THE CAPE VERDE PACKET TRADE: PART I o f the schooner Volante. In the middl e o f the Atlantic, while a crewma n o n his first voyage was at the wheel, the boat gy bed and the swinging boom knocked Rose overboard . No one o n board knew what to do; for twenty minutes Rose hung onto the log-lin e and sho uted instructions to the crew. Finally after Rose spent two hours swimming in th e cold Atlantic, they were able to turn the schooner and pick up their ca ptain . Nonetheless, the Volante reached St. Vincente in 19 days - reco rd time! Henry Rose , howeve r, had his best days aboard the old schooner Va/kyria, a two-masted fo rmer whaler which he commanded fro m 1923 to 1926. He made fourteen crossings in her, a nd claims he made one voyage in twe lve days . She was solidly built as she proved in th e 1923 crossing when for ten days she successfully battled a hurricane. Rose threw 50 tons of cargo overboard but arrived safely in Brava with his 32 passenge rs - 45 days at sea. On April 9, 1924, the Va/kyria and her rival th e Yukon sailed from Brava together a nd arrived the sa me day, May 13, in Providence . Capt. Benjamin Costa, former master of the Va /kyria, was captain of the Yukon. For the re turn voyage, a wager o f $1,500 was a rran ged to prove who had the fastest vessel. The two vessels and the William A. Graber, under Capt. John Sousa, left Providence o n October 19, 1924. The Va /ky ria carried seven passengers and seventeen crewmen, while the Yuk on had fifteen passenge rs and 26 in crew. The Va/kyria won by arriving o n November 13, and remained the undisputed "Queen of the Cape Verde Pack ets'" until 1926 when she was dismasted. During the night o f November 5, 1926, the Valkyria stru ck a derelict, in hi gh seas. The collision brought down th e foremast , and eventu ally the mai nmast, and opened th e stem. Capta in Rose tri ed to hack away th e ri gg ing a nd masts whick were po undin g aga inst the sides o f the boat, and also to lighte n the Va/kyria to bring her bow three or fo ur feet out of the water. Two seamen were swept overboard durin g this atte mpt. For two days, she drifted , a helpless wreck; but finally her crew o f fifte en and two young girls were resc ued by a pass ing British tanker. In 1926, Ca ptain Rose took the Manta, the last active whaler o ut o f New Bedford, from th e port of Brava. He made five trips with her. The worst trip was in January 1928. She ra n into suc h bad calms th at it took 53 days from Providence to Sao Vincente. 20
TWO FAMILIES, ONE SCHOONER: Effie M. Morrissey, above, and al right, her namesake (Morrissey family photos).
1n 1929, 17-year-old John J. Barros took the Manta back to Providence; but he ran he r aground o ff Nantucket. Two power trawlers pulled the Manta o ff the Nantucket Shoals and towed her to Vineyard Haven. The Coast Guard, suspecting illegal immigrants might be aboard, sent several agents to investigate and discovered eleven unfo rtunate aliens hiding below decks in th e bilges. The Manta was fined and auctioned off. Frank Silva, former owner of the Valkyria bought he r fo r 53,800 on August 6, 1929, a nd sold her to Joseph and Albertino J. Senn a o f New Bedford on August 30. She continued in the island pac ket trade for several yea rs under charte r to Frank Silva. Ca ptain Senna br ught the Manta to Providence in 1934. After a summer spent in refitting and rerigging the o ld ship, the Manta sa iled from Providence for Brava o n November 8, 1934 with a crew of nineteen, and a passenger list of thirteen, inc luding three women a nd six children, a nd o ne cow, a G uernsey heife r. A week before C hristmas, the newspapers noted that the Manta was 39 days o ut of Providence and unreported ··but supposedl y winging her way to Brava:· By mid-January, the relatives a nd fri ends began to worry as no word was received from Ca pe Verde that she arrived. Two packe ts, th e Winnepesauke a nd the Trenton , had also sailed from New Bedford and had failed to reach Brava. Severe sto rms we re re po rted in the Atlantic. The Trenton, a n old New York pilot schooner eventu ally made port, but the Winnepesauke was lost with all ha nds. The las t hope for the Manta and her passengers were aba ndoned on February 24, 1935 when
the vessel had been missing for 107 days.
Mathilde: Lost With All Hands The other great tragedy remembered today in the Cape Verde islands is the loss of th e Mathilde. In 1943 a grou p of young men in Ca pe Verde bought a 55-foot sloop Mathilde in orde r to sa il to New England and th ere voluntee r to fight for the United States during Wo rld War II. Some o f th ese men were born in America but had returned to the land of their parents. The Cape Verde Packet trade was suspended during th e war due to the danger of e nco untering ene my ships. The peri od was o ne o f th e wo rst eras in the long history of drought and Portuguese colonial neglect. The Cape Verde economy was severly depressed . Job opportunities for yo un g people in Cape Verde were scarce. After o nly minima l repairs were made to th e one-masted craft , twe nty young men sailed in he r fro m Brava o n August 1, 1943. Humberto Ball a , then age twelve , was aboard th e vessel. He could see that the boat was already leakin g and jumped off befo re it had go tten far o ut of the harbor. It took him thirty minutes to swim ashore. He looked back and saw the sloo p disappearing over th e ho ri zo n a nd wept, for he knew his compatri ots were sailing to their deaths. Septe mber is the hurri cane seaso n, and it is believed that the ship wit h he r twenty brave volunteers we nt down in rough weather near Bermuda.
Contra Mar e Vento Whe n acts of God occur at sea, under Po rtu guese laws a Protest Against Wind and Sea is e ntered -Contra Mar e Ve 1110. When the so n o f John Sousa o f
SEA HISTORY , SUMMER 1977