Chapter 2:
PHILIP ENGLISH AND HIS ERA (1680-1750)
IN the decade from 1685 to 1695 the infant commerce of
Salem was fighting for its life. This period was called
"the dark time when ye merchants looked for ye vessells
with fear and trembling." Besides the common dangers of
the sea, they had to contend with savage Indians who
attacked the fishing fleet, with the heavy restrictions
imposed by the Royal Acts of Trade, with the witchcraft
delusion which turned every man's hand against his
neighbor, and with French privateers which so ravaged the
ventures of the Salem traders to the West Indies that the
shipping annals of the time are thickly strewn with such
incidents as these:
(1690)-" The ketch Fellowship, Captain Robert
Glanville, via the Vineyard for Berwick on the Tweed,
was taken by two French privateers and carried to
Dunkirk."
(1695)-" The ship Essex of Salem, Captain John
Beal, from Bilboa in Spain, had a battle at sea and
loses John Samson, boatswain. This man and Thomas
Roads, the gunner, had previously contracted that
whoever of the two survived the other he should have
all the property of the deceased."
Soon after this the tables were turned by the Salem
Packet which captured a French ship off the Banks of
Newfoundland In the same year the ketch Exchange, Captain
Thomas Marston, was taken by a French ship off Block
Island. She was ransomed for two hundred and fifty pounds
and brought into Salem. "The son of the owner was carried
to Placentia as a hostage for the payment of the
ransom."
The ancient records of the First Church of Salem
contain this quaint entry under date of July 25,
1677:
"The Lord having given a Comission to the
Indians to take no less than 13 of the Fishing Ketches
of Salem and Captivate the men (though divers of them
cleared themselves and came home) it struck a great
consternation into all the people here. The Pastor
moved on the Lord's Day, and the whole people readily
consented, to keep the Lecture Day following as a fast
day; which was accordingly done and the work carried
on by the Pastor, Mr. Hale, Mr. Chevers, and Mr.
Gerrish, the higher ministers helping in prayer. The
Lord was pleased to send in some of the Ketches on the
Fast day which was looked on as a gracious smile of
Providence. Also there had been 19 wounded men sent
into Salem a little while before; also, a ketch with
40 men sent out from Salem as a man-of-war to recover
the rest of the Ketches. The Lord give them Good
Success."
In those very early and troublous times the Barbary
pirates or Corsairs had begun to vex the New England
skippers who boldly crossed the Atlantic in vessels that
were much smaller than a modern canal boat or brick
barge. These "Sallee rovers" hovered from the
Mediterranean to the chops of the English Channel. Many a
luckless seaman of Salem was held prisoner in the cities
of Algiers while his friends at home endeavored to gather
funds for his ransom. It was stated in 1661 that "for a
long time previous the commerce of Massachusetts was much
annoyed by Barbary Corsairs and that many of its seamen
were held in bondage. One Captain Cakebread or Breadcake
had two guns to cruise in search of Turkish pirates." In
1700 Benjamin Alford of Boston and William Bowditch of
Salem related that "their friend Robert Carver of the
latter port was taken nine years before, a captive into
Sally; that contributions had been made for his
redemption; that the money was in the hands of a person
here; that if they had the disposal of it, they could
release Carver."
The end of the seventeenth century found the
wilderness settlement of Salem rapidly expanding into a
seaport whose commercial interests were faring to distant
oceans. The town had grown along the water's edge beside
which its merchants were beginning to build their
spacious and gabled mansions. Their countinghouses
overlooked the harbor, and their spyglasses were alert to
sweep the distant sea line for the homecoming of their
ventures to Virginia, the West Indies and Europe. Their
vessels were forty and sixty tons burden, mere
cockleshells for deep-water voyaging, but they risked
storm and capture while they pushed farther and farther
away from Salem as the prospect of profitable trade lured
them on.
The sailmaker, the rigger, the ship chandler, and the
shipwright had begun to populate the harbor front, and
among them swarmed the rough and headlong seamen from
Heaven knew where, who shocked the godly Puritans of the
older régime. Jack ashore was a bull in a china
shop then as now, and history has recorded the lamentable
but deserved fate of "one Henry Bull and companions in a
vessel in our harbor who derided the Church of Christ and
were afterward cast away among savage Indians by whom
they were slain."
