenberry Plant Manager
Elizabeth Little Curator of Prehistoric Artifacts
Jacqueline Kolle Haring Curator of Research Materials
Peter S. MacGlashan Registrar/Audio-Visual Librarian
Victoria Taylor Hawkins Curator of Collections
Gayl Michael Asst. Curator of Research Materials
Jo Sullivan Development Assistant Richard P. Swain Miller Leroy H. True Manager, Whaling Museum Elizabeth Tyrer Executive Secretary
Docents: Robert Allen, Alcon Chadwick, Margaret Crowell, Jane Jones, Elsie Niles Alfred Orpin Frederick Richmond, Gerald Ryder, Leigh Simpson, Dorothy Strong, Margaret Trapnell, Mary Witt ' Historic Nantucket Editorial Board: Mrs. Dwight Beman, Mrs. James F. Chase, Robert F. Mooney H Flint Rannev Susan Beegel Tiffney, Mrs. Jane D. Woodruff, Mrs. Bracebridge H.'Young
Historic Nantucket
Published quarterly and devoted to the preservation of Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage, and its illustrious past as a whaling port.
Vol. 37
October 1989
No. 4
CONTENTS My Seafaring Family, Chapter 14 by Nancy Grant Adams
The Talcahuano Incident by Ann Belser Asher
13
Main Street Through the Years
19
The Search for Hero by Diana Brown
22
Historic Nantucket (USPS 246-460) is published quarterly at Nantucket, Massachusetts by the Nantucket Historical Association, 2 Union Street, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554, to which address changes should be sent. Historic Nantucket is sent to Association members and extra copies may be purchased for $3.00 each. © N.H.A. 1988 (ISSN 0439-2248). Member dues are: Individual $25, Family $40, Supporting $50, Contributing $100, Sponsor $250, Patron $500, Life Benefactor $2,500. Second-class postage paid at Nantucket, Massachusetts. Communications pertaining to the publication should be addressed to the Editorial Board, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Historical Association, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554.
CONTRIBUTORS ANN BELSER ASHER resides in Bethesda, Maryland. She and her husband Norman still own the house on India Street that motivated her research. DIANA BROWN, when she is not traveling to research archives around the world, divides her time between residences in Leesburg, Virginia, and Malvern, Victoria, Australia. She and her husband Colin summer on Tuckernuck Island.
Editor's Note: This is the last issue of Historic Nantucket to appear in its familiar size and look. Editorial and format changes have delayed our publication schedule, and we are grateful for your patience. In our new face for the 90s, we plan to make much greater use of the photographic riches of our Research Center. In this issue we include a center section that gives but a few examples of the visual record which supplements our extensive collection of bibliographic and manuscript resources. Due to the confusion of publication deadlines, you may already have received the Spring 1990 issue. We solicit and look forward to your comments.
5
My Seafaring Family by Nancy Grant Adams Nancy Grant Adams wrote My Seafaring Family about thirty years ago. It has been published in Historic Nantucket at intervals since July 1953, when the first chapter appeared. With pride and pleasure we continue the story of her grandparents, Captain Charles and Nancy Grant. On his ninth voyage Charles commanded the New Bedford whaleship Japan and left Nancy on Nantucket with their three children for more than a year. Chapter 14 The Ship Japan "Lo! the unbounded sea! On its breast a ship starting, spreading all her sails -- an ample ship carrying even her moonsails; The pennant is flying aloft, as she speeds, she speeds so stately below, emulous waves press forward, They surround the ship, with shining curving motions, and foam." From Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman The Ship Japan was built in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, and registered November 7, 1855, as 487 tons. Her first master was Capt. Francis L. Dimon; William Blackler was agent and part owner. A Nantucket-owned ship of the same name had been broken up in 1851. When it returned in 1859 from its first voyage, Charles Grant became the new Japan's next skipper. His renown as a good whaler had spread far and wide, and all agents had their eyes on him. The lucky man to sign him on was William Blackler of New Bedford. Charles had had a good long rest from the sea in the previous months and now was ready to sail again in this fine ship. He commanded the largest lay of any man in the whaling business. The Japan's letterbag had been advertised at the store of Bates, Cook
6
Historic Nantucket
& Co., and her sailing date was to be May 15. In fact, Charles departed New Bedford on May 31, 1859. This time he left his family at home. There are no known logs from this voyage, but records, letters, and occasional reports from other vessels who spoke the Japan at sea do survive. One of the "journals" Charles kept would be an invaluable resource, but like so many priceless whaling volumes, they probably fell victim to the craze for scrapbooks later in the century! There is, for example, a May 17th invoice for merchandise that was to be shared equally in joint account and risk by the ship's owners and captain. It lists slop chest items and trade goods shipped on board theJapan that Charles Grant was to sell free of commission. The consignment included: May 3, 1859 P.C. D.2. Bales "Palmer Drill" 782 yds at 8-3/4 cts 783 " [1565 yds] 1 Case "Oxord" denitns-1309 yds at 9-1/2 cts 10 cases Smith Non-Pareil Tobacco-1676 lbs. @ 19cts 26 " P.H.Hammet 3086 " " " 1 Case-26 pes. "Hills" bleached cotton-1294 yds. @ lOcts. " 15 " Pacific Lawns 565 @ llcts. 1 Case-81 pes. Plaid Delaine's 332 @ 12cts. 1 Bale"Pepperel" Brown Cotton 743 @ 8cts. 1 Case-40 pes. English Prints 1191 @ lOcts 1 Case Pillow Case Cotton 940 @ llcts less discount
136.94 98.70 318.44 585.77 129.43 65.04 41.59 63.16 119.15 103.40 521.77 26.18
3 Cases containing 6 doz. handled axes @ 11.00 doz. 66.00 1 case " 12 double barrel guns @ 6.00 72.00 1 Bale cont.15 blue prints with white figures-520yds @8-l/2cts. 44.24 6 pes. " " " 221-l/4yds @ 8 17.70 Discount 5 % on guns and axes 131.10 Cottons 61.94 14 casks cont. 296 gals Brandy @ 33-1/2 cts 15 " " 300 " Rum @ 33 199.61 43-E.W.Pages Oar s o f 1 4 F t . 602 ft. @ 5 cts F t } 15 " « « « 15 « « j 6oo „ 23 same 16 388 @ 5-1/2 " } 127 21 18 " 17 306 @ 6" }
