■ 
 
 LIBRIS POLARIS 
 
 BASSETT JONES 
 
 ColuniWa ©nitjf rsitp 
 
 inttifCitpofUrtogflrk 
 
 THE LIBRARIES 
 
By 
 JOHN R. SPEARS 
 
 The Stories of American History 
 
 Story of the New England Whalers 
 
 Story of the American Merchant 
 Marine 
 

 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer. 
 Born August 8, 1799. Died June 21, 1877. 
 
Captain 
 Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 An Old-Time Sailor of the Sea 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN R. SPEARS 
 
 THE MACMILLAN "COMPANY 
 1922 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 
 
 
 Copyright, 1922, 
 By the MACMILLAN COMPANY. 
 
 Set up and printed. Published March, 1922. 
 
 Press of 
 
 J. J. Little & Ives Company 
 
 New York, U. S. A. 
 
cr; 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 While employed as a reporter on The Sun, of 
 New York, thirty odd years ago, the writer saw 
 in the January, 1884, issue of Harper^ s Magazine, 
 an illustrated account of "The Old Packet and Clip- 
 per Service." Records of swift passages, hero tales 
 and statements of vast profits were mingled in it in 
 a way that proved memorable. In fact, the whole 
 story was so interesting that the magazine was pre- 
 served and became the first item in a collection of 
 books relating to the sea. 
 
 Naturally this collection came to resemble the 
 original article in that the most important feature 
 was bibliographical; it came to demonstrate that a 
 history of the sea, at least, is a series of biographies. 
 Naturally, too, the records of some of the more 
 active of the old master mariners were duplicated, 
 more or less, in the various accounts — their work 
 had attracted the attention of more than one writer. 
 Accordingly, as the collection was read and reread, 
 the names of certain captains became more and more 
 familiar to the reader and then a time came when 
 the name of one old captain came to mind whenever 
 any true story of the sea was read. 
 
 A few quotations from some of the sketches will 
 
vi Preface 
 
 show how this came to pass : In the original account 
 it was noted that when ships were named, during 
 the clipper era, "the custom was to use the names 
 of distinguished merchants or captains — the Houqua, 
 the Samuel Russell, the N, B. Palmer,'* A copy of 
 the North American Review ^ published in 1834, 
 told how a Yankee sailor, in a sloop "but little rising 
 forty tons," had discovered lands of continental 
 proportions near the Antarctic Pole and had ex- 
 plored the coast for many miles in spite of the hurri- 
 cane squalls that prevail in that region and in spite 
 of the ice floes which mill around and crash together 
 there under the influence of currents as well as winds. 
 The name of this young man was Nathaniel Brown 
 Palmer, and the story quoted said that a Russian 
 naval officer had named the coast thus explored 
 Palmer Land. It appeared that the young explorer 
 thus distinguished was the distinguished merchant 
 or captain for whom a ship had been named later. 
 A clipping from a Liverpool newspaper described 
 briefly a race between twelve American packets and 
 freighters plying between New York and Liverpool. 
 The winner in this race was the W ashington, Cap- 
 tain Holdredge. He arrived in seventeen days. The 
 third in the race was the Columbus, Captain Palmer, 
 who arrived a day later. The Nautical Magazine^ 
 (Volume II), which was edited by John Willis 
 Griffiths, a noted naval architect, made mention of 
 Captain N. B. Palmer several times during 1855, 
 and on one occasion coupled his name with that of 
 
Preface vii 
 
 William H. Aspinwall, saying that the two were the 
 originators of "the late clipper era." 
 
 The impression made by these references was 
 deepened by further reading. There were many 
 notable men in the service of the American merchant 
 marine during the period between the War of 1812 
 and the Civil War, but, as the records indicated, 
 Captain Palmer as an explorer, as a master mariner, 
 and, more important still, as a designer of famous 
 clippers, was preeminent. So a time came when 
 the writer decided to secure, if possible, the facts 
 at least sufficient for a biographical sketch, and if 
 possible for a fairly complete biography. 
 
 It is a pleasure to acknowledge that In the work 
 then begun the most cordial aid was received from 
 Mrs. Richard Fanning Loper, of Stonlngton, Con- 
 necticut, a niece of Captain Palmer. The captain had 
 lived with Captain Alexander Palmer, her father, 
 for several years and such of his papers as remained 
 were left in Mrs. Loper's possession. The old 
 Palmer mansion at Stonlngton — a picturesque, shin- 
 gle-covered structure that stood on the west side 
 of town at a point overlooking the Sound and the 
 sea — was burned on November 15, 1850, when many 
 documents such as log books and letters were de- 
 stroyed, but some, including the log of the little sloop 
 Hero, kept during the memorable voyage to the 
 Antarctic Continent, were saved. All the materials 
 in Mrs. Loper's possession, together with notes made 
 from memory by her father, by herself and others 
 
viii Preface 
 
 have all been used In preparing this biography. But 
 for the unwearied aid of Mrs. Loper it could not 
 have been written. 
 
 As for the facts obtained from contemporary 
 periodicals and documents, credit is given where 
 quotations are made. It should also be said, how- 
 ever, that many statements relating to the clippers 
 which were designed by Captain Palmer, as well as 
 by others, are taken from the "The Clipper Ship 
 Era," by Captain Arthur H. Clark, a work which 
 gives a history of all the clippers. Including the 
 British, which attracted public attention during the 
 period. Captain Clark is "one of the last of the cap- 
 tains of the old school," to quote a biographical 
 sketch In "Some Merchants and Sea Captains of 
 Old Boston." He wrote his history in part from 
 personal knowledge but chiefly from authentic docu- 
 ments, such as the log books of the ships, which he 
 gathered during the many years when he was the 
 New York representative of Lloyd's Register of 
 Shipping. 
 
 The writer must also acknowledge that material 
 help was received from Dr. James H. Weeks, of 
 Stonlngton; Frederick William Edgerton, of the 
 Public Library, New London; H. M. Lydenberg, 
 of the New York Public Library; the librarian of the 
 Boston Public Library; Captain W. C. Asserson, 
 U. S. N., Acting Hydrographer, Washington; 
 Homer Sheridan, managing editor, of the Marine 
 Journal, New York; Kenneth Lord, city editor of 
 
Preface ix 
 
 the New York Herald; A. J. Aubrey, of the Brook- 
 lyn Eagle; S. Davles, Secretary of Lloyd's Register 
 of Shipping; J. Murray Forbes, Milton, Mass., and 
 Allan Forbes, of the State Street Trust Co., Boston. 
 
 J. R. S. 
 
 Little Falls, N. Y., September 14, 1921. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I Trained in a Shipyard i 
 
 II A Captain at Eighteen 14 
 
 III Learning the Course to the South 
 
 Shetlands 23 
 
 IV Master of a Tiny Tender 42 
 
 V Cruising Among the South Shetlands 51 
 
 VI Exploring the Antarctic Coast ... 64 
 
 VII European Explorers Among the Shet- 
 lands 76 
 
 VIII Superior Work of the Stonington Men 87 
 
 IX Exploring with the Sloop "James 
 
 Monroe" 92 
 
 X Carrying Supplies to Bolivar ... 99 
 
 XI Another Memorable Exploring Expe- 
 dition Ill 
 
 XII Captured by Convicts on Juan Fer- 
 nandez 130 
 
 XIII The Yankee Packets 141 
 
 XIV Commodore of the Dramatic Line . . 154 
 
 XV Record Passage from Liverpool to New 
 
 York 164 
 
 XVI The First Yankee Clipper . . . . 168 
 
 xi 
 
xii Contents 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XVII The Griffiths Clippers 183 
 
 XVIII The Captain and His Fleet . . . . 191 
 
 XIX Good Qualities of the Clippers Con- 
 sidered 222 
 
 XX The ''Great Republic" Rebuilt . . 236 
 
 XXI Hail and Farewell 243 
 
CAPTAIN 
 NATHANIEL BROWN PALMER 
 
 An Old-Time Sailor of the Sea 
 
Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 TRAINED IN A SHIPYARD 
 
 CAPTAIN Nathaniel Brown Palmer was 
 born In the old family home at Stonlngton 
 on August 8, 1799. He was one among 
 eight children — four boys and four girls. On his 
 father's side he was descended from Walter Palmer 
 who settled at Salem, Mass., in 1629, while his 
 mother was of the Brown family of Rhode Island. 
 His father, who also bore the name of Nathaniel 
 Brown Palmer, was educated to practice law, but he 
 preferred to hear the rasp of the pit saw and the 
 crisp chip of the adz, rather than the dull drone of 
 the court room, and so he made shipbuilding his 
 life work. 
 
 Because building ships was the work of the father, 
 young Nat, as the boy born in 1799 was called to 
 distinguish him from his father, had a shipyard 
 for a playground from the time he was old enough 
 to run around without the care of a nurse. Stonlng- 
 ton, In those days, was a thriving seaport of about 
 
 I 
 
2 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 5,000 Inhabitants, standing at the mouth of Long 
 Island Sound. When storms prevailed to eastward 
 the coasters bound around Point Judith and so on 
 to Providence or Boston or Portland, were In the 
 habit of entering the harbor of Stonlngton to await 
 pleasant weather. Then vessels that met misfortune 
 when rounding Point Judith or Block Island, icund 
 the Palmer shipyard a convenient place for making 
 repairs. The coasters brought many a tidy repair 
 job to the Palmer shipyard. 
 
 In the matter of building new ships, the yard was 
 favored by the fact that Connecticut oak stood higher 
 in the estimation of ship owners than any except 
 the live oak of Hatteras Island and the coast of 
 Florida. Of course the final test of popularity of 
 the yard depended on the quality of the work done, 
 and the proof that the quality was of the highest is 
 found in the fact that many vessels of all classes 
 were built there. However, because the channel 
 leading into the harbor carried only twelve feet of 
 water the chief demand at the Palmer yard was for 
 brigs, schooners, and sloops. 
 
 As said, from the time that young Nat was able 
 to navigate the sea of chips he went to his father's 
 yard to play; and so he began to absorb a knowledge 
 of hulls and spars before he went to school to learn 
 his letters. He stood by while the workmen 
 stretched keels on the blocks and erected the ribs; 
 and he listened to what they said about the models 
 of the hulls thus begun. He looked on with un- 
 
Trained in a Shipyard 3 
 
 falling interest while other workmen, with endless 
 chipping, shaped long logs of various diameters 
 into masts and yards and booms and gaffs, discuss- 
 ing, the while, the merits of the sticks they worked 
 upon and the general dimensions of spars when 
 compared with the sizes and shapes of the hulls 
 for which they were designed. He learned what 
 was meant when they said a vessel was over-sparred 
 before he learned to work the rule of three. 
 
 His admiration was excited early by the men 
 who could rest one end of a slender stick on a rock 
 and then with a keen-edged ax slice shaving after 
 shaving down to within an inch of the rock until 
 he made of the stick a treenail, that was either round 
 or eight-square, and of the exact diameter to drive 
 into its destined augur hole — all this without ever 
 a slip that would endanger the edge on the ax. 
 And then there was the man who could swing an 
 ax in an overhead blow and split a chalk line three 
 times in succession. Young Nat dreamed of the day 
 when he, too, should be able to do that as well as 
 any one. 
 
 The shipbuilders of that day — the carpenters, 
 the spar makers, the riggers, and so on — were proud 
 of their skill. There was a friendly rivalry between 
 them in the yard, each striving to outdo the others, 
 not through any craven fear of the ''old man," as 
 the owner was called, but for the love of the dis- 
 tinguished consideration which skill brought to men 
 who excelled. So the shipyard was more than a 
 
4 Captain Nathaniel Brotvn Palmer 
 
 playground for the towsle-headed youngster ; it was 
 a good school of the kindergarten variety. It was 
 one of many which then gave character to the small, 
 growing and somewhat towsle-brained nation. 
 
 When a vessel was launched, and the people of 
 the borough and the country round about came to 
 cheer her on her way, young Nat was one of the 
 privileged few who mounted the deck to ride down 
 the ways. The click of the mauls as the iron wedges 
 were driven into the keelblocks; the settling of the 
 hull on the cradle as the blocks dropped to pieces; 
 the final blow that released the trigger and let the 
 hull slide down the ways, all thrilled the boy more 
 than the men and women who cheered the event most 
 cordially. 
 
 Even that was not all. For while the hull was 
 yet on the ways the workmen and other spectators 
 talked about the poise the hull should have after 
 going afloat. Hulls were designed wholly by rule 
 o' thumb, in those days, and sometimes a ship was 
 down by the bows when the designer had expected 
 her to be down by the stern. And sometimes a hull 
 showed a list to one side or the other. The boy 
 listened while the workmen as well as the unhappy 
 designer told just how such a hull happened to go 
 wrong. 
 
 Most important in the education of young Nat 
 were these shipyard experiences; for they created 
 or at any rate cultivated the bent of mind which 
 eventually led him to design the ships of the Dra- 
 
Trained in a Shipyard 5 
 
 matlc Line of Liverpool packets and the stately clip- 
 pers Howqua, Samuel Russell, Oriental, and others 
 which were most efficient and most famous in the 
 China trade. 
 
 That this boy learned to swim about as soon as 
 he learned to walk was according to the custom of 
 alongshore New England boys. One old account 
 says that when a gang of youngsters went to the 
 swimming hole, it frequently happened that boys 
 who had not yet learned to swim jumped in, deter- 
 mined to learn how, then and there — or get saved 
 by some of the older ones present. Of course, too, 
 the boy learned to handle a sailboat at the age when 
 farm boys learned to ride a horse. For the boys 
 of Stonlngton, a sail to the Middle Ground was a 
 matter of no moment; but to reach away to Ram 
 Island or the eastern end of Fisher's Island was an 
 adventure, while sailing to New London or to 
 Gardiner's Island was a voyage. 
 
 Consider now the influence of the stories told by 
 the sailors from the vessels which came to the 
 Palmer yard for repairs. Those were the good old 
 days of Jeffersonlan simplicity when the American 
 people preferred paying tribute to the pirates of 
 the north coast of Africa to fighting for freedom 
 to sail their ships across the high seas — when they 
 paid millions of tribute In the shape of coin, armed 
 ships and naval stores to black pirates. No doubt 
 seamen who had been in the Mediterranean came 
 to Stonlngton and related their experiences on the 
 
6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 African coast. Many — perhaps most — of them had 
 been In the West Indies during the days when French 
 and Spanish piratical privateers were raiding Ameri- 
 can commerce, and these had tales of narrow escapes 
 and of prison experiences to tell. Of the stories of 
 shipwreck there was, of course, no end. The very 
 presence of the vessels seeking repairs was usually 
 due to some sort of disaster. In short, the common 
 conversation of Stonlngton related to the sea just 
 as people in the blue grass of Kentucky talk about 
 the pedigrees of horses. 
 
 More important still, perhaps, In shaping the early 
 career of this young sailor-in-the-making, were the 
 oft-told stories of the neighbors who had sailed with 
 Captain Edmund Fanning in the brig Betsey ^ when, 
 in 1 797-1 799, she went to the Falklands for fur 
 seals; rounded the Horn and stopped at Mas-a-fuera 
 off the coast of Chili for more, and then sailed on to 
 Canton with 100,000 skins. That was a wonderfully 
 profitable voyage for all hands on the ship, and 
 they had sailed around the world. Moreover some 
 of them remained on Mas-a-fuera to take skins for 
 the Betsey for another voyage to follow the first. 
 No sailors from Stonlngton had more exciting ad- 
 venture tales to tell than these had. 
 
 From the sunlit waters of the Caribbean to the 
 ice fields of the far south, from New York around 
 Cape Horn to Canton and China, the sailors of 
 Stonlngton had seen many a strange sight of which 
 they were ready to talk to the wondering boys at 
 
Trained in a Shipyard 'J 
 
 home. So the winds that came unimpeded from be- 
 yond the Cape of Good Hope to the Palmer ship- 
 yard at Stonlngton called with a siren's voice to 
 young Nat as he played among the chips. 
 
 Of the political conditions prevailing In the nation 
 during his boyhood young Nat no doubt knew much. 
 When an embargo was laid on American shipping 
 in an effort to compel the warring nations of Europe 
 to deal justly with this country, the vigor with which 
 the people of the town denounced the absurd meas- 
 ure was certainly in part understood by the boy of 
 ten — perhaps fully understood. He appreciated the 
 effects of the measure beyond a doubt when he saw 
 the dismantling of ships in the harbor. And when 
 on June i8, 1812, war was declared, he was old 
 enough to share In the excitement that prevailed all 
 alongshore. 
 
 That the interest of the boy In that war increased 
 with the passage of time is also beyond doubt, for 
 Stonlngton occupied a notable position. 
 
 The borough stood on a point of land, called 
 Long Point, opposite the east end of Fisher's Island, 
 and therefore faced the open sea as well as the east 
 end of Long Island Sound. The anchorage of that 
 day was a roadstead rather than a harbor and In 
 later years breakwaters were built to shelter the 
 shipping of the port. Nevertheless It was frequently 
 used by the coasting vessels as already noted — espe- 
 cially during northeast storms. When the War of 
 1 8 12 came on it was popular for another reason. It 
 
8 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 became a resort for blockade runners. For the 
 enemy sent a war squadron under Commodore Sir 
 Thomas M. Hardy (he had been the favorite cap- 
 tain of Admiral Nelson) , to blockade the east end of 
 Long Island Sound. These ships reached to and fro 
 between Montauk Point and Point Judith where 
 they were nearly always within view of Stonington. 
 
 In foul weather the crews of the squadron were es- 
 pecially vigilant but they were never able to stop the 
 coasting traffic of the Yankees. Indeed the blockade 
 did but give zest to the traffic, for the danger added 
 greatly to the profits of each successful passage. 
 Thus at New York where the grain of the Hudson 
 watershed could be obtained, the price of flour was 
 but $7 a barrel. At Boston, where the people had 
 been accustomed to depend on New York for their 
 supplies, the price quickly rose to $14. Captain 
 Jacob Dunham, in his reminiscences, tells how he 
 bought the sloop Rover for $500, loaded her with 
 500 barrels of flour which he carried through the 
 blockade to eastern ports and sold for $4,000 net 
 profit. Some one ought to write a book on "Profits 
 and Progress," for it can be easily demonstrated 
 that high profits create swift progress. 
 
 The profits in blockade running were a perpetual 
 call to the daring seamen of the coast, and nowhere 
 was the call louder than at Stonington. For the 
 usual route of the coaster was through Fisher's Is- 
 land Sound and so within easy reach of the Stoning- 
 ton anchorage. When fog and wind favored her 
 
Trained in a Shipyard 9 
 
 the coaster held her way; when clearing weather 
 seemed coming on, or when daylight was at hand, 
 the coaster dropped anchor near the borough. Cap- 
 tain Dunham says that blockade runners could be 
 seen at anchor there at all times when the weather 
 was fair. The people — more especially the boys 
 of Stonington — had the daring crews of these vessels 
 always in mind. 
 
 Moreover they saw the coasters when In deadly 
 peril. Many a time the fog cleared away unexpect- 
 edly while a sloop or a schooner was passing Point 
 Judith or was under Watch Hill, and the nearest 
 warship of the enemy came In hot pursuit. Every 
 sail was spread on pursuer and pursued and then 
 the guns on the warship began to roar. Many an 
 Interesting yacht race has been seen from Stoning- 
 ton, but consider how the excitement grew as the 
 Pactolus frigate, or the sloop Despatch, fired shot 
 that knocked the spray over the rail of the hunted 
 coaster and even carried away the tophamper. And 
 when the crew of the coaster were seen at work 
 wetting down their sails to Increase her speed we 
 may well believe that the spectators fairly shrieked 
 their approval. 
 
 Sometimes the flying Yankee held her way In 
 spite of Injuries and came fluttering Into port like a 
 wounded wild fowl. Sometimes the crew of a cap- 
 tured coaster rose on the prize crew and retook her 
 as was the luck of the crew of the Natina, Captain 
 Stewart. 
 
10 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 The boys of Stonington knew the coasters as well 
 as a landsman knows the houses of his home town. 
 They were personally acquainted with many mem- 
 bers of the crews. Indeed, there were Stonington 
 men and boys on many of the blockade runners. 
 When one of these little vessels dropped anchor off 
 the point it was the custom for some of the crew 
 to come ashore, where they told in the picturesque 
 language of the sea how they had managed to escape 
 the enemy — told the story to listeners who became 
 wellnigh breathless because of their intense interest. 
 
 But .war was to come still closer to the people of 
 Stonington. The borough had been bombarded, 
 though all in vain, during the War of the Revolu- 
 tion. On August 9, 1 8 14, Commodore Hardy came 
 to bombard it again because he had heard that the 
 Stoningtonians were building torpedoes with which 
 to attack his squadron. As the story is told in H. D. 
 Palmer's "Stonington by the Sea," the 74-gun liner 
 Ramilies, the 44-gun frigate Pactolus, the 22-gun 
 brig Despatch and the bomb brig Terror reached 
 in to anchor at a point where their guns would bear. 
 Then a boat brought ashore a message which read: 
 
 "Not wishing to destroy the unoffending inhabi- 
 tants of Stonington, one hour is given them from the 
 receipt of this to remove out of town." 
 
 The non-combatants left the town; the men 
 loaded two old-fashioned i8-pounders, which were 
 standing in a small earthwork on the point. They 
 had at hand a 4-pounder but it was not loaded then. 
 
Trained in a Shipyard II 
 
 They had two guns with which to reply to four ships 
 which together mounted 140 effective cannon besides 
 an unknown number of mortars on the Terror, some 
 of the shells from which weighed more than 200 
 pounds. In the history of war there are few stories 
 of men who faced greater odds than that. 
 
 At 8 o'clock that night the Terror began shelling 
 the town. The crews of the two i8-pounders — 
 sailors, no doubt, who had faced the perils of the 
 sea ever since the previous war — returned the fire. 
 And at the first shot they fired they demonstrated 
 that the odds were in their favor! For their shot 
 struck home. They knew how to aim their guns 
 while the enemy fired with enthusiasm and nothing 
 better to direct their shells. 
 
 Seeing that his fire was Ineffective while that of 
 the two 1 8-pounders were sinking the T error ^ Com- 
 modore Hardy at 9 o'clock, sent six or seven huge 
 rowboats to a position from which they could shower 
 the town with Congreve rockets, a weapon then 
 supposed to be especially efficient in firing wooden 
 houses. A few houses were thus set on fire but the 
 Stoningtonians extinguished the flames. The fire 
 of shot which was meantime directed on the two 
 1 8-pounders eventually cut the old ''gridiron flag" 
 from its staff in the little earthwork, but a big 
 gunner stepped to the flagstaff where another man, 
 flag in hand, mounted his shoulders and nailed it to 
 the staff. 
 
 At midnight Commodore Hardy acknowledged 
 
12 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 that he had failed thus far — acknowledged it by 
 sending a flotilla of longboats to effect a landing. 
 Thereupon the Stoningtonians brought their 4- 
 pounder as well as one of the i8-pounders to bear 
 on these boats. 
 
 ''We tore one of their barges all to pieces," wrote 
 Captain Amos Palmer, in a letter to the Secretary 
 of the Navy, later, "so that two, one on each side, 
 had to lash her up to keep her from sinking." 
 
 At that the flotilla fled, which was something 
 British sailors have rarely done. Then the fire at 
 the warships was renewed. The bombardment was 
 continued, off and on, for three days. In that time 
 the sloop Despatch alone lost 21 killed and 50 
 wounded from the fire of the two i8-pounders, as 
 was learned from one of her officers after the war. 
 The loss on the other warships was never told. In 
 Stonington one man was hurt — mortally wounded. 
 Not a house was destroyed. The people picked up 
 fifteen tons of projectiles after the battle ended. 
 Some of them are yet on view. So is the tattered 
 old flag which floated above the two i8-pounders. 
 
 It was among such neighbors as these men who 
 would fight regardless of the odds that young Nat 
 Palmer was born and reared. Moreover it was the 
 proud boast of the people there that one of them — 
 Midshipman Nathaniel Fanning — had fought under 
 John Paul Jones on the Bon Homme Richard and 
 had heard the memorable words "I have not yet 
 
Trained in a Shipyard 13 
 
 begun to fight." In no town in the world was a 
 higher standard of manhood maintained. 
 
