Historic Nantucket, October 1974, Vol. 22 No. 2

Historic Nantucket

Old Masonic Hall, Main Street, 50 years ago. Civic League headquarters, second floor, Western Union Telegraph office, first floor. Now restored the structure is the Trust Department of the Pacific Bank.

OCTOBER, 1974 Published Quarterly by NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION NANTUCKET, MASSACHUSETTS

NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION OFFICERS President, Leroy H. True.

Vice-Presidents, Albert G. Brock, George W. Jones, Alcon Chadwick, Albert F. Egan, Jr., Walter Beinecke, Jr., Mrs. Charles Clark Coffin.

Honorary Vice-Presiden s, W. Ripley Nelson, Henry B. Coleman Secretary, Richard C. Austin Treasurer, John N. Welch Councillors, Leroy H. True, Chairman, Robert Metters, George A. Snell, terms expire 1975; (Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman, Miss Mary Gardner, terms expire 1976, Benjamin Richmond, Francis W. Pease, terms expire 1977; Mrs. R. A. Orleans, H. Mitchell Havemeyer, terms expire 1978.

Curator, Miss Dorothy Gardner Historian, Edouard A. Stackpole Editor, "Historic Nantucket", Edouard A. Stackpole; Assistant Editor, Mrs. Merle Turner Orleans.

STAFF Oldest House: Chairman, Mrs. Kenneth S. Baird Receptionists: Mrs. Margaret Crowell, Miss Adeline Cravott Hadwen House-Satler Memorial: Chairman, Mrs. Phoebe P. Swain Receptionists: Mrs. Irving A. Soverino, Miss Marjorie Burgess, Miss Maud Jackson, Mrs. Lucile P. Bell 1800 House: Chairman, Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman Receptionist: Mrs. John Kittila, Sr. Old Gaol: Chairman, Albert G. Brock Whaling Museum: Chairman, Hugh R. Chace Manager, William W. Walmsley Receptionists: Mr. Clarence H. Swift, Mrs. Harold KMlen, Mrs. Her­ bert Sandsbury, Abram Niles, James A. Watts, Jesse Dunham.

Peter Foulger Museum: Chairman and Director, Edouard A. Stackpole Receptionists: Mrs. Elizabeth B. Worth, Mrs. Clara Block, Mr. Joseph Sylvia Librarian: Mrs. Louise Hussey Nathaniel Macy House: Chairman, Mrs. John A. Baldwin Receptionists: Mrs. Sarah Morris, Miss Dorothy Hiller Archaeology Department: Chairman, Paul C. Morris, Jr. Field Supervisor, Miss Barbara Kranichfeld Old Town Office: Chairman, Hugh R. Chace Old Mill: Chairman, Richard F. Swain Folger-Franklin Seat & Memorial Boulder: Chairman, Francis Sylvia.

Friends Meeting House-Fair Street Museum: Chairman, Mrs. Harding U. Greene, Co-chairman, Mrs. Alfred M. P. Amey

HISTORIC NANTUCKET Published quarterly and devoted to the preservation of Nantucket's antiquity, its famed heritage and its illustrious past as a ivhaling port.

VOLUME 22

October, 1974

No. 2

CONTENTS Nantucket Historical Association Staff and Officers Editorial

5

New Light on Herman Melville's Cruise in the Charles and Henry

by Wilson L. Heflin

6

Stobart Painting of Nantucket Harbor

28

Stereoptican Slide Lecture by E. A. Stackpole

29

Annual Report of Curator

30

Legacies and Bequests

31

Historic Nantucket is published quarterly at Nantucket, Massachusetts, by the Nantucket Historical Association. It is sent to Association Members. Extra copies $.50 each.

Membership dues are — Annual-Active $5.00 : Sustaining S25.00 ; Life — one payment $100.00.

Second-class postage paid at Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Copyright, 1974, Nantucket Historical Association Communications pertaining to the Publication should be addressed to the Editor, Historic Nantucket, Nantucket Hstorical Association, Nantucket, Massachusetts 02554.

CO c5

-3 3

>» J5

oT CO *0 3 CO. O T—I

ffi c

• f-H <D =: <u

1" °-£ m

OS

£sz

£v II Lin

co

rO

CD Sh :=!

c$ *£ rC^ O <D SS

!>> IS

C

OS £

.5 fe boK

sl s g?

CO ^ 3 g S

£

v m be s°3 • l~H

If

OS

§ffi ©«w £

0

i*! 1 ^

cy CO =5

CO "S^ o * £ cS -2 £ C2 «S

5

Preservation, Progress and Bicentennial An Editorial THE ENTIRE FUTURE of Nantucket is based on two key fac­ tors — Preservation and Protection. To avoid the fate of so many places which have been sustained by their historical back­ grounds, but have fallen prey to that fallacious term "Progress," this island and town has no second choice. The unique attraction which has built up the economy of Nantucket is being so dam­ aged by the trends of modernity that it can not sustain further deterioration. Not only has the developer destroyed some of the stretches of the heathland that had served as a major asset, but the apathy of the islanders themselves continues to contribute to the decline of efforts to check the destruction of our natural assets.

True progress means striving toward the attainment of certain goals. One of the real goals for Nantucket is to retain its position, as not only a summer resort which annually at­ tracts visitors from many States and countries, but as the resort that has preserved and protected its characteristic features — commodities that are as much a "stock in trade" as saleable qualities as the produce of a chain store. As islanders — both as visitors and residents — our task is first to preserve these assets and then to protect them.

An elected town official has a duty to the community in the exercise of his particular role. The present is merely an oppor­ tunity to build for the future. Many decisions in recent years were made as expedients, with little thought of the years ahead.

At a town meeting a few years back it was voted to make the entire island an Historic District. What has been done to make this declaration of the will of the people into a vital factor for the future?

Preservation does not mean wrapping Nantucket up as an embalmed mummy. It means maintaining an arterial flow of blood to sustain the life of this island community. Protection does not mean the creation of a police state, but it does mean the exercise of legal functions that will keep at bay the developer and the "get-rich-quick" operator.

Nantucket as an historical landmark within the framework of the United States must be protected from modernity. Once destroyed, it will never be quite the same — despite millions spent for restoration. As a contribution toward the nation's Bi-Centennial celebration islanders and summer islanders should devote their time, energy, thoughts and money toward preserving and protecting this town and island, which is a priceless legacy to America, left as a heritage by a race of people who, in their own time, created this "Kingdom of the Sea."

6

New Light 011 Cruise of Herman Melville In the Charles and Henry

BY WILSON L. HEFLIN

I DURING MORE THAN two decades since the identification, in 1949, of Herman Melville's third whaler as the Charles and Henry of Nantucket, Captain John B. Coleman, Jr.,1 very few pertinent records have turned up to illuminate Melville's six months aboard that ship. Letters from Captain Coleman on earlier voyages, sent to whaleship owners Charles G. and Henry Coffin, and a wealth of documents concerning the building of the Charles and Henry and her previous voyages were found in the attic of the Henry Coffin House, 75 Main Street, Nantucket;2 Historian Edouard A. Stackpole noted that a journal of his great-granduncle tells a great deal about Captain Coleman's first command, aboard the Zenas Coffin (1832-1835) ;3 and Professor Edgar L. McCormick discovered an obituary in a Ravenna, Ohio, newspaper which summarized Captain Coleman's whaling career.4 But little sub­ stantive information concerning the 1840-1845 voyage of the Charles and Henry has been met with. Perhaps the most im­ portant single item has been the letter from Captain Coleman, November 2, 1842, at Eimeo (where Melville joined the ship) to owners Charles and Henry Coffin, now in Mrs. Barbara John­ son's whaling museum.5 Beyond that, a few mentionings of the voyage in contemporary logbooks and a few reports in the mari­ time columns of newspapers have been noted.

Last year Historian Stackpole found a treasure trove of documents which considerably amplify the record. While making an inventory of items in the Nantucket Whaling Museum for possible transfer to the new Peter Foulger Museum, he came upon a trunk in the attic which contained many papers hitherto unnoticed. Mr. Stackpole immediately recognized the importance of his discovery: here were very detailed records, financial and personal, of whaling voyages made in ships owned by Charles G. and Henry Coffin. Excited further search revealed 182 papers, neatly folded and tied — all related to the 1840-1845 voyage of the Charles and Henry.