Now there came into prominence the first of a long
line of illustrious shipping merchants of Salem, Philip
English, who makes a commanding figure in the seafaring
history of his time. A native of the Isle of Jersey, he
came to Salem before 1670. He made voyages in his own
vessels, commanded the ketch* Speedwell in 1676, and ten
years later had so swiftly advanced his fortunes that he
built him a mansion house on Essex Street, a solid,
square-sided structure with many projecting porches and
with upper stories overhanging the street. It stood for a
hundred and fifty years, long known as "English's Great
House," and linked the nineteenth century with the very
early chapters of American history. In 1692, Philip
English was perhaps the richest man of the New England
Colonies, owning twenty one vessels which traded with
Bilboa, Barbados, St. Christopher's, the Isle of Jersey
and the ports of France. He owned a wharf and warehouses,
and fourteen buildings in the town.
*The ketch of the eighteenth
century was two-masted with square sails on h&
foremast, and a fore-and-aft sail on the mainmast,
which was shorter than the foremast. The schooner rig
was not used until 1720 and is said to have been
originated by Captain Andrew Robinson of
Gloucester.
One of his bills of lading, dated 1707, shows the
pious imprint of his generation and the kind of commerce
in which he was engaged. It reads in part:
"Shipped by the Grace of God, in good order
and well conditioned, by Samuel Browne, Phillip
English, Capt. Wm. Bowditch, Wm. Pickering, and Samuel
Wakefield, in and upon the Good sloop called the
Mayflower whereof is master under God for this present
voyage Jno. Swasey, and now riding at anchor in the
harbor of Salem, and by God's Grace bound for Virginia
or Merriland. To say, twenty hogshats of Salt. . . In
witness whereof the Master or Purser of the said Sloop
has affirmed to Two Bills of Lading. . . and so God
send the Good Sloop to her desired port in Safety.
Amen."
Another merchant of Philip English's time wrote in
1700 of the foreign commerce of Salem:
"Dry Merchantable codfish for the Markets of
Spain and Portugal and the Straits. Refuse fish,
lumber, horses and provisions for the West Indies.
Returns made directly hence to England are sugar,
molasses, cotton, wool and logwood for which we depend
on the West Indies. Our own produce, a considerable
quantity of whale and fish oil, whalebone, furs, deer,
elk and bear skins are annually sent to England. We
have much Shipping here and freights are low."
To Virginia the clumsy, little sloops and ketches of
Philip English carried "Molasses, Rum, Salt, Cider,
Mackerel, Wooden Bowls, Platters, Pails, Kegs, Muscavado
Sugar, and Codfish and brought back to Salem Wheat, Pork,
Tobacco, Furs, Hides, old Pewter, Old Iron, Brass,
Copper, Indian Corn and English Goods." The craft which
crossed the Atlantic and made the West Indies in safety
to pile up wealth for Philip English were no larger than
those sloops and schooners which ply up and down the
Hudson River to-day. Their masters made their way without
sextant or "Practical Navigator," and as an old writer
has described in a somewhat exaggerated vein:
"Their skippers kept their reckoning with
chalk on a shingle, which they stowed away in the
binnacle; and by way of observation they held up a
hand to the sun. When they got him over four fingers
they knew they were straight for Hole-in-the-Wall;
three fingers gave them their course to the
Double-headed Shop Key and two carried them down to
Barbados."
The witchcraft frenzy invaded even the stately home of
Philip English, the greatest shipowner of early Salem.
His wife, a proud and aristocratic lady, was "cried
against," examined and committed to prison in Salem. It
is said that she was considered haughty and overbearing
in her manner toward the poor, and that her husband's
staunch adherence to the Church of England had something
to do with her plight. At any rate, Mary English was
arrested in her bedchamber and refused to rise, wherefore
"guards were placed around the house and in the morning
she attended the devotions of her family, kissed her
children with great composure, proposed her plan for
their education, took leave of them and then told the
officer she was ready to die." Alas, poor woman, she had
reason to be "persuaded that accusation was equal to
condemnation." She lay in prison six weeks where "her
firmness was memorable. But being visited by a fond
husband, her husband was also accused and confined in
prison." The intercession of friends and the plea that
the prison was overcrowded caused their removal to
Arnold's jail in Boston until the time of trial. It
brings to mind certain episodes of the French Reign of
Terror to learn that they were taken to Boston on the
same day with Giles Corey, George Jacobs, Alice Parker,
Ann Pudeator, and Bridget Bishop, all of whom perished
"except Philip and Mary English Both would have been
executed had they not escaped death by flight from the
Boston jail and seeking refuge in New York.