 But whether young Nat was at home when the 
 borough was bombarded is doubtful for he had, 
 earlier in the year, shipped as a boy before the mast 
 in one of the blockade runners which plied to and 
 fro from New York to Portland, regardless of the 
 blockade. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A CAPTAIN AT EIGHTEEN 
 
 THE only written record of the experiences 
 of young Nat Palmer as a sailor on a block- 
 ade runner, during the War of 1812, is the 
 statement that one vessel on which he was employed 
 was burned in the harbor at New Haven. But some 
 of the conditions under which he made his way 
 through the blockading squadrons, from time to 
 time, are well known, and may be described here in 
 order to show the kind of life he led and its effects 
 upon his development as a sailor of the sail. 
 
 First of all it may be noted that there was not 
 a lighthouse in commission anywhere along shore. 
 The buoys which had been placed here and there 
 to mark the reefs and shoals had all been removed 
 at the opening of the war, lest they serve to guide the 
 enemy. Sailing along the American coast was like 
 sailing on some newly-discovered littoral, save only 
 as the captain of each American vessel knew the 
 lay of the land, and could locate dangerous water 
 by distant marks such as hills and houses, which 
 were visible in clear weather. 
 
 In making a passage, as from New York to Bos- 
 ton, the vessel usually had clear sailing until within 
 
 14 
 
A Captain at Eighteen 1 5 
 
 sight of the blockading squadron, say, off New Lon- 
 don. It was therefore the custom, when the air was 
 clear, to sail along boldly on this passage as far as 
 that port or to Huntington, Long Island, and then 
 anchor to wait for fog or a dark night. With a fog 
 during a night when the moon was not shining the 
 captain of a blockade runner felt entirely safe; for 
 all the captains in the business were like the pilot on 
 the Mississippi of whom Mark Twain told — they 
 knew the waters through which they were to steer 
 as well as they knew the lay of the rooms in their 
 own homes. A cast of the lead was the only aid 
 to trained instinct needed when making the run. 
 
 The skill of the crews who handled these vessels 
 is memorable; for it was something marvelous in 
 the eyes of foreigners. Consider the sloops that 
 were commonly used. Some of them were from 50 
 to 75 feet long. The masts were much taller than 
 the hulls were long and some booms were five feet 
 longer than the hulls. A 75-foot sloop commonly 
 had a mast 84 or 85 feet tall with a boom that was 
 80 feet long. The mainsail was comparable with 
 that of a "giant" defender of the America's cup, 
 but a crew of six men handled any one of those 
 sloops, where the cup racers have carried from thirty 
 to forty. And one man at the tiller could gibe the 
 main boom over in a smart breeze without bringing 
 enough strain on sheet or masthead to break a rope- 
 yarn. 
 
 The young apprentice from Stonington was 
 
1 6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 trained to handle the tiller by men who could do just 
 that well; and In due course he became as expert 
 as they were. In fair winds and foul; in gentle airs 
 and in roaring gales, he had to stand his trick at 
 the tiller, noting the while not only the influence of 
 the wind but the influence of tidal currents, which 
 were sometimes favorable and sometimes adverse. 
 More important still, considering the work he was 
 to do later, he had to do all this at night and when 
 the fog was so thick on the water that he could not 
 see the jib when he stood at the tiller. 
 
 It was said of the blockade-running skippers that 
 they could "smell their way from Hell Gate to 
 Providence with their eyes shut" ; and that was not 
 as much of an exaggeration as It may seem to mod- 
 ern navigators of Long Island Sound. 
 
 Throughout the War of 1812 and until 18 18 
 young Nat sailed upon vessels which were engaged 
 in trade between New York and the New England 
 ports. He thus learned the arts of the coasting trade 
 so well that he was promoted first to the rank of 
 second mate and then mate. Before he was 19 he 
 became master of a schooner named Galena. He 
 had maintained the reputation of his home port, for 
 Stoningtonians made boast of the ability of their 
 boys to secure command before they were of an age 
 to vote. 
 
 The peculiar skill which young Nat had acquired 
 while working his way aft — the ability to navigate 
 among the shoals In foul weather as well as fair — 
 
A Captain at Eighteen 17 
 
 was now to take him from the coasting trade to a 
 voyage on deep water and yet demote him; for he 
 was invited to take part as a second mate in an ex- 
 pedition, fitted out at private expense, to explore 
 the unknown waters below Cape Horn. The object 
 in view was the location of islands supposed to exist 
 there, which were known to tradition as the Auroras, 
 and these islands were supposed to be the summer 
 home of vast herds of fur seals. 
 
 Because young Nat joined in this expedition and 
 thus became a noted sealer, a brief review of the 
 seal fishery will give a needed focus upon that period 
 of his life. According to a history issued by the 
 U. S. Fish Commission '*a Boston lady named 
 Haley * was led to bear the expense of fitting out 
 the ship States for a voyage to the Falkland Islands 
 for hair seal skins and sea elephant oil," soon after 
 the War of the Revolution. 
 
 Skins of the hair seal were then used raw to 
 cover trunks. They were also tanned for various 
 uses. Sea elephant oil sold for as much as that of 
 the right whale. The States returned to New York 
 with a full cargo of hair seal skins and of elephant 
 oil, together with 13,000 skins of the fur seal, which, 
 says the record, were brought "as an experiment." 
 
 An "experiment" was characteristic of the Ameri- 
 can sailors of the day. They would try any kind 
 of work that promised a large profit. This ex- 
 
 * Sister of John Wilkes, a member of Parliament, who became 
 a popular hero after publishing a pamphlet attacking George III 
 (1763). 
 
1 8 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 perlment had a far-reaching effect. When the furs 
 arrived in New York nobody knew what to do 
 with them, but they were sold for 50 cents each 
 to a buyer who supposed that at worst they might 
 be tanned as were those of the hair seal. Then 
 a venturesome merchant bought them and shipped 
 them to Calcutta. He '^guessed" they were the 
 skins of sea otters, instead of seals, and he had 
 heard that sea otter skins sold for more than $20 
 each in Canton. He shipped the skins to Calcutta 
 instead of Canton because he "guessed" one Asi- 
 atic port would prove as desirable as another, 
 and because he found a ship ready for that port 
 while none was ready for Canton. He learned in 
 time that no one in Calcutta would buy them, but 
 they were then shipped to Canton where they brought 
 $5 each or $65,000 for the consignment. 
 
 The development of the fur-seal fishery followed 
 that speculation. Among the venturesome mer- 
 chants of New York, in those days, was Elias Nex- 
 sen. He fitted out the brig Betsey for a sealing 
 voyage in 1792. The mate of the brig was a 
 Stonington boy named Edmund Fanning who, about 
 forty years later, wrote a book entitled "Voyages 
 Around the World," in which he described the ad- 
 ventures of the Betsey*s crew while at the Falk- 
 land Islands. The skins taken by the Betsey were 
 carried to New York, but another vessel, the Eliza, 
 Captain William R. Stewart, which took 38,000 
 skins at Juan Fernandez, carried them to Canton, 
 
A Captain at Eighteen 19 
 
 where they were sold for only 50 cents each. The 
 Chinese market had been depressed by the number 
 of skins. 
 
 In 1797 Mr. Nexsen fitted out the Retsey for 
 another sealing voyage with Captain Edmund Fan- 
 ning in command. The Betsey called at the Falk- 
 lands and Mas-a-fuera and then carried 100,000 
 skins to Canton. Fannlng's book does not tell the 
 price received for the skins, nor the gross return 
 from the China goods he secured In exchange for 
 them, but It says that the net profit of the owners 
 of the Betsey amounted to $52,300. The Betsey 
 measured less than 100 tons and was probably worth 
 less than $3,000. At about this time the ship Nep- 
 tune, Captain Daniel Green, of New Haven, gath- 
 ered 45,000 skins at the Falklands and Juan 
 Fernandez, which sold for $90,000 in Canton. The 
 China goods then purchased sold for $260,000 in 
 New York and the profits were so large that the 
 lay of the forecastle hands amounted to $1,200 each. 
 
 Thereafter voyages to the fur-seal islands were 
 made every year, among which only one, that of 
 Captain Edmund Fanning, In a well-armed ship 
 named Aspasia, need be considered here. The cap- 
 tain sailed in 1800 to the South Georgia islands 
 where he secured 57,000 prime furs which he sold 
 in Canton at great profit. 
 
 Another sealer who made money was Captain 
 Amasa Delano, who wrote a book, describing his 
 adventures, which was Issued in 18 17 and had a 
 
20 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 wide circulation. Meantime, vessels from nearly 
 all the American whaling ports had tried the seal 
 fishery. The result was practical extermination of 
 the known herds. It was said that 3,000,000 seals 
 were taken from Juan Fernandez alone. The scar- 
 city of seals on the known rookeries, as the seal 
 beaches were, and are, called, caused the failure 
 of several ventures in the fishery and It was then 
 that the exploring expedition in search of the 
 Auroras was planned. 
 
 The prime mover In this expedition was Captain 
 Edmund Fanning, who had retired from the sea. 
 He had secured copies of the reports of various early 
 explorers, among which was that of Skipper DIrck 
 Gherrltz, the Dutchman who rounded the Horn 
 in 1599. Another was the report of the captain 
 of the Spanish corvette Atrevida. Both of these 
 reports mentioned lands seen south of Cape Horn. 
 
 While the existence of these lands was doubted 
 by most geographers, because no one had seen them 
 in recent times. Captain Fanning believed in them. 
 For while he was at the South Georglas, with the 
 Aspasia, he had seen immense Icebergs and fields 
 of ice sailing with the southwest gales, which pre- 
 vailed most of the time, and he had previously 
 observed that such masses of ice were formed only 
 in connection with lands of considerable extent. 
 The Ice convinced him that land was to be found 
 "somewhere between the latitudes of 60° and 65° 
 
A Captain at Eighteen 21 
 
 south and between 50° and 60° west" (pp. 428- 
 429, 'Tanning's Voyages"). 
 
 Because the captain and his friends had already 
 made fortunes in just such ventures they were 
 ready, when the fishery failed in 18 17, to venture 
 the capital needed for a search for the Auroras. 
 For this purpose they selected ''the brig Hersilia, 
 a fine new vessel, coppered and fitted in the best 
 manner." Captain James A. Sheffield, an experi- 
 enced and successful sealer, was placed in command. 
 The selecting of the crew, which now became the 
 duty of Captain Sheffield, is worth a few words of 
 explanation. 
 
 The Hersilia was to sail into waters that were 
 not only uncharted but they had not been visited, 
 so far as could be learned, since the two vessels 
 mentioned above had seen the lost lands. But it 
 was very well known that the whole region south 
 of the Horn was lashed and torn by storms of snow 
 and sleet, in summer as well as winter, and that 
 even a week of pleasant weather was rarely seen 
 at any time of the year. Further, during the sum- 
 mer season, when the Hersilia was to arrive, was the 
 time when the ice fields of the region broke loose 
 from the land and were driven before the all but 
 ceaseless gales. It was known, too, that the ice 
 masses around which the gales raged were shrouded 
 in the blackest of fogs and blotted from view by 
 heavy snow squalls for many days at a stretch. 
 
22 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Finally, the Islands, If found, were sure to be sur- 
 rounded by reefs and sunken rocks upon which the 
 brig was likely to strike whenever she ventured near 
 enough to learn where the seals were to be found. 
 
 For junior officers. Captain Sheffield needed men, 
 of each of whom It might truthfully be said that 
 "he could smell his way through fog by night from 
 Hell Gate to Providence." So, he Invited young 
 Nat Palmer to go along as second mate, although 
 the boy had never made a deep-water voyage. 
 Whereupon Nat, with love of adventure spurring 
 him on, accepted the Invitation. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 LEARNING THE COURSE TO THE SOUTH SHETLANDS 
 
 THE Hersilia left Stonington In July, 1819, 
 bound, first of all, to the Cape de Verde 
 Islands for salt with which to cure the 
 furs she was to get if and when she found the 
 Auroras, Seal skins were commonly cured by dry- 
 ing, in those days, but it was believed that the 
 rains, sleets and snows prevailing in the region south 
 of Cape Horn would prevent drying. Having pur- 
 chased 600 bushels of salt at the islands the brig 
 squared away for the Falkland Islands, where she 
 stopped to fill her water casks and to refresh her 
 crews. For scurvy was the scourge of the sea, and 
 fresh provisions provided the only known remedy. 
 The Falklands, though a treeless group, had been 
 stocked with cattle and hogs by early explorers, 
 and both kinds of animals had thrived. Then thou- 
 sands of wild fowl came there in the nesting season 
 and their eggs were to be had in any quantity; for 
 it was in October, the beginning of the summer sea- 
 son, when the Hersilia arrived there. Furthermore, 
 a species of grass, with stalks eight to ten feet high, 
 abounded, and the roots and stalks were good to 
 eat, and they were an excellent antiscorbutic. 
 
 23 
 
24 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 In order to gather a large supply of fresh eggs, 
 wild fowl, pork and beef, and of the greens, Second 
 Mate Nat Palmer and one of the sailors were 
 landed on an island where the supplies were to be 
 had, as soon as the Hersilia arrived. The brig then 
 sailed away to the south of Staten Island in order 
 to carry on the search for Aurora Islands during 
 the time the two men were gathering the supplies. 
 
 Leaving young Palmer and the sailor thus and 
 going on with the search was characteristic of our 
 sailors of the sail in those days. A captain from 
 Europe would have anchored at the island while 
 the crew as a whole gathered the supplies — as one 
 did do while young Nat was there. But Sheffield 
 had come to search for seal islands and he would 
 not spend even one day unnecessarily in port. He 
 was thus not only economizing time but he was 
 doing all he could to forestall any other vessel that 
 might come to those waters on the same errand. 
 The American sailor of the sail was not to be 
 ''caught napping." And it was because young Nat 
 was especially alert that this exploring voyage 
 proved notably successful, and is now memorable 
 for something more than the profit secured. 
 
 One day while Palmer and his man were busy 
 with their work, they saw a strange sail — a brig that 
 was manifestly not the Hersilia — appear in the 
 northwest. A little later it was seen that she was 
 heading in to make the harbor in their island. One 
 account says that young Nat then went off and 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 25 
 
 piloted her In but another makes no mention of 
 his going to meet her. It Is certain, however, that 
 when she had anchored in the harbor young Nat 
 perceived that she had been elaborately fitted out 
 for sealing. He now wanted to learn where she 
 expected to find seals — whether she was to work the 
 well-known rookeries or some that were newly dis- 
 covered; and If the latter, where they were located. 
 
 What he did learn was that the brig was named 
 Espirito Santo. She was from Buenos Ayres but 
 she was owned by Englishmen and was manned by 
 English sailors. American and British writers 
 were constantly nagging each other In those days, 
 but young Nat and his man were cordially received 
 by the English captain. In return the two Yankees 
 went to work to help the British crew secure a full 
 supply of fresh provisions; and Yankee efficiency 
 soon overcame any lurking prejudice which mem- 
 bers of the crew of the Espirito Santo may have 
 held. 
 
 Pleasant relations having thus been established, 
 young Nat was able to learn that the brig had been 
 fitted for a short voyage. Where she was bound 
 her crew naturally refused to tell, but why she had 
 been fitted out was told. A seal Island had been 
 discovered in recent times by a merchantman round- 
 ing the Horn, and the Espirito Santo was to make 
 the first killing. 
 
 The story of the discovery of this new Island 
 is now told in Findlay's "Sailing Directory for the 
 
26 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 South Atlantic Ocean." A British brig named 
 JVilliam, Captain William Smith, of Blyth (he was 
 later knighted), was in those days plying regularly 
 between the River Plate and Valparaiso, carrying 
 freight, passengers and the mails. Nowhere else 
 in the world was a regular service maintained under 
 such distressful and perilous conditions as those pre- 
 vailing along the route around Cape Horn. The 
 passage of the JVilliam to the west was usually 
 made under especially bad conditions because the 
 prevailing winds were from the west. Gale followed 
 gale in swift succession and every blast was laden 
 with snow, sleet and spray. The decks became at 
 times coated with ice and the rigging was frozen 
 stiff. The little brig on some voyages beat to and 
 fro for many days at a stretch without making a 
 mile on her course to westward; and it sometimes 
 happened that she was driven so far back and away 
 from her course that a week of fair winds was 
 needed to enable her to recover the position from 
 which the storm had driven her. 
 
 In February, 1818, one of these storms came 
 upon her as she was beating to westward. The 
 wind (and the current as well), carried her help- 
 less, to the south as well as the east, and while 
 she was thus wallowing in the seas, the murk of 
 the storm opened and a mountainous island covered 
 for the most part with ice and snow was seen. Be- 
 cause no land was marked on the William's chart 
 of that region, Captain Smith, on his return to 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 27 
 
 Buenos Ayres, sent a report of what he had seen 
 to the Board of Trade, in London. Then, on his 
 next passage westward, he reached down to make a 
 more careful examination of land. His report of 
 what he then saw was In part as follows: 
 
 '*I . . . discovered land on the 15th of October 
 at 6 P. M. in lat. 62° 30', long. 60"^ W. by chrono- 
 meter. . . . Hauled off during the night. ... At 
 daylight stood In . . . got the island to bear N. W. 
 distant half a league. . . . Finding the weather fa- 
 vourable we down boat and landed; found it barren 
 and covered with snow. Seals in abundance." 
 
 It was this report, as made in Buenos Ayres, on 
 his return thither after this second voyage, that had 
 brought the Epirito Santo on a sealing expedition. 
 She was sailing on definite information about an 
 island of which the people of Stonington had heard 
 rumors. 
 
 That the Englishmen did not tell young Nat 
 Palmer where the island lay was entirely natural. 
 Their hope of large profit lay in keeping the posi- 
 tion of the island secret. But the young sailor did 
 learn that the Island had been discovered by a vessel 
 which had been blown from its course while sailing 
 to the west around the Horn. The quick-witted 
 youth then reasoned that the new land must lie east 
 of the longitude of the Horn. Further than that 
 it was probable that the brig had been lying to on 
 the starboard tack, when the island was seen, be- 
 
28 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 cause she would Inevitably take that tack in order 
 to drift away from the reefs around the Horn. He 
 knew that while lying to thus on the starboard tack 
 every blast of the gale had certainly driven her a 
 longer distance to the south than to the east — her 
 course while drifting had been, very likely, to the 
 south-southeast. So the young sailor reasoned from 
 his experience when drifting with the gales through 
 the fogs of Long Island Sound, during previous 
 years. It was because of that experience that he 
 had been brought on the expedition, and now his 
 ability to figure out the course of a drifting ship 
 was to be of very great service. 
 
 When the Espirito Santo left port, young Nat 
 watched her as long as he could see her and thus 
 learned that she was sailing on a course which would 
 take her to a point where he estimated the William 
 had found the new land; and he impatiently waited 
 the return of the Hersilia. 
 
 At the end of three days the brig came sailing 
 into the harbor. As soon as he boarded her young 
 Nat told his story to Captain Sheffield and gave his 
 estimate of the course to take. The captain at once 
 concurred In the estimate; and after taking on the 
 fresh food young Nat and the sailor had secured, 
 the Hersilia made sail in the wake of the Espirito 
 Santo. For four days she held the course as laid 
 down by young Nat and then, as the afternoon 
 waned, the lookout at the forecrosstrees gave the 
 thrilling cry of "Land hoi" 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 29 
 
 The Islands to which Second Mate Palmer had 
 thus instinctively guided the Hersilia are now known 
 as the South Shetlands. As described In various 
 works the group Is an archipelago of volcanic origin 
 which is 260 miles long if measured in a north- 
 east and southwest direction. There are ten large 
 islands, all of which are separated one from another 
 by deep channels, but around all of these are many 
 islets and reefs where the depth of water is un- 
 known. At the northeast end the largest of the 
 group is named King George (Powell's chart). 
 The next largest, Livingston, lies near the south- 
 west end of the chain. Smith's Island, named for 
 the discoverer, William Smith, Is well off to the west 
 of Livingston, but the most interesting of the whole 
 group, to the ordinary reader, Is a small one south 
 of Livingston which was named Deception by the 
 Yankee sealers, and it still holds that name. 
 
 Nearly all of the Islands are mountainous, the 
 peaks rising from 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the 
 sea, and one on Smith's Island is 6,600 feet high. 
 Every mountain is covered with snow the year 
 round, save for a narrow rim near the sea, and In 
 every canyon is a glacier. No soil or even sand 
 is found in the bare terrane alongshore (save only 
 in Yankee Harbor), but there Is mud at the bottom 
 of some of the harbors. Broken and ragged lava 
 formations are seen wherever the snow is melted 
 away in summer, and the only vegetation Is a sort 
 of moss. 
 
30 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 The shores of the larger Islands are all deeply 
 indented with fiords and bays, thus providing many 
 harbors, some of which are land-locked and safe 
 in the worst storms. 
 
 When the air Is clear the Islands are visible from 
 incredible distances. Dr. Eights, a scientist who 
 went there with an exploring expedition to be de- 
 scribed In another chapter, wrote that "the nu- 
 merous furrows and ravines . . . are distinctly 
 visible for fifty or sixty miles" (Niles's Register, 
 May 8, 1834). But while he was there, "not a 
 day occurred that snow did not fall, or Ice make 
 on our decks. . . . The prevailing winds were 
 from the southwest and northwest." A current 
 that flowed constantly from the southwest was ob- 
 served, and when this was measured later, by Cap- 
 tain Palmer, he ascertained that the speed was three 
 knots an hour. 
 
 Dr. Eights wrote that "there were evidences of 
 a number of active volcanoes In the vicinity," and 
 numerous pieces of pumice stone were "strewed 
 along the beaches." 
 
 The wild life of the islands attracted more at- 
 tention from the doctor than any other feature. 
 "In calm weather great number of whales were seen 
 breaking the surface of the ocean between tjie nu- 
 merous Icebergs. . . . When they perish their car- 
 casses are taken by the billows and thrown far upon 
 the land; here they are left by the waves and In a 
 few hours their bones become perfectly denuded by 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 31 
 
 the numberless sea birds that feed upon their flesh. 
 . . . Entire skeletons of the whale, fifty or sixty 
 feet in length, are not infrequently found in elevated 
 situations — many feet above the highwater line." 
 
 Dolphins and porpoises abounded. There were 
 seemingly millions of the birds of the region, vary- 
 ing in size from the albatross to the stormy petrel. 
 It is said that the petrels laid their eggs in a heap of 
 warm volcanic ashes found on one island and that 
 the eggs were hatched without further care from the 
 mothers. 
 
 No adequate description of the dangers of naviga- 
 tion among the group has ever been written, or can 
 be. To say that hundreds of icebergs and other 
 masses of ice, including vast fields, are to be seen 
 among and around the islands at all times does not 
 suffice; but if the reader can imagine those ice masses 
 clashing together during the hurricane squalls and 
 while dense fogs and blinding snow squalls prevail; 
 and while the drag of the currents among the reefs 
 is added to all other dangers, perhaps the situation 
 of sealers afloat there will be comprehended; and 
 some idea of the conditions under which the Stoning- 
 ton sailors gathered their harvest will be had. 
 
 As it happened when the Hersilia arrived within 
 view of the group the weather was vile. For two 
 days she lay to in the lee of an island. Then the 
 air cleared, the sea became smooth and she was able 
 to stand Into a harbor which could be seen when 
 off shore. When close in, a boat was lowered with 
 
32 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 which young Nat went ahead to look for a clear 
 channel. Rounding a point at the entrance of the 
 harbor he saw the Espirito Santo at anchor within, 
 but no one was to be seen on her deck. Accord- 
 ingly he rowed alongside and, climbing on board, 
 looked around, only to find that she seemed to be 
 wholly deserted. Then he walked to the open main 
 hatch and saw in the hold the captain at work with 
 a boy, salting down seal skins. 
 