My Seafaring Family
19 " 18 342 @ 6-1/2 " 2 23 46 @ 10 " 20 casks of nails- 8 of 7d.-8 of 8d.-2 of 12d. 4 " " 3d. @ $5 each 1 cask 2d 4 Spy Glasses @ $9 ea.-less 59„ disc 25 boxes Adamantine candles-36 lbs each 28 Bbls. of Tar in casks @@98 cts. bbl 8 " cont. 320 gals, of Paint oil @ 70cts 8 bbls. " @ $1.00 2 cases cont. 100 prs. Patent Leather Shoes @ 15 kegs-21b. Cannisters powder-375 @ 22-1/2 Trucking "and freight of goods Total $3105.66 1/2 for account of owners of Japan $1552.83 1/2 " " Charles Grant $1552.83 New Bedford, Mass May 17, 1859
7
} } 75.00 20.00 5.75
34.20 274.00 83.44 224.00 8.00 1.25
125.00 84.40 47.47
The invoice, signed William G. Blackler, Agent for the Ship Japan, further stated: ...that for whatever funds [Charles Grant] may furnish the ship during his absence, over the amount in his hands due the owners, he is to receive on return of the ship, or the end of the voyage, the principal and interest at the rate of 6 % per annum. Should Capt. Grant make a shipment of any purchase of oil or other merchandise and ship it to the U.S. consigned to the Agent of Japan, in all such cases, it is to be for joint account with himself and the owners of said ship. In addition to this document, there is a letter from Charles that reports the Japan at sea on November 1, 1859, in "Lat. 40:10 so. Long. 40:9 east. All well." He had taken six small whales at one lowering, and only nightfall prevented him from taking more. Again in December, another ship reported that it had spoken him. He had 290 bbls. sperm all told and lost an 80-bbl. whale in a gale. When spoken, he had a whale alongside, and the bark Canton was in company. The Desdemona reported leaving the Japan at Bay of Islands. In January 1860, Charles wrote from there that he was bound out to cruise off the coast of New Zealand and off French Rock. All was well.
8
Historic Nantucket
One of the crew who had shipped with Charles "'fore the mast" was Benajah Boston, a full-blooded Indian born on Nantucket. He tells the following story: We were fast to a whale and had lowered the boats to close in on him and give him the finishing touch, when he frisked us with his big tail, and the boat I was in was smashed to splinters. None of the boat's crew was lost, but my right leg was badly broken. The Captain got me ashore as quickly as possible. It was at Fayal, where I was put into a hospital. Five days later, the Captain came ashore to see how I was getting along and, not being satisfied with the progress that was being made, took me back to ship, allowing that he could do better • by me than the landlubbers had. There was real heroic treatment given me, for I was strapped to a stanchion and a weight and pulley attached to the broken limb to straighten it out, no splints being used. This, the Captain said, would give me a pretty fair leg. That was about what I got out of ready-made doctoring at the expiration of a month's pulling and hauling. On this cruise we went as far as the coast of New Zealand, French Rock, Japan, and the Navigator Islands. A part of the time I served as a steward and the remainder before the mast. When the Japan sailed, Nancy was not prepared to go out with Charles and did not expect to go to sea again. After a year, however, Charles could stand it no longer and sent word for her to come out and join the ship at Bay of Islands. Nancy was delighted to go because she missed the life on board ship. She packed up and took George with her, leaving Eleanor and Charlie at home with their Grandmother Wyer. George was now about four years old and an active child. They left Nantucket in November 1860, and went to Boston where they took the Steamer Belle of the West for Melbourne, Australia, with Captain Howes. Upon arrival at this port, they took a schooner for Wellington, New Zealand, and then another schooner to Bay of Islands. They stayed with the Fords until Charles arrived about ten days later. He was very happy to find Nancy and George awaiting him. In a letter Mrs. Ford wrote to a Nantucket friend, she verifies their arrival as follows:
My Seafaring Family
9
Washington House, Russel[l]. January 20. 1861 My Dear Mrs. Winslow: Very glad as we were to see our dear old friend Perry; we miss you very much and dear Johnny-- Brave Nancy Grant has arrived safely and is as magnificent as ever; dear little George Arthur is suffering severely with hooping cough, which he caught on the vessel from Melbourne to Auckland. Dear Mrs. Baker, our darling, is here waiting for a few months an anticipated blessing. Dear Ella, she is a sweet pet and we earnestly trust it will please God to give her an easy and happy termination of her hopes. We expect her Archangel Michael in every day now. The Goulds have left the Bay and gone to a place a few miles from Auckland. The Russells, too, are leaving today. We have at present neither minister nor schoolteacher in the place, so our darling Earnest (sic) who is growing to he a fine boy, is gone to stay at his Aunt's in Waimate, about fifteen miles off and be taught by his cousin's governess, for the present. We have at last enlarged our house and I am writing to you in the bow window of my new room up stairs, fronting the sea. Our family is large and very agreeable; consists of Capt. & Mrs. Grant, Ella Baker, Capt. Vincent Fish, Frank Worthy, and your lively Perry. He is obliged to keep up the steam to prevent fretting for his absent ones. Now I must say good-bye. With much love from my own dear husband to you and yours, I am, dear Mary Ann, Your affectionate Bay of Island Sister, Martha Ford. Up to this time, little Georgie remembered nothing about his seafaring. But, from the start of his voyage on the Japan, he was in the limelight a good part of the time. On this voyage Charles caught the largest whale he ever got. It made 150 bbls. of oil. While trying out the oil from this whale, a sailor named Scott was skimming the scraps from the pot of oil when he slipped, lost his balance, and fell into the scalding oil. He was severely burned: all the skin was taken off his hands and arms. He
10
Historic Nantucket