Many of these papers were individual bills from Nantucket merchants, artisans, shipwrights and laborers for the outfitting and repair of the ship. Among the purchases by the Coffin broth­ ers were three new whaleboats, 75 harpoons and nine lances, a new mizzen mast, sheathing copper, paint, pitch, oil casks, 1400 bungs, a ton of hemp, 400 pounds of nails, duck, tar, handspikes, hammers, rivets, 236 feet of plank, a new bowsprit and bobstay chains, 440 reef points, lanterns, backstays, cutting blocks and jack blocks, lance warps, bolt ropes, ten tons of iron hoops, a new

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

7

stove and galley equipment, five compasses and five spy-glasses, -one 160-gallon trypot, 1217 feet of cedar boards, 3485 yards of sail cloth, 658,8 feet of sheathing boards, worm line, a surgeon's am­ putating knife — and so on. Well might Melville declare in Chap­ ter 20 of Moby-Dick: Every one knows what a multitude of things — beds, sauce-pans, knives and forks, shovels and tongs, napkins, nut-crackers, and what not, are indispensable to the business of housekeeping. Just so with whaling, which necessitates a three-years' housekeeping upon the wide ocean, far from all grocers, coster-mongers, doctors, bakers, and bankers. And though this also holds true of merchant vessels, yet not by any means to the same extent as with whalemen. For besides the great length of the whaling voyage, the numerous articles peculiar to the prosecution of the fishery, and the impossibility of replacing them at the remote harbors usually frequented, it must be remembered that of all ships, whaling ves­ sels are the most exposed to accidents of all kinds, and especially to the destruction and loss of the very things upon which the success of the voyage most depends.

Hence, the spare boats, spare spars, and spare lines and harpoons, and spare everythings, but a spare Captain and a duplicate ship.

From these papers, now catalogued and placed in the vault of the Peter Foulger Museum, the following seem of special interest or significance: (1) the "Whalemen's Shipping Paper"; (2) the library of the Charles and Henry, (3) the bills for pro­ visions put aboard the ship; (4) the purchases for the "slopchest"; and (5) Captain Coleman's letter of May 7, 1843 from Lahaina, Maui, to the Coffin owners, written shortly after Mel­ ville was discharged from the whaler.

II The "Whalemen's Shipping Paper" of the Charles and Henry, with all entries dated December 15, 1840, contains the names of members of the original ship's company, their "Quality" (rank or rating),6 the witnesses to their signing on, and their "lays" or shares for the prospective voyage. The Crew List, which was originally deposited in the Nantucket Custom House, or that at Edgartown,7 was apparently destroyed by flood after it and similar documents were transferred to the Boston Custom House during the administration of Woodrow Wilson. Using the newly discovered "Whalemen's Shipping Paper" along with other rec­ ords, however, it is possible to recover most of the information contained in the original Crew List. In the Legislative, Judicial, and Fiscal Branch of the National Archives, there are "Abstracts of the Registry of American Seamen in the District of Nan­ tucket," "Abstracts of Protection Granted to American Seamen,"

8

Tff mlI'iMfrSKIfrSfa 53 aampfMMi VMSKB* m tr m> jmmai "V^JTJS^ntOGt: ssaasg "TCP"

wksss Umtmmmtf

• »ffl_k« >•» — ka*l4 1M><tmc4 kj iWO-ltr r.Tpt fc» rtrtrlly •» »| •» --oTikwr M»Ml.w.lW^tCT>^H»i.ai.w^nw«^<«»llnilni«i|,t»w>rf _t_ra tht| «<J be, Ora| Ik. n> 4.0*^byAa

/ftfr*. A«..

/S*

=F

/</. &.£<£—.

(fty Ah* /*,

Jl / . ^/., i fy^T •• A J3-*a£L*. r/A ** M .#.c/~

J . .. A /it

S,.^, X^.,

f

i*//.i fi y.r.ij Lie/iiUt0^S, t-<Y<f'»«

•&/C

•4« /&« -zy£rc/ti*^c&

w.

X. A,

C*>0. nlu^UI'm. iWv^

^JP^/LVh^ touPc '^'J' -Ail****,*

fri/Ctwrns #-? 'S* M- y-Jn'.

y#/ 3>U.^r^rUcyxt. y4* '/fo Shj. Sthjtffir /ft fin.AixtlSfA /ft. fat. fit /h» J*~~t<tf*?rt. ft*

j'i/S £<-.£*14

,.. jfey&f 0*r.A. ' ' »/qs. &uAU*a,*H6V.t far.

cZ,uSu.~*,t<h/<

% y y p

/tst A*/ ,i >,y*^t4t.

'• ^ 1^ 1 nl'i mi'irtfiflfci'tftr i -U~~.,d i.ri

'

""Mi

(ShaX*v .firofiA #*•

Ad/~~u~v*Lfii&CM' - -.dd -

•4s

«vi

Photo by Studio 13

The Crew List of the Nantucket whaleship Charles & Henry, when she sailed from Nantucket on December 15, 1840, under Captain John B. Coleman.

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

9

by John P. Norton, Collector of Customs for the District of Edgartown, and a most useful card index, once prepared by the W.P.A.8 With these aids and the "Whalemen's Shipping Paper,"9 it is possible to make the following composite of information about the personnel of the Charles and Henry.

Original Ship's Company for Charles and Henry Third Voyage: OFFICERS John B. Coleman, Master. Born, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia; resi­ dence, Nantucket; age, 40; height, 5 ft., 8% in.; complexion, dark; lay, l/17th.

James Folger, First Mate. Born, Nantucket; age, 23; height, 5 ft., 8 in. (in 1832) ; complexion, freckled; lay, l/29th.

Charles Wilson Carroll, Second Mate. Little available information about him, except that he was a "seaman" on the 1836-1840 voyage of the Charles and Henry under Captain George Joy. Lay for present voyage 1 /41st.

Terry King, Third Mate. No available information other than lay, l/60th. (Orginally George Jordan was listed as Third Mate and King as "Steersman," but the order was reversed.)

JUNIOR OFFICERS AND SPECIALISTS George Jordan, Boatsteerer. Born, New York City; age, 21; height, 5 ft. 8*4 in.; complexion, fair; hair, dark; eyes, hazel; lay, l/90th. (Steered waist boat.)

George Baldwin, probably Boatsteerer. Born, Nantucket; age, 20; height, 5 ft., 9(4 in.; complexion, light; hair, brown; eyes, blue; lay, 1 /80th.

Thomas Place, listed as Seaman but probably Boatsteerer, be­ cause of his lay. Born, Burlington, Vt.; age, 19; height, 5 ft., 6 in.; complexion, fair; hair, dark; eyes, hazel; lay, l/75th.

Seth S. Pinkham, Cooper. Born, Nantucket; age, 18; height, 5 ft.

5(4 in-.; complexion, dark; lay, l/90th.

John Backus, Cooper. Born, Barnstable; age, 17; height, 5 ft., 6 in.; complexion, sandy; lay, 1/70th.

James Daniels, Steward. Born, Nantucket; age, 25; height, 5 ft.

4(4 in.; complexion, "African," lay, 1 /145th.

William Williams, Cook, Born, Clinton, N. J.; age, 28; height, 5 ft.

11 in.; complexion, black; hair, "woolly"; eyes, black; lav, 1/145th.

Henry E. Gibbs, Seaman and Carpenter. Born, Nantucket; age, 18; height, 5 ft., 6(4 in.; complexion, light; lay, l/145th.

Foremast Hands (in their order on "Shipping Paper") ; Hollis H. Jenks, Jr. Born, Coventry, Rhode Island; age, 16; height 5 ft., 5 in.; complexion, "Brown"; lay, 1/160th.

Richard Birclsell. Born, Bedford, N. Y.; age, 18; height, 5 ft., 3 in.; complexion, light; hair, brown; eyes, blue; lay, l/175th.

10

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

John Allen. Born, Saratoga, N. Y.; age, 18; height, 5 ft., 3 in.; complexion, light; hair, brown; eyes, blue; lay, l/175th.

Christopher Cain. Born, Waterford, N. Y.; age, 20; height, 5 ft., 5% in.; complexion, fair; hair, dark; eyes, dark; lay, l/175th.

