Gideon Crawford, Commander.
Now lying at Mrs. Hayley’s Wharff, will sail in 10 or 12 days. For Freight or Passage apply to the Master on board or to Joseph and William Russell. She has good accommodations for Passengers.
Providence, Jan. 14, 1786.
Here again “passage” is advertised, it will be noted. Soon after a news item appeared in the Gazette, stating that “the ship Tristram, Captain Crawford, sails this day for Dublin.” It appears that the Tristram made many voyages to and from Ireland. On April 26, 1788, over two years after the trip just mentioned, the Gazette had the following budget of marine news:
The ship Tristram, Capt. Warner, of this port, is arrived at Dublin.—The ship Mary, Capt. Rathbun, and Brig Little John, Capt. Ambrose, of Newport, are also arrived at Dublin.—The Brig Recovery, Capt. Taggart, of Newport, is arrived at Newry.
In June, 1791, Joseph and William Russell of Providence had an assortment of Irish linens “Just imported in the ship Tristram from Dublin.” The Gazette, under date of Providence, April 13, 1776, says: “Capt. Cook, from Belfast, informs that recruiting parties had been beating up there from September till January to reinforce the ministerial army in America, but they had only inlisted ten men.” This helps the reader to form a good idea as to the direction of Irish sympathies at that time.
The quotations in the remainder of this chapter are from the Providence Gazette. A news paragraph, dated Newport, states that on “Monday last arrived here the ship Mary, Captain Ambrose, in fifty-nine days from Cork.” On February 14, 1789, under the head of Providence, we are told that “On Wednesday also arrived the brig Happy Return, Capt. Dring, from Dublin, Isle of May, and St. Eustatia.” The Happy Return has frequent mention, sometimes as arriving from Dublin and again from other ports. But there came a time when she returned no more. The incident occurred in 1790, and is thus narrated: “The brig Happy Return, Capt. Dring, of this port (Providence), bound for Dublin, is lost near that port. The crew and a part of the cargo were saved.” In April, 1790, is chronicled the arrival at Dublin of the brig Sally, Captain Davis, of Providence, “after a short passage of twenty two days.” In November of the same year, the ship Tristram, Captain Warner, is again mentioned as having cleared for Dublin from Providence. Among the arrivals in the port of Providence in May, 1791, was the “ship Tristram, Warner, Dublin.” In November, 1791, the Tristram, commanded by Captain Holowell, departed from Providence for Newry. December 14, 1792, the brig Betsy left Providence for Newry and in May of the next year, her arrival at Providence is noted “from Newry, which she left the 5th of March, having touched at the Cape de Verds.”
In April, 1796, the brig Lydia, Capt. John Cook, arrived at Providence from Cork in forty-nine days. We find it recorded December 21, 1799, that “A ship from Cork put into Newport on Sunday evening last, and sailed next morning. She brought Cork papers to the 24th of October.” Elsewhere it is stated that earlier in that year the ship Palmyra, Captain Trotter, of Providence, for Hamburg, put into “the Cove of Cork.”
The schooner Mayflower left Providence for Dublin in February, 1801. In 1809, among the departures from the port of Providence was the “Ship Neptune, Staples, Ireland.” The same year it is stated that the “ship Nancy, of Rhode Island, 14 days from Richmond for Cork, was spoke July 6, lat. 43:52.” In October, 1809, the brig Orient arrived at New York “53 days from Dublin. Left there among others, ship Nancy, Capt. Noyes, just arrived from Providence.” These Rhode Island captains became great favorites in Irish ports. They were frequently entertained and were treated in a hospitable manner generally. In 1811, Capt. Peregrine Howland of Newport, died in Belfast. He was in his thirty-ninth year at the time, and his passing away caused much sorrow. The ship Robert Burns, Captain Coffin, arrived at Newport January 3, 1820, “in 39 days from Ireland.” The ship George Washington, of Providence, is noted as having arrived at Cork March 26, 1820, “from Madeira in 15 days.” She was commanded by Captain Allen. Under a Newport date of January 6, 1820, we find the following: “Arrived on Tuesday last, in distress, ship William and Jane, Brown, from N. York, with flaxseed, bound to Londonderry,—Sailed from N. York, Dec. 24, and next day the ship sprung a leak, which continued to increase, and was compelled to throw over part of the cargo, and put into this port.”
It will thus be seen that flaxseed was exported to Ireland from this country. That is perhaps what Black & Stewart, Irish merchants of Providence, intended to do with the “2000 bushels of good and well clean’d flax seed” they advertised for in 1763.