“This cook had sailed as cabin-boy with Captain Cook in his last voyage round the world and was acquainted with several facts relative to the assassination of the celebrated navigator at Owhyhee, February, 1779. ‘The greatest part of the seamen on board the Barge,’ said Mr. Crowninshield, ‘can use the sextant and make nautical calculations.’
“Indeed Mr. Crowninshield had with him many instructors. At Genoa he had taken one acquainted with Italian—he had also on board an instructor in the French language, a young man who had lost his fingers in the Russian campaign. What instruction! what order! what correctness! what magnificence was to be observed in this Barge; I could relate many more interesting particulars concerning this true Barque of Cleopatra.”
The editor of the Diario di Roma newspaper of Rome considered the Cleopatra’s Barge worthy of a eulogistic notice, a translation of which was printed in the Essex Register of October 11, 1817:
“Soon after the visit of the fleet, there anchored in our port a schooner from America, of a most beautiful construction, elegantly found, very light, and formed for fast sailing, and armed like our light armed vessels. It was named the Cleopatra, belonging to a very rich traveller, George Crowninshield, of Salem, who constructed her for his own use, and for the voyages he had undertaken in company with Captain Benjamin Crowninshield, his cousin. Besides the extreme neatness of everything about the vessel to fit her for sea, her accommodations were surprising and wonderful. Below was a hall of uncommon extent, in which the luxury of taste, the riches and elegance of the furniture, the harmony of the drapery, and of all the ornaments, inspired pleasure and gallantry. The apartment of the stern was equally rich and interesting. Five convenient bed chambers displayed with that same elegance, were at the service of the Captain, with an apartment for the plate of every kind, with which it was filled. Near was another apartment which admitted all the offices of a kitchen, and in it was a pump with three tubes which passed through the vessel, to supply water from the sea, or discharge what they pleased, with the greatest ease.
“The rich and distinguished owner had with him beside his family servants, several linguists, persons of high talent in music, and an excellent painter. Everything to amuse makes a part of the daily entertainment. The owner and Captain were affable, pleasing and civil, and gave full evidence of the talents, the industry and the good taste of their nation, which yields to none in good sense and true civility. The above travellers having complied with the usual rules of the city, upon receiving a particular invitation, he visited the Cleopatra in company with many persons of distinction, and partook of an elegant collation.”
The Salem Gazette of Sept. 26, 1817, contained the following “extract of a letter from a gentleman on board the Cleopatra’s Barge”:
“Barcelona, June 8.
“You have undoubtedly heard of our movements in the Mediterranean; indeed you must have heard of us, from every place at which we have touched—for the Cleopatra’s Barge is more celebrated abroad than at home. Even the Moors of Tangier visited us tho’ they abhor the Christians. At Gibralter the Englishmen were astonished. In Malaga, Carthagena and this place the Spaniards have been thunderstruck. For these four days past the whole of this great city has been in an uproar. They begin to crowd on board at daylight, and continue to press upon us till night. This morning the Mole was so crowded with people waiting to come on board, that we have been obliged to get under weigh, and stand out of the Mole, yet the boats, with men, women and children, are rowing after us. Thus it has been in every place we have visited. In Port Mahon we were visited by all the officers of our squadron.”
Further tidings were conveyed to the admiring townspeople of Salem by means of an article in the Essex Register under date of Oct. 25th:
“Having noticed the attention paid to the American barge Cleopatra, at Rome, we could not refuse the pleasure of assuring our friends that Capt. G. Crowninshield had been equally successful in arresting attention in France. The following is an extract from a Letter dated at Marseilles, 14th July, 1817, from a person long residing in France: ‘Capt. G. Crowninshield left this port in the beginning of this month, for Toulon and Italy. During his stay here, thousands of both sexes were on board of his beautiful Vessel. Every day it was like a continual procession. It gave me the utmost pleasure, as the universal opinion was that no vessel could compare with this Vessel. I felt proud that such a splendid specimen of what could be done in the United States was thus exhibited in Europe. We consider it as an act of patriotism. The Vessel was admired. The exquisite taste in her apartments greatly astonished the French for their amour propre had inclined them to believe that only in France the true gout was known.’”