John Sears. Born, Saratoga, N. Y.; age, 18; height, 5 ft., 5 in.; complexion, fair; hair, dark; eyes, blue; lay, 1/175th.

Henry Stockivell. Born, New York City; age, 21; height, 5 ft., 7!/2 in.; complexion, light; lay, l/175th.

Francis Sherman. Born, Boston; age, 20; height 5 ft., 6 in.; com­ plexion, light; hair, brown; eyes, blue; lay, l/175th.

John Hita (Tahita). Lay, l/150th. No further information. Prob­ ably a foreigner, not accorded Seaman's Protection.

John Bull. Lay, 1 /150th. Probably a foreigner.

George Stone. Born, Newburyport, Mass.; age, 19; height, 5 ft., 6 in.; complexion, light; hair, brown; eyes, hazel; lay 1/170th.

John Smith. Born, Haverstraw, N. Y.; age, 19; height 5 ft., 7 in.; complexion, fair; hair, dark; eyes, hazel; lay, l/175th.

Clinton Soper. Born, Haverstraw, N. Y.; age, 19; height 5 ft., 6 in.; complexion, fair; hair, dark; eyes, hazel; lay 1/175th.

William Roberts. Born, Philadelphia; age, 19; height, 5 ft., 6 in.; complexion, fair; hair, dark; eyes, hazel; lay l/175th.

Charles Fudger. No data found except his lay, 1 /136th, and the fact that he sailed again in the Charles and, Henry, June, 1845.

Alexander M. Creighton. Born, Albany, N. Y.; age, 20; height, 5 ft., 8 in.; complexion, light; hair, dark; eyes, blue; lay, 1/175th.

Of the twenty-seven officers and men of the ship — two more than were numbered in the crew of the Acushnet of Fairhaven, Melville's first whaler — only five are identifiable as being Nan­ tucket born. Eight of the green hands seem to have come in a group from New York State, several of them from Melville's neck of the woods. John Tahita ("Hita" on the "Shipping Paper") 10 and John Bull were evidently foreigners and not en­ titled to American seamen's protection. Five of the men were incapable of signing their names. Only George Baldwin, now a boatsteerer, had previously served with Captain Coleman — as a seaman in the Cataivba.1 1 Judging from Captain Coleman's letter of May 7, 1843, printed hereafter, seventeen members of this original crew were shipmates of Herman Melville; ten whalemen either deserted or were discharged. When the ship came to anchor in Lahaina Roads late in April, 1843, at the end of her cruise, she had eighteen Americans, including Melville, and ten foreigners on board.12 George Jordan, a boatsteerer, deserted before the whaler arrived at Eimeo, and Captain Coleman "was not sorry."13 Another boat-

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

11

steerer, who was shipped at Paita, had proved unsatisfactory and had been discharged. Two men, who ran away at Eimeo, were chased by the natives and may have been returned on board.

And Captain Coleman wrote from Eimeo that he was forced to sign on at "great lays" three deserters from the ship John Adams.

Of the ten foreigners who arrived with Melville at Lahaina, some must have been "Kanakas." It is idle to speculate that one of these Polynesians was the prototype of Queequeg in Moby-Dick, or that John Tahita of the original crew might have been the model. At Eimeo Captain Coleman wrote that he was going to ship another boatsteerer. It is generally assumed that Herman Melville was so signed on.14 Ill The Charles and Henry on this voyage was truly, to use Melville's phrase, "a luckless ship in the fishery." During Mel­ ville's protracted cruise of six months, from Eimeo in the Society Islands to Lahaina on Maui, whales were sighted only six times.

As the craft moved on, in her vigilant, intensive sweeping of the whaling grounds, there should have been many a leaden hour of unvarying sameness and ennui spent on board.

Fortunately for the crew, and especially for Herman Mel­ ville, the Charles and Henry carried a small library — a rarity in whaleships of the time15 — put aboard her by the Coffin own­ ers. It consisted of thirty-seven books and two magazines (pre­ sumably bound volumes of several issues). The choice of these books — many of them juvenile, didactic, and sentimental in character, — seems to indicate in the Coffin owners, or their stationer, a shrewd assessment of the levels of literacy and taste among whalemen, plus a concerned effort to provide moral suasion.

Dominant symbols in these volumes are home, fireside, country, and church. But this small library was intended to entertain, too.

Much of it was popular fiction, including nautical yarns, ro­ mances, and adventure stories. There were also works of history (even one on banking) and biography. A good number of these volumes were published in the year of the ship's sailing.

Books contained in the Charles and Henry's library are named in a bill from Andrew Macy to Charles and Henry Coffin, among the papers discovered by Mr. Stackpole. The short titles recorded in this bill are sometimes most difficult to identify fully, but with the use, as Melville would say, of the "best authorities,"16 the following listing may be arrived at: Books bought from Andrew M. Macy for Charles and Henry Library. December, 1840: "Moral Tales" (2 copies, 30c) — Samuel Griswold Goodrich [Peter Parley], Moral Tales, Boston, E. Littlefield, 1840 (Another title: Moral Tales: or, A Selection of Interesting Stories. By

12

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

the Author of Peter Parley. New York, Nafis and Cornish, 1840).

"Jack Halyard," 40c — William Samuel Cardell, Story of Jack Halyard, the Sailor Boy, or, The Virtuous Family. Designed for American children in families and schools. 30th ed., with appropriate questions, by M. T. Leavenworth, Philadelphia, U. Hunt, 1835.

"Young Christian," 75c — Jacob Abbott, The Young Christian: or, A Familiar Illustration of the Principles of Christian Duty. Stereotype ed., Boston W[illiam] Peirce, 1835. (Also Revised Edition, New York, American Tract Society, 1835.)

"Family Library" (4 selections, $2.00) — Probably selections from Harper's Family Library, which contained 105 vol­ umes in the fall of 1840.

"Constantinople f: Athens," 75c — Rev. Walter Colton, Visit to Constantinople and Athens, B'oston, Crocker & Brewster, 1836.

(Also published in New York, 1836, by Leavitt, Lord & Co.) "American Revolution," 33c — Many possibilities. A likely one: William Shepherd, History of the American Revolution . . .

1st American Ed. with Notes, Boston, Stimpson, 1832.

"Shipwreck on Desert Island," 58c — Probably The Shipwreck; or The Desert Island. A Moral Tale, Philadelphia, J. Kay, Jun. & Brother, 1840.

"Holden's Narrative," 20c — Horace Holden, A Narrative of the Shipwreck, Captivity, and Sufferings of Horace Holden and Benj. H. Nute: Who Were Cast Away in the American Ship Mentor, on the Peleiv Islands, in the Year 1832: And For Two Years Afterivards Were Subjected to Unheard of Suf­ ferings Among the Barbarous Inhabitants of Lord North's Island, Boston, Weeks, Jordan, 1839. (Also Boston, Russell, Shattuck and Co., 1836.)

"Strive & Thrive," — Mrs. Mary (Botham) Howitt, Strive and Thrive: A Tale . . . Boston, J. Munroe and Company, 1840.

"History of Banking." 25c — Possibly Richard Hildreth, The History of Banks: To Which Is Added, A Demonstration of the Advantages and Necessity of Free Competition in the Business of Banking, Boston, Hilliard, Gray & Company, 1,837.

"Hope on, Hope Ever," 50c — Mrs. Mary (Botham) Howitt, Hope on\ Hope Ever! or, The Boyhood of Felix Law, Boston, James Mutoroe and Company, 1840.

"Victims of Gaming," 42c — The Victims of Gaming; Being Ex­ tracts From the Diary of An American Physician, Boston, Weeks, Jordan & Co., 1838.

"Graham's Lecture," 50c — Sylvester Graham. A Lecture to

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

13

Young Men on Chastity, 6th stereotype ed., Boston, George W. Light, 1839.

"Home," 33c — Probably [Catharine Maria Sedgwick,] Home.

Domestic Tales. Boston, James Munroe and Co. 1837, 12th ed.

"Scenes in Nature," 62c — [Mrs. Jane (Halimand) Marcet,] Scenes in Nature; or, Conversations for Children, On Land and Water, Boston, Marsh, Capen, Lyon, and Webb, 1840.