 Young Nat's footsteps made the captain look up 
 hastily, and with an exclamation of surprise he rec- 
 ognized the youth who had helped to provide fresh 
 supplies for the Espirito Santo at the Falklands. 
 But the Englishman was what would now be called 
 a good sport. 
 
 "Never mind," he said. "There are plenty of 
 seals for all." 
 
 It was so. The rookeries were covered with 
 thousands of seals of all sizes. Both crews were 
 able to secure full cargoes from the finest of the 
 herds. It Is a memorable fact, too, that when the 
 Englishman had finished his own load he turned to 
 and helped the Hersilias to complete their cargo. 
 He was working on the theory that "blood Is thicker 
 than water," to quote the words of another sailor 
 which were expressed years later in China. 
 
 In order that the reader who Is not familiar 
 with the seal fishery may appreciate the work of 
 young Palmer at the Shetland Islands, it seems need- 
 ful to interrupt the narrative of events and describe 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 33 
 
 in some detail the methods by which the sealers 
 secured their furs, and to give a few notes on the 
 habits of the seals. 
 
 According to the records the seals of the Antarc- 
 tic come to the beaches to which they resort during 
 the month of November. First of all the old males, 
 called wigs, appear and take stations on the rocks 
 and shingie alongshore. The most powerful of 
 these seals choose places near the centers of the 
 largest beaches. The less powerful go where they 
 will be undisturbed by the big ones; for vicious 
 battles occur when two old wigs come anywhere 
 near each other. 
 
 In a few days the females follow and soon bring 
 forth their young. They are meantime gathered 
 into large harems around the more powerful males 
 in the middle grounds and into small groups by the 
 outlying males. The larger groups number any- 
 where from fifty to a hundred while the outlying 
 males may have no more than four or five or even 
 one. 
 
 The young males of from two to four years of 
 age, being unable to compete with their fathers, 
 gather in herds apart. The skins of these young- 
 sters always bring the highest prices In the market. 
 
 After the young are born the mother seals go 
 out to sea for food, leaving their young (one each) 
 asleep In the midst of the masses of other young. 
 They are away feeding for hours at a stretch but 
 when they return and call to their pups each is 
 
34 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 answered by her own, and each goes to her own 
 without error. 
 
 The large assemblies of seals are called rookeries. 
 Small assemblies numbering from two or three up 
 to a dozen or so are to be found on some of the 
 flat-topped rocks that rise above the tide off shore. 
 Rocks of the kind found on the half-tide reefs 
 usually have a few seals as regular visitors. No 
 matter how heavy the pounding of the surf on the 
 reefs around such a rock, the seals come snorting 
 and playing through all, climb the slope to the crest 
 and there, where the spray Is continuously thrown 
 upon them, they stretch out and go to sleep. 
 
 The work of securing seal skins was In some re- 
 spects the most dangerous and perhaps In all re- 
 spects the most disagreeable known to our sailors 
 of the sail. It was especially so during the second 
 voyage of young Palmer to the South Shetlands 
 because of the competition. When two vessels only 
 were among the Islands (as during his first voyage), 
 the men could choose their rookeries and consider 
 the conditions of the weather with an eye to safety 
 if not for comfort. But with thirty most energetic 
 crews competing among the Islands, as happened 
 at the South Shetlands during the season of 1820- 
 182 1, every day was a working day, and to secure a 
 full harvest It was necessary to visit the outlying 
 rocks as well as the populous rookeries. 
 
 Whaleboats were used to carry the men from 
 the vessels to some of the smaller rookeries. These 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands. 35 
 
 boats were around 25 feet long, 5 wide and 2 deep. 
 White oak was used for their frames and half-inch 
 cedar for the planks. In model these boats were 
 like those of the Vikings — sharp at both ends. 
 When afloat each boat was manned by five or six 
 men, one of whom was usually a mate who stood 
 at the stern and steered by means of a long oar. 
 As second mate of the Hersilia young Nat had 
 plenty of experience in handling these boats, and 
 when a landing was to be made through the heavy 
 surf on a rock-strewn beach he held the lives of 
 the crew in his hands. For the rookeries were al- 
 ways found on the beaches exposed to the seas. 
 The waves came unimpeded over a thousand miles 
 of open water, and where they crashed down on the 
 rock-strewn slope — where the whaleboat had to 
 land — they covered and concealed numberless bowl- 
 ders and rock masses which were death traps for the 
 sealers. But the young mate, standing with legs 
 wide apart at the stern, and with both hands on the 
 long steering oar, peered through the spoondrift 
 ahead for the hidden reefs, the while he instinctively 
 hastened or slowed the stroke of the oarsmen until 
 a great wave lifted the boat on its crest and then 
 rushed on until it flattened out where the water 
 shoaled so that the men could leap over the rails 
 and drag the frail craft up to safety. 
 
 Taking seals from the off-shore rocks was still 
 more trying. At first thought one would suppose 
 that the sealers would wait for a quiet day and then 
 
36 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 row out to the lone rocks and capture the seals at 
 ease. But the fact Is that many of those rocks 
 were not to be scaled in quiet weather, for they were 
 steep-sided and towered high above the still water. 
 It was only when storms prevailed and the waves 
 rolled high enough to lift a boat up to the level 
 of the top of the rock that the seals there could 
 be secured. 
 
 Consider, now, how these seals were taken from 
 the rocks. Waiting until a gale came to drive the 
 needed high waves directly past a deep-water face 
 of the seal rock, the crew of a whaleboat rowed 
 away to a point say a half-mile up wind from the 
 chosen reef. There the boat was turned and headed 
 back directly for the rock, when the men at the 
 oars pulled steadily until the mate judged they were 
 within striking distance, which means that he be- 
 lieved the boat, with lively rowing, could be sent 
 past the rock on the crest of one of those immense 
 rollers which come In threes. Then the bow oars- 
 man took In his oar, picked up a club, slipped a 
 coil of whale line over his arm and stood up on 
 his thwart, facing the rock. The crew, meantime, 
 pulled their oars with all their might until the boat 
 seemed about to crash against the rock, when the 
 mate turned the bow to one side, the oars were al- 
 lowed to trail and then, as the boat drove swiftly 
 past, the bowman leaped forth to land on the rock 
 as best he could. 
 
 Occasionally a man fell short, and was picked up 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 37 
 
 or drowned as the case might be, but usually a land- 
 ing was effected; when the seals were knocked in 
 the head and skinned. Of course the man and his 
 catch were recovered by similar dashes past the 
 rock, the bundle of skins being hauled off, first of 
 all, by means of the whale line. 
 
 During Captain Nat's second voyage the seal- 
 ers from thirty different vessels (and more espe- 
 cially the English and the Yankee sealers) eagerly 
 raced through the living storms of the South Shet- 
 lands to positions from which a man could leap 
 from a driven boat on the crest of a wave to the 
 crest of a rock which was at all other times in- 
 accessible. One hundred years later — on a day in 
 July, 1920 — a British crew and an American crew, 
 each the pick of its own nation, went out to sea off 
 Sandy Hook, New York, to sail two splendid yachts 
 in a friendly competition for the most famous trophy 
 known to the history of manly sports — the Ameri- 
 ca's cup. As a piece of silver the cup was insignifi- 
 cant, but to win it was to secure the leadership of 
 the yachting world. It was a contest for Honor. 
 
 But when the yachtmen arrived at the old light- 
 ship they found the wind blowing at the rate of 
 twenty knots an hour and the sea was rumpled. 
 One look upon the rumples was enough for them. 
 It would never do to sail a yacht only 70 feet long 
 on the waterline under such dangerous conditions 
 as prevailed, and, squaring away, they hastened back 
 to the sheltering arm of Sandy Hook. 
 
38 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Whether the sealers worked on the beaches or 
 the outlying rocks, they were continuously drenched 
 by the spray and the spoondrift and the solid water 
 into which they leaped; and by the sleet that fell 
 upon and coated them with ice. They were chilled 
 by the piercing gales. They often slipped and fell 
 on the rocks and were painfully bruised. They were 
 sometimes bitten by the seals and sometimes thrown 
 headlong by a rush of the herd they were trying to 
 kill. Now and then, a boat's crew was overturned 
 by a curling wave and her crew were lost. Now and 
 then a man was killed by a fall over a precipice. 
 
 When at nightfall they returned in their water- 
 soaked clothing to the ship there was no fire in 
 either the cabin or the forecastle by which they 
 could warm their chilled bodies. But the records 
 show that the men of the sealing crews were all 
 so eager to take part in the work that the cooks 
 and cabin boys left their easy berths on the ships 
 to go afloat in the whaleboats; and the only grum- 
 bling heard came from the man who was necessarily 
 left on each vessel as keeper. 
 
 There is another record which says that the 
 wealth of Stonington is founded on the accumula- 
 tions made by those sealers. What would those 
 sailors of the sail who were thus developing a 
 wealthy community as well as harvesting a fortune 
 each for himself — what would they say if they 
 could return and meet the men who now organize 
 labor monopolies by which to limit the production 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 39 
 
 of the most skilled to that of the weaklings and 
 slackers? 
 
 Nearly all of the catch of the Stonington men, 
 in 1 820-1 82 1, was secured by companies who landed 
 and made camps on the islands close to the rook- 
 eries. By day they killed and skinned as many 
 seals as they could, the average day's work being 
 fifty skins. Night and morning they cooked the 
 food brought to them from the ships by means of 
 fires made of seal fat — Eskimo fashion — and they 
 slept on boards laid for floors in the canvas-and- 
 board huts in which they lived. These men were 
 really more comfortable than those who lived 
 aboard ship, for they had fires in their huts by 
 which they could get warm. The smoke of the 
 burning fat made them all as black as Negroes but 
 that was a matter over which they cracked many 
 a joke. 
 
 A part of the work of curing the skins, as every 
 trapper will recognize, was cleaning the fat from 
 the flesh side. This was done as tanners do such 
 work — by shaving the blubber off with a "beaming 
 knife" — a back-breaking job. 
 
 Because some who read this biography are sure 
 to be shocked by what they will call the merciless 
 slaughter which exterminated the seal herds, it seems 
 needful to say first that the slaughter was not cruel. 
 The seals were killed by a single blow on the head, 
 for the skull was thin and easily crushed in. Death 
 was instantaneous. As for the extermination of 
 
40 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 the herds the blame should be placed upon the state 
 of civilization then prevailing and not on the seal- 
 ers. The islands where the seals were found might 
 have been preserved, as Lobos Island was preserved 
 at the mouth of the River Plate, and as the Prib- 
 alov Islands of Alaska are now preserved; but it 
 was the business of government — any government 
 willing to do the work — to preserve the herds at 
 the Shetlands and elsewhere and not the business 
 of the sealers. As long as no nation was sufficiently 
 civilized to do this work, each sealer was obliged 
 to take as many as possible while there were any 
 to take. It was a free-for-all contest and the men 
 who were most successful are now memorable for 
 their courage and prowess. 
 
 The Hersilia, in the voyage which began in 1819, 
 had salt for only 10,000 skins — 600 bushels. The 
 skins of young bachelor seals were therefore se- 
 lected. When the salt had all been used the crew 
 made all sail for home and kept the little brig 
 traveling. In Stonington the skins sold for $2 each, 
 or $20,000 for the cargo, say eight times the cost 
 of the entire outfit. Young Nat's share of the cargo 
 was probably one in 35, or say 280 skins which 
 sold for $560. For that day the pay of the young 
 man for this voyage, lasting eight or nine months, 
 was considered something memorable. 
 
 When the Hersilia had discharged her cargo at 
 Stonington the owners at once began fitting out 
 another expedition for a voyage to the newly dis- 
 
Learning the Course to the South Shetlands 41 
 
 covered rookeries. It was certain that the Espirito 
 Santo would return there, and that many other 
 sealers would also go; for it was impossible to keep 
 secret the fact that a new seal island had been found, 
 and even its location was sure to become public 
 property. 
 
 Because the wit and knowledge of the young sec- 
 ond mate had carried the Hersilia to the new rook- 
 eries, it was a matter of course that he should have 
 a position in this second expedition which would 
 accord with his abilities; in short that he would be 
 promoted. In the usual course a young man in his 
 place would have been made a first mate, but when 
 he sailed from Stonington, the next time, he was 
 captain of a most important vessel, and the success 
 of the expedition was to depend to a large extent 
 upon his work. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 MASTER OF A TINY TENDER 
 
 WHEN the Hersilia returned to Stonlngton, 
 bringing a story of new seal islands 
 discovered near the place where the 
 mythical Auroras were supposed to lie, and vAth 
 10,000 prime seal skins to prove the tale, she created 
 intense excitement along all the New England shore. 
 The fact that the furs were of unusual beauty was 
 almost as interesting as the statements regarding 
 the number of seals among the fslands. 
 
 Straightway, the owners of suitable vessels at 
 Salem, Boston, Nantucket, New Haven and New 
 York began to fit out expeditions to compete with 
 Stonington for the furs on the new group; while 
 the owners of Stonington vessels not only refitted 
 the Hersilia but they added several others and then 
 proceeded to build one especially for the coming 
 season. In all five brigs and two schooners were 
 provided, besides a sloop which was constructed 
 for the work. The names of the vessels were: 
 brigs, Hersilia, Frederick, Catharine, Emaline, 
 and Clothier; schooners Express and Free Gift. The 
 sloop was built for a tender or waiter-in-general 
 
 42 
 
Master of a Tiny Tender 43 
 
 for the other vessels, and, not without reason, she 
 was named Hero. 
 
 In several respects the sloop was a most in- 
 teresting vessel. An old document shows that she 
 was built at Groton, Conn. ; she was owned by 
 W. A. Fanning and Elisha Faxon, both of Stoning- 
 ton, and she measured 44 40/95 tons, *'as per 
 register granted at New London the twenty-fifth 
 day of July, 1820." 
 
 The dimensions of the Hero other than her ton- 
 nage have been lost, but if the rule under which 
 she was measured for tonnage be considered in 
 connection with the purpose for which she was built, 
 it appears that she was not to exceed fifty feet long 
 on deck by sixteen or seventeen wide and six or 
 seven deep. That she was broad and shallow in 
 proportion to her length is certain, first, because 
 that was then the favorite model of all American 
 builders, and next because a shoal draft was neces- 
 sary in a vessel that was to be used for exploring 
 the uncharted islands to which she was bound. 
 
 By comparing her dimensions with those of the 
 sloops which were then employed by the hundred 
 on the Hudson River one may get a better idea of 
 just how small she was for the voyage to a region 
 300 miles below Cape Horn. For some of the 
 Hudson River sloops were of three and even four 
 times her tonnage although they were designed for 
 inland water traffic. For another comparison it 
 may be noted that she was less than half as long 
 
44 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 as the yachts which competed for the Americans 
 cup in July, 1920. Ordinarily she spread two or 
 three sails to the wind, a big mainsail and one or 
 two jibs; but when the wind was fair she set a 
 great squaresail. Because of the relative size of 
 the mainsail the sloop rig is much harder to handle 
 in heavy weather than a schooner of the same size 
 of hull. It was for this reason that the tender of 
 the Wilkes exploring expedition was built with two 
 masts. 
 
 As to the shape of the Heroes hull it is to be noted 
 that while one which is broad and shallow is ad- 
 mirably adapted for sheltered and smooth waters 
 it is dangerous on the open sea. For, if a broad 
 hull fifty feet long falls off from a storm wind 
 until she is broadside to it, and is rolling in the 
 trough of the sea, a curling wave is likely to hit her 
 under the quarter as she rolls and turn her bottom 
 up instantly. The records show that even experi- 
 enced Yankee crews have been thus imprisoned and 
 lost. 
 
 The most important work for which the Hero 
 was designed was exploring the island group. She 
 was to sail here and there along the coasts and 
 among the reefs to search for the rookeries sure 
 to be found there; and this work would be all the 
 more important because many competing vessels 
 were to go to the South Shetlands during the ensuing 
 season. 
 
s c 
 
 Oh 0* 
 
Master of a Tiny Tender 45 
 
 Whaleboats might have been used for the ex- 
 plorations, and they were so used by other vessels 
 of the fleets; but the Stonington men had seen that 
 the group was more than 200 miles long and that 
 the coast line would measure thousands of miles 
 In extent. Something larger and more seaworthy 
 than a rowboat, and yet smaller and handier than 
 the schooners, was needed — a vessel, in short, that 
 could enter all sorts of harbors and skim all sorts 
 of beaches and reefs. 
 
 Because of the character of the work the Hero 
 was to do and because of the vile weather In which 
 It was to be done, a master was needed who was 
 at once venturesome, courageous, and withall able 
 to handle a sloop rig; and young Nat Palmer was 
 the man chosen to fill It. His mate was named 
 Phlneas Wilcox. 
 
 Carlyle, In one of his essays on the Vikings, notes 
 that they made their voyages In vessels which car- 
 ried them low down In "the moaning brine," and 
 that such voyages gave them a superior training. 
 The little sloop Hero, with her gunwale a foot 
 out of water when In port, and her lee rail burled 
 in the froth when at sea, afforded just such a school 
 for Captain Nat Palmer. BjornI, who sailed from 
 Jutland to go to Greenland to drink Christmas ale 
 with his father, and while on the way was driven 
 by storms to the coast of America — BjornI was 
 trained in no better school, and he showed no more 
 
46 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 courage than the boyish sailor of the sail who com- 
 manded a smaller vessel among the reefs and ice- 
 floes 300 miles below Cape Horn. 
 
 The Stonington records contain some interesting 
 data concerning the fleet of 1820-182 1. For ex- 
 ample, upon a worn and ragged slip of paper is 
 written a list of supplies, as follows: 
 
 Memorandum Sloop Hero. 
 
 Two composition rudder braces and two do. 
 pintals for hanging rudder with the bolts and nails 
 for do. 
 
 200 sheets, half 18 oz. half 20 oz. Best London 
 copper. 
 
 150 2 inch composition nails for sheathing 
 coppering. 
 
 150 I inch composition do for coppering. 
 
 300 Best smoothing sheeting paper. 
 
 7 Bolts best Russia duck 6 ditto Bear Rowans. 
 
 A sheet or charts of So. America from the 
 Equator to the highest South Latitude beyond 
 Cape Horn. These can be got at Patton's. A 
 sheet of charts of all the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 To a sailor the fact that spare pintals and rudder 
 braces and sheathing copper were carried is most 
 Interesting. For these extras show that the sloop 
 was expected to strike on some reef among the 
 islands, and so wreck the rudder and break in the 
 
Master of a Tiny Tender 47 
 
 bottom planks — after which, however, she was to 
 be hauled off and repaired. They would never give 
 up the sloop. 
 
 The same paper carries a list of the supplies pro- 
 vided for two of the brigs and from it we obtain 
 an Idea of what all the crews had to eat and drink, 
 as follows: 
 
 60 hhds. Navy Bread 
 
 60 bbl. Mess Beef 
 
 40 bbl. Mess Prime Pork 
 
 4 bbl. white Beans 
 
 4 do. Peas 
 
 4 do. Vinegar 
 
 10 qt. Mustard 
 
 2 gr. chest Campay tea 
 
 30 do. Pepper 
 
 4^ bbl. Rum 
 
 4 bbl. Gin 
 
 6 tt. Codfish 
 
 2 boxes dip Candles 
 
 1 do. Sperm to be divided 
 
 2 boxes Soap 
 
 8 bbl. kiln dried Corn Meal 
 
 4 bbl. Corn 
 
 50 bushels potatoes 
 
 3 bbl. dried apples 
 Sy2 Rice 
 
 12 bbl. Flour 
 220 tt. Coffee 
 
48 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Then follows a long list of ship stores which 
 Included lumber, spikes, paint, spare oars (forty 
 that were i6 feet long and twelve that were 
 from 21 to 24 feet) ; tools, boat anchors, tar, whale 
 line, fish lines, guns and ammunition. When all 
 these stores had been written down the maker of 
 the memorandum returned to the kind of supplies 
 found at the head of the list and added these : 
 
 5 doz. Fowls 
 5>4 bbl. Sugar 
 2y2 bbl. Rum 
 
 2j^ bbl. Teneriffe Wine. 
 
 The implements needed In taking the seals and 
 preparing the skins were these: 
 
 200 hoop poles 
 
 8 doz. skinning knives 
 
 6 doz. steels for do. 
 
 2^ doz. skinning knives to be made by R. 
 Brown 
 
 ^ doz. beaming knives to be made by do. 
 
 The hoop poles were cut from hickory saplings 
 and were perhaps ten feet long and say an inch or 
 more in diameter at the small end. Each pole 
 afforded two clubs with which the seals were knocked 
 in the head. In later years of the fishery the poles 
 were cut up at home and each end was protected 
 with an iron ring, because, in the hurry and excite- 
 ment of the killing, the men frequently missed a seal 
 and struck a rock instead, thus rapidly wearing the 
 
Master of a Tiny Tender 49 
 
 clubs to a frazzle. Later still (1880) the sealers 
 used rifles because the seals were so wild it was im- 
 possible to take them with clubs. 
 
 Perhaps the lists of food supplies should receive 
 further attention — at least to note that the men had 
 plenty to eat and drink. In referring to the food 
 supplies of the sealer Neptune, which was at the 
 Falklands in 1797, the supercargo, Eben Townsend, 
 wrote : 
 
 "A sealing crew want a good stock of bread, 
 molasses and peas for coffee, and they can get along 
 with little beef and pork; but to be out of bread, 
 or molasses for sweetening their coffee, is very un- 
 comfortable. They get very much attached to what 
 they call slops, which is tea and coffee, in this cold, 
 uncheerful country." To this he adds : "They cook 
 the haslet [heart and liver of the seal], with the fat 
 of the seal both for fuel and fat, and it tastes very 
 much like a hog's haslet." 
 
 Of course the numerous birds and their eggs were 
 used as food, and the sealers caught many fish. 
 That the Stonington fleet was well supplied with 
 material for "slops" and the much-needed sweeten- 
 ing is apparent. They also had a plenty of flour 
 and dried apples for duff. As a matter of fact, 
 American ship owners as a class always made boast 
 of the amounts of food supplied to the seamen. The 
 crews were required to work hard, but never on 
 empty or half-filled stomachs. The exceptions to 
 
50 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 this rule have been so often described by unfriendly 
 writers that the usual conditions found on American 
 ships have been obscured. American sailors were 
 always fed better and were really more comfortable 
 than those on any other ships afloat. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 CRUISING AMONG THE SOUTH SHETLANDS , 
 
 THE log book of the Hero, while under the 
 command of Captain Palmer during his 
 second voyage to the South Shetlands, is 
 a most interesting and valuable historical document 
 because the little vessel was then sent on an expedi- 
 tion to look for seals during which a long stretch 
 of the Antarctic Continent was explored for the 
 first time — the coast which now bears the name of 
 Palmer Land. The ordinary log book used by 
 whalers and sealers, in those days, consisted of a few 
 hundred large sheets of soft writing paper folded 
 once, sewed with a stitch or two of sail twine to 
 form a book, which was then bound with a piece of 
 canvas cut from an old sail. The log of the Hero 
 was a blank book manufactured for the purpose. 
 It was something like an old-fashioned diary. The 
 leaves of this book are made of a soft writing paper, 
 each being 8x13 inches large. Ruled spaces at the 
 top of each page are provided in which to write the 
 date, the course made by the ship, the character of 
 the weather and the latitude and the longitude, each 
 as determined by observation and by dead reckon- 
 ing. Below these ruled spaces were ruled lines which 
 
 51 
 
52 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 were numbered for each hour of the day and on 
 these lines were to be written whatever notes the 
 captain or his mates might wish to make. 
 
 On the first page of the cover (a stout, flexible 
 paper) is a printed title, with a picture of an old- 
 fashioned ship under all plain sail. Below that is 
 an advertisement of the publisher. The whole title 
 is as follows : 
 
 The 
 
 Seaman's Journal 
 
 Being An 
 
 Easy and Correct Method 
 
 OF 
 
 Keeping the Daily Reckoning 
 
 OF A 
 
 Ship, 
 During the Course of Her Voyage. 
 