In his diary, under date of May 21, 1793, Rev. William
Bentley, of Salem, pastor of the East Church from 1783 to
1819, wrote of the witchcraft persecution of this notable
shipping merchant and his wife:
"May 21st, 1793. Substance of Madam Susannah
Harthorne's account of her grandfather English, etc.
Mr. English was a Jerseyman, came young to America and
lived with Mr. W. Hollingsworth, whose only child he
married. He owned above twenty sail of vessels. His
wife had the best education of her times. Wrote with
great ease, and has left a specimen of her needlework
in her infancy or youth. She had already owned her
Covenant and was baptised with her children and now
intended to be received at the Communion on the next
Lord's Day. On Saturday night she was cried out upon.
The Officers, High Sheriff, and Deputy with attendants
came at eleven at night. When the servant came up Mr.
English imagined it was upon business, not having had
the least notice of the suspicions respecting his
wife. They were to bed together in the western chamber
of their new house raised in 1690, and had a large
family of servants.
"The Officers came in soon after the servant who so
alarmed Mr. English that with difficulty he found his
cloathes which he could not put on without help. The
Officers came into the chamber, following the servant,
and opening the curtains read the Mittimus. She was
then ordered to rise but absolutely refused. Her
husband continued walking the chamber all night, but
the Officers contented themselves with a guard upon
the House till morning. In the morning they required
of her to rise, but she refused to rise before her
usual hour. After breakfast with her husband and
children, and seeing all the servants, of whom there
were twenty in the House, she concluded to go with the
officers and she was conducted to the Cat and Wheel, a
public house east of the present Centre Meeting House
on the opposite side of the way. Six weeks she was
confined in the front chamber, in which she received
the visits of her husband three times a day and as the
floor was single she kept a journal of the
examinations held below which she constantly sent to
Boston.
"After six weeks her husband was accused, and their
friends obtained that they should be sent on to Boston
till their Trial should come on. In Arnold's custody
they had bail and liberty of the town, only lodging in
the Gaol. The Rev. Moody and Williard of Boston
visited them and invited them to the public worship on
the day before they were to return to Salem for Trial.
Their text was that they that are persecuted in one
city, let them flee to another. After Meeting the
Ministers visited them at the Gaol, and asked them
whether they took notice of the discourse, and told
them their danger and urged them to escape since so
many had suffered. Mr. English replied, 'God will not
permit them to touch me.' Mrs. English said: 'Do you
not think the sufferers innocent?' He (Moody) said
'Yes.' She then added, 'Why may we not suffer also?'
The Ministers then told him if he would not carry his
wife away they would.
"The gentlemen of the town took care to provide at
midnight a conveyance, encouraged by the Governor,
Gaoler, etc., and Mr. and Mrs. English with their
eldest child and daughter, were conveyed away, and the
Governor gave letters to Governor Fletcher of New York
who came out and received them, accompanied by twenty
private gentlemen, and carried them to his house.
"They remained twelve months in the city. While
there they heard of the wants of the poor in Salem and
sent a vessel of corn for their relief, a bushel for
each child. Great advantages were proposed to detain
them at New York, but the attachment of the wife to
Salem was not lost by all her sufferings, and she
urged a return. They were received with joy upon their
return and the Town had a thanksgiving on the
occasion. Noyes, the prosecutor, dined with him on
that day in his own house."
That a man of such solid station should have so
narrowly escaped death in the witchcraft fury indicates
that no class was spared. While his sturdy seamen were
fiddling and drinking in the taverns of the Salem
water-front, or making sail to the roaring chorus of old
time chanties, their employer, a prince of commerce for
his time, was dreading a miserable death for himself and
that high-spirited dame, his wife, on Gallows Hill, at
the hands of the stern-faced young sheriff of Salem.