was put into a tub of molasses and flour, but after 36 hours of great agony, he died. Scott received the customary burial service, and his remains were lowered over the side into the sea. This sad day was among little George's first memories. From now on, he would remember things. After Scott was buried, George would go to the side of the ship and, looking into the water, would say, "Scotty, where you gone, Scotty?" Impressed with the burial ceremony, he did not realize that Scotty was gone forever. Georgie was always getting into trouble. Once, he tried to saw an iron ringbolt with the carpenter's saw. He drove nails into the quarterdeck. He even cast off the mizzen degalant halyards and down came the yard. It was lucky that no one was on it. Every time, he got a good spanking from his father, but it did not make any impression. In March 1861, Charles had 1325 bbls. all told. He had shipped 940 bbls. on hoard the Ship Oneida under Captain Vincent. In June of the same year, he was reported at sea in "lat 25:20 So. Iong.l75:20 west." He had spoken the Rainbow, bark Elizabeth Swift, ship Elizabeth, Oneida, James Arnold, Sea Gull, Gay Head, Empire and Mount Hollaston. The Japan was also reported in Upolu in June. In January 1862, Charles was at Bay of Islands, and Captain William Fuller was there on the Petrel. Charles and Captain Fuller boarded the Mohawk, which was also anchored there, and had a gam with Captain George H. Swain. In 1862, when the ship was in Upolu, the following business was transacted: Apia, July 5, 1862 Sirs: On the arrival of the Japan at New Bedford, please pay to Stephen Mowry, 3rd. officer, his fiftieth share of the sperm oil now on board, the takings of the vessel in thirty-seven months, deducting his advances at home and the bill he has had during the voyage, in all five hundred and seventy dollars ($570.00) Charles Grant, Master On back of note is written: W. G. Blackler, Esq. New Bedford. Please pay Charles Grant or his order. Apia, 5th. July, 1862 _ [Signed] Stephen Mowry
My Seafaring Family
11
About this time, although the year date is missing, there is another record: Tongatabu Nukualofa-August 28, 18Captain Grant Dr-to the Tonga-Agency of Der Deutsche Handels & Plantagengesselschaft Der Sudsee-Anselm To 55 lbs of Fresh Beef @ (about 16 cts.) Received payment. [Signed] H. Eicholes In November 1862, the Japan was at Norfolk Island, lying off and on; Captain Swain of the Mohawk was also there. Again in January 1863, they were at the Bay of Islands with 1260 bbls. on board. Charles had 50 bbls. oil as freight from the wrecked ship Empire. At Russell any sick or injured could be taken to Dr. Ford's hospital, a small place he had attached to his dwelling house. In those days, Dr. Watling was the man who was called if surgical attendance was needed; but, rough as things were, it was not often that a surgeon was wanted, or could help. By the early sixties, the whaling business was in decline; and while New Bedford (1862) had 198 ships on the active list, Nantucket, once the greatest whaling port, had only ten ships engaged. A fair proportion of this fleet made Russell and other North Island ports their objective when they needed supplies or were preparing for the homeward journey. On such occasions the men were granted unrestricted leave on shore. At no other time during their four-year voyage were they allowed this favor because, as one skipper said, "If a ship cleared for Heaven and by force of circumstances was compelled to call at the opposite place, somebody would run away." Charles left the Bay for home after fitting out at Russell. They had stowed below deck 2080 bbls. of sperm oil, a valuable cargo. The Civil War had been in progress for about nine months before Charles met a New Bedford ship whose captain told him the news. It is not known if Charles also learned the fate of his old ship,
12
Historic Nantucket
Potomac, about which he and Nancy had many fond memories of her first whaling voyage. In 1861, the vessel was part of the "Stone Fleet," scuttled in Charleston harbor to blockade the Confederacy's most important Atlantic port. The wartime danger to homewardbound whaleships must have been on the minds of all aboard the Japan. Charles had a good run down to the Cape and started north in the South Atlantic. When, on this leg of the voyage, the man at the masthead reported a steamer astern, coming up fast, Charles decided immediately it was the Confederate cruiser, Alabama. Preying on whaleships in this area, Raphael Semmes, the Alabama's commander, would overtake a vessel and either burn or confiscate it. He would often fire a ship and then lurk in the background, waiting for another passing whaler to come to its rescue and also fall into his trap. In this way Semmes successfully ensnared the Benjamin Tucker, Osceola, Virginia and Elisha Dunbar of New Bedford; the Ocean of Sandwich; and the Ocean Rover of Mattapoisett. Charles admitted he was scared: he had the safety of his wife and child to consider, as well as a fine ship and a valuable cargo. The Japan had been standing along with a single reef in topsail and courses. He gave orders quickly and smartly to shake out the reef in topsail and to set forward and main degalant sails. "We may as well dismast her as be caught and burnt," he said. Charles had told Nancy of their situation, and she had replied, "Now Charles, keep me posted, and be sure to tell me if there is danger of being caught." They were on the starboard tack, but he kept her off three points and cracked it to her. She was a fast ship. Just about dusk, the Alabama fired a shot at the Japan, but fortunately, it missed. Now it had shut in dark. He gave orders to keep the Japan off three points more, to run on the course till four bells, to keep her dead before until eight bells, then haul out three points off port tack until four bells, again haul her up two points more until eight bells, then pull her on the wind, and take in the degalant sail. All these orders were obeyed, and at daylight they saw nothing of the Confederate cruiser. After the bad fright Charles had with the Alabama, he was happy indeed to land his family and ship safely along with his cargo of oil on board, freight of oil, 1900 bbls. of bone from the ship Jireh Perry and six casks of sails from the wreck of the ship Empire. He docked in New Bedford on May 19, 1868.