 The advertisement announces that "J. Desnoues, 
 printer, 1 1 Nassau Street," Issued the volume and 
 that It was "sold by Samuel A. Burtus, at his Book 
 Store and Lottery Office, No. 19 Peck Slip, corner 
 of Water Street," New York. 
 
 To prestrve this book during the voyage. Captain 
 Nat covered It with canvas, neatly hemmed and 
 sewed on. Inside of the back of this canvas cover 
 is a pen-and-ink sketch of a two-masted schooner, 
 carrying all plain sail. Including a square fore top- 
 sail and topgallant sail, In a spanking breeze — a 
 live picture In spite of the material upon which it 
 was drawn. One may suppose that the boyish cap- 
 
Cruising Among the South Shetlands 53 
 
 tain drew it with the schooner Express, of which it 
 is a picture, under his eye at sea. 
 
 The first entry in the log, dated August i, 1820, 
 reads : 
 
 "Commences with fair weather with breeze from 
 W S W. At 6 P M made Block Island. Bore by 
 compass N N W ^ W distant about 4 leagues from 
 which I take my departure. Course S E by E." 
 
 The writing is small, ornate and easily read, save 
 where the ink has faded or has been worn away by 
 handling. The spelling is with rare exceptions cor- 
 rect and the few mistakes are manifestly due to in- 
 advertence rather than ignorance. 
 
 Ships' logs are always monotonous records of 
 weather, speed, course made, and so on, and the 
 Hero's is no exception in this respect during the pas- 
 sage to the Falkland Islands. But it may be noted 
 that while all the vessels of the fleet had sailed to- 
 gether from Stonington, only the Hersilia and the 
 Express were in view of the Hero on the 5th of 
 August. Each was making the best speed possible 
 for the destination, regardless of what the others 
 might do. After the 5th the Hersilia disappeared, 
 but the schooner Express and the Hero were in 
 company all the way to the first port. 
 
 The entry dated August 6 says that the weather 
 was ''dark and glowery," but the young captain "set 
 squaresail," after which a heave of the log showed 
 that the sloop was making eight knots. That day's 
 
54 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 run — from noon of the 6th to noon of the 7th — 
 was 160 sea miles. The best day's run of the pas- 
 sage was 175 sea miles, which was a notable achieve- 
 ment for a fifty-foot boat. 
 
 On October 17, 1820, the entry reads: 
 
 ^'Commences with fresh gales from S West and 
 clear weather. At ^ past i made the land bearing 
 S E & S W. Stood in for it. At 4 P M bore away 
 before the wind, running alongshore the whole 
 night. At 6 A M made the Volunteer Rocks. At 
 10 anchored in Berkeley Sound. Found there two 
 shallops belonging to ship G. Knox. The Express 
 in company." 
 
 Berkeley Sound is in the northeast corner of the 
 Falkland Islands. From this anchorage the Hero 
 and the Express worked west along the north coasts 
 of the group, gathering fresh meat, wild fowl and 
 so on, for several days. Other vessels of the fleet 
 were met on the way. On October 27, at 4 P. M., 
 
 "Got under weigh for Staten Island. Soon after 
 we were boarded by a boat from the Catharine who 
 informed us that one of her boats had upset, and 
 that Perry, the officer, and another had drowned — 
 that two men were left hanging to the boat. Took 
 the boat in tow to look for them. At 8 being down 
 almost to Kidney Island, the boat left us." 
 
 The loss of four men, thus briefly mentioned, in- 
 dicates the danger of the work in which the sealers 
 
Cruising Among the South Shetlands 55 
 
 were engaged. For the lost boat had been turned 
 over when at sea and it had then gone adrift where 
 the other boat's crew and the men of the Hero 
 were unable to find it. 
 
 The Hero with the Express entered Woodward 
 Harbor, Staten Island, on October 31. Several 
 days were spent in gathering fuel and exploring the 
 coast. Plenty of eggs were found, *'but all were 
 spoilt." Meantime "got a bulkhead chimney built 
 in the caboose." The sloop's rigging was carefully 
 overhauled to see that every part was fit to withstand 
 the hurricane blasts of the far South. One day the 
 sloop's crew "went down the harbor sealing and 
 got seven." 
 
 The two vessels left for the Shetlands on Novem- 
 ber 5. "Heavy gales, rain, fog and snow" were 
 encountered on the way down, but on the 8th the 
 weather was pleasant and the wind fair; so all hands 
 were "employed grinding knives" ready for skin- 
 ning the seals. 
 
 On the 9th the log says "we are anxiously look- 
 ing for land. Plenty of penguins, whales and gulls 
 about us." They saw Smith Island, the next day, 
 and squared away for a harbor in Ragged Island, 
 which lies off the southwest coast oT Livingston, 
 (Powell's chart), but vile weather kept them at 
 sea until the 1 2th when this entry appears : 
 
 "Commences with thick weather, fresh breeze N 
 by E. At 4 P M saw Castle Rock. Stood in for 
 Ragged Island. At 8, being in the mouth of the 
 
S6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 harbor, we were boarded by a boat from the 
 Hersilia, Capt. Sheffield. He Informed us that he 
 had been In 12 days, and that the Frederick and 
 Free Gift, Captains Pendleton and Dunbar, were In 
 a harbor on the opposite side of the strait. At 10 
 came to alongside the Hersilia. Let go the sheet 
 anchor in four fathoms of water." 
 
 Captain Palmer then called away a boat and 
 crossed to President Harbor, where the vessels 
 mentioned were at anchor. In order to report to 
 Captain Benjamin Pendleton, the commodore of the 
 fleet. While there he learned that there were "no 
 seals up" — the season was not yet open. 
 
 The next day the Hersilia, the Express and the 
 Hero were all anchored in President Harbor. 
 From subsequent entries It appears that the vessels 
 were taken to this harbor because a great stony 
 beach, to which the seals were sure to come, was to 
 be found near the port. Lumber and sails were 
 landed with which to erect shacks for the men to live 
 in when working the rookeries. While this work 
 was in hand, fog with rain and snow commonly pre- 
 vailed, but when a pleasant day finally did come the 
 log of the Hero notes that her captain and Captain 
 Dunbar went "shooting gulls, chickens, &c. with 
 great success," after which "Capt. Dunbar with Mr. 
 Pendleton dined with us." 
 
 Nearly all the furs taken by the Stonington fleet 
 in 1 820-1 82 1 were secured by men who built camps 
 
Cruising Among the South Shetlands 57 
 
 near large rookeries, and from day to day killed 
 as many seals as they could by hard work handle. 
 The killing did not frighten the seals that remained 
 undisturbed meantime. It was the custom to "cut 
 out of the herd" a "bunch" (if one may use the 
 cowboy terms) and drive them slowly up the slope 
 of the beach — slowly because undue haste heated the 
 seals and injured the fur — and then, when a few 
 rods from the main herd, knock them down with 
 clubs. 
 
 The seals thus segregated did, sometimes, make 
 a dash for the sea and sailors who tried to stop 
 them were often thrown violently on the wet rocks. 
 Occasionally a man has been killed in that way. But 
 the main herd was never seriously alarmed by such 
 a flight, and the slaughter was continued from day 
 to day until the valuable animals had all been 
 secured. 
 
 As the record shows the rookery adjoining the 
 camp on President Harbor was the resort of a great 
 herd, but Commodore Pendleton perceived, even 
 before the seals hauled out, that it would not furnish 
 enough skins for his entire fleet, and he therefore 
 ordered Captain Nat to go in search of others. 
 The Hero sailed on this exploring expedition at 2 
 o'clock in the afternoon of November 15, and, as 
 the log says "stood over for Deception, course E 
 for the north head. ... At 8 being close in with 
 the land," tacked off shore for the night. "Middle 
 part thick snow storm. At 12 two-reefed the main- 
 
58 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 sail" and "tacked to the East. At 5 made the land 
 and stood along to southard and eastard. Saw 
 what we thought to be a harbor. Lowered down 
 the boat and examined It but were disappointed. 
 Stood along the southard. Saw an opening — stood 
 in — found it to be a very spacious harbor with very 
 deep water — 50 and 60 fathoms. Got out the boat 
 to sound," and "found anchorage about a mile and 
 a half from the mouth. At 1 1 we came to in 18 
 fathoms off the mouth of a lagoon. Went on shore 
 and got some eggs. Ends with thick weather and 
 calm." 
 
 That is to say this little sloop was adrift through- 
 out the night upon an unexplored sea. A snow 
 storm that shut off the view in all directions pre- 
 vailed and the wind was so heavy that the sail was 
 reefed. It was reasonable to expect that reefs were 
 to be encountered down wind and icebergs and floes 
 were adrift on all sides. But neither the discomforts 
 nor the dangers gave the crew of the Hero a 
 moment's worry. 
 
 The harbor in Deception Island Into which the 
 sloop sailed is referred to many times in the log 
 of the Hero under the name of Port William, but 
 it was later named Yankee Harbor and it Is so 
 called now. The Island was named Deception dur- 
 ing the previous voyage and the name was descrip- 
 tive because, as seen from all sides but one, it 
 seemed to be a solid cone about seven miles in 
 diameter and rising to height of from four to six 
 
Cruising Among the South Shetlands 59 
 
 hundred feet above the sea. When viewed from 
 the southeast, however, the entrance which the log 
 mentions was to be seen; and on sailing in, a circular 
 harbor about five miles in diameter was discovered. 
 The island was therefore manifestly the top of a 
 volcano, the crater of which, five miles in diameter, 
 formed the harbor. 
 
 Because this harbor afforded a perfect shelter it 
 was made the port of refuge of five of the Stonlng- 
 ton fleet. A year later it was used by another sealing 
 fleet, and later still it was used by two British sur- 
 veying expeditions. The descriptions which have 
 been published by various captains show that it was 
 a most interesting place. Thus one captain thought 
 the entrance was 200 feet wide and another called 
 it a cable's length. In the entrance the water was 
 seven fathoms deep ; at the deepest point, which was 
 the center of the harbor, it was 97. The beaches 
 all around the interior were narrow. Smoke arose 
 continually from small vents around the rim, show- 
 ing that the volcano was by no means dead. At 
 several points on the beaches hot springs boiled forth 
 and one on the northeast side of the crater had 
 such a flow that the water of the bay was warmed 
 for a space of several boat-lengths from the beach; 
 and this, too, although a glacier rested but a few 
 rods away. It was possible to throw a piece of ice 
 from this glacier into water hot enough to boil eggs. 
 The warm water space was the resort of innumer- 
 able birds, especially penguins, which seemed to 
 
6o Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 enjoy the warmth very much. Of course the sailors 
 found bathing there delightful. 
 
 Findlay's "Sailing Directions" says that "a species 
 of coal was found" by the British warship Chanti- 
 cleer, "which burnt very well." 
 
 As noted, five of the Stonington fleet came to 
 Yankee Harbor. This move was hastened because 
 the brig Frederick, the flagship of the fleet, while 
 lying in President Harbor, was driven from her 
 anchors by a heavy storm and narrowly escaped 
 going on the beach. 
 
 After exploring Yankee Harbor, the Hero cruised 
 to the north around Livingston Island and found 
 several rookeries. One of the memorable incidents 
 of the cruise after leaving Yankee Harbor was the 
 result of an effort to run through a strait. The 
 Hero grounded on an unseen ledge, but because the 
 venture was made when the tide was rising she soon 
 floated clear. Then, while the captain was making 
 some needed repairs, he observed a whale head 
 boldly into the strait, and by watching the course it 
 followed he learned the lay of the channel. 
 
 "Where a whale can go I can follow," he re- 
 marked, and he then sailed through, but these words 
 are not found in the log. Note of them was made 
 at Stonington. 
 
 Having located enough beaches to keep all hands 
 busy, the Hero returned to the fleet, that was then 
 in President Harbor, and she was lying there when 
 the storm almost wrecked the Frederick. She then 
 
Cruising Among the South Shetlands 6i 
 
 went with the fleet to Yankee Harbor (November 
 24), and thereafter was employed carrying supplies 
 from the ships to the camp at President Harbor 
 and skins from the harbor to the ships. 
 
 In the first of these trips as a freighter, the Hero 
 arrived off President Harbor at 10 o'clock in the 
 morning of November 26, and found 465 skins 
 ready for transportation to Yankee Harbor, the 
 first that had been secured there. The herd was 
 just beginning to arrive at these islands, and the 
 date was just a month later than the first arrivals 
 at the Falklands, showing that the vast herd mi- 
 grated from the north to these breeding grounds. 
 
 The number of skins awaiting transportation at 
 subsequent trips is not mentioned until that made 
 on December 3d when the number was 905. On 
 the next trip — she arrived off the camp on the 7th 
 — the number was 10,000. These skins, when car- 
 ried to the vessels in Yankee Harbor, were dis- 
 charged from the sloop between the hours of 7 
 P, M. and midnight. As soon as the skins were out 
 the Hero sailed once more for President Harbor, 
 regardless of the fact that her crew had been doing 
 a long hard job. 
 
 Meantime the log notes that other vessels were 
 passing to and fro among the islands. On December 
 9 a ship and two shallops came to Yankee Harbor. 
 On the 1 6th the Emaline and the Catharine came. 
 They brought skins, taken on the north side of Liv- 
 ingston Island. The brig Clothier had been with 
 
62 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 them but a heavy gale, which they had survived, 
 had driven her on the rocks. The wreck was to be 
 seen there many years later. It may yet be visible. 
 
 On the whole the log shows that while Captain 
 Palmer and the sloop's crew now had no part in 
 the work of killing the seals, they were engaged in 
 loading the skins from the time they arrived off 
 any one of the camps (for others were established) 
 until all were on board. Then they hoisted anchor 
 and made sail for Yankee Harbor, standing watch 
 and watch while on the way. At the harbor they 
 helped discharge the skins on board one of the 
 vessels there, took on supplies for the camp, and 
 then made sail back to one of the camps. They 
 took such sleep as they had to have while standing 
 watch and watch between destinations. And they 
 boasted of their ability to work thus. It was char- 
 acteristic of the Yankee sailor of the sail to brag, 
 and they all had something to brag about; but none 
 made good in quite the manner of the sealers. 
 
 The fact that the Heroes crew worked for an 
 extraordinary number of hours every day is a matter 
 of especial interest in this tale of the sea. When 
 opportunity to sleep was offered them they were 
 exceedingly glad to turn into their bunks without an 
 instant's delay. So a time came when the young 
 captain was so tired at the end of his day's work 
 that even the small task of writing up the log in 
 formal fashion seemed too great; and at the same 
 time it seemed really needless to do so. For the 
 
Cruising Among the South Shetlands 63 
 
 entries, while the Hero was serving as freighter 
 between President Harbor and Yankee Harbor, 
 were almost precisely alike. For a time Captain 
 Nat, being tired, wrote such entries as the following : 
 
 "Tuesday, December 19th, 1820 
 "Commences pleasant strong gales from S W 
 
 "Wednesday, December 20th. 
 "Commences moderate light breeze from south." 
 
 On Christmas day the entry made was: 
 
 "Monday 25th 
 "Commences with heavy gales from N E with 
 snow." 
 
 Thereafter each day's entry ran in similar fashion 
 until February 19th, when he wrote: 
 
 "Friday 19th." 
 
 That and nothing more. Then for three days 
 there was no entry whatever, but on the fourth day 
 he began to write up the log in shipshape fashion 
 once more, because on that day he cleared the har- 
 bor and sailed for home. 
 
 And yet, during this interval of slack log writing 
 Captain Palmer had been ordered to go a second 
 time in search of other seal islands and while he 
 was thus engaged he had discovered that part of 
 the Antarctic Continent to which his name was 
 given, and he cruised along the coast to 68 degrees 
 south latitude — or more than 200 miles from 
 Yankee Harbor. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 EXPLORING THE ANTARCTIC COAST 
 
 TWO accounts of the incidents which led to 
 the sending of the Hero on an exploring 
 expedition along the coast of the Antarctic 
 Continent have been printed. One is to be found 
 In Edmund Fannlng's "Voyages Round the World," 
 and the other in "Stonlngton Antarctic Explorers," 
 by Edwin Swift Balch. Fanning says (p. 435) that 
 "from Captain Pendleton's report, as rendered^' 
 on the return of the fleet to Stonlngton, "it appeared 
 that while the fleet lay at anchor in Yankee Harbor, 
 Deception Island, during the season of 1820-21, 
 being on the lookout from an elevated station, on 
 the mountains of the island, during a very clear day, 
 he had discovered mountains (one a volcano) in 
 the south. This is what is now known by the name 
 of Palmer Land." 
 
 In the other account it is said that young Palmer 
 first saw the land and the captain's niece, still living, 
 remembers hearing him say definitely that he thus 
 saw the land. Some writers have thought the two 
 accounts contradictory, but they are not necessarily 
 so. The facts In the case seem to be as follows : 
 
 The rookery at President Harbor was being 
 64 
 
Exploring the Antarctic Coast 6^ 
 
 depleted rapidly. The decrease naturally led all the 
 captains of the vessels In Yankee Harbor to talk 
 about a search for another rookery, and this search 
 seemed to be all the more needed, as time passed 
 and competing vessels gathered the skins from other 
 known rookeries. All the other known rookeries 
 were. In fact, occupied by sealers. It was therefore 
 decided that Captain Palmer should make another 
 cruise with the Hero. It was for such work that the 
 sloop had been brought. 
 
 Before going on such a cruise it was natural that 
 Palmer should go up to the highest point on the wall 
 of the old crater, at a time when the air was per- 
 fectly clear. In order to see If any other Islands were 
 visible. It was also natural that Captain Pendleton 
 should go. The direct statement that the young 
 captain went Is to be believed because he was known 
 to be unusually farslghted. Throughout his life he 
 was able to distinguish objects at much greater dis- 
 tances than ordinary seamen. At the same time 
 there is no reason to doubt the statement that 
 Pendleton went. It Is easy to believe that both 
 Pendleton and Palmer went together, and when 
 Pendleton made his report at Stonlngton he Inad- 
 vertently omitted to mention that Palmer went with 
 him. 
 
 On reaching the high point on Deception Island 
 the southern horizon was examined — the southern 
 because the fleet had been working around all the 
 islands at the north. So the loom of land was seen 
 
66 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 in the far south with what looked like an active 
 volcano, and the Hero was thereupon ordered to 
 sail away and learn if any seals were to be found 
 there. 
 
 Copies of two entries in the log of Captain 
 Pendleton's brig Frederick are among the records 
 now to be found at Stonington. They are as fol- 
 lows : 
 
 "Jan'y 14, 1821. Sloop Hero, Capt. N. B. 
 Palmer, sailed to eastward to look for more Is'ds." 
 
 ''Jan'y 28th, /21. 6 A M the sloop came in after 
 examining northeast and southwest to their satisfac- 
 tion. Found none." 
 
 It was therefore on January 14 that Captain 
 Palmer sailed from Yankee Harbor on the voyage 
 which was to place him beside Columbus in so far 
 as he and Columbus were the only known men who 
 have discovered continents ; for the name of the man 
 who discovered Australia is not known. 
 
 To appreciate the dangers of the voyage upon 
 which the captain was bound it is only needful to 
 recall the fact that he was under orders to explore 
 a region, to the east as well as the south, which had 
 never been visited by men; that he was to work his 
 way among floating fields of ice and uncharted reefs; 
 that hurricane squalls with blinding snows were sure 
 to overtake him at frequent intervals, and that if 
 the Hero were pinched between icefloes or stranded 
 on the rocks there was no hope of a rescuing party 
 
Exploring the Antarctic Coast S7 
 
 ever finding the wreck. But Palmer and his men 
 faced the dangers with insouciant minds and even 
 with pleasure. They were thrilled with a feeling 
 that is now lost because there is but little of the 
 world left to explore. 
 
 Of this remarkable expedition it appears that no 
 account was ever written by a member of the Heroes 
 crew; or if one was so written in the back of the 
 log book, as has been surmised, it was torn out 
 and destroyed. But on his return to Yankee Har- 
 bor, Captain Palmer told the commodore and other 
 captains what had occurred. After he returned 
 home he also related his story to his family and 
 friends. In later years, when he was in command 
 of the clipper Howqua, in Hong Kong, China, he 
 was invited to tell the story to Admiral Sir John 
 Francis Austin, at the American consulate; for 
 the admiral had observed that the arm-chair 
 geographers of Europe were disposed to ignore 
 Palmer's exploration and with a sailor's love of fair 
 play he asked the captain for the facts in the case. 
 
 The various accounts which the captain thus gave 
 were in several instances written down by those who 
 heard them. Consul Frederick T. Bush, of Hong 
 Kong, wrote what he heard, and his version was 
 later printed in a New London paper. Edmund 
 Fanning wrote the story as he gathered it from 
 Commodore Pendleton after the expedition re- 
 turned home. When, beginning in 1828, an effort 
 was made to induce Congress to send a naval explor- 
 
68 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 ing expedition to the far South and the Pacific (an 
 effort which eventually resulted in the Wilkes expe- 
 dition), Mr. J. N. Reynolds, an active promoter 
 of the movement, gathered and wrote an account 
 which he used in his propaganda. This one was 
 printed in the Army and Naval Chronicle^ Vol. III. 
 Another account appeared in the North American 
 Review in 1834. Each of these versions inevitably 
 contains some statements not found in the others, 
 and the whole have therefore been combined here 
 to give the story In as full detail as possible. 
 
 When describing his adventure to Admiral Austin 
 the captain said: 
 
 "I pointed the bow of the little craft to south'ard 
 and with her wings spread, the mainsail abeam, and 
 the jib abreast (on) the opposite bow, she speeded 
 on her way like a thing of life and light. With her 
 flowing sheet she seemed to enter into the spirit 
 which possessed my ambitions, and flew along until 
 she brought me into the sight of land not laid down 
 on my chart." 
 
 The tops of two mountains were first seen, and 
 then lower land, trending away in both directions, 
 appeared as the Hero drew near. The highest peak, 
 named Mount Hope by explorer Wilkes, was in 
 latitude 63° 25' S and longitude 57° 55' west. It 
 was a rugged, verdureless land, with bare rocks and 
 glaciers mingled every^vhere within view — a most 
 desolate region, and yet, as seen when the sun was 
 
Exploring the Antarctic Coast 69 
 
 shining, with the green waters along shore dotted 
 with gleaming ice cakes, and with the air filled with 
 thousands of gray and black petrels and white cape 
 pigeons, it was strikingly beautiful. 
 
 Fanning's account of what Palmer thus observed 
 is as follows : 
 
 "He found it to be an extensive mountainous 
 country, more sterile and dismal, if possible, and 
 more heavily loaded with ice and snow than the 
 South Shetlands; there were sea leopards on its 
 shore but no fur seals; the main part of the coast 
 was icebound, although it was in the midsummer 
 of this hemisphere, and a landing consequently 
 difficult." 
 
 So far as the weather was concerned the young 
 Captain had much better fortune than he had any 
 reason to expect; but the fogs were frequently so 
 thick that he was obliged to lay to at midday and 
 wait until they thinned away lest he strike the ice or 
 a reef. And it was because of the prevailing fog 
 that he had one of the most startling experiences 
 recorded in the histories of the explorers. 
 
 The Hero, in her return, had left Mount Hope 
 on the north point of the mainland astern, late one 
 afternoon, when a fog, so dense that the man at 
 the tiller could not see the man on lookout at the 
 bow, shut her in. She was then hove to in the usual 
 course — the sails were arranged so that she would 
 make as little headway as possible — and then all 
 
70 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 hands settled down with such patience as they could 
 summon, to await the coming of the next day. Al- 
 though the breeze was light and the sloop drifted 
 but slowly before it, the captain and his mate (Mr. 
 Phineas Wilcox) kept vigilant watch all night for a 
 change in the weather as well as for rocks and ice. 
 The men (there were six before the mast) were 
 placed on lookout at the bow and waist while the 
 officers paced the quarterdeck. 
 