Philip English returned to Salem after the frenzy had
passed and rounded out a shipping career of fifty years,
living until 1736. His instructions to one of his
captains may help to picture the American commerce of two
centuries ago. In 1722 he wrote to "Mr. John Tauzel":
"Sir, you being appointed Master of my sloop
Sarah, now Riding in ye Harbor of Salem, and Ready to
Saile, my Order is to you that you take ye first
opportunity of wind and Weather to Saile and make ye
best of yr. way for Barbadoes or Leew'd Island, and
there Enter and Clear yr vessel and Deliver yr Cargo
according to Orders and Bill of Lading and Make Saile
of my twelve Hogsh'd of fish to my best advantage, and
make Returne in yr Vessel or any other for Salem in
such Goods as you shall see best, and if you see Cause
to take a freight to any port or hire her I lieve it
with your Best Conduct, Managem't or Care for my best
advantage. So please God to give you a prosperous
voyage, I remain yr Friend and Owner. PHILIP ENGLISH."
England had become already jealous of the flourishing
maritime commerce of the Colonies and was devising one
restrictive Act of Parliament after another to hamper
what was viewed as a dangerous rivalry. In 1668, Sir
Joshua Child, once chairman of the East India Company,
delivered himself of this choleric and short-sighted
opinion:
"Of all the American plantations His Majesty
has none so apt for the building of ships as New
England, nor none comparably so qualified for the
breeding of seamen, not only by reason of the natural
industry of the people, but principally by reason of
their cod and mackerel fisheries, and in my opinion
there is nothing more prejudicial and in prospect more
dangerous to any mother kingdom than the increase of
shipping in her colonies, plantations or provinces."
This selfish view-point sought not only to prevent
American shipowners from conducting a direct trade with
Europe but tried also to cripple the prosperous commerce
between the Colonies and the West Indies. The
narrow-minded politicians who sacrificed both the
Colonies and the Mother country could not kill American
shipping even by the most ingenious restrictive acts, and
the hardy merchants of New England violated or evaded
these unjust edicts after the manner indicated in the
following letter of instructions given to Captain Richard
Derby of Salem, for a voyage to the West Indies as master
and part owner of the schooner Volante in 1741:
"If you should go among the French endeavour
to get salt at St. Martins, but if you should fall so
low as Statia, and any Frenchman should make you a
good Offer with good security, or by making your
Vessel a Dutch bottom, or by any other means
practicable in order to your getting among ye
Frenchmen, embrace it. Among whom if you should ever
arrive, be sure to give strict orders amongst your men
not to sell the least trifle unto them on any terms,
lest they should make your Vessel liable to a seizure.
Also secure a permit so as for you to trade there next
voyage, which you may undoubtedly do through your
factor or by a little greasing some others. Also make
a proper Protest at any port you stop at."
This means that if needs be, Captain Derby is to
procure a Dutch registry and make the Volante a Dutch
vessel for the time being, and thus not subject to the
British Navigation Acts. It was easy to buy such
registries for temporary use and to masquerade under
English, French, Spanish or Dutch colors, if a "little
greasing" was applied to the customs officers in the West
Indies.
On the margin of Captain Derby's sailing orders is
scrawled the following memorandum:
"Capt. Derby: If you trade at Barbadoes buy
me a Negro boy about seventeen years old, which if you
do, advise Mr. Clarke of yt so he may not send one.
(Signed) Benj GERRISH, JR."
Such voyages as these were risky ventures for the
eighteenth century insurance companies, whose courage is
to be admired for daring to underwrite these vessels at
all. For a voyage of the Lydia from Salem to Madeira in
1761, the premium rate was 11 percent, and in the
following year 14 percent was demanded for a voyage to
Jamaica. The Three Sisters, bound "to Santo Domingo, was
compelled to pay 23 percent premium, and 14 percent for
the return voyage. The lowest rate recorded for this era
was 8 percent on the schooner Friendship of Salem to
Quebec in 1760. For a Madeira voyage from Salem today the
insurance rate would be 1-3/4 percent as compared with 11
percent then; to Jamaica 1-1/2 percent instead of 14
percent in the days when the underwriters had to risk
confiscation, violation of the British Navigation Acts,
and capture by privateers, or pirates, in addition to the
usual dangers of the deep.
Among the biographical sketches in the records of the
Salem Marine Society is that of Captain Michael Driver.
