DESSERT
The Charles W. Morgan Under Sail in Distant Seas by John F. Leavitt The Charles W. Morgan, sole survivor of wife, but it did not deter him from driving the whaleships that coursed the oceans in his ship, his men, and himself. He stood for the 1800s, has been a lucky ship-lucky no laxity and "broke" or disrated two to survive to tell an important chapter in boatsteerers who were unfortunate enough seafaring, lucky in Mystic Seaport's dedi- to miss when they darted their irons. In cated restoration ofher aged hull-and June of 1861 a bomb lance gun burst and not least, lucky in her biographer, the badly mangled the mate's hand, requiring late john Leavitt, a grand sailorman the amputation of a finger. With the versafrom whose vivid, raw account ofher life tility forced on him by necessity, Captain Hamilton performed the operation and in these adventures are reprinted. a very short time the hand was reported to he Charles W Morgan's sixth voy- be healing nicely.... In January 1862, the ship was whaling age began on 4 October 1859, under the command of 32-year-old in the vicinity of Scammon's Lagoon on Captain James A. Hamilton. On 30 No- the coast of Baja California. There, the vember the first whales were sighted. The ships remained at anchor, sending out the waist boat was the first to "strike," but the boats to run down the female gray whales line fouled and Francis Laycock, a foremast and their calves in the shallow wa ters of the hand, was dragged out of the boat and lagoons. In defense of their yo ung, the drowned. To recover him the crew cut the whales were "wild," often attacking the line, and the whale got away. The other whaleboats. During one enco unter, two boats , however, struck a second whale and boats were stove and one man had his thigh broken. Two months later, just before the killed it. The Morgan made her way past Cape Morgan headed back to Hawaii, a boat's Horn late in January and anchored in crew (six men) deserted the ship. In OctoT alcahuano, C hile, on 21 February to give ber, after another season in the Sea of the crew time ashore and to replenish sup- Okhotsk, Hamilton had another medical plies. Nine of the crew decided they had emergency when boatsteerer Ansel Braley had enough and deserted. The ship then fell overboard from aloft during a gale. cruised slowly northward, the impatient Ham iIton managed to get a boa rover board young master cursing the calm weather and and rescued him . The captain found the mans jaw to be broken in two looking forward to his arrival at Lahaina, places. set it and bandaged it to the best of where he would receive mail from his bemy ability. also bruised about the breast loved Augusta, the wife whom he had and one leg and side of his head. bad case. married just a few months before departsee out of neither eye. bathed them with ing. His journal is filled with references to proper remidies. whilst lowering the boat her, and it is easy to see that he was looking mate got his arm and breast hurt some. forward to a full ship and the return to New tried to bleed him. got no blood. bathed Bedford. After a brief stopover at Lahaina the parts with sa[l]ve and sugar oflead &c and Honolulu he drove the ship for the Sea ... squalls dark and bad looking weather. of Okhotsk, and by July 1860 he was far So ends this day of casualties. north among the ice floes . And he was Both men recovered, more due to rheir getting whales. In August the Morgan was in Shantar strong constitutions rhan to rhe primitive Bay with some 16 other American whalers. medical practices of the day. Thereafter, it was a slow passage home, H ere she ran into di ffic ulty when her anchor caught under something on the bot- catching whales en route, and the Morgan tom. Even with the assistance of Captain arrived in New Bedford on 12 May 1863, Manchester and extra hands from the ship three years and seven months afrer HamilHarvest, the crew was unable to heave short ton left his bride to take command. The and broke the windlass in the effort. At last homesick captain was in for a pleasant they were forced to cut the cab le. Several surprise, however, for he had brought his whales were killed in the bay, but by 30 vessel safely home in the midst of the Civil August they were bound offshore again . In War, when prices were inflated and quantihis journal, Captain Hamilton admitted ties of oil and bone landed were far below his homesickness and his longing to see his normal. At an average price of $1.53 per
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pound, whalebone was nearly twice as valuable as when the Morgan left in 1859, and the value of right whale oil was nearly double as well. When her accounts were settled on her return, the gross val ue of the cargo was set at $ 165,407.35, which was by far the most valuable (though not the largest) cargo ever landed by the Charles W Morgan.
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Captain Gibbons was stricken by illness whi le at Durban [in 1909] and apparen tly wired the owners for a replacement. In the meantime, records indicate that the Morgan sailed in charge ofJ oseph Roderick, the first mate, who was a good whaleman but no navigator. To act in that capacity, a William Haggie was signed on. Captain G ibbons's health did not improve, and Captain C harles S. Church, formerly master of the bark Andrew Hicks, took command. He was accompanied by his wife, who was signed on as assistant navigator. Mrs. Church, the former Charlotte Ott, was the daughter of a San Francisco harbor pilot and had made the voyage around Cape Horn with her husband when he brought the Andrew Hicks back to New Bedford from the West Coast. She did assist her husband in navigation and also kept rhe log when in rhe Morgan. Her entries were very meticulous, noting latirnde, longitude, course, distance, variation, barometer, thermometer, wind force, sea, and weather. She also made a regular practice of serring bottles adrift wirh notes in them giving rhe name of the vessel, position, and weather condition ar rhe rime. Flashes of humor enlightened rhe routine recording, and Mrs. Church showed an interest in other than srricr ship routine. One of rhe firsrenrriesshe made in the Morgan's log was to record rhe death of Major, a pet cat who had apparently outlived his rime. Later, rhe steerage car gave birth to a solitary kitten, which she described as "an addition to rhe ship's crew." On 25 June 1910 she wrote, "killed fourteen scrawny chickens tonight. Thewholelorwon'tmake a good dinner. " In August rhere is a dryly humorous nore: "We have two live pigs, one rooster, four cars and almost twenty canary bird-no fear ofstarving for a while." She herself suffered from asthma and was very conscious of rhose members of rhe crew who were ill, several having been forced to lay up from rime to rime.
SEA HISTORY 96, SPRING 2001