13
The Talcahuano Incident by
Ann Belser Asher Painted on an attic rafter in our house on India Street is a badly faded, but still legible, phrase: "Sighted the ship Lima 21st May 1807." It was probably put there by someone who viewed the harbor from a roof walk which has long since disappeared from the building. Although parts of other names and dates can be seen on the wallboards and rafters, this is the only message which is comprehensible. Written in bold, Spencerian script, the statement seems to cry out for attention. "Who could have written it?" I began to wonder; "Where had the ship been? Where was it going?" My curiosity sharpened each time I climbed the steep staircase to the attic, and the day finally arrived when I went in search of answers to these questions. Buried in old ledgers, scrapbooks and manuscripts in the NHA Research Center, in microfilms of early editions of the Inquirer and Mirror in the Atheneum, and in records of the Special Agents Collection of the National Archives in Washington, D.C., I uncovered a bizarre, heroic, heartrending and long-forgotten tale of Nantucket whaling history. It is an extraordinary adventure from the War of 1812, where the action of a heroic Southern gentleman saved onethird of the island's whaling fleet. It is also a story that brings to light one of our nation's first intrusions into the political affairs of a South American country. Nantucket had suffered devastating hardships during the Revolutionary War. Cut off from mainland supplies by the British blockade, their commerce destroyed, 150 of their ships captured or shipwrecked, the islanders were unable to obtain enough food or firewood to supply their basic needs. Starvation, for many, came very close. After the war, Nantucketers had to exert every effort to regain their prosperity. Whaling ships thus stayed at sea for longer periods of time and pushed ever farther from home, even into the South Pacific Ocean where they found good hunting off the Chilean coast. Often whalers were gone from three to five years, so communication with -the homeland was intermittent at best, and sometimes non-existent. Ships that happened to pass in the vast ocean might stop to receive letters from home and send back
14
Historic Nantucket
correspondence on homeward bound vessels. Sailors even nailed a box to a tree on the Galapagos Islands where they could place letters for home or perhaps find one brought for them by another whaler. Such was the way news travelled, when it did at all. As the sale of whale oil brought a slow return of prosperity for Nantucketers, the Napoleonic Wars overwhelmed the European continent and soon involved all trading nations. Because the restrictive British Orders in Council and Napoleonic Imperial Decrees impeded trade by European countries, the growing commerce of the United States prospered. It grew, in fact, so rapidly between 1789 and 1810 that shipbuilding became a major industry. About 4,200 additional seamen were needed to man the new ships, and the consequent labor shortage in America inflated seamen's wages from $8.00 to $24.00 a month. This encouraged hundreds of foreigners, mostly British, to jump vessels and become naturalized citizens in order to get higher pay. The British Navy, in its struggle to the death with Napoleon, responded to this manpower drain by impressing seamen, a policy which President Madison gave as his reason for declaring war on Great Britain in 1812. New England resisted passionately the idea of a second conflict with the British. Our islanders remembered keenly the suffering of the previous war. At this time, however, the seat of national power resided in the South; and when Thomas Jefferson's government passed the Embargo Act of 1807, prohibiting American ships from sailing to foreign ports, many New Englanders saw this as his attempt to destroy Northern wealth and power. Although President Jefferson rescinded the Act three days before leaving office in 1809, our foreign trade dropped to one-third its pre-embargo level. With Louisiana about to become a state, thereby increasing the Southern power base, many saw a developing crisis in the balance of power between the agricultural South and the commercially developing North. Seeds of the civil conflict to come forty years later were already sewn at this time. Against this political background Nantucket whalers were sailing the South Pacific in support of the town's chief commercial interest, the sale of sperm oil. Whaling ships customarily interrupted their sea voyages to obtain fresh water, wood for fuel, or - if the stop was the Galapagos Islands - perhaps a giant turtle or two. One such stopping-off point which quickly became a favorite of the whalers
The Talcahuano Incident
15
was the island of Santa Maria, about ten miles off the Chilean coast, near the mainland harbor towns of Concepcion and Talcahuano. The ten-mile Golfe de Aranco between the mainland and the island was a good hunting ground for the right whale. Chile was also undergoing political turmoil at this time. Since the sixteenth century the Spanish Viceroy of Peru had governed Chile under a feudal system. But the winds of freedom, stirred up by the American Revolution, had reached South American shores. In 1810, a junta of important landowners made the first move to end Peruvian domination and declared Chile's independence. Because the Viceroy of Peru served Joseph Bonaparte, whose brother, Napoleon, had crowned him King of Spain, this political rupture also challenged the Napoleonic decrees which prohibited Chile's free trade. The Viceroy strongly opposed the junta's declaration of independence, nullified the new Chilean laws of free commerce and sent privateers to enforce the old colonial system. The United States set about to acquire its share of liberated South American trade. Under President Jefferson, it had been decided to send a commercial agent to South America "to explain the advantages of commerce with the United States, promote liberal and stable regulations and transmit seasonal information on the subject." By 1810, when President Madison appointed Joel R. Poinsett, he was no longer simply a trade representative. He was secretly to encourage South American countries to break with Spain and declare their independence. Poinsett was to be a special agent for commercial affairs to both Argentina and Chile. A native of Charleston, South Carolina, he possessed rare charm, a talent for persuasion and a strong instinct for command. He was well-educated, with a facility for languages, a dedicated liberal, a strong unionist and, most of all, a man of action. His extraordinary self-confidence enabled him to influence people of the greatest importance. An unmarried man of private wealth, he chose to spend his life in the diplomatic service of his country. On October 15,1810, Joel Poinsett left New York for Rio de Janeiro on the Niagara. In Rio, he contacted fellow South Carolinian Thomas Sumter, our minister to the Portuguese Court in Brazil, and received a letter of introduction to the junta in Buenos Aires. In January 1811, he set forth on his secret mission to that city disguised as an Englishman. He wished to encourage Spanish colonies to declare commercial independence from Spain, but