"Merchant's Widow," 25c — Mrs. Barbara (Wreaks) Hoole Hofland, The Merchant's Widow, and Her Family, Boston, Printed by Munroe & Francis, at Their Juvenile Library, No. 4 Cornhill [182-?].

"Life of Harrison," 37c — Probably Richard Hildreth, The Peo­ ple's Presidential Candidate; or The Life of William Henry Harrison, of Ohio, Boston, Weeks, Jordan and Company, 1840. 3rd ed.

"Child's Robinson Crusoe," 63c — Possibly The Children's Rob­ inson Crusoe; or, The Remarkable Adventures of an English­ man, Who Lived Five Years on an Unknown and Uninhab­ ited Island of the Pacific Ocean, By a Lady [Eliza Ware (Rotch) Farrar] . . . Boston, Hilliard, Gray, Little, and Wilkins, 1830. (Another possibility: The Life and Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; From the Original Work of Daniel Defoe.

A Neiv Edition Carefully Adapted to Youth [by S. G. Good­ rich?] Illus. by engravings. New York, Pub. by C. Wells, 1836. ["Purified from every thought and expression which might sully the mind ... of youth."]

"Oberlin," 25c — Possibly Johann Friedrich Oberlin, Memoirs . . . with an introduction [by Henry Ware, Jr.], Cambridge, Hil­ liard & Brown, 1832. (Other possibilities: Life of John F. Oberlin, AmericaJn Sunday School Union; and Oberlin, pseud., A Letter on the Unitarianism of the First Three Centuries of the Christian Era, Meadville, 1830,) "Young Rover, " 38c — [John H. Amory,] The Young Rover, Boston, James B. Dow, 1836.

"Fireside Piety," 42c — Jacob Abbott, Fire-Side Piety, or, The Duties and Enjoyments of Family Religion, Boston, Crocker and Brewster, 1834. (Also New York, Leavitt, Lord & Co., 1834.)

"Young Man From Home," 37c — Rev. John Angell James, The Young Man From Home, New York, American Tract So­ ciety, 1839. (Also New York, Appleton & Co., 1,840.)

"Are You a Christian," 10c — [John Lowell], Are You a Chris­ tian or a Calvinist? or, Do You Prefer the Authority of Christ to That of the Genevan Reformer? Both the Form and Spirit of These Questions Being Suggested by the Late Review of American Unitarianism in the Panoplist and By the Rev. Mr. Worcester's Letter to Mr. Cbanning. To Which Are Added, Some Strictures on Both Those Works. By A Layman.

Boston, Wells and Lilly, 1815.

14

;Jr/. ,/ g-c. «2

<t- ^»

^l„y

/

«*- /S

/ /

/

.<fa

sfaxJ* *- JX»\ //ff< y'

/

-t_c£'^L>

/ .4/ / /

/%

/

SB 41s> JJ itu J7 ij ir jf 41J7 //> JB Jo 4/S

7

/^t f^**JL*s </#«€»-

^/

//<Wte//»€--

»7.J /if'r4?-r >. /A/t/

/fc-t~~-jr

^t»Ar

/ / /

i/

^-^la-M ^"«M.

./ <£

/'/. e^ »»u/

/

/

,

A<-

/

/

r 7 JJ jy JO SB

C- *#t-

/ /

y//~^j *ls Ae 1 7*~ J.'bo

• fa,.

«

-^A« TM, «_

^

^S ^ -/**« / TtLcJiLy / ^rU^if*UeS*V / ffifirr (l/a, / /rroyJt^j 4-tCt^,• /jt€+ /2ft.

/

/z_

Jf Jo JS~

/^TiyX*-^# A«t.-

/ ftjUy* /

ftlwt' *f

>/

/ fl»«_

.?./-

/ /l//^f7 7 'fa

/

/O-fK^

'/

**y-

.-'7'ikt-JJ*S . J^tS . JT/f/j/ //.'. M.

j

J/

tSZ.ct*, fatceA

/

j

//

/ £ jl 4

4 Stt.

/*/

Photo by Studio 13

The list of books comprising the Charles & Henry library.

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

15

"Readings in History," 30c — Unidentified.

"Pencil Sketches," 30c — Eliza Leslie, Pencil Sketches; or, Out­ lines of Character and Manners, Philadelphia, Carey, Lea & Blanchard. (There were three series of these, the third series being published in 1837.)

"Poor Jack," 45c — Captain Frederick Marryat, Poor Jack, New York, N. C. Nafis, 1840. (Also Philadelphia, Carey and Hart, 1840.)

"Harrison versus Van Buren," 12c — Very likely Richard Hildreth, The Contrast: or William Henry Harrison versus Mar­ tin Van Buren, Boston, Weeks, Jordan & Company, 1840.

(Cover title: William Henry Harrison versus Martin Van Buren.)

"Cabinet of Literature," 37c — Possibly The Cabinet of Litera­ ture, and Monthly Miscellany, Containing History, Biog­ raphy, Voyages, Travels, Curiosities of Nature and Art, Poetry, Music, Elegant Extracts, Select Anecdotes, Passing Events, etc., etc., New York, A. R. Crain & Co. 1833 —.

"Fire Side Book," 38c — Possibly The Fireside Book, A Miscel­ lany. With a Plate of Abbotsford. Philadelphia. Printed for the Trade, 1837.

"Washington," 50c — Difficult to identify. If a biography, there are many possibilities, including lives by J. K. Paulding, 1836, and Jared Sparks, 1832, but most likely it was Mason Locke Weems, The Life of George Washington, Philadelphia, J. Allen, 1840.

"People's Own Book," 25c — Hugues Felicite Robert de Lamennais, The People's Own Book, Tr. from the French by Nathan­ iel Greene. Boston, C. C. Little & J. Brown, 1839. (Also, Bos­ ton, E. Littlefield, 1840.)

"Coronal," 37c — Mrs. Lydia Maria (Francis) Child, The Cor­ onal. A Collection of Miscellaneous Pieces, Written At Var­ ious Times, Boston, Carter and Hendree, 1832.

"Paul and Virginia," 25c — Jacques-Henri Bernardin de SaintPierre, Paul and Virginia. Many editions. Possibly that trans­ lated "from the French" ... by Helen Maria Williams, Bos­ ton, Lilly, Wait & Co., 1834.

"Abbott's Magazine," 87c — Probably The Religious Magazine and Family Miscellany, edited by Jacob Abbott, Boston.

"Family Magazine," 88c — Probably The Family Magazine; or Monthly Abstract of General Knowledge ... v. 1-8, April 20, 1833 — 1840/41, New York, Redfield & Lindsay, 1834-40.

Total $16.24 Hardly the carefully ordered reading program of a univer­ sity, but since Melville declared in Moby-Dick (Chapter 24) that "a whale-ship was my Yale College and my Harvard," this little library should be taken into account among his early formative

16

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

influences. To this uncommonly literate and bookish young whale­ man, formerly president of the Philo Logos Society of Albany and contributor of two pieces of fiction to the Democratic Press and Lansingburgh Advertiser, these volumes must have proved most welcome. During his month in the valleys of Nukahiva, the brief tour of duty aboard the barque Lucy Ann, his imprison­ ment in the Calabooza Beretanee at Tahiti, and his days as a drifter on Eimeo, there had been little opportunity for reading.

Aboard the Charles and Henry on his "watches below" (off-duty), her small library must have provided a great deal more than a hedge against boredom.

It is tempting to suggest specific relationships between these books and portions of Melville's own fiction ("The Two Coats" and "The Indian Fighter" in Moral Tales, the very first book on the list, immediately come to mind), but doing so is beyond the scope of this article. A few general remarks, however, are per­ haps in order.

The owners of the whaler may have chosen for her library Holden's Narrative of a Shipwreck, Robinson Crusoe, and Shipivreck on Desert Island in order to dissuade their whalemen from deserting on savage Pacific isles. For Melville, however, these books could have produced an effect unanticipated. Reading them, and especially the account of Horace Holden's and Benjamin Nute's miserable experiences on Lord North's Island — the bar­ barous murder of their shipmates, their forced tattooing and the plucking of their beards, their feeble and exhausted condition after the natives refused them food, crawling about from place to place, subsisting on leaves — Melville must have recalled in strong contrast his recent near-idyllic sojourn in Taipi-Vai. It is difficult to avoid speculating that Typee was aborning on the very decks of the Charles and Henry.