 At 12 o'clock that night Captain Nat came on 
 deck to relieve Mate Wilcox. The captain paced 
 the deck, as all ship officers do when on watch at 
 night, until 12.30 when he struck the sloop's bell 
 a single tap. It was a part of the regular routine 
 which had been followed ever since Stonington had 
 been left astern. 
 
 But when the sound of the ball rang through the 
 fog, an answering stroke was heard off one bow 
 with a second one off the opposite quarter. 
 
 "The response startled me," said the Captain, 
 when relating the story in Hong Kong, "but I soon 
 resumed my pace, turned my thoughts homeward 
 and applied myself to building castles in the air," 
 until one o'clock. Then he "struck two bells that 
 were answered" as before. 
 
 "I could not credit my ears," declared the Cap- 
 tain. "I thought I was dreaming," because, "save 
 for the screeching of the penguins, the albatrosses, 
 the pigeons and the Mother Cary chickens, I was 
 
Exploring the Antarctic Coast 71 
 
 sure no living object was within leagues of the 
 sloop." 
 
 The sailors, being more superstitious, believed the 
 sounds were of supernatural origin, and even Mate 
 Wilcox expressed the same idea when he declared 
 the sounds were "tricky." To the sailors the 
 sounds were not a little fearsome and to all very 
 mystifying. 
 
 At 3.30 o'clock the mate came on deck and as- 
 serted that he heard human voices. A little later 
 the fog suddenly cleared away, when the mystery 
 was solved; for a fine frigate was seen off the sloop's 
 starboard bow, a sloop of war off the port quarter, 
 and a ship's cutter, full-manned and under the com- 
 mand of an officer in uniform, was soon seen coming 
 to the Hero. 
 
 Meantime Captain Palmer made haste to hoist 
 the Stars and Stripes, and the two warships then 
 displayed the Russian flag. 
 
 When the cutter arrived beside the sloop the 
 officer in command stepped on deck and explained 
 how it happened he had come. The two warships, 
 he said, had been sent out by the Czar of Russia 
 to explore the seas of the far South; and while 
 sailing to the westward they had been compelled 
 by the fog to lie to. The bell of the sloop had been 
 heard on the warships and when the fog had lifted 
 the cutter had been ordered to learn what vessel 
 it was from which the sound had come. The com- 
 
72 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 manding officer, Capt. F. G. von Bellingshausen, 
 he continued, presented his compliments and begged 
 the pleasure of meeting the captain of the sloop 
 in the cabin of His Imperial Majesty's frigate 
 Rostock. 
 
 "I assented," said Captain Palmer, in his Hong 
 Kong narrative of the incident. "I at once entered 
 the boat, was laid alongside, mounted to the deck, 
 and I was ushered into the presence of the venerable 
 commander." 
 
 The scene as that young Yankee captain entered 
 the cabin of the frigate might well be reproduced 
 by an artist of talent. For the captain of the frigate 
 was seated at a table with a group of his officers, 
 all in brilliant uniform, around him, while the young 
 sealer, smooth-faced, tall and slender, was dressed 
 in a seal-skin coat and boots of his own make, and 
 he had a sou'wester on his head. To the naval 
 officers the boy certainly was a bizarre figure. But 
 when they looked into his far-seeing eyes they per- 
 ceived that he was unabashed and fully able to meet 
 them as man to man. 
 
 The captain of the frigate (he was made an ad- 
 miral on his return home and is so called in the 
 various narratives of this incident) arose to greet 
 Captain Palmer, shook his hand, ordered a chair 
 placed for him and then said: 
 
 "You are welcome, young man. Be seated." 
 
 The conversation which followed was as follows, 
 so far as remembered: 
 
Exploring the Antarctic Coast 73 
 
 "What is your name?'* 
 
 "Nathaniel Palmer." 
 
 "Where you are from?" 
 
 "Stonington, Connecticut, U. S. A." 
 
 "The name of your boat?" 
 
 ''Heror 
 
 "What are you doing here?" 
 
 "On a sealing expedition. A fleet from Stoning- 
 ton is at work among the islands, here." 
 
 "What islands are those in sight?" 
 
 "The South Shetlands; and if you wish to visit 
 any of them in particular it will afford me pleasure 
 to be your pilot; for I am well acquainted with 
 them." 
 
 He also mentioned the harbor where the sealing 
 vessels were at anchor and added that water with 
 an abundant supply of wildfowl might be obtained 
 anywhere among the islands. 
 
 "I thank you," continued the captain, "but pre- 
 vious to our being enveloped in the fog we had a 
 glimpse of those islands, and concluded we had 
 made a discovery; but behold, when the fog lifts, 
 to my great surprise, here is an American vessel, 
 apparently in as fine order as if it were but yesterday 
 she had left the United States; not only this but 
 her master is ready to pilot my ships into port, 
 where several of his own nation lie at anchor. We 
 must surrender the palm of enterprise to you Ameri- 
 cans, and content ourselves with following in your 
 
74 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 ''You flatter me," replied the captain, "but there 
 is an immense extent of land still further south; 
 and when the fog there is entirely dissipated you 
 may have a full view of it from your masthead." 
 
 "How far south have you been?" asked tthe 
 captain. 
 
 Captain Palmer told him the latitude and longi- 
 tude of the point at which the Hero turned back 
 and described the coast along which she had sailed. 
 
 "Indeed!" exclaimed the Russian. "Then I am 
 entirely anticipated in my object." 
 
 He now arose much agitated and begged Captain 
 Palmer to produce the Heroes log book and chart. 
 Palmer at once sent to the sloop for them. While 
 waiting for the messenger to return, breakfast was 
 served, with Palmer seated at the side of the Russian 
 captain. While they were at the table many ques- 
 tions were asked about the seal fishery, the ports 
 of the South Shetlands, the hailing port of the seal- 
 ing fleet and about the character of the vessels 
 themselves. 
 
 The Heroes log and chart arrived while the two 
 were yet at the table, and were placed before the 
 Russian captain. For a time he examined them 
 without saying anything. Then he arose from the 
 table and exclaimed. 
 
 "What do I see and what do I hear from a boy 
 in his teens? That he is commander of a tiny 
 boat of the size of the launch of my frigate, in 
 which he has pushed his way to the pole through 
 
Exploring the Antarctic Coast 75 
 
 storm and Ice; has sought and found the point I, 
 in command of one of the best appointed fleets at 
 the disposal of my august master, have for three 
 long weary years searched day and night for." 
 
 Then, placing his hand on Palmer's head he 
 continued : 
 
 "What shall I say to my master? What will he 
 think of me? But be that as it may, my grief is 
 your joy. Wear your laurels with my sincere 
 prayers for your welfare. I name the land you have 
 discovered in honor of yourself, noble boy, Palmer 
 Land." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 EUROPEAN EXPLORERS AMONG THE SHETLANDS 
 
 IN this search for new seal rookeries upon the 
 shore of the Antarctic Continent, Captain Pal- 
 mer had first crossed a space of open sea that is 
 seventy miles wide. This brought him to a north- 
 erly extension of the continent on which Is located 
 the volcano Mount Hope, visible from Deception 
 Island. When there he found the trend of the land 
 was, as said, to the southwest and he therefore 
 headed In that direction, keeping near the beach so 
 that he could see the seals If any were to be found 
 there. Bays, fiords and islands were observed along 
 the way, and each was carefully examined for fur. 
 Numbers of the leopard seal were seen but none of 
 any other variety. As soon as he had determined 
 that a beach carried no fur seals, Captain Palmer 
 sailed on without giving any attention to any other 
 feature of it. He was aware that he was coasting 
 land never visited by man before, but he did not 
 know it was of continental dimensions. In fact, 
 the dimensions of the lands he discovered were not 
 definitely or even approximately learned until it had 
 been explored by Larsen, in 1893; Nordenskjold In 
 1903 and Charcot In 1910. 
 
 76 
 
European Explorers Among the Shetlands 77 
 
 To the young captain the land seemed simply an 
 unexplored island of large size, or perhaps a group 
 of islands, connected by ice, and so it was supposed 
 to be while he lived. Because he was looking for 
 seal rookeries and nothing else, the land had no 
 further interest after he learned that no seals re- 
 sorted to the beaches. 
 
 As his cruise is now recalled, one is prone to 
 imagine that he should have made a careful survey 
 of the coast line simply because it had never been 
 seen by human beings before. But the fact is there 
 was no inducement impelling him to do so. For 
 the mere discovery of unexplored islands was then 
 such an ordinary experience among American sailors 
 of the sail that little attention was given to any 
 new coast unless it afforded a prospect for profit- 
 able exploitation. It is literally true that sighting 
 new islands in the Pacific was a common experience 
 among American whalers. Captain William Smith, 
 who rediscovered the islands first seen by Dirk 
 Gherritz, was knighted, but if every Yankee skipper 
 who discovered an island theretofore unknown had 
 been thus rewarded the American corps of knights 
 would have far exceeded the English in number; 
 for hundreds of islands, including atols, were found 
 and charted by the whalers of that period. The 
 coasting of the Antarctic Continent was really less 
 interesting to the crew of the Hero than their pre- 
 vious cruise among the Shetlands had been, because 
 in the Shetlands several rookeries were found. For 
 
78 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 these men were all sealers and not surveyors or 
 scientists. 
 
 Having cruised for at least 150 miles along the 
 new land — the longitude attained was 68 degrees 
 south — Captain Palmer came to impenetrable ice 
 and turned back. The weather was fairly favor- 
 able — no worse than that experienced among the 
 Shetlands. To Captain Palmer it did not seem as 
 dangerous as it really was. The fact that he had 
 sailed more than 200 miles from his friends in 
 Yankee Harbor, and that any disaster to the sloop 
 when far away would have left him and his crew 
 to perish miserably did not impress him. 
 
 In his work on exploration in the far South, en- 
 titled "Antarctica," Edwin Swift Balch writes as 
 follows (p. 94), about the work of Captain 
 Palmer : 
 
 "The account by Fanning of Palmer's first two 
 voyages and the chart and memoir of 1822 of 
 George Powell make it fairly certain: — i, that 
 Palmer was probably the discoverer and certainly 
 the first explorer of the lands lying south of Brans- 
 field Strait and extending for some two hundred 
 and fifty kilometers between about 57° 50' and 62° 
 20' west longitude, that is, of the northern coasts 
 of West Antarctica from Liege Island to Joinville 
 Island both inclusive: — 2, that Palmer discovered 
 the northern end of Gerlache Strait, which he recog- 
 nized was a strait and not a bay as subsequently 
 
European Explorers Among the Shetlands 79 
 
 charted: — 3, that Palmer discovered the strait or 
 bay since called Orleans Channel: — 4, that Palmer 
 recognized that these lands were perhaps a chain 
 of islands: — 5, that this coast or these islands were 
 christened Palmer Land and that they were so first 
 charted in England, France and America.'* 
 
 A copy of Powell's Chart is printed In connection 
 with this quotation. The title of the chart is: 
 "Chart of South Shetland, including Coronation 
 Island, &c., from the Exploration of the Sloop Dove 
 in the years 1821 and 1822. George Powell, Com- 
 mander of the same. Published by R. H. Laurie, 
 Chart Seller to the Admiralty, &c., &c.. No. 53 
 Fleet Street, London, Nov'r ist, 1822." A mem- 
 oir, written by Powell, accompanied the chart. In 
 this Captain Powell said (quoted by Balch) : 
 
 "Of the land to the southward, called Palmer 
 Land, very little can be said, as it does not appear 
 to be sufficiently explored; but it has been described 
 as very high and covered with snow, with inlets 
 forming straits which may probably separate the 
 land, and constitute a range of islands similar to 
 those of South Shetland; at least, such Is the ap- 
 pearance of the northern side, which alone has been 
 explored." 
 
 Powell's chart Is of special Interest here because 
 In later years Palmer's work as an explorer was 
 either wholly ignored by British geographers or 
 it was discredited. For example Findlay's "Sailing 
 
8o Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Directions" for the South Atlantic (issued in 1883), 
 a standard work for the use of shipmasters, gives 
 several pages to descriptions of the South Shetlands 
 and the adjacent coast, but makes no mention of 
 Palmer or Palmer Land. He does mention the 
 American sealers, however — as follows: 
 
 "Several United States vessels have visited South 
 Shetland, and an American account states that some 
 of the harbours are very good, vessels in them 
 being landlocked. . . . Capt. Dan W. Clark, of 
 the ship Hersilia (an American), reported that 
 he penetrated to the 66th degree of latitude, where 
 he observed lands stretching further to the south, 
 the extremities of which he could not ascertain." 
 
 If this quotation is considered in connection with 
 the actual explorations of the region made by the 
 men from Stonington, the extent of Findlay's knowl- 
 edge of the region will be fully comprehended. 
 
 To Illustrate still further the former attitude of 
 the British geographers it seems advisable to quote 
 an essay on Antarctic exploration which was written 
 by Major General A. W. Greely for the American 
 Geographic Magazine (March, 19 12), in which 
 the following appeared: 
 
 "Dr. Hugh Robert Hill in his generally accurate 
 and fair-minded 'Siege of the South Pole,' 1905, 
 unfortunately follows the British attitude of in- 
 directly discrediting Palmer's story as to the Rus- 
 
European Explorers Among the Shetlands 8i 
 
 sian admiral, saying (page lOo), 'It seems strange 
 that if informed of the whereabouts of Palmer 
 Land, he (Bellingshausen) made no reference to 
 that fact in his own book.' 
 
 ''However, Dr. Heinryk Arctowski, a Belgian 
 professor, a Russian scholar, and an Antarctic 
 explorer and expert, supports Palmer by a citation. 
 In 'The Antarctic Voyage of the Belgica' (in the 
 Geographical Journal, 1901, 18:353-394), Arc- 
 towski states that 'this meeting [the meeting be- 
 tween Palmer and Bellingshausen] was also de- 
 scribed by Bellingshausen himself, as can easily be 
 seen by consulting the remarkable but little known 
 work of that eminent Russian explorer." 
 
 Bellingshausen's work has appeared in Russian 
 only. The title is: "Dwukratnya isiskania w' 
 Jujnom Ledowitom Okeanje i plawanie wokrug 
 swjeta, &c. ; St. Petersburg, 1831." The account of 
 the meeting with Captain Palmer appears in Vol- 
 ume 2, pages 261-264. (See Balch's "Antarctica.") 
 
 Greely adds that "it is to be regretted that Dr. 
 Hill failed to verify" the quotation from Bellings- 
 hausen's work. 
 
 Greely also calls attention to the eleventh edition 
 of the Encyclopedia Britannica which was "specially 
 Americanized" in order to promote sales in the 
 United States. He notes that "it admits in two 
 lines that 'Nathaniel Brown Palmer discovered the 
 mountainous archipelago which now bears his name.' 
 
82 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 It then proceeds to give a column regarding John 
 Biscoe." 
 
 Palmer's discovery of the land came to be ignored 
 and discredited, later, because of two explorations 
 made by the British — one by Commander Henry 
 Foster, R. N., of the sloop of war Chanticleer, and 
 the other by Captain John Biscoe, who had been a 
 master in the navy but was in the employ of 
 London merchants when he went to the South 
 Shetlands. 
 
 Foster was the first of the two to go there. He 
 had been detailed by the Admiralty to survey parts 
 of the Cape Horn region. While at anchor off 
 Port Hatches, Staten Island, in a bad seaway, he 
 was seen by Captain Alexander Palmer (brother 
 of Captain Nat), and piloted to a safe anchorage 
 inside; for Captain Alexander was sealing there at 
 the time. 
 
 As Captain Foster and Captain Alex were both 
 of an adventurous disposition they soon became 
 friends, in spite of the natural attitude of naval 
 officers toward fishermen. Captain Al.ex guided 
 Foster to various heights of land from which good 
 views of the coasts and the islands off shore were 
 to be seen, and he fully described the waters as he 
 had learned them while working the beaches for 
 furs. Further than that, he told Captain Foster all 
 about the South Shetlands and especially about 
 Yankee Harbor as a port of refuge. Captain 
 Foster was thus greatly aided, of course, when he 
 
EuTope^an Explorers Among the Shetlands 83 
 
 went, later, to that harbor to make a survey of the 
 archipelago. 
 
 Before leaving. Captain Foster wrote the follow- 
 ing letter of acknowledgement which is still pre- 
 served among the records at Stonington: 
 
 "These are to certify [by] the principal officers 
 and commissioners of his Majesty's Navy that Mr. 
 Alexander S. Palmer, master of the American seal- 
 ing schooner the Penguin, pilotted His Majesty's 
 sloop under my command, from her anchorage off 
 Dead Man's Island (Staten Island), the 26th day 
 of October, 1828, to the harbour of North Port 
 Hatchet (Staten Island), where he this day left her 
 moored in perfect safety. Given under my hand 
 on board His Majesty's sloop Chanticleer, at North 
 Port Hatchet, Staten Island, the 28th day of Oc- 
 tober, 1828. 
 
 "Henry Foster, Commander." 
 
 From Captain Alexander Palmer, Commander 
 Foster learned, as said, all that an InteDigent and 
 experienced sealer could tell him about the South 
 Shetlands and the various harbors there. Follow- 
 ing the directions given him. Commander Foster 
 went in the Chanticleer to Yankee Harbor, where 
 he set up various instruments on shore and made 
 a considerable survey of the entire region, includ- 
 ing a part of Palmer Land. 
 
 The surgeon of the Chanticleer, Dr. W. H. R. 
 Webster, wrote an account of the work done in 3 
 
84 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 book entitled, "Narrative of a Voyage," &c., in 
 which he mentions the help received from Captain 
 Alexander Palmer, but not a word is said by him, 
 or in Foster's report to the Admiralty, about the 
 explorations made by Captain Nathaniel Brown 
 Palmer.* The chart made by Foster renames 
 Palmer Land. But when Foster wrote a report of 
 what he had done there, he omitted to give Captain 
 Nat Palmer credit for exploring the coast of the 
 continent and he did not use the name Palmer Land. 
 
 Later, two London ship owners, of whom one 
 was an enthusiastic member of the Royal Geographic 
 Society, sent a ship under the command of Captain 
 John Biscoe, mentioned above, to make further ex- 
 plorations. Biscoe sailed southwesterly to latitude 
 67° i' south, and longitude 71° 48' west of Green- 
 wich. In his report he wrote that he had skirted 
 "a chain of islands, extending E. N. E. and W. 
 S. W., and fronting high continuous land." 
 
 Findlay's "Sailing Directions" says this chain of 
 islands "is unquestionably the same which is marked 
 in the old charts by the name of Gherritz Land, it 
 having been discovered in 1599 by Dirk Gherritz." 
 
 That is to say, Biscoe reported the South Shet- 
 lands as a new discovery. Nevertheless the name 
 which Biscoe gave to Palmer Land — he called it 
 Graham Land — was used thereafter on English 
 charts. 
 
 * Foster was drowned in the Chagres River on his way home 
 from the far South. 
 
Europ^^an Explorers Among the Shetlands 85 
 
 As Greely says, all this matter is to be regretted. 
 One may add that it is to be especially regretted 
 that the publishers of the Encyclopaedia supposed 
 their two-line reference to Palmer would promote 
 sales of their work among intelligent people in this 
 country. 
 
 But if the British attitude be considered without 
 prejudice it is found to be easily understandable. 
 Note first that the two British surveyors of the 
 region had had naval training; in connection with 
 that fact recall the attitude of all British naval offi- 
 cers of that period toward their own merchant sail- 
 ors as well as toward others. Their merchant 
 captains, as Lindsay describes them in detail in Vol. 
 Ill, Chap. I, of his "History of Merchant Ship- 
 ping," were, as a class, ignorant drunkards and 
 generally detestable. Lindsay's showing is quite re- 
 markable, and it fully explains the contempt which 
 the officers of the Royal Navy felt for all merchant 
 seamen — for of course they could not believe Ameri- 
 can merchantmen superior to their own. 
 
 Since Palmer was a sealer, and so was classed 
 with the fishermen in the thoughts of both Foster 
 and Biscoe, it is not a matter of great wonder that 
 they entirely ignored him in their reports of their 
 own surveys. It may seem a little remarkable that 
 they should also have ignored Powell's chart of 
 Palmer Land, but Powell was also a sealer — one 
 of a contemptible class, in the naval view — and 
 names bestowed on lands by such as he were not to 
 
86 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 be respected by any British naval surveyor of that 
 day! 
 
 Even the regrettable misstatement made by Dr. 
 Mills should be overlooked because elsewhere in 
 his book he says: 
 
 "As a matter of historic justice it seems to us 
 that Powell's name of Palmer Land ought to be 
 retained." (Quoted by Greely.) 
 
 In order that justice be done the memory of Cap- 
 tain Palmer it is of importance only that his work 
 should be accurately described. This was the view 
 of General Greely and it is that of all other Ameri- 
 cans who have made a study of Antarctic explora- 
 tion. To this General Greely, in the essay quoted 
 above, added the following: 
 
 ''Has not the time arrived when this glorious 
 phase of American maritime history should receive 
 full national recognition? Every textbook teach- 
 ing polar geography should contain the statement 
 that the American Captain, N. B. Palmer, first dis- 
 covered parts of the continent of Antarctica, and on 
 every official soufeh-polar map should be replaced 
 Palmer Land. ... It is therefore the duty of the 
 120,000 members of the National Geographic 
 Society to create a public sentiment that shall honor 
 in our literature and in our history the achievements 
 of Nathaniel B. Palmer and Charles Wilkes." 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 SUPERIOR WORK OF THE STONINGTON MEN 
 
 IT was at 6 A. M., on January 28, that Captain 
 Palmer arrived in Yankee Harbor, after his 
 memorable cruise along the Antarctic Continent 
 — an exploration of at least 150 miles of its coast 
 line. What he did thereafter among the Shetlands 
 is not recorded in the existing papers, but it is rea- 
 sonable to suppose that he continued the work of 
 carrying supplies to the camps of the sealers and 
 bringing the skins taken there back to the fleet in 
 Yankee Harbor. He also had the blubber of ele- 
 phant seals to transport to the harbor; for a number 
 of the men were engaged in killing those seals, the 
 blubber of which was tried out in kettles set up 
 on the beach in Yankee Harbor. The Hero, when 
 ready to sail for home, was loaded with this oil. 
 The day of departure for home was February 22, 
 1 82 1, and the entry in the Heroes log, that day, 
 was as follows: 
 
 ^'Thursday, 2 2d February 
 ''Commences with fine breeze from west. At 10 
 P M got under weigh for sea in compay with 
 Frederick, Express and Hersilia. At 1 1 were clear 
 from the Harbor." 
 
 87 
 
88 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Two of these vessels were homeward bound, the 
 Frederick and the Hero. The Hersilia soon stood 
 away to the northwest, bound to "Isld St. Mary's 
 In Pacific, hair sealing," and one may suppose that 
 her crew were not a little homesick as they left the 
 others astern. In fact, if they could have foreseen 
 the fate that awaited them, they never would have 
 gone to the coast of Chili. The Hersilia safely 
 reached her destination and secured 15,000 skins of 
 the hair seal — enough to yield a fine profit — but just 
 when ready to depart for home the vessel was cap- 
 tured by a Spanish officer named Benevlades who 
 commanded a force which was attempting to hold 
 the Chllenos in subjection to the Spanish crown. 
 The crew were made prisoners and all were com- 
 pelled to serve the Spanish officers in menial capaci- 
 ties. Captain Sheffield and most of his crew finally 
 escaped in whaleboats and went to Valparaiso. 
 Commodore Sir T. M. Hardy, commanding the 
 British naval squadron In those waters, at once sent 
 a sloop of war,* with Captain Sheffield, to liberate 
 the remainder of the sailors, and they were brought 
 back; but the Hersilia and her cargo had been de- 
 stroyed by the Spaniards during a battle with the 
 Patriots, In which he was defeated. 
 
 The log of the Hero for the voyage homeward 
 contains nothing of interest here until the entry of 
 May 7, which reads : 
 
 *The Conivay, Captain Basil Hall. The story is told in con- 
 siderable detail in Hall's "Chili, Peru and Mexico," Part I, Chapter 
 23. 
 