It is a concise yet crowded narrative and may serve to
show why insurance rates were high. "In the year 1759, he
commanded the schooner Three Brothers, bound to the West
Indies," runs the account. "He was taken by a privateer
under English colors, called the King of Russia,
commanded by Captain James Inclicto, of nine guns, and
sent into Antigua. Her cargo was value at £550.
Finding no redress he came home. He sailed again in the
schooner Betsey for Guadaloupe; while on his passage was
taken by a French frigate and sent into above port. He
ransomed the vessel for four thousand livres and left
three hostages and sailed for home November, 1761, and
took command of schooner Mary, under a flag of truce, to
go and pay the ransom and bring home the hostages.
"He was again captured, contrary to the laws of
nations, by the English privateer Revenge, James
McDonald, master, sent to New Providence, Bahama. He made
protest before the authorities and was set at liberty
with vessel and cargo. He pursued his voyage to Cape
Francois, redeemed the hostages, and Sept. 6, 1762, was
ready to return, but Monsieur Blanch, commanding a French
frigate, seized the vessel, took out hostages and crew
and put them on board the frigate bound to St. Jago,
Cuba. He was detained till December, and vessel returned.
Worn out and foodless he was obliged to go to Jamaica for
repairs. On his arrival home his case was represented to
the Colonial Government and transmitted to Governor
Shirley at New Providence, but no redress was made."
Many of these small vessels with crews of four to six
men were lost by shipwreck and now and then one can read
between the lines of some scanty chronicle of disaster
astonishing romances of maritime suffering and adventure.
For example in 1677, "a vessel arrived at Salem which
took Captain Ephriam How of New Haven, the survivor of
his crew, from a desolate island where eight months he
suffered exceedingly from cold and hunger."
In the seventeenth century Cape Cod was as remote as
and even more inaccessible than Europe. A bark of thirty
tons burden, Anthony Dike master, was wrecked near the
end of the Cape and three of the crew were frozen to
death. The two survivors "got some fire and lived there
by such food as they had saved for seven weeks until an
Indian found them. Dike was of the number who
perished."
Robinson Crusoe could have mastered difficulties no
more courageously than the seamen of the ketch
Providence, wrecked on a voyage to the West Indies. "Six
of her crew were drowned, but the Master, mate and a
sailor, who was badly wounded, reached an island half a
mile off where they found another of the company. They
remained there eight days, living on salt fish and cakes
made from a barrel of flour washed ashore. They found a
piece of touch wood after four days which the mate had in
his chest and a piece of flint with which, having a small
knife they struck a fire. They framed a boat with a
tarred mainsail and some hoops and then fastened pieces
of board to them. With a boat so constructed they sailed
ten leagues to Anquila and St. Martins where they were
kindly received."
There was also Captain Jones of the brig Adventure
which foundered at sea while coming home from Trinidad.
All hands were lost except the skipper, who got astride a
wooden or "Quaker" gun which had broken adrift from the
harmless battery with which he had hoped to intimidate
pirates. "He fought off the sharks with his feet" and
clung to his buoyant ordnance until he was picked up and
carried into Havana.
In 1759 young Samuel Gardner of Salem, just graduated
from Harvard College, made a voyage to Gibraltar with
Captain Richard Derby. The lad's diary* contains some
interesting references to the warlike hazards of a
routine trading voyage, besides revealing, in an
attractive way, the ingenuous nature of this
nineteen-year-old youngster of the eighteenth
century.
* Historical Collections of
the Essex Institute.
His daily entries read in part:
1759.
Oct. 19-Sailed from Salem. Very sick.
20-I prodigious sick, no comfort at all.
21-I remain very sick, the first Sabbath I have
spent from Church this long time. Little Sleep this
Night.
24-A little better contented, but a Sailor's life
is a poor life.
31-Fair pleasant weather, if it was always so, a
sea life would be tolerable.
Nov. 11-This makes the fourth Sunday I have been
out. Read Dr. Beveridge's "Serious Thoughts."
12-Saw a sail standing to S.W. I am quartered at
the aftermost gun and its opposite with Captain
Clifford. We fired a shot at her and she hoisted Dutch
colors.
13-I have entertained myself with a Romance, viz.,
"The History of the Parish Girl."
14-Quite pleasant. Here we may behold the Works of
God in the Mighty Deep. Happy he who beholds
aright.
