A Captain from Cape Cod by Louis A. Norton ollowing the War of 1812, mari- devoted to his wife and, when not at sea, gious man ; a member of the aristocracy time commerce in the eastern looked forward to spending time with of ship masters. Unfortunately, being a United States was divided into four her. He tended his fruit orchard in member of the aristocracy did not mean distinct act1v1ttes: first was domestic Shrewsbury and was an active deacon in one was financially secure. He had beintracoastal trade, including the danger- his small country church. come part owner of the Walpole, but that In January 1847, Captain Richardson ship, under the command of his succesous "round the Hom" trade with California and other West Coast destinations; took command of the packet Walpole , sor, foundered at the mouth of the Cosecond, trade with miscellaneous Euro- which carried wheat from New York to lumbia River. This cost him the thenpean, South American and Caribbean Liverpool, and freight ;,md passengers substantial sum of $10,000. The profits ports; third, a routine British Isles/Liver- for the return trip. The North Atlantic from freight and transportation of immipool packet trade; and, finally, Far East- run in midwinter was a tough, unforgiv- grants in these labor-intensive vessels em trade, largely with India and China. ing training ground in seamanship for barely met expenses. Still, in a letter to This commerce was carried by sail- the young master of the packet ship hiswifein1849hephilosophicallywrote, ing vessels commanded by an unusual trade. The packets were seaworthy, able " it is best to live comfortable, if we die poor." 2 Fate would soon lend breed of men. Theysaileddurhim riches and fame, but call in ing the infancy of accurate navigation in fast and ever this loan in all too short a time. more sophisticated ships. A The rise of the clipper ship era, beginning in the midgood chronometer was a major investment; the octant was w~ 1840s, ushered in the decline largely replaced by the sex-~ of the small wooden packet. With the increased trade to tant; Bowditch tables were in ~ China and India, plus the distheir early years of revision,~ covery of gold in California in and charts were not depend- ;:i able, particularly in newly ~ 1848, and a little later in Australia, there was a major impeopened trade routes and har- ~ tus toward improvement in the bors. The North Atlantic and ~ style of shipbuilding and mariCape Hom, in particular, were violent with gales, and politi- ~ time architecture on both sides cal instability, outbreaks of in- ~ of the Atlantic. Foremost fectious disease, crop failures, ~ among the American marine recession, and reckless finan- 8 architects was Donald McKay cial speculation combined to Charles Robert Patterson's portrait of the Stag Hound. In 1861 , the of East Boston who designed make maritime trade a pre- StagH_o~nd'slastcargo,ashipmentofN_ewcastlecoalbou.ndforSan and built the pioneer extreme Francisco, spontaneously combusted offthe coast ofBrau!. Cap tam clipper Stag Hound in 1850 . carious calling. . b f and crew safely reached the shore, but the vessel was lost. She was expressly built for the A n outstandmg mem er o this hearty breed of shipmasters who ships, built to travel fast under a press of "round the Horn" run from the East engaged in all four aspects of American canvas. But as the volume of trade grew, Coast to San Francisco then on to China deep sea commerce, was Josiah Rich- they became increasingly difficult to and back. The local Boston lines had a ardson. The captain fit Samuel Eliot man. Where in the early days of the cadre of some of the most able American Morison 's definition of a Yankee in his American republic, respectable young skippers. The Cape Cod natives who 1921 Maritime History of Massachu- men signed on in the fo'c's les of the commanded packets were selected to be setts: "A tough but nervous, tenacious Western Ocean packets-and while the earliest masters of the newly debut restless race; materially ambitious, some still did so for the experience- signed extreme clipper ships. Captain yet prone to introspection, and subject to toward mid-century crews had to be Josiah Richardson was given the opporwaves of religious emotion .... A race scraped up from the tough crowds on the tunity to move from the 719-ton packet whose typical member is eternally tom growing city waterfronts. Near-mutinies Townsend to the 1535-ton clipper Stag between a passion for righteousness and and knife fights among these crews were Hound. No higher compliment could be all too common. The docks in Liverpool paid to a young captain than to be invited a desire to get on in the world." 1 Born at Centerville on Cape Cod in were crowded with Iri sh emigrants hop- to command thi s nautical thoroughbred, 1809 as one of many sons of a Harvard- ing for a better life in America and, for and Captain Richardson was about to educated school teacher, he went to sea these passengers, the crossing to Boston make maritime hi story. as a cabin boy at the age of 11. By in a packet was like a six-week sentence Stag Hound was the first extreme Richardson 's twenty-first birthday he to a dungeon during a perpetual earth- clipper to be designed and built by was master of the schooner Hetty Thom quake. Being placed in command of such out of Duxbury, Massachusetts. He en- a ship, crew, and passengers was a chal- 1Samuel Eliot Morison, Th e Maritime History gaged in coastal trade between the north lenge, indeed. of Massachusetts (Boston: Houghton Mifflin In 1849 Captain Richardson was given & Co., 1921), 22. and south and ran the triangle to such foreign ports as Marseilles, Le Havre, the notable packet Townsend. He had 2Henry C. Kittredge, Shipmasters of Cape Cod and occasionally Cuba. He was extremely gained a reputation as a gentle and reli- (Boston: Houghton Mifflin & Co., 1935), I 05.
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SEA HISTORY 75, AUTUMN 1995