6
The Long Voyage of Captain Bunker and Fate of Mate Coffin AMONG FAMILY PAPERS in the possession of Mrs. Lewis S. (Coffin) Edgarton, of 56 Centre Street, is an unusual letter written by Captain Charles G. Bunker, master of the ship Volant, a merchant vessel, sailing from Wilmington, Delaware, to Brazil. The letter not only recounts the experience of a hard-luck ship on a long, protracted voyage, but gives in grim detail the sufferings of the young Nantucket officer, Mate Peter Fosdick Coffin, who was the half-brother of John Bridger Coffin, Mrs. Edgarton's father. Both men were sons of Captain Henry F. and Hepsibeth Coffin, of Nantucket. Captain Bunker's letter was to his wife, Mary M. (Cary) Bunker. It is dated October 14, 1866, "At Sea, Lat. 3 Degrees 30 Minutes N. Log. 41 Degrees W.," and reads as follows: "My Dear Wife: As it has always been my custom to commence a letter to you at sea, I will continue to do so now, feeling assured that you will be more than anxious to hear from me because of the great length of time I am from home. I am happy to inform you that, through the special graces of God, I am in my usual good health, with perhaps a little more rheumatism in my arms than common, which is hardly worthy of note under the peculiar trying circumstances I have been placed in since leaving Wilmington, a faint outline of which I will endeavor to portray. I feel myself incompetent for the task as I know words can not be found sufficiently strong to give you the faintest idea of my suffering, both mental and physical "A few days after leaving Wilmington I discovered that fever symptoms were beginning to appear among my crew. . .what appeared to be billious, intermittent fever, until all were down except myself and one man. The weather being fine at the time, he and I got the vessel under short sail, and went to work upon the sick. The vessel in the meantime went as she pleased, but mostly on course, until we met a gale of wind which came near destroying us, blowing away the sails we did leave up and causing the vessel to leak badly.