15-Between 2 and 3 this morning we saw two sail
which chased us, the ship fired 3 shots at us which we
returned. They came up with us by reason of a breeze
which she took before we did. She proved to be the
ship Cornwall from Bristol.
21-Bishop Beveridge employed my time.
23-We now begin to approach to land. May we have a
good sight of it. At eight o'clock two Teriffa
(Barbary) boats came out after us, they fired at us
which we returned as merrily. They were glad to get
away as well as they could. We stood after one, but it
is almost impossible to come up with the piratical
dogs.
28-Gibralter-Went on shore. Saw the soldiers in the
Garrison exercise. They had a cruel fellow for an
officer for he whipt them barbarously. . . . After
dinner we went out and saw the poor soldiers lickt
again.
Dec. 10-Benj. Moses, a Jew, was on board. I had
some discourse with him about his religion . . . Poor
creature, he errs greatly. I endeavored to set him
right, but he said for a conclusion that his Father
and Grandfather were Jews and if they were gone to
Hell he would go there, too, by choice, which I
exposed as a great piece of Folly and Stupidity. In
the morning we heard a firing and looked out in the
Gut and there was a snow attacked by 3 of the
piratical Tereffa boats. Two cutters in the Government
service soon got under sail, 3 men-of-war that lay in
the Roads manned their barges and sent them out as did
a Privateer. We could now perceive her (the snow) to
have struck, but they soon retook her. She had only
four swivels and 6 or 8 men . . . They got some
prisoners (of the pirates) but how many I cannot
learn, which it is to be hoped will meet with their
just reward which I think would be nothing short of
hanging. . . . Just at dusk came on board of us two
Gentlemen, one of which is an Officer on board a
man-of-war, the other belongs to the Granada in the
King's Service. The former (our people say) was in the
skirmish in some of the barges. He could have given us
a relation of it, but we, not knowing of it, prevented
what would have been very agreeable to me. . . . It is
now between 9 and 10 o'clock at night which is the
latest I have set up since I left Salem."
This Samuel Gardner was a typical Salem boy of his
time, well brought up, sent to college, and eager to go
to sea and experience adventures such as his elders had
described. Of a kindred spirit in the very human quality
of the documents he left for us was Francis Boardman, a
seaman, who rose to a considerable position as a Salem
merchant. His ancient log books contain between their
battered and discolored canvas covers the records of his
voyages between 1767 and 1774. Among the earliest are the
logs of the ship Vaughan in which Francis Boardman sailed
as mate. He kept the log and having a bent for scribbling
on whatever blank paper his quill could find, he filled
the flyleaves of these sea journals with more interesting
material than the routine entries of wind, weather and
ship's daily business. Scrawled on one ragged leaf in
what appears to be the preliminary draft of a letter:
"Dear Polly-thes lines comes with My Love to
you. Hoping thes will find you in as good Health as
they Leave me at this Time, Blessed be God for so
Great a Massey (mercy)."
Young Francis Boardman was equipped with epistolary
ammunition for all weathers and conditions, it would
seem, for in another log of a hundred and fifty years
ago, he carefully wrote on a leaf opposite his personal
expense account:
"Madam:
"Your Late Behavior towards me, you are sensible
cannot have escaped my Ear. I must own you was once
the person of whom I could Not have formed such an
Opinion. For my part, at present I freely forgive you
and only blame myself for putting so much confidence
in a person so undeserving. I have now conquered my
pashun so much (though I must confess at first it was
with great difficulty), that I never think of you, nor
I believe never shall without despising the Name of a
person who dared to use me in so ungrateful a manner.
I shall now conclude myself, though badley used, not
your Enemy."
It may be fairly suspected that Francis Boardman owned
a copy of some early "Complete Letter Writer," for on
another page he begins but does not finish. "A Letter
from One Sister to Another to Enquire of Health." Also he
takes pains several times to draft these dutiful but far
from newsy lines:
"Honored Father and Mother-Thes lines comes
with my Deuty to you. Hoping They will find you in as
good Health as they Leave me at this Time. Blessed be
God for so Great a Massey-Honored Father and Mother."