In view of Melville's lifelong quest for cosmic certainty, the liberal religious literature in this library is of especial inter­ est. Charles and Henry Coffin were reared as Quakers but when young men became Unitarians,17 and some of the books in their ship's library reflect their religious persuasion. Melville, with his upbringing in the Dutch Reformed Church, must have found challenging the recently translated Livre de peuple of the Abbe de Lamennais, John Lowell's Are You a Christian or a Calvinist? and Johann Friedrich Oberlin's Memoirs (or was it A Letter on the Unitarianism of the First Centuries of the Chris­ tian Era, by Oberlin, pseud.?). John Lowell, James Lowell's uncle, declares boldly: "Jesus Christ himself was a Unitarian."

To be sure that particular title was unknown in his day. . . .

So far as his conduct, his language, his example and his precepts can have any weight in deciding what was his own relative char­ acter, and what were his notions of the unity and indivisibility of God, they fully support the proposition that he was in the sim­ ple sense of the word, an Unitarian. Much of Lowell's 69-page

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

17

tract is a long-winded, tedious attack by a Harvard-educated layman against Andover theologians, but his strictures on the tenets of old-line Calvinism are succinctly and cogently expressed.

For the young blubber-hunter of the Charles and Henry who was soon to round out his nautical career as an enlisted man in the frigate United States, Chaplain Walter Colton's florid ac­ count of the felicities of American navy life might have proved misleading. Captain Marryat's Poor Jack, however, besides in­ cluding some engaging yarns and a few sea chanteys, gives some attention to the not altogether romantic life of navy men and Creenwich pensioners.

IV In Chapter 76 of Herman Melville's Omoo, in what appears to be an autobiographical passage, the narrator and his friend Dr. Long Ghost paddle out in Taloo Bay, Eimeo, to "the good ship Leviathan" (a fictional vessel supposed to represent the Charles and Henry.). They are discouraged from shipping on board by misleading seamen tales of hard treatment and short rations.

"But," writes Melville, "we loitered awhile, listening to more inducements to ship; and at last concluded to stay to supper. My sheathknife never cut into better sea-beef than that which we found lying in the kid of the forecastle. The bread, too, was hard, dry, and brittle as glass; and there was plenty of both."

Melville, in Omoo, was frequently prone to exaggerate and dramatically enhance his actual experiences. But here, if he was passing judgment on the quality of chow aboard the Charles and Henry, he spoke true. In victualling the ship before her sailing, the brothers Coffin put aboard her "first quality Mess Beef" and "prime Pork." Some contemporary whaleship own­ ers are said to have been exceedingly parsimonious, purchasing execrable fare for their vessels, some of it most unpalatable. Not so the Coffin brothers. Their purchase of first-rate, wholesome food for the crew of the Charles and Henry evince a wholly gen­ erous, paternalistic attitude.

Most of the victualling of the ship was done locally by some twenty Nantucket merchants, men with names familiar in island history — Starbuck, Folger, Chase, Swain, Fisher, Coffin, Pollard, Gifford, Russell. The largest purchases were from Alex Robin­ son and John P. Swain. Only the mess beef was bought off-island, coming to Nantucket ini the Sloop Union.

Here is a single list, based on many separate bills, of the provisions put on board the Charles and Henry in December, 1840. One must be impressed by the amount of food (intended to provide all meals to all hands for many months), and its high quality, and the difference between prevailing prices in 1840 and those now.

18

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Provisions purchased for Charles and Henry's third voyage: Apples: 472 dozen, $30.58; Mess Beef: 127 barrels, $1,391.50; (One bill: "100 Bbls first quality Mess Beef") ; Brandy: 10 gal­ lons, $20.00; Butter: 1,104 tubs, $138.00; Cassia: 2 "Matts," 6 pounds, $1.50; Cheese: 204 pounds, $16.32; Chocolate: 2 boxes, 50 pounds, $10.00; Cigars: 24,000 "Alex Cigars," $60.00; Cinna­ mon: 1 pound and box, 45c; Cloves: 1 pound and box, 50c; Cod­ fish: 4 quintals, $13.00; Coffee: 10 bags, 1,094 pounds, plus 25 pounds, $123.32; Corn: 250 bushels, $140.00.

Pickled Cucumbers: 1 barrel, $5.00; Flour: 151 barrels, $815.25 ; Buckwheat Flour: one half barrel, $2.25; Gin: 10 gallons Holland Gin, $15.00; Ginger: 36 pounds, $6.00; Junk: 900 pounds, $15.75; Meal: 6 barrels, $21.00; Molasses: 1,928 gallons, $578.40; Mustard: 1 box and 1 bottle, $4.37; Mustard Seed: 7 pounds and jug, $2.00; Nutmeg: 172 pounds and box, $3.20.

Onions: 24 bushels, 525 bunches, and 14 bags for same, $22.08; Peas: 9 bushels, $13.50; Pepper: 42 pounds, plus tub and box, $9.52; Pepper Sauce: 1 box and 1 bottle, $4.00; Pollock: 240 pounds, $7.80; Prime Pork: 100 barrels, $1,200.00; Potatoes: 2 carts (1,037 pounds), 10 barrels, and 54 bushels, $123.31; Chinango Potatoes: 5 bushels, $2.50.

Raisins: 2 casks, $12.00; Rice: 900 pounds, $27.00; Netv Rice: 1 cask, $29.45; Old Rice: 1 cask (766 pounds), $26.81; Rum: 10 gallons, $15.00; Saleratus: 20 pounds, $2.50; Salt: 38(4 bushels, $19.12; Fine Salt: one half peck, 17c; Soap: 25 boxes, $29.17; Sugar: 1,073 pounds, $96.57; Brown Sugom: 50 pounds, $5.00; Crushed Sugar: 25 pounds and tub, $4.67; Siveet Oil: 2 bottles, $1.00; Sivordfish: 2 barrels, $16.00.

Tea: 3 chests (253 pounds), plus 6 pounds $156.00 ; "H" Tea: 74 chests (13 pounds), $12.35; "T.H." Tea: 1 chest (53 pounds), $39.75; Tobacco: 6 boxes (878 pounds), 5 boxes (619 pounds), 1% kegs (325 pounds), and 51 pounds, $232.89; Cider Vinegar: 3 barrels, $9.00; Wine 10 gallons and 4 kegs for same, $16.50; Port Wine: 5 gallons, $12.50.

Other bills: For baking flour, 131 barrels, $229.25; Freight on commission on pork, 100 barrels, $75.50; 8 cheese boxes, $1.33.

Some of these items must have been intended exclusively for the captain's table, especially such delicacies as the swordfish, the chocolate, the buckwheat flour, the crushed sugar (molasses was the standard sweetener for sailors), and the pepper sauce and spices. In the twenty-second month of her voyage, when Mel­ ville joined the Charles and Henry, many of these supplies had been expended, though Captain Coleman wrote from Eimeo to the Coffin owners that "the Ship is good and I have plenty of Provisions for four years. . .

In Chapter 99, "The Doubloon" of Moby-Dick, Flask, the third mate of the Pequod, speculates with questionable arithmetic that

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

19

the doubloon nailed to the mast "is worth sixteen dollars, that's true; and at two cents the cigar, that's nine hundred and sixty cigars." What might he have made of those 24,000 "Alex Cigars" aboard the Charles and Henry which cost the owners $60.00?

V

During the period when the Charles and Henry was being readied for sea in December, 1840, outfits costing $1504.40 were purchased for fifteen members of ship's company and charged to their accounts. Seaman Charles Fudger spent the most for his whaling togs and supplies for his sea chest ($153.17) and John Sears a green hand, the least ($62.77). The average outlay for a sea wardrobe for these whalemen was about $83.18 Other mem­ bers of the crew may have already owned sea-clothes or had purchased them independently for cash.

As the voyage progressed and clothes wore out or were lost, replacements could be purchased on credit from the "slop-chest" (the inelegant term used throughout the fishery and the mer­ chant marine for ship's store, or small stores). In the case of the Charles and Henry apparently all supplies for the slop-chest were bought by the Coffin owners from a single merchant, Justin Law­ rence.