Superior Work of the Stonington Men 89 
 
 "Commences with fresh gales from north. Pleas- 
 ant. At 6 reefed the mainsail. At 7 sounded and 
 got ground at 75, [figures indistinct] fathoms. 
 Middle part with light rain. At 10 sounded. Got 
 ground at 35 fathoms with soft [illegible] ooze 
 which indicates being in Block Island channel. At 
 6AM made the land. Stood in and at 10 tacked 
 eastward. Were about 15 miles to the westward 
 of Montaug Point. Ends with fair weather, light 
 winds N by east. Employed in various jobs." 
 
 So runs the last entry in the Heroes log. It was 
 a day of low visibility, as a naval officer might say, 
 and the Hero was carried to the westward of Ston- 
 ington, but she was anchored, safe at home, before 
 supper time, beyond a doubt, after the most memo- 
 rable cruise known to the history of the American 
 merchant marine. 
 
 Of the financial results of the expedition to the 
 South Shetlands a sufficient account is found in the 
 records which may be quoted here in part. One 
 faded memorandum contains the following (see 
 
 P- 90). 
 
 The item of 1,207 skins credited to "boats" is of 
 
 special interest, for one may suppose that these skins 
 were taken from the outlying rocks by the crews of 
 whaleboats in the manner already described. At 
 least a hundred such landings must have been made 
 by the sailors to secure that number. Rightly seen, 
 that brief memorandum is a record of daring, en- 
 durance and persistence rarely if ever equaled. 
 
90 
 
 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 pr 
 
 ime fur skins. 
 
 "The Hero brought [from] camps on the beach and put on the 
 different vessels the following Fur seal skins: 
 
 November 27, 1820. Sloop Hero from camp arrived with 465 Fur 
 skins prime skins. 
 
 Deer 2d. Sloop from camp with [illegible] 616 
 
 Sloop arrived from camp Deer 5th with. . 906 
 
 Deer 9th sloop from camp with prime.... 9790 
 
 Deer i2th sloop from camp with 5616 
 
 Deer 16 sloop from camp with 6865 
 
 Deer 19 sloop from camp with 8229 
 
 Deer 30 " " " " 8000 
 
 Jany 9, 1821 sloop from camp with 6ioi 
 
 "12 " " " " 2800 
 
 3 
 
 Novr. 27, boats. 
 
 49223 
 
 465 
 
 . 1207 
 
 50895 
 February 6, 1821, took on board brig Frederick, Capt. Ben., from 
 Brig Hersilia, Capt. James Sheffield, 12,000 prime fur seal. 
 
 The Hersilia is bound to isld St. Mary's in Pacific hair sealing." 
 
 The footings in the above column of figures are 
 incorrect, as the reader may determine. 
 
 The total catch of the entire fleet of sealers at 
 the South Shetlands during the season of 1820- 
 182 1 is set down in the records at 250,000. Of 
 this number the American vessels are credited with 
 150,000, of which number the Stonington fleet se- 
 cured 88,000. The Stonington vessels also carried 
 home 1,500 barrels of elephant seal oil then worth 
 $10 a barrel. The price received for the skins is 
 not given. 
 
 A little calculation shows that the 12 European 
 sealers averaged 8,333 skins each and the 18 Ameri- 
 can vessels the same number. But the crews of 
 the eight Stonington vessels, having taken 88,000, 
 
Superior Work of the Stonington Men 91 
 
 their average was 11,000 each. It is reasonable to 
 suppose that a considerable part of this superiority 
 was due to the fact that populous rookeries were 
 found by Captain Palmer in his first cruise among 
 the islands. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 EXPLORING WITH THE SLOOP "jAMES MONROE" 
 
 HAVING made large profits by their expedition 
 of 1 820-1 82 1, the people of Stonington 
 naturally fitted out still another one for the 
 ensuing season. The vessels included the brigs 
 Frederick and Alabama Packet, the schooners Ex- 
 press and Free Gift and the sloops James Monroe 
 and Hero, 
 
 Two sloops were taken this time In order that 
 one might serve the fleet continuously as a tender, 
 while the other would be free to sail in search of 
 new seal islands. For the explorations the James 
 Monroe, a larger sloop than the Hero, was selected, 
 and Captain Palmer was put in command. 
 
 The sailing orders issued to Captain Palmer, on 
 this occasion, as well as the order under which he 
 returned home from the South Shetlands, have been 
 preserved and they are given here partly because 
 they relate to the captain's work and partly be- 
 cause few documents of the kind are now to be 
 found anywhere. The sailing orders read: 
 
 "Stonington, July 21, 182 1. 
 "Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer, Sir: 
 
 "You will proceed to sea with the sloop James 
 Monroe the first favorable opportunity in company 
 
 92 
 
Exploring with the Sloop '^ James Monroe'^ 93 
 
 with the brig Alabama Packet and make all despatch 
 for East Harbor (if you get separated from the 
 Alabama Packet) on the north side of Cape St. 
 Johns in the Island of Statten Land. On your ar- 
 rival at this East Harbour (which lays 2 or 3 miles 
 from the end of Cape St. Johns on the north side 
 of the cape) if you do not find Capt. Benjm. Pen- 
 dleton or Capt. William A. Fanning there you will 
 then (after taking in what wood and water you 
 stand in need of if not joined by one of them), pro- 
 ceed with all despatch for Deception harbour in 
 New South Iceland, where you will employ your 
 crew in taking Elephant blubber and mincing and 
 fining your casks with mixed blubber & procur- 
 ing seal skins until you are joined by Capt. Pendle- 
 ton or Fanning. It is expected you will use your 
 best judgment to keep your crew in harmony and 
 good spirits. Good usage and strict Discipline will 
 best do this and enable you to procure a good voy- 
 age, or full cargo of skins and oil, which is our first 
 object and wish, and we expect your best endeavor 
 at all times to do this. You will consider yourself 
 and crew and vessel mated with the brigs Frederick 
 and Alabama Packet, schooners Express & Free Gift 
 and sloop Hero, and you will share with them in 
 proportion to the number of their and your crews, 
 as Capt. Benjm Pendleton shall direct, and you will 
 at all time consider yourself and vessel under his 
 orders and directions, but in case of his inability 
 or absence you will consider yourself & vessel under 
 
94 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 the orders and direction of Capt. William A. Fan- 
 ning, & govern your acts and proceedings accord- 
 ingly, and as your vessel is fitted and sent out for 
 the express purpose to act as a tender or shallop 
 to the vessels of this concern, you will at all times 
 consider the importance of arriving at Deception 
 harbour by the time that the brigs Frederick and 
 Alabama Packet does, and with this [blotted] 
 recommend to you to use your best endeavors to 
 keep in company and not get separated from the 
 brig Alabama Packet in your passage out. You will 
 be prudent and careful in the expenditure of your 
 provisions & stores & do your best to obtain a good 
 voyage. 
 
 "Wishing you health and prosperity, we are your 
 sincere friends 
 
 "E. Fanning 1 Agents for the 
 "B. Pendleton J Concern 
 
 *T. S. — If any Inability occurs to Capt. Nathl B. 
 Palmer then the next commanding officer will govern 
 himself strictly by the above orders. 
 
 "E. Fanning \a_„._» 
 *'B. Pendleton ]^^^''^^' 
 
 When ready to return home at the end of the sea- 
 son Captain Palmer received the following letter 
 from Commodore Pendleton: 
 «gjj.. "Shetland, Jany 25, 1822. 
 
 "You being ready you will proceed to sea and 
 make all possible despatch for the port of Stoning- 
 
Exploring with the Sloop *^James Monroe^' 95 
 
 ton, consistent with the safety of your vessel and 
 cargo. Should necessity oblige you to stop I recom- 
 mend [illegible] having as little communication 
 with the main as possible ; I wish you to bear In mind 
 the Importance of as little detention as your situation 
 will admit of. 
 
 "Relying on your ability and active exertions to 
 effect the speedy close of the part of our expedition 
 intrusted to your charge, I am, 
 
 "Sir, yr. obt. Servt., Benjamin Pendleton. 
 "Capt. N. B. Palmer 
 
 Vas Monroe,'' 
 
 The order to have as little communication with 
 the main as possible is of interest because at that 
 time all the Spanish American colonies were in revolt 
 and American vessels were harshly treated in South 
 American ports, no matter which army was In posses- 
 sion; and that is a matter to receive further con- 
 sideration in another chapter. 
 
 As soon as the sloop James Monroe arrived at 
 Yankee Harbor she fitted out for an exploring ex- 
 pedition along the coast of the Antarctic Continent 
 which Captain Palmer had visited the previous sea- 
 son. Commodore Pendleton hoped that In spite of 
 the failure to find fur seals there In the former trip 
 they might haul out there during this season. This 
 hope proved vain, but it is interesting to note that, 
 while all the other exploring expeditions to that re- 
 gion were made in large and well-found vessels 
 
g6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 (the tender of the Wilkes expedition was of lOO 
 tons burden and built with special framing for the 
 purpose), the sealers nonchalantly used common 
 coasters from Long Island Sound. While men thus 
 risk their lives for any good purpose the evolution 
 of the race is assured. 
 
 As in his previous trip along the continent, Cap- 
 tain Palmer carefully examined the bays and fiords 
 and islands found there but he did not see a fur seal, 
 and when in about the same latitude as before 
 (68^) he was turned back by solid ice. 
 
 Having returned to Yankee Harbor, Captain 
 Palmer was sent to the east and southeast to ex- 
 plore the continent still further. In this voyage a 
 British sealer, the sloop Dove, Captain George 
 Powell, sailed in company with the James Monroe. 
 It seems worth while to emphasize the fact that 
 these two sealers. Captain Palmer and Captain 
 Powell, worked together in entire harmony. A 
 small group of barren islands was discovered on 
 December 6, 1821, lying between 60° 30' and 60° 
 48' south latitude and between 44° and 47° west 
 longitude. The exact extent of the coast of the 
 continent which the two explorers traced is not 
 given in the records. No seals were found. 
 
 On the return of the two vessels to Yankee Har- 
 bor, Captain Powell suggested that, as the main- 
 land (supposed to be an island), found the pre- 
 vious year, had been named for Captain Palmer, 
 
Exploring with the Sloop ^^James Monroe** 97 
 
 the islands discovered on the present voyage should 
 be named Powell's Islands; and to this all the cap- 
 tains in the harbor agreed. 
 
 Captain Powell also told the other sealers that, 
 on his return home to London, he purposed pub- 
 lishing a chart of the entire South Shetland region 
 which the sealers had thus far explored, and asked 
 for all the notes the others had made. To this 
 the sealers all cordially agreed, of course. The 
 facts thus obtained, added to what he had learned 
 through his own observations, were combined in the 
 chart previously mentioned. 
 
 The Stonington fleet was by no means successful 
 in the harvest at the South Shetlands, during this 
 season. The rookeries had been so badly depleted 
 in the preceding year that only 1,500 skins were 
 taken all told during this one. Accordingly, in order 
 to make a profit in spite of this failure, the two brigs 
 and the sloop Hero went to the coasts of Peru and 
 Chili for skins of the hair seal. Captain Alexander 
 Palmer, a brother of Captain Nat, sailed on this ex- 
 pedition as a boy on the Alabama Packet. A memo- 
 randum left by him says that the crews of the 
 three vessels which went to the coast of Chili took 
 27,000 skins at St. Mary's and Mocha Islands. 
 These the Frederick carried home, after which the 
 Alabama Packet and the Hero crews took 25,000 
 more. The little fleet also secured 1,500 barrels 
 of elephant seal oil. The Hero was then sold at 
 
98 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Coquimbo. The Alabama Packet arrived at Ston- 
 ington in a few days less than two years from the 
 day she left that port. On the whole the Stonington 
 venture had been profitable, even though few furs 
 were secured. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 CARRYING SUPPLIES TO BOLIVAR 
 
 TO say to a reader who knows nothing about 
 the conditions then prevailing at sea, that 
 Captain Palmer, after his return In 1822 
 from the Shetland Islands, made a voyage from New 
 Haven to St. Bartholomew, in the West Indies, and 
 back. In a little less than a month, does not convey 
 any very startling Information. But If It were said 
 to one familiar with the history of the region, the 
 reply might well be : 
 
 ''Short voyage, that, but you couldn't blame him 
 for carrying on.** 
 
 "Carrying on" certainly was needful when voyages 
 were made to any part of the West Indies, or to the 
 Spanish American coast. In those days. During all 
 the years in which Americans had had a merchant 
 marine, speed had been necessary if losses were to 
 be avoided. Ships had always carried cannon when 
 bound on oversea voyages. For the wars of Europe 
 had always Involved the Americans, and European 
 privateers, most of whom were little or no better 
 than pirates, had always considered American ships 
 good prizes. To escape them It was always neces- 
 sary to run or fight. 
 
 99 
 
100 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 In 1822, even though the War of 18 12 had taught 
 European naval people that Yankee sailors were 
 first class fighting men, the American ships were 
 continuously harassed in all West India waters 
 because the revolt of the Spanish American colonies 
 had created a condition of anarchy throughout that 
 region. Many armed ships, from American ports 
 as well as from European, had been sent ostensibly 
 to join the revolutionists in their fight against Spain. 
 Some of the ablest captains who had commanded 
 privateers in the War of 18 12 had thus gone to the 
 aid of the Spanish-Americans. But while they as- 
 serted their object was to fight for universal free- 
 dom, they were really actuated by a desire to plunder 
 Spanish shipping. Going to any Spanish-American 
 port which was in the control of revolutionists, they 
 secured commissions as privateers. 
 
 Sailing thence they searched the West India 
 waters for Spanish ships, they went to the coasts 
 of Spain with a similar intent and they even sailed 
 as far as Manila. But while a few were enormously 
 successful the many failed to find any Spanish ship 
 worth the trouble of looting. 
 
 Now the crews of these unlucky privateers were 
 engaged under a contract by which they were to 
 receive a share of the plunder in lieu of wages — 
 no plunder, no wages. And the members of the 
 crews were commonly men of long experience in 
 privateering or of no experience whatever. The 
 old hands, having been plundering ships for years, 
 
Carrying Supplies to Bolivar loi 
 
 had no scruples about doing deeds of outright 
 piraq^ — and the officers of those vessels were 
 the most experienced and the most greedy men on 
 board. Lacking lawful plunder the Spanish-Ameri- 
 can pirates took such plunder as came to hand, re- 
 gardless of the flag involved. 
 
 When Captain Palmer made his short voyage 
 to St. Bartholomew, in 1822, there were many of 
 these piratical cruisers afloat among the West Indies. 
 There were also pirates under the Spanish flag 
 searching for American merchantmen. Having a 
 navy that was in every way inefficient, the Spaniards 
 had thought to curb the cruisers under Spanish- 
 American flags by declaring a blockade of all Span- 
 ish-American ports — a paper blockade, so called 
 because they were unable to enforce it. They then 
 commissioned armed vessels to go in search of 
 any ships bound to or from any of the ports upon 
 which a blockade had been declared. The crews 
 of these Spanish privateers were of the same 
 character as those under the patriot flags — pirates 
 all. 
 
 The "Naval Affairs" volumes of the "American 
 State Papers" contain scores of documents relating 
 to the pirates of both classes. On page 814, of 
 Volume I, for example, is a list of six of the Spanish 
 privateers that were fitted out at Porto Rican ports. 
 One, named Pancheta, was "an hermaphrodite brig, 
 pierced for sixteen guns, carries ten or twelve; has 
 a complement of 120 men." 
 
102 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 In another document (p. 787) is the following 
 under date of March 2, 1822: 
 
 ''The extent to which the system of plunder upon 
 the ocean is carried on in the West India seas and 
 Gulf of Mexico, is truly alarming. . . . Some fresh 
 instance of the atrocity with which the pirates carry 
 on their depredations, accompanied, too, by the in- 
 discriminate massacre of the defenceless, is brought 
 by almost every mail. . . . The committee of the 
 House of Representatives are induced to believe 
 that this system of piracy is now spreading itself to 
 a vast extent, attracting to it the idle, vicious and 
 desperate of all nations." 
 
 In proof that the system was thus spreading is 
 a statement in a document dated December 2, 1824, 
 which appears on page 22 of Volume II, as follows: 
 
 "Whole crews have been recently murdered, their 
 vessels burnt and their cargoes plundered and In 
 some instances openly sold at the Matanzas or the 
 Havana." 
 
 Other documents give details of the assaults upon 
 merchant crews which make painful reading; for 
 not only were these seamen cut to pieces with knives 
 but they were confined under hatches and the ships 
 were then fired, so that the crews were burned to 
 death. 
 
 It was while such conditions as these documents 
 
Carrying Supplies to Bolivar 103 
 
 described were prevailing in the West Indies that 
 young Captain Palmer left the sealing business and 
 took command of a small merchantman bound to 
 St. Bartholomew. It was a voyage during which 
 he was fully justified in carrying sail to the limit, 
 but when the young captain recalled it in later years 
 the danger, if it were realized while on the route, 
 was entirely forgotten. At any rate when the cap- 
 tain mentioned this voyage it was only to tell what 
 he considered a good joke upon himself. A letter 
 written A. A. Low, the New York tea merchant, in 
 1875, a copy of which is among the papers at Ston- 
 ington, gives the facts. It says that after the sloop 
 James Monroe returned from her voyage to the 
 South Shetlands and the Antarctic Continent, she 
 was sold at auction at Stonington. A New Haven 
 ship merchant named Henry Trowbridge bought her 
 for use in the West India trade as a "sheep jockey," 
 to use the term applied to such vessels, and Palmer 
 was hired to take command. The letter continues: 
 
 "I took the sloop to New Haven and put her in 
 condition for the voyage. She was loaded with 
 everything you can think of below. Even the cabin 
 was filled, leaving one length of berths for the mate 
 and myself. The deck was filled with sheep, 175 
 in number. On top of [above] the sheep [the] 
 deck was fitted with coops of fowls and provender — 
 a hard-looking sloop, I assure you, when ready for 
 sea. We sailed and in 12 days arrived at our port, 
 
104 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 a long time in advance of vessels that had sailed 
 before us. Sold our cargo, half loaded our sloop 
 with sugar and arrived back at New Haven in 29 
 days from day of our departure. 
 
 "I had enough of New Haven Sheep Jockeys 
 and demanded my discharge, after entering the 
 vessel. Nothing had been said about wages. I 
 called on Mr. Trowbridge for settlement — a pom- 
 pous, fat old fellow. He said: 
 
 " 'Captain, what do you think the wages should 
 be?' 
 
 " 'What you think is right.' 
 
 " 'Well,' he said, 'I think as you have made the 
 voyage in 29 days, I think thirty silver dollars is 
 about a fair thing. I do not think it good policy 
 for a young man to have too much money. They 
 are very apt to make a bad use of it.' " 
 
 Most of the ship owners of that day were con- 
 stantly on the lookout for seamen who could make 
 swift passages, and the 29-day voyage to St. Bar- 
 tholomew led Captain Palmer to the command of 
 a schooner named Cadet which was in the trade 
 to the Spanish Main. It was, of course, a much 
 more dangerous trade than that to St. Bartholomew. 
 For not only was the captain obliged to run the risk 
 of meeting all the varieties of pirates in the West 
 Indies, but he was subjected to the whims of both 
 the South American Patriots and the Spanish offi- 
 
Carrying Supplies to Bolivar 105 
 
 cials who were fighting to maintain the power of 
 Spain. 
 
 Only one letter and a few notes made by friends 
 remain to tell the story of the two voyages made in 
 the Cadet, but it appears that she was the property 
 of Baldwin & Spooner, of New York, and that both 
 voyages were made to Carthagena, where Bolivar 
 was in command. It is therefore reasonable to sup- 
 pose that the cargo consisted of arms, ammunition, 
 medicines and other supplies which an army in the 
 field would need. There was some trouble with 
 the consignee in the first voyage, the character of 
 which is not given, but it is plainly shown that Cap- 
 tain Palmer handled the matter to the satisfaction 
 of the owners. In the second voyage the cargo was 
 delivered in good order on February 25, 1824; but 
 when the captain would have sailed for home he 
 was compelled to carry a detachment of the Patriot 
 army to the port of Chagres, at the mouth of the 
 river that gave the canal builders on the Isthmus 
 of Panama so much trouble. 
 
 Blunt's "American Coast Pilot," issued in 1847, 
 quotes Capt. G. Sidney Smith, H. H. Sloop Bustard, 
 as follows, regarding the dangers of Chagres: 
 
 "I would not recommend its being entered, if 
 the measure could possibly be avoided, or to suffer 
 the boats to be there at night. It is perhaps, the 
 most unhealthy place known. The Bustard^ s cutter 
 
io6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 was by stress of weather, obliged to pass a night in 
 the harbor; the consequent loss was a lieutenant and 
 seven men; only one of the number attacked re- 
 covered. This happened between the 27th and 30th 
 day of November, 1827." 
 
 In spite of the deadly character of the port, Cap- 
 tain Palmer was detained there for a month. Of 
 course he suffered from an attack of the fever for 
 which the port was notorious, but the strength of 
 mind and body which had been developed in him 
 during eleven years of life as a sailor, and especially 
 during his life as a sealer, carried him safely 
 through. However, he lost his hair and when it 
 grew in again it had changed from the light color 
 which had characterized it theretofore to a dark 
 chestnut. 
 
 Up to this time Captain Palmer had been a big 
 boy in appearance. Now, as health returned, he 
 became a notable figure physically, and he developed 
 the commanding presence which made him every 
 inch a master whenever he appeared upon a ship's 
 deck, whether his own or another's. 
 
 After Captain Palmer recovered from the attack 
 of Chagres fever far enough to be able to go to 
 sea, he chartered the Cadet to carry Spaniards — 
 prisoners whom Bolivar had captured — to Santiago 
 de Cuba. And this purpose was accomplished to 
 the entire satisfaction of Bolivar, of the Spaniards, 
 and of the owners of the Cadet. 
 
Carrying Supplies to Bolivar 107 
 
 Though so few details of either of the voyages 
 from New York remain on record, it will help the 
 reader to appreciate the character of the captain 
 to restate what he did during the two voyages to 
 Carthagena. 
 
 Though but twenty-three years old he was trusted 
 to carry a cargo that was contraband of war, to 
 the insurgent chief at Carthagena. On his passage 
 out he had to risk meeting pirates of all classes, 
 any one of whom would have found the Cadet's 
 cargo most valuable. At Carthagena he had to deal 
 not only with Bolivar but with a number of subor- 
 dinate officers who were at once proud, poverty- 
 stricken and, in cases, not too scrupulous in their 
 methods of securing the supplies they wanted. With 
 these. Palmer had to settle the accounts of the 
 schooner; from them he had to get the price of the 
 goods he had brought, and he did it. When trans- 
 porting the insurgent troops to Chagres, he cer- 
 tainly had a turbulent mass of humanity to deal 
 with. And, finally, when he carried the Spaniards 
 to the Spanish port of Santiago, in Cuba, he had 
 a still more sensitive class to deal with. Moreover, 
 he arrived at his destination under the odium of 
 having been in the employ of the insurgents — trai- 
 tors, in the Spanish view — and was therefore 
 obliged to deal with the Santiago officials under a 
 heavy handicap. But difficult as was his work he 
 accomplished it all, as said, to the entire satisfaction 
 
io8 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 of the Insurgents, the Spaniards and the owners of 
 the schooner. 
 
 When a Spaniard wishes to compliment his 
 friends he commonly says they are muy simpatico. 
 Literally translated the words mean "very sym- 
 pathetic" ; but as used by the Spanish American they 
 imply full understanding as well as entire sympathy. 
 All the Spanish-speaking people, with whom Cap- 
 tain Palmer came In contact during those voyages 
 in the Cadet, found him 77iiiy simpatico. And entire 
 sympathy with full understanding bound a great host 
 of friends to him throughout his life. 
 
 After leaving Santiago, homeward bound, the 
 Cadet had to sail through the pirate-Infested waters 
 along the south coast of Cuba ; for the sailing route 
 was to the w^est along that coast to Cape San An- 
 tonio and thence easterly with the Gulf Stream. 
 The cape was then and for years thereafter the lurk- 
 ing place of pirates, for the reason that so many 
 vessels bound north passed that way. 
 