16
Historic Nantucket
ultimately, he envisioned a federation of South American states to counterbalance the monarchy of Brazil. After Mr. Poinsett successfully influenced the authorities in Buenos Aires to lower their duties on commerce and encouraged the junta to work toward political independence, President Madison promoted him to Consul General for Argentina, Chile and Peru. On April 30, 1811, Secretary of State James Monroe wrote to Poinsett of the excitement in Washington over the independence movement in the Southern hemisphere and voiced his opinion that our friendship with South America would be more intimate if it would throw off European influence. Perceiving Chile to be the ripest territory for revolt, Poinsett left Buenos Aires to act on his interpretation of Monroe's meaning. He had first to cross the Andes, a major accomplishment in itself, but he succeeded in reaching Santiago on December 29, 1811. It was almost two months before Carrera, the head of the junta, received Poinsett, the first accredited agent of a foreign country to reach Chile. They became friends at once, however, and Consul General Poinsett's efforts to encourage independence quickly gained momentum because of the growing resentment in Chile to the Viceroy of Peru. When the United States declared war on Great Britain on June 18, 1812, the Viceroy of Peru saw an opportunity to strengthen the hand of colonialism and allied royalist Peru with the British. He moved two men-of-war to the Chilean coast, landed 1,500 troops near Talcahuano and secured that important harbor. The town of Concepcion also sided with the royalists. Throughout this period, unarmed American whaling vessels were sailing the South Pacific, many of them ignorant that the United States was at war. One of these unsuspecting whalers was the ship whose 1807 sighting in Nantucket harbor is commemorated on the attic rafter of my India Street house. The Lima, a 160-ton schooner built in 1804, had set sail from Nantucket under Captain Solomon Swain in March 1812, three months before the declaration of war. During the months of March and April 1813, the Lima and eleven other Nantucket whaling ships sailed into Talcahuano harbor and were captured by the Peruvians. They were first detained in the harbor and searched. While searching the President, captained by Solomon Folger, the royalists found $800.00 in British gold which they conveniently interpreted as war loot. They ordered Captain
The Talcahuano Incident
17
Folger ashore to answer charges and subsequently imprisoned him and the remaining officers and crew. Through his own sources of information in Santiago, Joel Poinsett learned of this indignity. Joining the fleet of the Chilean patriots, he took command and directed its movements. Word then reached him that while the Peruvians planned to sail the captured American vessels to Lima, they intended to march the crewmen, almost all Nantucketers, a distance of 2,000 miles overland, in chains, to the capital. Poinsett left the fleet immediately and joined the Chilean patriots' army, taking the title of General. He raised four hundred volunteers from this group, including Carrera, the head of the junta, to help him rescue his compatriots. With only three pieces of artillery, these four hundred men under Poinsett's command, left the main army and marched to Talcahuano. A surprise attack by Carrera, under Poinsett's instructions, lasted for three hours, but finally, he carried the town by storm. Among the rescued were the twelve whale ships, their cargo and two hundred United States seamen. The whalers were amazed to learn that their rescue had been effected by a single fellow countryman in that desolate stretch of South America. Because the whaling ships' papers had been destroyed, Poinsett gave them signed and sealed consular certificates for their voyage home. On September 18, 1813, approximately six months after their capture, the Nantucket whalers sailed out of Talcahuano harbor. Although the fleet was saved, Consul General Poinsett's position as a diplomat had been compromised. In Santiago, there was growing opposition to the Carrera junta. Many Chileans who wanted to be free of Peruvian control were nevertheless disinclined to make a permanent break with Spain. When, in early 1814, Ferdinand VII was reinstated as King, Chilean allegiance returned once more to the Spanish monarchy. Poinsett's mission ended that same year. The Nantucket whaling fleet's wartime adventures did not end, however, with its rescue in Talcahuano harbor. Most of the ships made it safely to home waters, but then had to run the British blockade in order to make port. Only five of the twelve ships succeeded. The President with 1,100 barrels of oil, the Lima with 800 barrels and the Criterion made it safely into Newport in early December. The Atlas with 850 barrels arrived in Old Town (now Edgartown) on Martha's Vineyard. But others were not so lucky. On December
18
Historic Nantucket
14, 1813, a small schooner off Siasconset landed forty prisoners, all whalemen. They were the crew of the Gardner, captured when near safety by the British ship Loire, and the crew of the Monticello, taken a few days earlier off the Delaware Cape. The Chile, carrying 550 barrels of oil, came within sight of Nantucket but diverted to Martha's Vineyard where it was in port only two hours before being taken by the British ship Nimrod. The Perserveranda had just made the turn at Tuckernuck shoal when a British seventy-four captured it ten miles out of port. I do not know what happened to the Lion, the Sukey, the John and James or the Mary Ann, but they did not make it home. The Charles, unlike the other ships, stayed nonchalantly to continue whaling in the South Pacific. It arrived safely in Nantucket on February 27,1814, with "the most valuable cargo of oil ever brought here." The ship Lima, which had brought me originally to the story of the Talcahuano incident, made three other successful whaling expeditions to the South Pacific between 1815 and 1823. During its penultimate voyage, however, pirates boarded and plundered it. It set sail from Nantucket for the last time on May 31, 1842, almost exactly thirty-five years after the unknown occupant of my house had recorded its sighting in the harbor. In mid-Atlantic, it suffered the ill omen of losing its third mate, Asa Gardner, and that same year, the Lima was condemned in Rio, outward bound. Editor's Note: Joel Roberts Poinsett served as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from 1821 to 1825. In 1825, he was appointed the first United States minister to Mexico, a post he held for four years. He became Secretary of War during Martin Van Buren's administration (1837-41). The poinsettia, a genus of tropical American woody plants he introduced to the United States, is named in his honor.
Main Street through the Years A collection of photos from the Nantucket Historical Association archives.
Even in 1962, people lined up outside the HUB for their morning papers
In 1868, this shop at the corner of Main and Federal Streets sold cigars, tobacco, cold lemonade, pickled limes, and fresh fowl. Notice the location of the doorway was different from what it is today.
...