Some whaleships carried large quantities of articles for barter with natives in purchasing fresh food at little-frequented islands of the Pacific,19 but the Charles and Henry did not. Sev­ eral items in the Coffin-Peter Foulger collection indicate that Captain Coleman made cash purchases during the voyage or used bills of exchange, payable in specie by the Coffin owners to tradesmen and agents in the South Seas.

Here is the list of articles purchased from Justin Lawrence for the slop-chest: Blankets, 15 pair, $37.50; Braces, 3 dozen, $3.75; Buttons, 6 gross, $4.50; Camphor, 3 pounds, $6.00; Scotch Caps, 4 dozen, $16.00; Coarse Combs, 3 dozen, $4.50; Fine Combs, 3 dozen, $4.50; Comforters, 1 dozen, $7.00; Kersey Drawers, 36, $40.50; "Cotton Flaggs," 12 pair, $15.00; Duck Frocks, 36, $33.00; Guernsey Frocks, 40, $30.00; Shave Glasses, half dozen, $2.00.

Covered Hats, 1 dozen, $5.50; Sennet Hats, 1 dozen, $10.00; Wool Hats, 1 dozen, $10.00; Hose, 8 dozen yarn hose, $40.00; Ink, 1 dozen bottles, $1.50; Green Jackets, 3, $6.75; Monkey Jack­ ets, 25 Pilot Monkey Jackets, $137.50; Round Jackets, 25 "Devo" and Pilot Round Jackets, $87.50; Satinette Jackets, 10 Satinette Round Jackets, $30.00; Thin Jackets, 24, $30.00.

Jackknives, 12 dozen, $40.58; Knives and Forks, 6 dozen, $9.00; Mittens, 2 dozen, $5.50; Best Mittens, 1 dozen, $3.00; Darn­ ing Needles, 500, $2.50; Sewing Needles, 1,000, $2.50; Palms, 1

20

Sf//0 (fflft nf J>,-f

.

. A^s/-y f/f <^fcM*£7 , cf&tsr

%' '/\-3S

- a- V

PfarrStL,

/ ./<>'

/

AiYSS

<% - 4«r>

C&*,.

/#" <?krr4—/

cjf^3&5

. ^/.ZJ~ S.-63/1-*. .y'f^s/rJ /.// tjgjf / SO - . _ — sr. - -3v? «f<£ -• -. yisrtry^ •& f/fttrrt/. »___ •<?

- a.\.J OCCrff c.

3 4to ctz (s^ittiuS .. _• ^4, •"/ cSiAJ . :__ «/ -3rt 3&*> ^ /

J .ife c.^ , ./ -^jT? fzTe^L" C&kOr ' 4 o 3 3.

-3

/st j& /sC r C4y "3 -v_ 3 ~

-2 • --2 X » jf

fy J} .?« _

^ v

-32 -30 /3J~~.... //9f „ _ _

-*£v A> jf# v_

«f<7 v_ l, //>&

./J _

&&*/> -- yfs~ ssy s* as. .(/a*-zS «_ -/-. y'S ._ ?/a*~ ytZ^t^ « 4T S/t -

^ <92 •_

^ifc/8sy «—3^/~ -tf

sr. - O. ^ X?rat, s?r^4, . <^V

•!

—

w_

•'

</-*- «3 - 4<-

•£/-

CPsSS #/>«.{> r&y .-/.zr- 30 _ X4/^jrrcer, «•<^yj> -•? /« 42^ cS&Lyjd, .

«4 w*^_ ' •3 «/ St^S-O^atS « «-? yv~ 4? *?6 &a^n-, < yfe- ~-

.r •f-Xj,

^

__ . /*fj .—t# ...

Photo by Studio 13 A document from Charles and Henry Coffin Company's papers detailing supplies put aboard the ship Charles & Henry.

•vmmmmM' r

/" <^, '^JW Wa29 /• •-—.•• w^ ^3i

c

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

21

dozen "Mtd Palms," $3.00; Slate Pencils, 1 dozen, 33c; Pots and Pans, 4 dozen, $10.00; Razor Strops, 2 dozen, $13.00.

Scissors, 1 dozen pairs, $4.00; Shave Boxes, 1 dozen, $1.50; Shave Brushes, 1 dozen, $1.50; Fancy Shirts, 30 $25.50; Kersey Shirts, 60, $105.00; Striped Shirts, 250, $175.00; Red Twill Shirts, 40, $70.00; Slates, 1 dozen, $2.00; Shave Soap, 6 dozen bars, $3.00; Pumps (Shoes), 150 pairs, $127.50; Stout Shoes, 75 pair, $75.00; Spoons, 3 dozen, $1.87.

Table Covers, 2, $2.25; Fancy Table Covers, 1, $2.13; Thim­ bles, 2 dozen, $1.50; Thread, 20 pounds, $22.50; Duck Trousers, 200 pairs, $140.00; Pilot and "Devo" Trousers, 50 pairs, $125.00; Satinette Trousers, 54 "Satinette Devo Trowsers," $108.00, Thin Trousers, 24 pairs, $24.00; Thin Vests, 24, $14.37; Woolen Vests, 18, $22.50; Yarn, 36 Skeins, $12.00. Total, $1,724.53.

In Omoo (Chapter 82), Melville observed that "an Ameri­ can sailor is generally distinguished by his red frock; and an English tar, by his blue one; thus reversing the national colors."

The slop-chest of the Charles and Henry contained forty red twill shirts but a great many more striped ones. One would judge from the quantities of articles in the list that the working out­ fit of a well-dressed Nantucket foremast hand in the South Seas consisted of a Scotch cap, striped shirt, duck frock, duck trousers, and stout shoes. For an icy Cape Horn passage, wool hats, kersey shirts, Gurnsey frocks, monkey jackets, pilot trous­ ers, woolen vests, and kersey drawers seem to have been indi­ cated. The satinette jackets and trousers were probably intended for go-ashore-togs at South American seaports.

When Melville was in London in December, 1849, trying to find a publisher for White-Jacket, he "went & bought a Paletot in the Strand, so as to look decent — for I found my green coat plays the devil with my respectability here."20 When he joined the crew of the Charles and Henry in November, 1842, it is doubtful that he acquired one of the green coats in her slopchest. Aboard the Nantucket whaler, a green coat may have be­ tokened respectability, even command.

VI To Captain John B. Coleman, Jr., the customary chore of writing a cruise report to owners of the ship under his com­ mand grew increasingly more disagreeable as the voyage pro­ gressed. In all his whaling years — almost nineteen according to the record and more than ten of them as a captain — he had never made a worse voyage. In late April, 1843, when he brought the Charles and Henry to Lahaina on Maui, he concluded a very protracted cruise, but despite his persistent searching for whales, the average take had been less than twenty-seven barrels a month. This was somewhat better than his previous average for

22

•

~-s6' s# *

*

ayt^- .-'W-^ •<- .t" /t...••• // *Z) yfy^yf^y^^

" Ji

•S/y?*- ^ .^<i.

y

•

•rJsftays^-

-

•

s^ si, ^

3

y y s£yS e,~M. ,x^

_ , ^S<f . j:,y- sSfx^T—yf aa^~. ^...y^ y^-y ^fi^esr

<^py

-

,<y

yi.^.

?y- ~" J '?/-*/<-, A*yy«~:j

/-

ssvs

/

'.- '-^

V.

^'" "* '

...

^"» '

' ..<-~^

.#^1—'

tj/ ys' y£C~ •t"- . „.j.

Photo by Studio 13

Captain John B. Coleman's letter to the owners of the ship written from Lahaina on the island of Maui in the Sand­ wich (Hawaiian) Islands on May 7, 1843.

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

23

the disappointing voyage (less than eighteen barrels a month), but no real indication of a change in luck.

In his letter to owners Charles and Henry Coffin from Eimeo, November 2, 1842, he had recalled resentfully that the mates and boatsteerers who served under him — a negligent and incompe­ tent lot — had not been of his choosing. (It appears that the Coffin owners originally intended in the winter of 1840 to send Captain George F. Joy to sea again as master of the Charles and Henry for the third time and that Captain Joy and Captain Benjamin Coggeshall named the officers and boatsteerers for the voyage. At the last minute, it seems, there was a change in plans. The owners decided to give Captain Joy a longer vacation in port and reward him with command of their new ship, the Columbia. Captain Coleman, therefore, was named master of the Charles and Henry and was stuck with the officers and boat­ steerers already chosen.) Furthermore, he wrote from Eimeo, the whales had been wild, and there had been a glut of ships on the whaling grounds.