In a log labeled "From London Toward Cadiz, Spain, in
the good ship Vaughan, Benj. Davis, Master, 1767,"
Francis Boardman became mightily busy with his quill and
the season being spring, he began to scrawl poetry
between the leaves which were covered with such dry
entries as "Modt. Gales and fair weather. Set the jibb.
Bent topmast stay sail." One of these pages of verse
begins in this fashion: "One Morning, one Morning in May,
The fields were adorning with Costly Array. I Chanced for
To hear as I walked By a Grove A Shepyard Laymenting for
the Loss of his Love."
But the most moving and ambitious relic of the poetic
taste of this long vanished Yankee seaman is a ballad
preserved in the same log of the Vaughan. Its spelling is
as filled with fresh surprises as its sentiment is
profoundly tragic. It runs as follows:
1 "In Gosport (Gosport Navy Yard, England) of Late
there a Damsil Did Dwell, for Wit and for Beauty Did she
maney Exsel.
2 A Young man he Corted his to be his Dear And By his
Trade was a Ship Carpentir.
3 he ses "My Dear Molly if you will agree And will
then Conscent for to Marey me
4 Your Love it will Ease me of Sorrow and Care If you
will But Marey a ship Carpentir."
5 With blushes more Charming then Roses in June, She
ans'red (") Sweet William for to Wed I am to young.
6 Young Men thay are fickle and so Very Vain, If a
Maid she is Kind thay will quickly Disdane.
7 the Most Beutyfullyst Woman that ever was Born, When
a man has insnared his, his Beauty he scorns. (")
8 (He) (") 0, My Dear Molly, what Makes you Say so?
This Beauty is the Haven to wich I will go.
9 If you Will consent for the Church for to Stear
there I will Cast anchor and stay with my Dear.
10 I ne're Shall be Cloyedd with the Charms of thy
Love, this Love is as True as the tru Turtle Dove.
11 All that I do Crave is to marey my Dear And arter
we are maried no Dangers we will fear. (")
12 (She) "The Life of a Virgen, Sweet William, I Prize
for marrying Brings Trouble and sorrow like-wise. (")
13 But all was in Vane tho His Sute she did Denie, yet
he did Purswade hir for Love to Comeply.
14 And by his Cunneng hir Hart Did Betray and with Too
lude Desire he led hir Astray.
15 This Past on a while and at Length you will hear,
the King wanted Sailors and to Sea he must Stear.
16 This Grieved the fare Damsil almost to the Hart To
think of Hir True Love so soon she must Part.
17 She ses (")my Dear Will as you go to sea Remember
the Vows that you made unto me. (")
18 With the Kindest Expresens he to hir Did Say (") I
will marey my Molly air I go away.
19 That means tomorrow to me you will Come. then we
will be maried and our Love Carried on. (")
20 With the Kindest Embraces they Parted that Nite She
went for to meet him next Morning by Lite.
21 he ses (")my Dear Charmer, you must go with me
Before we are married a friend for to see. (")
22 he Led hir thru Groves and Valleys so deep That
this fare Damsil Began for to Weep.
23 She ses (") My Dear William, you Lead me Astray on
Purpos my innocent Life to be Betray. (")
24 (He) (") Those are true Words and none can you
save, (") for all this hole Nite I have Been digging your
grave."
25 A Spade Standing By and a Grave thare she See,
(She) (") 0, Must this Grave Be a Bride Bed to Me?
(")
In 1774 we find Francis Boardman as captain of the
sloop Adventure, evidently making his first voyage as
master. He was bound for the West Indies, and while off
the port of St. Pierre in Martinique he penned these
gloomy remarks in his log:
"This Morning I Drempt that 2 of my upper
teeth and one Lower Dropt out and another Next the
Lower one wore away as thin as a wafer and Sundry
other fritful Dreams. What will be the Event of it I
can't tell."
Other superstitions seem to have vexed his mind, for
in the same log he wrote as follows:
"this Blot I found the 17th. I can't tell but
Something Very bad is going to Hapen to me this
Voyage. I am afeard but God onley Noes What may hapen
on board the Sloop Adventure -- the first Voyage of
being Master."
Sailing "From Guardalopa Toward Boston," Captain
Francis Boardman made this final entry in his log:
"The End of this Voyage for wich I am Very
thankfull on Acct. of a Grate Deal of Truble by a bad
mate. His name is William Robson of Salem. He was
Drunk most Part of the Voyage."