Tales of an Old Sea Port / A General Sketch of the History of Bristol, Rhode Island, Including, Incidentally, an Account of the Voyages of the Norsemen, So Far as They May Have Been Connected with Narragansett Bay: and Personal Narratives of Some Notable Voyages Accomplished by Sailors from the Mount Hope Lands

by Wilfred Harold Munro

FOOTNOTES:

[40] Ann. Cong. 2 Sess. 1820-21, Senate, pp. 71-77.

[41] This vessel was the Chippewa. One of the Bristol privateers, the Macdonough, had developed such remarkable speed as to call public attention to her builder, Captain Caleb Carr of Warren, R. I. Accordingly Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, as agent of the United States Government, was ordered to contract with Captain Carr for the building of a warship within ninety days. Perry, be it remembered, had already developed, upon the shores of Lake Erie, a marvellous capacity for building ships in record time. On March 15, 1814, only fifty-seven days from the time her keel was laid, notwithstanding many days of storm and snow, this ship of 411 tons burden, carrying sixteen guns, was delivered to Commodore Perry for her rigging and armament. A few days afterward she went to sea completely armed and rigged. The money for both its construction and equipment was advanced by Mr. De Wolf.

[42] A word about nautical terms for the benefit of those not in an old sea port born. All vessels, except the one masted sloops, are much larger than those of a hundred years ago, and the number of masts upon vessels has been increased. A “full rigged ship” of a century ago was a three masted vessel with square sails hanging from yards on each of the masts. Schooners and brigs were two masted vessels, the former with sails on both masts similar to those upon a sloop yacht today, but very much smaller. The schooner rig was not applied to three masted craft until about the middle of the last century. The giant schooners of the present time, with their four, five, six and even seven masts, had not been dreamed of fifty years ago. The schooner rig was devised in Gloucester, Massachusetts, about the year 1713. It is gradually making its way around the world. The writer noted that in 1904 it had almost entirely supplanted the “junk” upon the Inland Sea of Japan.

Brigs were of two kinds, full rigged and hermaphrodite. A full rigged brig had square sails on both masts, while the hermaphrodite (in sailor dialect “morfydite”) had square sails on the foremast and schooner sails on the other, and was sometimes called a brigantine. The Yankee, ordinarily spoken of as a brig, was really a brigantine. Brigs are rarely seen in United States ports today. They almost invariably sail under a foreign flag.

[43] Captain Wilson was only twenty-six years old.

[44] It is reported that these unfortunates were frequently asked “how they liked the swimming” by those of the crew who had remained for the capture of the San Jose Indiano, and that rude boys, for almost a generation, continued to ask the same question, always of course at a respectful distance.

[45] The San Jose Indiano was a teak built East Indiaman. How old she was at the time of her capture we do not know, but she was destined to a long life under the American flag. As far as seaworthiness was concerned she might have continued to plow the seas until the time of our Civil War—then to end her days with the other whaleships from New Bedford and elsewhere that were sunk to block the entrance to the harbor of Charleston, S. C. Mr. De Wolf renamed her the General Jackson and used her for a time in the general carrying trade. Later when the whale fishery became popular with the people of the towns on Narragansett Bay she received a whaler’s outfit and sailed for years with the Bristol whaling fleet. The Mexican War having broken out, she was sold, in 1846 or thereabout, to the United States Government, being by her construction specially adapted for work in tropical waters. When a Government survey was made, preliminary to her sale, the carpenters who attempted to cut holes in her sides expended many tools, and much profanity, before they could make any impression upon her planks. Her teak timbers, combined with the cement between their joints, for a time defied all their efforts, both wood and cement having become almost as hard as stone. After she had lain for some months at anchor off Vera Cruz, the Government had no further need for her and therefore sold her to a third American owner. To him she did not prove profitable, and it is said that an attempt to set her on fire in order to secure her insurance was made. The staunch old ship simply refused to burn. Again she was sold for a very small sum. Then, so the story goes, a more scientific and successful attempt to transfer her to the underwriters was made. She was loaded with a cargo of lime, and then holes having been skilfully made in her hull, doubtless with more profanity, she was cleared for a southern port. Somewhere in the waters about the Florida peninsula she was run upon a reef, and the ocean combined with the lime to do the rest.

[46] The name Goree was until very recently applied to the part of the town of Bristol in which the negroes lived.

[47] This is the only record of a punishment inflicted upon one of the crew during the whole cruise. As will later appear one of the Officers became subject for censure on several occasions.

[48] Baft, or bafta, was a coarse stuff of India cotton.

[49] The Yankee in firing aimed to disable—not to destroy her possible prizes.

[50] In comparing the edifying music of the marines with the ungodly songs of the sailors the gentle reader will do well to bear in mind the fact that the writer was the Captain of Marines.

[51] This was true in more ways than one as the Fly was recaptured by the British. The gold dust she had accumulated reached Bristol in the Yankee.

[52] The small size of the vessel suggests the Pinta and the Niña of the fleet of Columbus.

[53] Mr. Vinson’s indisposition was probably due to drunkenness, as will appear from subsequent entries. His case was an unusual one for a Privateersman.

[54] Query, Were there others suffering from the Vinsonian malady?

[55] Descriptions like this, which occur frequently in the Journals of American merchantmen, were carefully read by ship owners, and mastered by the Captains sent to trade with foreign ports.

[56] The two islands, Ascension and Saint Helena, which was later to become famous as the prison of Napoleon Bonaparte, were both made “Ports of Call” for the Yankee.

[57] The island is used by the government of Brazil as a penal settlement.

[58] The burning of Washington was yet to come.

[59] Before the Shannon was captured, Mr. Jones had made out his “List of Prizes,” and had also written the “Route of the Yankee” which is printed at the end of this Journal. It is possible that he may not have protested very strongly at the additional entries he was compelled to make. The Shannon, with her cargo, actually netted $67,521. The erroneous estimate may be excused in view of the exceedingly short time allowed for its making. When the cargo of the Shannon was sold, Mr. De Wolf found that he had been remunerated for all his losses suffered at the hands of the British cruisers. He therefore renamed her the Balance. Bearing that name she sailed from Bristol for years thereafter. The next prize was renamed the Prize, and the next the Remittance. The San Jose Indiano of the 5th cruise became the General Jackson.

[60] The Shannon had not been taken when this “Route” was written.