Captain Coleman's letter from Lahaina on May 7, 1843 (with a brief paragraph added on May 10) is much shorter but carries the same refrain as did the one immediately preceding it.

It conveys the picture of a whaling master exasperatingly help­ less under conditions beyond his control. Here is his letter, edited somewhat: Maui May 7 1843 I arrived here a few days since with only 500 bis Spm [sperm] oil bound to Japan in hopes to find some whales that I can get. I have seen whale six times last cruise and got 160 bis and [the boats] drove of [f] 100 bls[.] I have not got a man in the ship that I can call a good boat steerer neither have I had [one] this voyage. They have missed many whales I think about 400 bis. I am much dissatisfied with my officers and have been all the voyage. I am surprised that Capt. [George] Joy and Capt [Benjamin] Coggeshall should recommend men to you when certainly they ought to have known they were not fit for the office[.] I think that Gor[h]am Coffins recommend[ing] of the [ship] Walter Scotts officers was correct. I have got a pretty good crew now and the boat steerers are better than they have been. I think if we see whales we may get some, the Ship is in good Order tho the Copper is most of it of[f]. I cannot tell which way I shall go after this season to Japan but if there is no danger of worms getting in the Ship I should lik [e] to go another season to Japan and then home. Pro­ visions are Cheap at these Islands so that enough for a passage home would not amount to [a] great deal.

24

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

I can get a pretty fair recruit [supplies] here and shall be ready to sail in a few days[.]

May 10 I am now on my passage to Oahu to get my Chron­ ometer wheels [,] sent down from Mowee to be re­ paired [;] it [the chronometer] stoptd two months ago.

I have lost Henry E. Gibbs by Desertion at Mowee which makes eleven this voyage and in their stead I have got mostly Kanakkas[.]

J B Coleman Endorsed upon receipt at Nantucket John B Coleman Letter. 5 m 10, 1843 This laconic report is disappointing today because there is no mention in it of Herman Melville. But there was, in May, 1843, really no good reason why there should be. Melville was unknown to the owners in Nantucket. He had stipulated for the cruise, apparently, and was discharged at the end of it. If he had been a harpooner of the Charles and Henry, he had proved to be no great shakes in the bow of a whaleboat nor for that matter had any other boatsteerer, in Captain Coleman's opinion.

Melville seems to have left the ship without bitterness or reproach. His connection with the Charles and Henry is pleas­ antly reflected in the closing pages of Omoo and the opening sec­ tion of Mardi. Captain Coleman is, of all the ship commanders who make their appearance in Melville's books, the only one for whom he had a good word to say. He was doubtless the original of Melville's captain of the "Leviathan" in Omoo — "a sailor and no tyrant" — and of the master of the "Arcturion" in Mardi, a skipper who "himself was a trump; stood upon no quarter-deck dignity; and had a tongue for a sailor."

It seems clear that the author of Moby-Dick, who did not visit the "far-away island" until 1852, could never have written so confidently and so affectionately of a Nantucket ship, of Nan­ tucket whalemen, and Nantucket lore had he not served for six months in the Charles and Henry.

VII There remain to be found two important documents to fill out the record of Melville's cruise in the Charles and Henry: the "Oil Book" and the logbook of the voyage.

An "Oil Book"' is a small, leather-covered booklet (some of them are 4 in. x 6(4 in-) containing a detailed record of head and body oil captured by a whaleship, miscellaneous expenses, and the individual accounts of each member of a ship's company — his debits (advances, purchases from the "slop-chest," and other

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

25

expenses charged against him) and his credits (his "lay" or share of the oil taken, and, in the case of Charles and Henry Coffin ships, usually a bonus for the voyage). Herman Melville's account must have appeared in the "Oil Book" of the Charles and Henry, for these little books contained complete financial records of ships' personnel. There are many such "Oil Books" in the Coffin-Carlisle archive in Nantucket (among them that of Cap­ tain Coleman's previous voyage in the Catawba and those of earlier voyages of the Charles and Henry), and a few are in the Peter Foulger Museum. But the important "Oil Book" for the 1840-1845 voyage is still missing. From the vast records of the firm of Charles and Henry Coffin, collectors have acquired, over the years, certain papers and letters, and some of them have given these to the Nantucket Historical Association.21 The missing "Oil Book" may now be in private hands.

The logbook of this voyage is, of course, its most important single record. Contained in it was an account of the events of each day from noon to noon, of winds and weather, whales sighted and lowered for, of deserters and men signed on, ships spoken and gammed with, islands seen, and incidents aboard ship and on the sea. James Folger, the young first mate of the Charles and Henry, kept the log. He was a bachelor during the voyage, but after his return to Nantucket in March, 1845, bring­ ing the ship in from Edgartown,22 he married Harriet S. Parker.23 Perhaps some Folger descendant today owns this im­ portant logbook and will make it available for scholarly study.24 Footnotes

1. See "Melville's Third Whaler," Modern Lanquage Notes, LXIV (April, 1949), 241-245.

2. Mrs. Henry Coffin Carlisle, and the late Miss Elsie Carlisle have graciously permitted and cordially encouraged study, during many years, of the vast records of the firm of Charles and Henry Coffin.

3. In the Moby-Dick Centennial Observance of the Nantucket Historical Association, August 15, 1951, interesting portions of this journal and of the archive in the attic on 75 Main Street were discussed. See Wilson L. Heflin, "Melville and Nantucket," Proceedings of the Nantucket Historical Asso­ ciation (1951), 22-30; reprinted in Moby-Dick Centennial Essays (Dallas, 1953), pp. 165-179.

4. Edgar L. McCormick, "Melville's Third Captain," Historic Nantucket, IX (April, 1962), 61-65.

5. This letter is printed in Jay Leyda, The Melville Log, I (New York, 1951), pp. 155-156.

6. There is much carelessness in the recording of the "Quality" of these men on the "Whalemen's Shipping Paper." For ex­ ample two men were named as being "Cooper"; surely one of them was the blacksmith. No distinction is made as to

26

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

HISTORIC NANTUCKET

the different grades of foremast hands, such as seaman, ordi­ nary seaman, and green hand, usually found in other con­ temporary shipping papers. The signatures are difficult to decipher, but many bills for the men in the collection help considerably.

The Charles and Henry sailed from Edgartown; her crew list may have been deposited at the Custom House there.

Thanks are due to Mrs. Hope K. Holdeamper and Mr. Don King, of the National Archives staff, who were most helpful in providing information and suggestions.

Among relevant bills in the Peter Foulger Museum collection are those paid to John P. Norton, Collector of Customs at Edgartown, for protection slips for 14 seamen of the ship, as well as for Entry, Clearance, and Endorsement, Sea Letter and Certificates, Certified List, Bond and Bill of Health, Certified Copy of Shipping Articles and Blanks.

The name "John Tahita" appears on several bills in the collec­ tion. He signed his name with an X on the "Shipping Paper."

"Oil Book" of the Catawba in the Coffin-Carlisle archive.

"Consular Return of American-Vessels arriving at, and de­ parting from Lahaina Maui . . . from the 1st of Jany 1848 to the 1st of July 1843 inclusive," Miscellaneous Correspondence, 1838-1843, Honolulu, Foreign Section, the National Archives.

This, and the following information, is found in Captain Coleman's letter of November 2, 1.842, from Eimeo, in the Museum of Mrs. Barbara Johnson, Princeton, N. J. Melville, with some exaggeration, wrote the publisher Rich­ ard Bentley on June 27, 1850, claiming to have had "personal experience of two years & more as a harpooneer." He was a green hand in the Acushnet and an able seaman aboard the Lucy Ann. If he ever served as a boatsteerer, he must have done so in the Charles and Henry.

See Harry R. Skallerup's excellent study, Books Afloat & Ashore, Archon Books, Hamden, Conn., 1974, p. 103.