...-.•.v.-.-
-v.
y-.-:'
:-xs\*.-.. xy'"
x-XyX''
A typical summertime view of Main Street c. 1952.
1j}eJh°Put thC norJhwest co/™r of Main and Federal Streets housed a laundry in 1895 t In this photo it is decorated for Nantucket's centennial celebration.
Lower Main Street during 1935 was a place to stroll and to stop and bug flowers.
This scene of lower Main Street in 1940 shows the A & P held a prominent position among downtown shops.
22
The Search for Hero by Diana Brown Now I have arrived at this extensive city called London, but what am I to do here in this great and strange city. I am a stranger, I know no one, I have no ship, I have no clothes fit to wear. I have no money to help myself. I have no friends here or acquaintances. What course now must be steered or taken next for the best for I must have board and lodgings and clothes to make me decent, but who in London, although a great extensive town, is to supply me for nothing...[?] These thoughts were written after an unfortunate voyage my Nantucket great, great grandfather made between 1802 and 1804. William Wilkes Morris was born in Nantucket in 1780, his forebears having come to the island around 1720.1 know little about his early life except that in 1801, he married Priscilla Chase, the daughter of Isaac and Eunice (Brown), in the First Congregational Church. After my mother died in 1975, I acquired a Salem Hepplewhite desk where she had kept some papers relating to her Nantucket ancestors. Among them was a journal I had never read but which contained, I had been told, an account of the great Nantucket fire and a description of a whaling voyage my mother's ancestor had taken in the last century. As a child I remember only looking at the pretty drawings it contained of Nantucket family coats of arms. (My mother had heard it said that, in later years, Morris drove a calash with his own coat of arms on its side.) I was to find that the journal covered his life between 1802 and 1846, the year before he died. There are also sporadic notes, the financial accounts of his navigation school, arts and trade secrets (such as how to prevent flies from sitting on pictures), the dimensions of Royal Navy and merchant ships and many maxims of Benjamin Franklin, his hero and the namesake of his last son, my great grandfather. Not until 1986 did I undertake the task of transcribing his notes which were somewhat difficult to decipher. I did not change the
23
Historic Nantucket
style or vocabulary, but put in punctuation and used the original spelling to show more clearly his mode of speech. My husband and I soon realized that the story of William Morris' voyage on the Hero from 1802 to 1804 was an exciting adventure, in a period of history that we knew little about. I was determined to find out more about the man and his ship as well as the personalities and events he described. Morris sailed from Nantucket to New York in August 1802 to join the ship Hero, captained by Stephen Rawson of Nantucket. A little more than a month later, the ship arrived in Havre de Grace (Le Havre) where it remained until February. It was outfitted as a whaler and sailed under the French flag on a voyage to the South Atlantic. After moderate success on the African coast, the Hero travelled westward to Santa Catarina Island on the coast of Brazil where the ship took on fresh supplies and water. Unaware that the English had abrogated the Treaty of Amiens, Captain Rawson allowed the ship to be boarded by a small party from a Letter of Marque(l) called Swallow. Its captain, David Smyth, seized the Hero as an English prize. In quick succession, however, the Portuguese seized Swallow because Charles Frederick Smyth, the ship's supercargo(2) and David Smyth's uncle, had been jailed for smuggling goods ashore against local law. Hero's papers, of such interest to our research, were still on board the Swallow at this time. Captain Rawson was obliged to leave the Hero at Santa Catarina and proceed to Rio de Janeiro where he was to answer charges laid by the Portuguese in the Smyth case. Rawson persuaded his chief mate, William Morris, aged twenty-four, to take the vessel to London, pointing out that the experience would be beneficial to him. At St. Helena, the Hero fell into the company of four East India Company ships with which it returned in convoy to England. On arrival at the Thames estuary, the officers from the flagship of the English fleet ransacked the Hero and impressed some of the crew for service with the Royal Navy. When the ship arrived at the Thames dock, my great, great grandfather was unceremoniously discharged from the ship, and he was left without any means of support. His story so far leaves many questions unanswered:
The Search for Hero
24
what was the origin of the Hero? what happened to it in London after its capture? what information on Hero is available in other sources, such as the logs and journals of numerous ships it "spoke to? what is known of William Morris, the man and his family? what is the story of the Swallow? Our first efforts to answer these questions took my husband and me in the spring of 1987 to Nantucket where we devoted much of our time at the Nantucket Historical Association Research Center to finding birth, marriage and death records of the Morris family. Through these records we ascertained that the first Morrises arrived from Holland in the early part of the eighteenth century although their origin was English. We found the will of John Morris, the first family member to settle in Nantucket and a man of considerable property when he died at a very old age. There were few references to William Morris, but we learned more about his forebears and descendants through various records at the Town Building and microfilms of period newspapers at the Atheneum. After William's ill-fated voyage, we uncovered little about his personal life, and it is not clear if he continued to go to sea. No reference has turned up so far to his service in the crew of another ship. We know he had one daughter, Eliza, by his first wife, Priscilla. She was born in April 1808; therefore, he must have returned to Nantucket sometime prior to that. He also had a son William, born in 1812, who lived for only one-and-a-half years. For economic reasons William and his family went to Ohio in 1814 along with other Nantucketers. This was a dark period in Nantucket history due to restrictions imposed by the Americans and the English on shipping and trade in general. Priscilla died in Ohio in 1817, and a year or so later, William returned to Nantucket where, in 1819 or 1820, he opened a navigation school that continued for about twenty years. Lucinda Wood became William's second wife in 1820. They had six children, my great grandfather being their last issue. Following a common practice, they named their first, a daughter, Priscilla Chase
25
Historic Nantucket