 However, Captain Palmer met no pirates in those 
 waters, but an experience of that kind came later 
 off the west coast of South America under remark- 
 able circumstances. The second voyage to Car- 
 thagena ended disastrously because the Cadet was 
 driven ashore on the Jersey coast, near Long 
 Branch. What the prevailing storm conditions were 
 is not a matter of record, but it Is said that Captain 
 Nat's brother, Alexander, was a member of the 
 Cadet's crew (mate) and when she stranded he and 
 
Carrying Supplies to Bolivar 109 
 
 another sailor launched a small boat to carry a line 
 to the beach. The surf rolled the boat over in spite 
 of the skilled efforts of the experienced young sealer 
 who was handling her, but he and the sailor made 
 their way ashore and they carried the line, at that. 
 So all hands were saved, but the vessel was a total 
 loss. 
 
 Of all the misfortunes that come to a young cap- 
 tain none is greater than the loss of a ship. For 
 unless he can prove clearly that he was in no way 
 to blame, the underwriters blacklist him and other 
 owners become in like manner ill-disposed toward 
 him. There is then nothing for him to do but begin 
 over again, and he is lucky to get a berth as second 
 mate. But Captain Nat was now placed in com- 
 mand of the brig Tampico and sent once more on 
 a voyage to Carthagena. In spite of shipwreck as 
 well as in spite of supersensitive consignees, the 
 young captain made his way. A fourth voyage to 
 Carthagena was made in 1826, and after returning 
 home from this one he was married. 
 
 It used to be said of any young sailor that he 
 had a sweetheart in every port. Captain Nat had 
 one sweetheart only and she lived in Stonington — 
 Miss Eliza T., the daughter of Paul Babcock. The 
 two were married on December 7, 1826. Mrs. 
 Palmer's brother David was a famous clipper cap- 
 tain and, later. President of the Pacific Mail Steam- 
 ship Company. 
 
 The career of the young captain during the next 
 
1 10 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 few years was typical of young American seamen 
 of the day. He made seven voyages in the Tampico 
 with his brother Alexander as mate. In some of 
 these he went to Europe. It appears from notes 
 made by a member of the family that he eventually 
 became owner of this vessel and that he sold her 
 in 1828 for $5,300, a fact that shows he was ac- 
 cumulating wxalth. A part of this money was in- 
 vested in a new schooner which was put into the 
 trade between New Orleans and Vera Cruz, Mexico. 
 He had traded to Mobile, as well as to New 
 Orleans. 
 
 In the meantime sufficient reasons for sending 
 another exploring expedition to the Antarctic waters 
 had been under consideration by the public — es- 
 pecially alongshore — and young Captain Palmer be- 
 came a leader in the enterprise under circumstances 
 of so much interest that a special chapter may be 
 given to the matter. 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 ANOTHER MEMORABLE EXPLORING EXPEDITION 
 
 THE Story of the voyage which Captain Na- 
 thaniel Brown Palmer made to the Antarctic 
 region in 1 829-1 830, if considered as a chap- 
 ter in the history of the American merchant marine, 
 is of little less interest than that of his voyage 
 during which he discovered the Antarctic Con- 
 tinent. 
 
 To show the captain's standing in this expedition, 
 and more especially his mental attitude toward the 
 work, it is necessary to describe rather fully the 
 peculiar circumstances which led up to the venture. 
 A perusal of the periodicals of the day shows that 
 after Captain Palmer discovered the Antarctic Con- 
 tinent, and after the story of his interview with 
 Captain Bellingshausen, of the Russian exploring ex- 
 pedition, had been told alongshore, the whalers and 
 sealers of the New England coast began to talk 
 about the advisability of sending a national [naval] 
 expedition to survey the unvisited waters of the far 
 South and those of the Pacific — to do such work 
 as that which the Russians had been doing. That 
 is to say the expedition should, they said : 
 
112 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 "(i) Search for lands which passing ships had 
 reported in far southern seas, the location of which, 
 however, was not definitely known. 
 
 "(2) Locate definitely some hundreds of islands 
 which had been discovered by strolling whalers in 
 various parts of the Pacific. 
 
 "(3) Search for lands in unvisited waters." 
 
 The sealers of Stonington were especially inter- 
 ested in an island which Capt. James C. Swain, of 
 the whaler Alliance, of Newport, R. I., said he 
 had seen, or which he thought he saw, while on his 
 way home from the Pacific with 2,300 barrels of 
 sperm oil. When on his way to round the Horn 
 he passed much further south than usual, and in lati- 
 tude 59° south and longitude 90° west, "discovered 
 an island . . . covered with snow and abounding 
 with seadogs and fowl." So runs the record. The 
 date of the discovery is not given but the Alliance 
 arrived home on May 21, 1824. 
 
 Capt. Richard Macy, of Nantucket, "a very in- 
 telligent man," who had "long been engaged in the 
 whale fishery," and had "shown more than usual 
 skill in his observations . . . discovered an island 
 four or five miles in extent, in south latitude 59° 
 and west longitude 91°, his ship passing near enough 
 to see the breakers. The island abounded with 
 seadogs, or seals, and the water was much colored 
 and thick with rockweed." 
 
 This observation was made on the way to the 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 113 
 
 Pacific. When coming home from this voyage (he 
 reached Nantucket on April 17, 1825), Macy 
 sailed far south once more, reaching the 55th par- 
 allel, and at a point of which the longitude is not 
 given he "found the water much colored, abounding 
 with rockweed and seals." 
 
 The above facts and quoted statements are taken 
 from Volume IV of the "Naval Affairs" of the 
 "American State Papers" series, pages 695-698, and 
 from Starbuck's "History of American Whaling," 
 pages 243 and 246. The location of the island, as 
 thus described, seems sufficiently definite to warrant 
 a search. Apparently any ship master should have 
 been able to confirm the discoveries with little diffi- 
 culty. But references to discoveries, found else- 
 where In the record quoted, show that both of those 
 whalers saw, or thought they saw, the Islands after 
 they had been sailing by dead reckoning for several 
 days. Cloudy weather prevented their verifying the 
 locations by observations of the sun or any other 
 heavenly body. 
 
 It Is also to be noted here that the "Naval Af- 
 fairs" volume quoted, says that even the observa- 
 tions of the sun, as made by the whalers under 
 favorable conditions, were not trustworthy. Their 
 chronometers were commonly out of time and they 
 used poor instruments in a careless manner. 
 
 The two reports of Islands upon which many 
 "seadogs" were seen by passing ships, aroused keen 
 interest at Stonlngton, which was then the principal 
 
114 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 port of the sealers. The whalers of Nantucket were 
 almost as deeply Interested, however, and the matter 
 was fully discussed by seafaring people all along 
 the coast. At the same time the many islands that 
 had been reported from various parts of the Pacific 
 were considered. For all of these islands, and more 
 especially the low-lying coral reefs, were deadly 
 sources of peril to all shipping as long as their exact 
 locations had not been charted. 
 
 The call for a naval exploring expedition which 
 arose in consequence of these reports was entirely 
 new in America, and may receive further considera- 
 tion. In every newspaper discussion of the call the 
 fact that the British were active in making such 
 explorations was mentioned. The fact that the Rus- 
 sians, who had no financial interests in the Antarctic 
 seas, had sent two warships there, was referred to. 
 More important still was the insistence upon the 
 humiliating fact that American seamen were abso- 
 lutely dependent upon charts provided by British 
 surveyors whenever a deep-water voyage was to be 
 made. However loudly the Yankee sailor might 
 boast of the superiority of his ship over all others, 
 the British sailor always came back with a quiet 
 query as to where that ship got her charts. 
 
 Granting that the sealers and the whalers had a 
 financial interest in a naval exploring expedition, it 
 Is yet certain that they were also animated by a 
 feeling of patriotic indignation over the supine at- 
 titude of Congress in the matter. 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 115 
 
 In the *'Naval Affairs" volufties quoted many of 
 the great folio pages are covered with letters and 
 memorials on the subject of a naval exploring ex- 
 pedition, all of which show a growing interest in 
 the subject. An energetic young Yankee named 
 J. N. Reynolds was a leader in the efforts to move 
 Congress. Captain Edmund Fanning, the Stoning- 
 ton capitalist who had made a fortune taking seals 
 in the Cape Horn region, was an equally influential 
 worker. His "Voyages Round the World," which 
 is yet an interesting volume of explorations, was 
 written when public discussion of the matter was 
 at its height. In connection with the propaganda 
 of the two men mentioned it is noted in the "Naval 
 Affairs" volumes that memorials were presented to 
 Congress, in 1 827-1 829, which were signed by Gov. 
 James Iredell, of North Carolina, and by Lieut. 
 Gov. Erastus Root, of New York. The House of 
 Delegates, in Maryland, passed a resolution favor- 
 ing the project. Hon. Linn Banks, Speaker of the 
 House of Delegates, in Virginia, and "a large and 
 very respectable number of the members of the 
 Legislature" also signed a memorial on the subject. 
 
 In short, public interest was aroused to a point 
 so high that "on May 21, 1828, the House of 
 Representatives passed a resolution requesting the 
 President of the United States" to send "one of our 
 small naval vessels to the Pacific Ocean and the 
 South Sea to examine the coasts, islands, harbors, 
 shoals and reefs in those seas, and to ascertain 
 
Ii6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 their true location and description." The resolu- 
 tion authorized "the use of such facilities as could 
 be afforded by the [Navy] Department without 
 further appropriation during the year." 
 
 In a letter written by Secretary of the Navy 
 Samuel Southard, on May 23, 1828, he said, "there 
 was no vessel belonging to our navy which in its 
 then condition was proper to send upon this ex- 
 pedition." However, the sloop-of-war Peacock was 
 ordered to the Brooklyn Navy yard to be properly 
 fitted for such a survey, and Master Commandant 
 Thomas ap Catesby Jones was placed in command 
 of her. Mr. J. N. Reynolds was appointed an 
 agent of the Navy Department to assist in provid- 
 ing the outfit. It was then decided to send along 
 a commercial expert, an astronomer, "a naturalist 
 with one or two assistants, and a historiographer." 
 
 Then "a second vessel was conditionally purchased 
 at an agreed price of $10,000" to serve as "a pro- 
 vision ship." This vessel was the brig Seraph, 
 owned and commanded by Captain Benjamin Pen- 
 dleton, of Stonington, the man who had been com- 
 modore of the Stonington sealing fleet in the expedi- 
 tions of 1820-1822. Pendleton had already loaded 
 the Seraph with a cargo for Malaga, when he was 
 approached with an invitation to go with the ex- 
 plorers, but he was persuaded to discharge the cargo 
 and fit out for the Antarctic. In the view of Sec- 
 retary of the Navy Southard, Pendleton's experi- 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 117 
 
 ence In Antarctic waters made his presence In the 
 expedition imperative. 
 
 In the meantime Lieut. Charles Wilkes was se- 
 lected to go as astronomer to the expedition, and 
 Southard ordered him to provide all the Instru- 
 ments which would be needed for making accurate 
 surveys on the coasts to be explored. On this order 
 Wilkes purchased instruments to the value of 
 $1,167.50 for which he paid with his own money, 
 and he also bought others to the value of $3,248 
 for which he promised to pay. 
 
 In due time the Peacock and the Seraph were fit- 
 ted for the expedition and the force of scientists 
 was organized and held awaiting orders to join 
 the ships. An application was then made to Con- 
 gress for a small appropriation with which to pay 
 the running expenses of the expedition. 
 
 In the meantime, however, a national election had 
 been held and Andrew Jackson became President in 
 place of John Quincy Adams, while John Branch 
 succeeded Samuel L. Southard as Secretary of the 
 Navy. Changes in the membership of the House 
 of Representatives and the Senate had given the 
 new Administration full control of the Government. 
 When the application for this appropriation came 
 before the Senate it was referred to the Naval Com- 
 mittee, who, on February 23, 1829, reported that 
 they were well aware "that a general opinion pre- 
 vailed throughout the country that the measure had 
 
Ii8 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 received the deliberate sanction of both Houses of 
 Congress and that the appropriation of the sum 
 now called for was therefore considered as a matter 
 of course. But . . . the committee was still of 
 the opinion that it was safer to delay acting." 
 
 Meantime Lieutenant Wilkes carried his bill for 
 the instruments, which he had been ordered to buy, 
 to Secretary of the Navy John Branch. The Secre- 
 tary told him ''that as Congress had made no ap- 
 propriation or done any act to countenance the or- 
 ders given" for purchasing those instruments, he 
 would not pay the bill. Wilkes was therefore 
 obliged to apply to Congress for "relief." 
 
 The brig Seraph was returned, "as is and where 
 is," to Captain Pendleton, and in order to get pay 
 for the loss of his voyage to Malaga and the time 
 and money spent in fitting her for the expedition, he 
 was also told to apply for "relief" to a Congress 
 that was hostile to everything which the preceding 
 Administration had done or countenanced, even 
 when the nation as a whole had expressed approval. 
 
 The incident was so discreditable that the facts 
 might well have been allowed to lie buried in the 
 unread archives of the period but for their effect 
 upon Captain Palmer and other citizens of Stoning- 
 ton. To them the arrogant attitude of the Jack- 
 son Administration seemed little short of a personal 
 affront, and their natural resentment took a form 
 which was a rasping rebuke. Congress had re- 
 fused to send the expedition on the ground that the 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 119 
 
 expense was too great for the nation to bear. So 
 the people of Stonlngton announced that they would 
 send out at their own expense two vessels well 
 equipped, and carrying a force of scientists, to make 
 the desired exploration of the Antarctic region. 
 They acted in the spirit which had prevailed among 
 our sailors of the sail from the day when the keel 
 of the first American ship was stretched. Said Gov- 
 ernor John Winthrop, when writing about that 
 ship — the Blessing of the Bay: 
 
 "The general fear of a want of foreign commodi- 
 ties ... set us on work to provide shipping of our 
 own." 
 
 A want — any want — set the Yankee sailor of 
 the sail "on work." Wanting ships with which to 
 explore the stormy waters below Cape Horn the 
 people of Stonington provided them regardless of 
 the attitude of the Jackson Administration. Cap- 
 tain Edmund Fanning was too old to take part per- 
 sonally in such a voyage but he was able and willing 
 to take the lead in financing it. Captain Benjamin 
 Pendleton and Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 were associated with him as financiers, and together 
 they took the risks of the actual exploration. Two 
 brigs, the Seraph belonging to Captain Pendleton, 
 and the Annazvan (also written Anawan)^ of which 
 Captain Palmer was managing owner, were pro- 
 vided. Each captain took command of his own ves- 
 sel, of course. A third vessel, the schooner Penguin, 
 
I20 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 a schooner of 84 tons, was added to the expedition 
 after it arrived at Staten Island, and as this ex- 
 pedition was notable in the annals of our merchant 
 marine the addition of the Penguin may receive a 
 paragraph, or more. 
 
 The Penguin was under the command of Captain 
 Alexander Palmer, the younger brother of Captain 
 Nat, of whom mention has been made. Captain 
 Alex, as he was called, had taken the Penguin on 
 a sealing expedition to Staten Island in 1827, with 
 considerable success, though he was not yet 21 years 
 old. He went to the same region again in 1828, 
 and in the month of October, while lying in North 
 Port Hatchet Bay, Staten Island, he met, as pre- 
 viously mentioned. Commander Henry Foster of 
 the British sloop-of-war Chanticleer, which was 
 surveying the coasts of the islands in the Cape Horn 
 region. 
 
 On his return from this voyage Captain Alex 
 found preparations in hand for the Stonington ex- 
 ploring expedition in search of the islands supposed 
 to have been seen by Captains Swain and Macy. He 
 thereupon fitted out for another sealing expedition 
 to Staten Island, and when there he awaited in 
 North Port Hatchet Bay the coming of the explor- 
 ing brigs Annawan and Seraph. 
 
 While these two brigs were being fitted out, not 
 a few items about them appeared in current periodi- 
 cals. Thus, Niles's Register printed two during the 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 121 
 
 month of October, 1829. On the 3d of the month 
 it quoted the following from the National Journal: 
 
 "Polar Expedition. It is said that Mr. Rey- 
 nolds, the lecturer on and an untiring advocate of 
 an expedition to the south pole, although defeated 
 in every attempt to induce the government to aid 
 his enterprise, has succeeded in obtaining the assist- 
 ance of a party of adventurous capitalists, and is 
 about to carry his long cherished design into effect. 
 A paragraph in the New Bedford Mercury states 
 that Mr. Reynolds and Captain Palmer had been in 
 that place for some days, preparing one of the finest 
 vessels ever built in that or any other port, for an 
 exploring expedition to the South Sea. Captain 
 Palmer had shipped part of the crew, prepared boats 
 of the first construction, and obtained other articles 
 for the voyage. The brig was to leave New Bed- 
 ford, in a few days, for New York, where she will 
 receive on board the remainder of her outfit, previ- 
 ous to her departure. Nothing is said as to any 
 other vessel to be employed in the service, nor is 
 the time for her departure stated. It is understood 
 that the expedition is to be under the direction of 
 Mr. Reynolds, and it will depart accompanied by 
 the best wishes of the country for a safe voyage and 
 a successful result of the enterprise." 
 
 On October 24th the Register quoted the follow- 
 ing from the New York Enquirer: 
 
122 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 "The South Sea Expedition. The brig Anna- 
 wan, the flagship of the expedition, dropped down 
 to the lower bay, yesterday, and will proceed to sea 
 this morning. Thus, after three years of perse- 
 verance and industry Mr. Reynolds finds himself 
 upon the ocean, in search of the undiscovered islands 
 of the south. In addition to the commercial impor- 
 tance of this expedition it is highly important in a 
 national point of view. Whatever lands may be 
 discovered by Mr. Reynolds and his enterprising 
 associates will become the property of the United 
 States. The stores of science will be Increased by 
 the products of far-distant islands, as yet unknown 
 to civilized man, and curiosity may, perchance, be 
 gratified by something new. 
 
 "We visited the Annawan on Thursday. She Is a 
 fine vessel and a very fast sailer. She is furnished 
 with an excellent library, and all the instruments 
 necessary for such an expedition. She has a stout 
 and hardy crew, an experienced captain, and first rate 
 officers. After the commercial objects of the expe- 
 dition shall have been accomplished, Mr. Reynolds 
 intends to sail round the icy circle, and push through 
 the first opening that he finds. Success to him. 
 
 "Mr. R. is accompanied by Dr. Eights, of Albany, 
 a gentleman of talents and scientific accomplish- 
 ments." 
 
 Editor Niles of the Register added the following 
 comment on the statement that any islands dis- 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 123 
 
 covered would become the property of the United 
 States : 
 
 *'We much doubt this. We should suppose that 
 they would belong to Mr. Reynolds and his associ- 
 ates — if discovery can give a title! It is a private 
 enterprise, and we are not at all willing that the 
 United States should have colonies." 
 
 Another record of the expedition is found in 
 "Fanning's Voyages" (pp. 478-488), in a report 
 submitted by Captain Pendleton to Captain Edmund 
 Fanning, the chief financier of the expedition. This 
 report shows that the expedition was much more 
 ambitious than the newspaper accounts indicated. 
 For, after locating the islands supposed to lie in 
 the seas southwest of Cape Horn, the vessels were 
 to go to the North Pacific to explore the unknown 
 waters there. It was not doubted that the islands 
 below Cape Horn would be found. It was assumed 
 that full cargoes of furs would be secured from 
 them. But the furs were to be shipped home from 
 Valparaiso on some handy freighter, and then the 
 explorers were to sail on to the Alaska waters. It 
 was intended to go to the region where the Pribilov 
 Islands with their herds of fur seals lie. 
 
 Still other records of this expedition are found 
 in notes made by Captain Alexander Palmer, but if 
 Captain Nat ever wrote anything about it the manu- 
 script has been lost. 
 
 It appears, now, that J. N. Reynolds and a scien- 
 
124 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 tist named J. F. Watson sailed on the Annawan. 
 Dr. James Eights, a naturalist living in Albany, was 
 also with the Annawan. 
 
 The Seraph completed her outfit at Stonington 
 and sailed on October i6, 1829, under orders to 
 meet the Annawan "at the distance of four leagues 
 south from the light on the east end of Long 
 Island." The two brigs failed to meet, however, 
 because of "a strong breeze from the eastward 
 which soon increased to a heavy gale and so con- 
 tinued for three days." Each brig therefore headed 
 away for North Port Hatchet Bay, in Staten Island, 
 which had been appointed for the next rendezvous. 
 
 A memorandum left by Captain Alexander 
 Palmer of the schooner Penguin, says that Captain 
 Nat, in the Annawan, arrived at North Port 
 Hatchet Bay, Staten Island, on January 5, 1830, 
 and found the Penguin awaiting him. The two ves- 
 sels remained in the bay until January 14, when 
 they sailed for the Sea Elephant Islands, in the South 
 Shetland group. For about a month the two crews 
 were employed gathering such seal skins as could 
 be found together with sea elephant oil. Various 
 harbors were visited, including Ship Harbor where 
 the wreck of the brig Clothier lay high on the rocks. 
 
 Soon after the Palmers left North Port Hatchet 
 the Seraph arrived. She remained there until Janu- 
 ary 22, when she sailed on to the South Shetlands. 
 There is no detailed account of what she did there, 
 but it is stated that she did not meet the Palmers. 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 125 
 
 The Annawan and the Penguin left the South 
 Shetlands on February 23, 1830, and sailed westerly 
 to search for the two Islands supposed to exist there, 
 as reported by the whalers. How many skins and 
 how much oil they had secured meantime is not 
 known. But the summer season was now well spent 
 and the weather, bad at best, grew steadily worse 
 as the days passed. Snow storm followed snow 
 storm. The ice formed on deck and on the rigging 
 so swiftly that the crews were obliged to cut it away 
 to prevent foundering. It was with extreme diffi- 
 culty that they could handle the ropes and sails. 
 They were continuously wet with the freezing spray 
 and there was no fire in either the cabin or the fore- 
 castle by which they could warm their stiffened 
 limbs. But they persevered until the two brigs had 
 covered the region lying between the parallels of 
 52° and 62° 33' south latitude and the meridians of 
 61° and 103° 03' west longitude, wherein the islands 
 for which they were searching were supposed to lie. 
 Captain Alexander Palmer wrote as follows about 
 the search: 
 
 *'No land was discovered. Two voyages, as it 
 Is termed, were broken up. Many of the crew were 
 disabled. . . . This cruise furnished an example 
 that no sealer ever wished to imitate, namely to 
 search for land southwest of Cape Horn. . . . On 
 March 19th gave up the search, being convinced 
 that the reported land was not there." 
 
126 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 In the meantime the Seraph, after taking a few 
 furs at the Shetlands, also sailed in search of the 
 islands and Captain Pendleton's report says : 
 
 "We then had a lengthy cruise of much anxiety 
 and suffering toward the icy region for the dis- 
 covery of lands to the westward of Palmer Land, 
 and likewise in search of the land said to have been 
 seen by Captains Macy and Gardiner to the south- 
 westward of Cape Horn, of neither of which we 
 were fortunate enough to make any discovery In all 
 that time; nor, in fact, had we the encouragement 
 of passing in the vicinity of any land other than that 
 afforded by the occasional sight of birds, seals, 
 drift, &c. 
 
 "By this time our crews were much worn down 
 by fatigue, and from their being almost constantly 
 wet In this region of rough sea and cold rugged 
 weather, with at the same time alarming symptoms 
 of that dread disease the scurvy making its appear- 
 ance; it was considered most advisable to bear up 
 and proceed for the coast of Chili, there to refresh 
 and recruit our men, and to replenish our wood and 
 water." 
 