Most helpful were The National Union Catalog. Pre-1956 (339 volumes so far), Mansell, 1968-1974, plus cards of the Union Catalog of the Library of Congress; and the Catalogue of the Boston Athenaeum (5 volumes), Boston, 1874-1882. Orville A. Roorbach's Bibliotheca. Americana. Catalogue of American Publications . . . From 1820 to 1852, Inclusive, New York, 1852, with book prices current, was a good check against the prices charged by Andrew Macy, whose discount to the Cof­ fins was not always uniform. Only two of the books on this bill are presently in the Nantucket Athenaeum: Cotton's Visit and Paul and Virginia. The suggestions of Associate Librar­ ian Harry Skallerup of the Nimitz Library, U.S. Naval Acad­ emy, are much appreciated.

According to Mrs. Henry Coffin Carlisle, Eliza Starbuck, who

MELVILLE AND THE "CHARLES AND HENRY"

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

93

24

27

married Henry Coffin, was excluded from the Society of Friends for erecting a gravestone in memory of her father, Levi Starbuck, in the Quaker Burial Ground. The Henry Coffins became Unitarians. In the obituary of Henry Coffin, in the Nantucket Inquirer and Mirror of March 10, 1900, one finds the following statements: "His religious convictions were based on the simple and trusting traditions of the So­ ciety of Friends, in whose membership both he and his wife were born, but his natural religion was his preference for and example in a pure life and for good deeds and integrity of character. In early life and always since he became identi­ fied with the Unitarian Society of this town, and was for forty years officially active in the church and Sunday school, falling into retirement only when so compelled by deafness. He was a founder and member of the Nantucket Athenaeum and con­ tributed always to its support and its curiosities.'"

Other big spenders were James Daniels, the steward ($117.97), William Williams, the cook ($105.61), John Tahita, seaman ($102.66), and George Jordan, boatsteerer, ($147.44). Jordan later deserted the ship.

Elmo Paul Hohman, The American Whaleman, New York, 1928, p. 247.

Leyda, The Melville Log, I p. 346.

Mr. Thomas Hallowell purchased at auction many years ago some of these papers and later generously donated them to the Nantucket Whaling Museum. They have since been trans­ ferred to the Peter Foulger Museum.

On the back of the ship's register of the Charles and Henry, in the National Archives is the following statement: "District & Port of Edgartown March 10, 1845 James Folger having taken the oath required by law is at present Master of the within [named] vessel in lieu of John B Coleman late Master.

Vital Records of Nantucket, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850, Boston, 1925. James Folger, born 1817, was the son of Daniel and Mary Brown Folger.

Many thanks are due to Mrs. Reginald Hussey, Mrs. Elizabeth Worth, and Miss Helen Winslow for suggestions and assist­ ance while this article was being prepared.

28

Print of Stobart Painting of Nantucket Harbor Presented to Historical Association THE NANTUCKET Historical Association has been presented a handsome print of the painting of Nantucket Harbor in 1835 by the marine artist John Stobart. Titled "Nantucket — The Celebrated Whaling Port in 1835" the print is one of the artist's final proof prints and is a colorful and exciting scene, depicting the harbor during the height of its 19th century whaling prosper­ ity. Famouse island whalers such as the Granges, President and Reaper, are shown at the wharves preparing for voyages to the Pacific; the packet schooner Enterprise and the steamboat Tele­ graph may be seen, and such landmarks as the Old Mill, the Pa­ cific Club, when it was the Custom House, are shown. Conspic­ uous in the foreground is Brant Point with its lighthouse and shipyard.

The print is a gift to the Association by Harry Carpenter, the owner of the original painting,- and the artist John Stobart.

A native of England, where he learned his remarkable technique in marine art, John Stobart has become one of the most exciting of our modern artists in his field. He has been living in America for eight years and recently moved to California to take up residence. Before painting his Nantucket scene he spent several weeks on the island in research. The current issue of American Heritage magazine has an article on Stobart illustrated with color prints of some of his sea and river port scenes. Peter Stanford, President of the South Street Seaport, in New York City, says Stobart, as a marine artist, is in a class by himself — "an ob­ server, a debater, a man who likes to push to the heart of things."

Stobart's characteristic style is clearly manifest in his study of Nantucket and its harbor. A fine, vigorous quality stamps this canvas; the whaleships at the wharves strong but with a symbolic verve as well; the town a colorful background is there and yet the influence of the seascape is the predominant theme.

Some of the flavor of the past is reflected in this fine print — a part of the island's history which needs to be recaptured. The men who built the whaling community that led the world shaped her destiny because they dared to keep fast to their principles.

They would have been in the forefront of those of us today who oppose the developers and their efforts to convert the island into a modern suburbia.

Copies of Stobart's "Nantucket" are available at a number of shops in the town. It is a print of color, artistic skill and his­ torical reminiscense, and considered by many as John Stobart's best canvas.

29

Historical Stereopticon Slides Feature Foulger Museum Lecture ON SUNDAY evening, August 4, at 8:30 o'clock, an unusual lecture was presented at the Peter Foulger Museum, sponsored by the Nantucket Historical Association, during which the story of Nantucket Town was presented through the medium of old stereopticon slides. Titled "100 Years on Nantucket — 18461946," the lecturer, Edouard A. Stackpole, used these remarkable old views of Nantucket to describe the development of the Town over this century-period, stressing not only the economic life but the social and architectural changes as well.

From the earliest known photograph of the Nantucket scene, these venerable glass slides gave evidence of how much of this Island Town has been retained, so that the fact of its unique oldness was doubly impressive as the old views appeared on the screen. Tracing the era of the "Great Depression" of the J 860-1870 period, the lecturer described the development of the community as the "summer business" becomes the chief means of livelihood. Through the 19th century and into the 20th the glass slides revealed both the growth of the town to the Point and Cliff areas and the changes in the waterfront.

Of particular interest were the views of the Nantucket Railroad, the development of 'Sconset, and the days when the streets contained only horse and carriage. The coming of the automobile was recounted, with old views to dramatize this important part of the island's history. Also, there were steam­ boats of long ago, "freeze-up" views, pictures of the first air­ planes to arrive, and portraits of outstanding islanders of the World War I period. A number of the historic shipwrecks were shown with photographs taken at the sites as well as old paint­ ings by contemporary artists.

The glass slides represented the work of Josiah Freeman, Henry S. Wyer, Maurice Boyer, Harry B. Turner and Marshall Gardiner — an array of photographs that are all historic in the presentation of the Nantucket scene.

Edouard A. Stackpole, a well-known authority on Nantucket history, had a most receptive audience, despite one of the warm­ est nights of the summer.

30

Annual Report of the Curator It always amazes me at the interest shown in the Nan­ tucket Historical Association not only in Nantucket but through­ out the country. This year we have been given or purchased many documents pertaining to whaling, shipping and other items of importance to the history of the island. These are on file in the Peter Foulger Museum Library for use in research.

Miss Eleanor Phinney has been working on recording and preserving the various manuscripts. This is a time-consuming task but well worth the effort.

During the winter the books from the Whaling Museum were transferred to the Peter Foulger Museum Library. With the as­ sistance of Mrs. Louise Hussey they were all checked and re­ corded and on the shelves before the summer schedule. The library is a busy place and in use throughout the year.

In the Whaling Museum Mr. Chace has rearranged many of the exhibits. The storage area is still being rearranged but we have made some headway.

Minor changes have been made in some of our exhibits as new chairmen take over. Fair Street, after major repairs to the roof, is at last open. Mrs. Greene and Mrs. Amey have been ar­ ranging the exhibits and will continue to do so throughout the year.

Many gifts have been received which have been reported in the chairmen's reports so I will not repeat them. They are well worth a visit to the museums to see them. You will find some­ thing new has been added every year.

The Nantucket Historical Association is growing every year and is well worth the efforts spent by all. Without the coopera­ tion of the chairmen and assistants of the various exhibits the task of the curator would be impossible. I am deeply indebted to them and the Administration for their help this year.

Respectfully submitted Dorothy Gardner, Curator

Bequests or gifts to the Nantucket Historical Association are tax deductible.

They are greatly needed and appreciated.

PLEASE — your change of address to save postage and receive your copy. We are charged extra for all sent to an incorrect address.