after the wife who died in Ohio. We were able to find some specifics about his children and later descendants, as well as a few "skeletons in the closet." Two of William's offspring died as children to the family's great grief. Priscilla died a young mother, and his son William, a crew member of the ship Spartan, drowned at the bar at Tombez (now Tumbes, in northwest Peru). Lucinda outlived her husband by almost thirty years and died a very old lady in 1876. On her grave at Prospect Hill Cemetery is the epitaph "Perfect through Suffering." Later in 1987, we began to look into the ship Hero, and ships mentioned or "spoken to" on the voyage. Through various New York merchant newspapers in the Library of Congress, we discovered that Hero was advertised "for Havre de Grace, the very fast sailing copper-bottomed ship, burthen 240 tons.... For freight of 500 barrels on board of passage - having excellent accommodations: apply to John Juhel." To our knowledge there was only one Hero that corresponded in tonnage to ours, and that ship was built in Hingham, Massachusetts in 1792. At this time Thierry du Pasquier, author of Les Baleiniers francais au XlXeme siecle, introduced himself to me with a very interesting letter. He had heard through a mutual French friend that I had a copy of a journal concerning the Hero. This ship was one of the captured vessels he was researching for another book; consequently, he was interested in reading my great, great grandfather's report. He told me that, according to French records, our Hero was built in Calcutta in 1797. After converting the French tonnage and dimensions to American ones, we had to admit that this ship resembled the Hingham Hero very closely. We were puzzled, and so was M. du Pasquier. Our first really exciting discovery came in the Mystic Seaport museum library where I was again searching for references to any of the ships mentioned. I came to realize in this process that one had to explore all conceivable avenues. In looking for Swallow, for example, the subject headings "Letter of Marque" and "Privateer" yielded nothing. Not to be put off, I searched further under "Smyth" (the captain) and found Swallow, Letter of Marque, slaver, and a short description of a journal written by William Mann, Swallow's carpenter. It referred to the capture of French whalers in Brazil during the period 1803-1805. I obtained a copy of this journal from the American Antiquarian
The Search for Hero
26
Society. It corroborated much of what my great, great grandfather had written concerning Hero's capture by Swallow, and told us, furthermore, what had happened to others, such as Captain Rawson, after the Hero's departure to England. When the Swallow finally left Brazil, even though it was fitted as a whaler, it functioned primarily as a slave transport from Africa to South Carolina. The unscrupulous Captain Smyth eventually dismissed William Mann from the ship, and he and his journal found their way to America. We next decided to visit England and France. My daughter had done some preliminary research for us in London in 1987. Through a process of elimination, at the British Museum and the Public Records Office, she discarded various leads that were of no use. She also obtained for us the registration of Swallow and some other ships spoken to as well as charts and maps of the period we were studying. We had met, at the 1988 Kendall Whaling Museum Symposium, Mr. Charles Payton, an English expert on whaling, who had offered his assistance to us. At the end of March 1989, we met him again in London. He gave us invaluable advice on how to find our way around the London Archives and about which references to concentrate on. No one, however, held much hope that we would find out anything more than we already had. On April 3, 1989, we were in the Public Records Office at Chancery Lane, London. It was raining outside and generally miserable. We were, nevertheless, clothed, warm, well-fed and had a little money in our pockets - a far cry from the situation in which William Morris had found himself almost 185 years earlier. My husband located an index reference to Le Heros du Havre, Rawson, master. We applied for the material, and soon a large box was in front of us. We began a search of our treasure in this box of ships' condemnation papers (3). The ships all began with the letter H, and the papers were in chronological order. The documents were tied with string and filthy with black, soot-like dust. It was evident they had not been opened for a very long time. We sorted through ships' names such as Hirondelle, Hoop, Hebe - and finally, Le Heros du Havre, Rawson, appeared! We began to read the evidence given to the court by both the captors and the captured. There was, first, the testimony of David Smyth, Swallow's captain, who had returned with the Hero, then that of four crew members from both ships.
27
Historic Nantucket
On June 1, 1804, William Wilkes Morris testified. It was a curious sensation to see his familiar signature on each page of the transcript. The court questioned successively a Swedish mariner from the Swallow who had joined Hero in Brazil as a member of the prize crew; a fourteen-year-old French boy who had been Hero's cabin boy since Le Havre; and finally a crew member from New York who had been with the Hero since leaving there in September 1802. The court asked these crewmen the same thirty or more questions: what did they know about the ship, its origin, the crew, the owners, purpose of the voyage, contents of cargo, the capture, the whereabouts of the ship's papers, and any unusual circumstances relating to the voyage? From the mariners' evidence, the most pertinent new information we extracted for our research was that Le Heros du Havre was formerly called the Little John of Liverpool and had been built in Bengal. (This confirmed du Pasquier's contention.) The French had captured the ship and sold it in Cayenne to the American firm of John Juhel and Co. which brought it to New York where it was known as the Hero of New York. On this basis, Nicholas Delonguemare, a partner in Juhel and Co., made an appeal to the High Court of the Admiralty, claiming the ship was American. Both the ship and its contents were appraised and all the cargo itemized. Oil began to seep from the casks into the hold of the ship, and in July 1804, Delonguemare asked the Court to expedite the sale of the contents. Later that year, one of the joint owners of the Swallow protested at the delay in settlement of this case due to the fact that David Smyth had disappeared, leaving no attorney to conduct his affairs. This owner, Peter Young, stated on good authority that he believed that Smyth would never return to England. The Court then concluded Le Heros du Havre should be sold, and the proceeds divided among the owners after all debts incurred in the handling of the ship had been paid. The ship was finally sold in August 1805 but, much to our chagrin, the record makes no reference to the identity of the purchaser. It would have been possible to obtain this information from the customhouse, but we discovered that a big fire in 1814 had destroyed all their records. Because the condemnation hearing's evidence reconfirmed the ship's tonnage of approximately 240 tons, we searched the Public Record Office in Kew for a registration of either Hero or Little John
The Search for Hero
28
