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"Off to California" The Voyage of the ship "Henry Astor" from Nantucket in 1849. By Edouard A. Stackpole THROUGH THE INTEREST and kindness of Mrs. Helen Hussey Ludolph, of Sonoma, California, the Nantucket Historical Association has been most fortunate in acquiring the logbooks of three Nantucket ships, as well as typescripts of the logbooks of two other Island whaleships. The logbooks are those of the ship Richard Mitchell, Capt. Robert McCleave, 1848-1852; the Oliver Crocker, Capt. Robert McCleave, of New Bedford, 1854-1858; and the ship Henry Astor, Cap tain George F. Joy, of Nantucket, 1849, which is a journal kept by Henry P. McCleave, on a voyage to California from Nantucket. The two typescripts are copies of the ship Loper, Capt. Obed Starbuck, 1824-1826, and of the ship Rambler, Capt. Robert McCleave, 1838-1842. These priceless records of Nantucket's maritime past were presented by Mrs. Ludolph on September 12, at a quiet ceremony held in the parlors of the Jared Coffin House, and then placed in a vault at the Peter Foulger Museum. A time span of more than a century and a quarter had elapsed since they had left Nantucket for their interim home in California. Now back in the old "home port," they are valuable additions to the collections of logbooks and journals which have become so important to the maritime history of Nantucket. The Journal of Henry P. McCleave for the voyage of the Henry Astor, from Nantucket to California in 1849, is especially interesting. The news of discovery of gold in the hills and dales around San Fran cisco had reached Nantucket at a particularly crucial time. The town that whale oil had created had recently suffered a catastrophe when the Great Fire of 1846 had burned out the business section of Main Street Square and spread across the complete range of the wharves, destroying cooper shops, sail lofts, oil refineries and candle houses. The competition with other whaling ports had become a challenge, and despite the success of the "Camels," that helped float the ships over the handicap of the shoal Nantucket Bar, Nantucket faced a grim prospect. With the news from California, the gold-rush adventure appealed to Nantucketers disheartened by the future for the old whaling town. Several owners sent letters to intercept their ships on the west coast of South America, and ordered the shipmasters to sail for San Francisco. From October, 1848, to December, 1849, ships leaving Boston, New York and Fall River carried Nantucket passengers. In the year 1849 alone there sailed from Nantucket fourteen sliips, brigs and schooners bound around Cape Horn to San Francisco. First to sail from this har-