of that size. We went through all the registration books from 1797 to 1808 but found nothing that confirmed this evidence. London does not, however, have all the registrations from other English ports, and I contacted the archivist at the National Museums and Galleries on Merseyside, Liverpool, where all original Liverpool ship registrations are kept. I was informed that there was no record of a Little John, and moreover, nothing on any other ship of similar tonnage. We asked about ships built in Bengal at that time and received the same negative reply. In short, we still had not succeeded in uncovering the origin or the identity of our Hero. Having been unable to find a reference to a Little John of similar tonnage in any shipping register, we decided in the spring of 1990 to search New York newspapers from the period 1800-1802 in the hope of finding Hero's arrival in New York from Cayenne. At the American Antiquarian Society (Worcester, MA), the New York Gazette of November 13, 1801, revealed Hero was quarantined in New York, having arrived from Cayenne on November 10, captained by Hammond. It was accompanied by Abigail, and both ships belonged to JohnJuhel & Co. The shipping news revealed also that it was an English "guineaman"(4) named John of Liverpool, and that it had been a prize ship! At this point we turned our attention to the logs of the East India Company ships which had accompanied the Hero from St. Helena to the English Channel. We discovered three of the captains' logs at the India office of the British Library which gave us further information about the convoy to London and included occasional references to the Hero. We located the manning list of Swallow and her registration as a Letter of Marque at the Public Record Office in Kew and Chancery Lane. At the National Maritime Museum Library in Greenwich, we learned in Lloyd's List that Swallow was captured in 1805 (presumably by the French) and brought to Martinique, while en route from Africa to the West Indies. In late fall 1989, my daughter subsequently discovered at Greenwich that Swallow was originally a Royal Navy ship, launched at Blackwall, London, in 1795. While in naval service, it was active in the South Atlantic. Between 1797 and 1799, it captured five French privateers. Swallow was sold and made a Letter of Marque in May 1803. My daughter also found reference to an aquatint of the sister ship Pelican, launched at the
29
Historic Nantucket
same yard that year with the exact dimensions of Swallow. Paris was our next stop where we first contacted M. Thierry du Pasquier to discuss our research to date. He gave us an introduction to M. Henrat, the head of the Maritime Department at the National Archives, who was helpful in pointing out possible sources. We were not, however, very successful in finding new information here although we located some references to Le Heros du Havre in colonial papers of Cayenne which protested the Portuguese authorities' lack of protection in Brazil for French ships. There was also a letter about John Juhel who had some trade interests with the town. It is worth mentioning that, until this point, we were unaware of how research in this time period is complicated by the French Revolutionary calendar which divided the year into twelve months of thirty days each. (The remaining five or six days were called "complimentary.") Since the first New Year's Day under the new system fell on September 22, 1792, we had to make complicated conversions to date any piece of information! On our return to Washington, we spent several days at the National Archives. Now that we knew more about our ship, we were looking for a New York certificate of registration of Hero. There was no registration as such, but we did find some miscellaneous papers which showed a certificate of ownership from the port authorities in New York. They were in a category misleadingly headed "sealetters"(5). The first, dated 1801, spoke about M. Juhel's purchase of Hero in Cayenne. It contained, however, no information about the origin of the ship, its previous history or name. The second paper, dated 1802, included the official survey report of the pertinent dimensions of the ship. Oddly enough, our Hero had almost exactly the same dimensions as the Hingham Hero, differing only by inches. Some other references to Hero were not to be found in the box where they should have been. The staff could give no explanation. We continue our search, undaunted by this and other disappointments. We are aware, for example, of the faint possibility that ship's papers may still exist for the Hero in Brazil, in Portugal or Cayenne, and for Swallow in Brazil, Portugal or Martinique, where it was taken after its capture in 1805. Last year, I wrote to various museums and archives in Brazil, but little material is available. There are letters from the Governor of Santa Catarina to the Viceroy in
Search for Hero
30
Rio de Janeiro which are still in that city, according to an article which mentions Swallow. The task of tackling these manuscripts is still before us. We have come to realize that there is no substitute for doing one's own research into the original material. Furthermore, one should never be deterred by the comments of well-meaning experts who might express an opinion that nothing more is likely to be found. We have disproved this time and time again. In conclusion, I should like to mention some of the other people who have given us special assistance and encouragement: Mr. Edouard A. Stackpole and Mr. Wynn Lee of the Nantucket Historical Association, and Jacqueline K. Haring and the staff of the NHA Research Center; Mr. A.G.E.Jones of Kent, England; Mr. Paul Morris of Nantucket; Mr. Norman Brower of the South Seaport Museum, NY; Mr. John Vandereet, curator of Maritime Archives at the National Archives, Washington; Mrs. Barbara Simmons, curator of manuscripts at the American Antiquarian Society; Mr. John McDonough, manuscript historian of the Library of Congress; Miss Virginia Wood, maritime manuscripts, Library of Congress; and Anne-Marie Bruleaux, director of the archives of Cayenne (French Guiana). Any information or advice from readers will be welcome. Please address: Mrs. Colin Brown, c/o The Research Center, Nantucket Historical Association, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554. NOTES (1) A Letter of Marque is a license or commission granted by a government to a private person to Fit out an armed vessel to cruise as a privateer and make prize of the enemy's ships and merchandise. The term is also used to describe the vessel. (2) The supercargo is an officer in a merchant ship in charge of the commercial concerns of the voyage. (3) In a manner similar to persons charged with crimes, the High Court of the Admiralty decided the fate of ships. The process is called condemnation, but as we found out, it has nothing to do with the seaworthiness of the ship. (4) Aguineaman is a ship trading with Guinea and, hence, a slave ship. (5) Sea letters were a form of ship's passport, and were often written in four languages. Signed by the President of the United
31
Historic Nantucket
States, they were issued to every whaling master when he left port. They contained the official stamp and signature of the collector of customs, and signatures of the deputy collector, a notary public and the master. They gave the master the right of free passage once he had taken an oath before an appropriate officer that his vessel was of United States origin, and they requested officials of foreign ports to receive him, the vessel and cargo, and "treat him in a becoming manner," permitting him to transact appropriate business (The Voice of the Whaleman, Stuart G. Sherman).
The corner of Main and Federal Streets, where the HUB is now located, was the site of the Periodical Depot in 1895.