 The Seraph arrived at Mocha Island on the coast 
 of Chili early in May and there fell in with the 
 Annawan and the Penguin. The three captains then 
 began discussing the voyage to the North Pacific, 
 but the crews of all three vessels at once refused to 
 ^o. They had shipped under the lay system of pay 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 127 
 
 — no furs, no pay. The officers were buoyed up to 
 endure hardship by their ambition to become known 
 as successful explorers. In spite of — indeed, be- 
 cause of — their failure thus far, they were eager to 
 go on, but the sailors had no such incentive and 
 their hope of profit had failed. There was no 
 attack upon the officers, but when they learned that 
 further exploration was before them they began to 
 desert in spite of the uncivihzed condition of the ter- 
 ritory off which they were lying. The Pendleton 
 report says*: 
 
 "It became necessary for Captain Palmer to put 
 into Valparaiso with the Annawan and deliver a 
 portion of his crew over to the United States consul 
 there. This was the cause of so great delay that It 
 became too late in the season to enable me to act 
 according to your instructions and proceed to the 
 unexplored parts of the northern Pacific, coast of 
 Japan, eastern coast of Asia, &c." 
 
 After a consultation with Captain Nat, Captain 
 Pendleton decided to go down to the lower end of 
 Chili and establish friendly relations with the 
 Aurocanlan Indians, hoping thus "to procure a good 
 collection of furs, seal skins, &c.," which could be 
 "forwarded home," and thus employ the crews 
 profitably while waiting for the next season during 
 which they could sail for the northern waters. But 
 while the crews were at first satisfied with this move, 
 and many hair seal skins and some furs were 
 
128 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 secured, the sailors began to desert once more as 
 soon as the cruise to the North Pacific was again 
 discussed. It then became necessary to sail for 
 home before the crews were so far depleted that 
 the vessels could not be handled. 
 
 In the meantime Reynolds and Watson were 
 landed among the Indians, with whom they remained 
 after the vessels sailed for home, hoping thus to 
 establish friendly relations for the benefit of future 
 trade, for which it was the intention of Captain Nat, 
 at least, to return. 
 
 In connection with this exploring expedition it 
 seems worth noting that in 1841, Captain Dough- 
 erty, of the whaler /. Stewart, reported that he had 
 seen an island in south latitude 59° 20' and longitude 
 119° or 120° west. Then Captain Keates, of the 
 ship Louisa, in 1859, reported an island in the same 
 region. This island is marked on the chart as 
 Dougherty's, but it was not seen by the ship Nimrod, 
 which was in the locality named in 1909, nor by 
 the magnetic survey ship Carnegie, which was there 
 in 19 1 5. A letter from the Hydrographic Office, 
 Navy Department, Washington, dated May 5, 
 1 92 1, says the office has no record of Swain's 
 Island, and that the existence of Dougherty's 
 Island "is considered somewhat doubtful." 
 
 Another record of this exploring expedition is an 
 advertisement, clipped from a local paper, of the 
 "cargo of the brig Seraph, from the South Seas, to 
 be sold at auction on Monday, August 29, 1831, at 
 
Another Memorable Exploring Expedition 129 
 
 2 o'clock P. M." She had brought home 2,024 skins 
 of the fur seal and 13,000 of the hair seal. The 
 number taken by the Palmers is not given in the 
 records, but since they were at the Shetlands in 
 advance of the Seraph, and also arrived on the coast 
 of Chili in advance, it is reasonable to suppose that 
 they did at least as well as Captain Pendleton. It 
 is likely that a small profit was realized out of the 
 expedition. 
 
 In spite of energy and persistence, the chief ob- 
 ject of the expedition remained unachieved, but even 
 so, and even if a loss was incurred, the work seems 
 now to have been worth while if only as an illus- 
 tration of the enterprise of the American sailor of 
 the sail in the days when the American merchant 
 marine was making its most vigorous growth. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 CAPTURED BY CONVICTS ON JUAN FERNANDEZ 
 
 WHILE the results of the expedition de- 
 scribed In the last chapter ended the 
 ambition of the Stonlngtonians to engage 
 in another of the kind, they were encouraged by 
 the outlook for trade on the west coast of South 
 America to make one more venture to that region. 
 The natives at various points on the coast were in 
 the habit of gathering skins of both kinds of seals, 
 and they accumulated the hides of cattle as well. 
 These they were glad to exchange for goods from 
 the United States. While the vast heras of fur 
 seals which had formerly resorted to the island of 
 Juan Fernandez had been well-nigh exterminated 
 some yet came to the beaches, and there were men 
 living on the island (it was a Chileno penal station) 
 who made a business of collecting the skins for sale 
 to passing whalers. 
 
 On the whole, it appeared to Captain Palmer that 
 a good profit might be made and he fitted out the 
 Annawan for trade there. Two accounts of this 
 voyage remain. One was written from memory by 
 Second Mate George Hubbard, sometime after the 
 brig returned home. The other was written by 
 Frederick T. Bush, formerly U. S. Consul at Hong 
 
 130 
 
Captured by Convicts on Juan Fernandez 131 
 
 Kong, following an account of the voyage given 
 him by Captain Nat. 
 
 The Annawan carried a crew of eleven men, all 
 told, and Mrs. Palmer sailed with her husband. 
 Th fact that the wife ventured on such a voyage 
 shows that she and the captain enjoyed life together 
 so much that they were willing to risk the dangers 
 rather than be separated. 
 
 On the way to the Horn, as the second "mate 
 wrote, "we improved every opportunity of making 
 a passage," which means, of course, that the cap- 
 tain "carried on." Off the River Plate a pampero 
 broke the foretopsail yard, but the crew soon made 
 and crossed a new one, and the Annawan continued 
 to improve her opportunities for making a passage. 
 It had been said of the captain, when in command 
 of the brig Francis ^ in 1827, that he drove her "until 
 the staves," with which she was loaded, "floated 
 through her seams." He was making a reputation 
 for swift passages that was to be of value to him 
 later. 
 
 When the Horn was astern the Annawan headed 
 for Juan Fernandez. Mrs. Palmer wanted to see 
 the island made famous by Alexander Selkirk, 
 whose life there had inspired the story of Robin- 
 son Cr/isoe. The captain hoped to secure seal skins 
 and he was confident of obtaining quantities of fresh 
 provisions. The Annawan arrived within view of 
 the island on the last day of December, 1831. Says 
 Hubbard^s account: 
 
132 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 "In the morning, being quite handy to the Island, 
 Captain Palmer took our small boat, with two sea- 
 men, and started for the shore, the brig lying off 
 and on." 
 
 About two hours later a Chlleno brig, which had 
 also been lying off and on, eased her sheets and ran 
 down within hail of the Annawan, where one of her 
 officers told the American crew that the convicts on 
 the Island had overpowered their keepers and were 
 in full control. 
 
 It was so. The Chilenos had supposed that the 
 island afforded an absolutely safe prison for their 
 felons, but the convicts had not only taken charge 
 of the island*; they were at that moment preparing 
 to use the Annawan as a means of escaping to the 
 mainland. 
 
 When the Annawan was first seen approaching 
 the Island the convicts had been greatly troubled be- 
 cause they supposed she would hasten to Valparaiso 
 and bring a warship to subjugate them. But when 
 they saw the captain on his way to the shore they 
 determined to capture the vessel and make their 
 escape In her. To this end a squad of well-armed 
 men was placed in ambush near the usual landing. 
 Wholly unsuspicious. Captain Palmer came to the 
 beach where he and his men pulled the boat up to 
 a safe distance above the tide. Then when the 
 three started up the slope the convicts surrounded 
 them, blindfolded their eyes and led them to the 
 
Captured by Convicts on Juan Fernandez 133 
 
 prison chapel where the leaders In the mutiny were 
 in waiting. Any attempt to resist at that time would 
 have been suicidal and none was made. 
 
 When In the chapel the three were led to the 
 altar, turned to face the assembled mob and then 
 the blinders were removed. For a few moments no 
 one spoke a word. The captain saw before him 
 more than 100 outlaws of whom some were red- 
 handed highwaymen, and some were savage pirates, 
 the offscourings of the Seven Seas, who had fled to 
 the Chileno coast to escape the vengeance due for 
 crimes committed elsewhere. 
 
 Finally, one of the convicts proposed that the 
 captain be killed as a first step In the work of cap- 
 turing the Annawan. The mob shouted approval. 
 The captain was again blindfolded and was then 
 placed against one wall of the church while several 
 men with loaded muskets were ordered to take a 
 position ready to shoot him. But In the meantime, 
 by a sign and a spoken appeal the captain had told 
 any one In the mob who was able to understand him 
 that he was a member of the ancient honorable 
 fraternity of Freemasons — he begged for help In 
 a way that no brother Mason ever failed to recog- 
 nize and none ever ignored. 
 
 The convicts were a hellish crew, but among them 
 was one man, a political prisoner, who was a Mason; 
 and as It happened he was the leader who had 
 planned the overthrowing of the prison authorities. 
 Very adroitly, now, this leader explained to the 
 
134 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 mob that It would be better to spare the life of the 
 captain and take him along to handle the brig in 
 her passage with the convicts to the mainland. Then 
 he ostentatiously told the captain to choose between 
 carrying the convicts to the mainland at a point 
 which they should choose, or facing the firing squad. 
 The captain, perceiving that this leader was a 
 brother Mason, at once agreed to take orders from 
 him. The captain was thereupon released. 
 
 When the blinder was removed from his eyes 
 Captain Palmer suggested that he should send 
 orders to his mate to prepare the brig for the com- 
 pany to come. This was a reasonable thing to do, 
 for the brig was in no shape to carry so many pas- 
 sengers, and he was allowed to write a note which 
 his sailors carried off to the brig. 
 
 First of all in the note, however. Captain Palmer 
 told the mate to clear out a spare stateroom, in 
 which bread had been stored, and put Mrs. Palmer 
 in it and lock the door. As thus prepared this room 
 was a dungeon and it was arranged so that no port, 
 even, was open to admit air or light; for it was 
 absolutely necessary to take every precaution to 
 prevent the outlaws learning that she was on board. 
 
 When this work was done, the mate went on with 
 the other preparations for the reception of the con- 
 victs, but long before the brig was ready, the mob 
 came howling off in such boats as the settlement 
 afforded. And when they arrived, Mrs. Palmer, 
 sitting in her darkened prison, heard the shrill voices 
 
Captured by Convicts on Juan Fernandez 135 
 
 of women mingling with the coarser shouts of the 
 men; for there were female as well as male des- 
 peradoes among the convicts. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the coming of the women 
 was contrary to a promise made by the mob leader. 
 Captain Palmer had learned, as soon as he was 
 released from his place before the firing squad, that 
 the women were also determined to go in the brig, 
 and he had remonstrated with the leader. He had 
 perceived instantly that if the women were taken on 
 board they would necessarily be cared for in the 
 Annawan^s cabin. If they were taken into the cabin 
 they would, sooner or later, learn that Mrs. Palmer 
 was in the spare stateroom. But that was not all 
 the trouble to be feared in connection with the 
 women, for it was certain that the convicts would 
 fight over them, perhaps even before the brig could 
 leave the island, and how such a fight would end 
 no one could foresee. At all hazards Captain 
 Palmer was determined to leave the women on the 
 island. 
 
 But when the men began to enter the small boats 
 in order to go off to the brig, the women, being free 
 to roam around at will, ran down to the beach and 
 clambered into the boats — and here they were along- 
 side the Annawan, making more noise than a flock 
 of gulls around a dead whale. 
 
 But as they climbed over the rail, gabbling and 
 laughing, Captain Nat returned to the Annawan, 
 Ten years had passed since he had stood unabashed 
 
136 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 before Captain Bellingshausen in the cabin of the 
 Russian frigate. Then he had been tall, slender 
 and boyish; now he was tall and powerful and of 
 commanding presence — a fully developed autocrat 
 of the quarterdeck. 
 
 Walking across the Annawan's deck to the rail 
 over which the women were climbing, he ordered 
 them all to return at once to the land. The women 
 screamed and squalled and begged as if they were 
 suffering tortures, but the convicts — the men — 
 instinctively obeyed the order and took them all 
 back to the beach. One may search the records of 
 the sea for all times without finding a more striking 
 illustration of the power of a dominating mind. 
 
 Meantime, Mrs. Palmer, sitting in the darkness 
 of her little prison, heard the shrieks of the women, 
 but did not hear the imperious order of her husband. 
 So she believed that the women were being tortured 
 and she suffered indescribably through sympathy 
 and through fear that she might also meet the fate 
 which seemed to come upon them. 
 
 In time the male convicts were all taken on 
 board — 104 of them — and the brig was got under 
 way for the mainland. Then, as night came on, the 
 wind failed. The convicts, fearing that a Chileno 
 warship would come, were unable to sleep and they 
 therefore passed the night on deck in groups that 
 surged to and fro, cursing incessantly, and always 
 in a state of mind where but a slight incentive was 
 needed to set them in deadly conflict with the crew 
 
Captured by Convicts on Juan Fernandez 137 
 
 of the vessel and with each other. At daybreak it 
 was seen that the brig had drifted nearer to the 
 island instead of making headway toward the main. 
 At that, some one loudly declared that the brig's 
 captain had held her there In order to deliver her 
 to a coming man-o'-war, and the cry was followed 
 by a mutiny. The mob took possession of the 
 vessel. 
 
 For a time the outlook was most serious, but the 
 leader of the mob worked with the captain and con- 
 vinced the mob that no one could be properly 
 blamed for the position of the brig; and while the 
 argument was slowly seeping into the minds of the 
 desperate convicts, a fair breeze came and sent the 
 brig on her way. 
 
 Of the day-to-day incidents of the Annawan^s 
 passage to the coast of Chili there is no record, but 
 none is needed. It is enough to know that the wind 
 was so light that ten days were consumed In making 
 the 400 miles, and that during all that time more 
 than 100 desperadoes were raging around the deck 
 of the little brig, day and night. 
 
 During this time Mrs. Palmer was, of course, held 
 in her prison. The captain did not dare to speak 
 to her or to make a definite signal. But as oppor- 
 tunity was afforded he paced the deck above her 
 head and there issued orders to his crew in a voice 
 which she could hear, and he thus assured her that 
 he was as yet unharmed and in command. 
 
 Finally, the land was seen and a leading breeze 
 
138 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 drove the Annawan to a practicable landing north of 
 Copiapa, where, screaming with delight, the outlaws 
 crowded into the boats and were landed. 
 
 When freed from the convicts the Annawan went 
 to Pisco, Peru, where some seal skins were bought. 
 Thence she went to Callao, where the U. S. Ship 
 Plymouth^ Master Commandant Francis H. Greg- 
 ory, commanding, happened to be at anchor. To 
 the astonishment of the Annawan's company the 
 naval sailors manned the yards and gave three cheers 
 as the brig sailed into the anchorage. Later it was 
 learned that Captain Gregory had heard about the 
 capture of the Annawan and he was at the point of 
 sailing to look for her when she came into port. 
 
 Later still the Annawan went to Valparaiso 
 where it was learned that the convicts, after landing, 
 had fled inland. Then with a lack of foresight 
 common to men of such a mental caliber, they had 
 preyed upon the inhabitants — even those who were 
 friendly — until an appeal to the Government for 
 help brought a regiment of soldiers who rounded 
 up the entire mob. 
 
 While the Annawan was yet at anchor at Val- 
 paraiso the convicts were brought there and re- 
 embarked for their prison island, and the vessel 
 which carried them passed close to the brig. The 
 convicts were seen to be a most disheartened lot, 
 but when, in passing, they recognized the Annawan 
 and her crew, they shouted repeatedly, 
 
Captured by Convicts on Juan Fernandez 139 
 
 **Los huenos Americanos! Los huenos Ameri- 
 canos!** 
 
 They were desperadoes, the offscourings of the 
 Seven Seas, but during that passage of ten days from 
 Juan Fernandez to the mainland, they had yet 
 found the master of the Annawan and her crew 
 muy simpatico. 
 
 An incident occurring in one of the ports visited, 
 as described by Second Mate Hubbard, gives an 
 unusual view of Captain Palmer. During a previous 
 visit to the port Captain Palmer had made friends 
 with the Captain of the Port, an important official 
 on that coast. Nevertheless, when the Annawan 
 returned there, and Mate Dudley Robinson took a 
 boat ashore to get water, he and the crew were 
 captured by a band of armed men who had been 
 hiding in the brush near shore. Why this was done 
 none of the crew could learn. Hubbard continues : 
 
 "Soon after Capt. P. was Informed of the arrest 
 he went on shore and found out the trouble. He 
 became greatly enraged and called on me to bring 
 my gun ; and with himself with a gun and both well 
 loaded, and [with] two men in a small boat, we 
 landed on the beach, swearing vengeance unless our 
 men were immediately released." 
 
 Then the Captain of the Port came on the run 
 and the Annawans were released and provided with 
 water. 
 
140 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Business was so good on the coast that when the 
 Annawan was filled with products, Captain Palmer 
 freighted a ship home and continued trading until 
 July 9, 1833, when he sailed for home. The last 
 entry in the brig's log (a most interesting old blank 
 book made of soft paper sewed with a single stitch 
 into a cover of unhemmed canvas) contains the fol- 
 lowing: 
 
 "Wednesday, 25 Sept. Remarks on board. 
 
 "This day comes in with moderate breezes from 
 the westward. All dragging sail set. At 1 130 made 
 Montaug Light. At 10 A. M. anchored in Stoning- 
 ton Harbor." 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE YANKEE PACKETS 
 
 AFTER Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer re- 
 turned home from the voyage to the Cape 
 Horn region, described In the last chapter, 
 he entered upon a career which is of especial interest 
 in any history of the American merchant marine. 
 For ever since the end of the War of 1812, Ameri- 
 can shipping had been securing a leading place in 
 the trade between the United States and Europe, 
 and the captain was now to take a prominent part 
 in the work of furthering the American advance, 
 and In sustaining it in every forward step made 
 thereafter. And this is to say that he was, first of 
 all, to become a leader among the designers and 
 commanders of the packet ships of which all Ameri- 
 cans then made boast; and later, when the demand 
 for fast ships in the China tea trade arose, and 
 brought into existence what have since been called 
 the Yankee clippers, he was the designer, and the 
 captain as well, of the first of that famous fleet. 
 In fact, a time came when the British Admiralty 
 were so enthusiastically interested in a clipper of his 
 design that they minutely measured her, as she lay 
 in a drydock, hoping thus to learn the secret of a 
 
 141 
 
142 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 record passage which she had made from Canton to 
 London. 
 
 For more than fifty years at this writing — in fact, 
 ever since the Civil War — the editors of our maga- 
 zines and of our newspapers have been writing over 
 and over again that the American clipper ships were 
 in all respects superior to (meaning more efficient 
 than) all other ships afloat in their day. So often 
 has this statement appeared in print that every back- 
 woodsman in the nation has read it, and it is uni- 
 versally accepted as true beyond question. 
 
 Unhappily, however, a study of the situation 
 shows that while some American ships were more 
 efficient than any affoat in their classes, the bald 
 statement, as printed, lacks discrimination; and 
 ignorance of the facts is especially deplorable be- 
 cause our legislators who are now (1921) trying 
 to sustain our over-built merchant fleet, could serve 
 the industry far better if they knew just when and 
 in what respects our splendid ships of the sail, 
 called packets and clippers, were superior to those 
 of European construction; and when and wherein 
 those same ships failed to maintain the standing 
 which they had honestly secured. 
 
 Because Captain Palmer had, as said, a notable 
 part in the work of giving our ships of the sail their 
 reputation, and because, too, he was concerned when 
 those ships lost caste, the whole story of the fleet 
 as well as his work with them, must be told in con- 
 siderable detail. 
 
The Yankee Packets 143 
 
 It is Important to observe first of all that our 
 clippers composed a fleet entirely distinct from that 
 of the packets. The packets were passenger car- 
 riers as well as freighters plying between the prin- 
 cipal ports of the United States and Europe, and 
 they sailed on regular schedules. The clippers were 
 freighters only and they were built for the China 
 trade. The packets sailed when the hour came, 
 regardless of the amount of cargo on board. The 
 clippers were loaded to the hatch coamings at every 
 passage. 
 
 The name packet was first applied to a vessel by 
 the British. Because the Empire was spread around 
 the world It was necessary to provide means for 
 carrying mails at frequent and regular Intervals be- 
 tween London and the various colonies. For this 
 purpose the Admiralty built swift brigs, and one of 
 these was despatched at stated intervals to this and 
 that port in the colonies. Perhaps it was because 
 the letters were done up In packets that the vessels 
 came to be called by the same name. 
 
 As the mall lines did not receive a profitable in- 
 come from the freight and passengers carried. In 
 addition to the mails, no one thought it worth while 
 to establish a packet line at private expense, even 
 between such ports as New York and Liverpool, 
 until long after the American colonies had developed 
 Into an independent nation. But in the meantime a 
 packet business had developed on the Hudson River 
 which proved to be at once remarkably convenient 
 
144 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 for shippers and profitable for the owners of the 
 vessels. Because of the character of the traffic on 
 the river the sloops which were used for passengers 
 as well as freight, had regular days of departure 
 from the various towns and for the return, as well. 
 They sailed from their 'landings at the advertised 
 time regardless of the amount of freight on board, 
 or of the number of passengers. 
 
 Because of the regularity of the sailings, farmers 
 drove forty miles and more to deliver produce to 
 sloops bound down to New York and passengers 
 came from towns in Massachusetts to Poughkeepsie 
 to sail thence to New York rather than travel by 
 stage over the highway through Connecticut. 
 
 The packet service which originated on the river 
 was naturally extended to the alongshore trades, 
 and in every such extension it was found that a 
 regular service was more profitable than one where- 
 in the vessel awaited a full cargo before sailing. 
 
 In 1816, while young Palmer was sailing before 
 the mast on Long Island Sound, Jeremiah Thomp- 
 son, Isaac Wright, Benjamin Marshall, and a few 
 other capitalists of New York, organized a com- 
 pany to establish a packet service between New York 
 and Liverpool. It is to be noted that this organiza- 
 tion was effected to provide an improved service. 
 Theretofore the ships in the Liverpool trade had 
 sailed only when they were full of cargo, and the 
 consequent delays were especially annoying to pas- 
 sengers, for the reason that they were kept waiting 
 
The Yankee •Packets 145 
 
 in uncertainty for days and even weeks at a stretch. 
 When the new line was established passengers and 
 shippers alike were fully assured that a ship would 
 sail on the first day of each month, regardless of 
 the amount of freight in the hold or the number of 
 passengers in the cabin; and regardless of the 
 weather, as well. 
 
 The ships provided were not the largest afloat 
 (400 to 500 tons), but they were of the best con- 
 struction — coppered and copper-fastened. They 
 were fit to carry sail in all weathers and the cabin 
 accommodations were the most comfortable afloat. 
 
 The success of this line, which was called the 
 Black Ball, was so great that other lines were soon 
 established in competition, and lines from other 
 ports also came into existence. Of these American 
 packet lines McCulloch's "Commercial Dictionary," 
 published in London in 1839, contained the follow- 
 ing in its description of the commerce of New York: 
 
 "The establishment of regular packet lines from 
 New York to foreign ports, and also to every prin- 
 cipal port in the United States, has produced a new 
 era in the commerce of the city, and redounded 
 equally to the benefit of the enterprising individuals 
 by whom they were projected, and the public. The 
 principal intercourse is carried on with Liverpool; 
 there being about twenty packet ships distributed 
 in four lines employed at present (1836) in main- 
 taining a regular communication with that port. A 
 
146 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 dozen packet ships are also employed in the trade 
 between New York and London, and fifteen in the 
 trade between New York and Havre. These ships 
 vary in size from 450 tons, the burden of the 
 smallest, to 800 tons. Their tonnage has latterly 
 been increasing; and, at an average, it may now be 
 estimated at about 600 tons. 
 
 "These ships are all American property and built 
 chiefly in New York. They are probably the finest 
 and fastest sailing merchant vessels in the world; 
 being beautifully modelled, of the best workman- 
 ship, and fitted up with every convenience for pas- 
 sengers, and in the most expensive style. The 
 safety, regularity and expedition with which they 
 perform their voyages is quite astonishing. The 
 average length of a voyage from Liverpool and 
 Portsmouth to New York may be estimated at about 
 34 days, and from the latter to the former at about 
 20 days. The Independence^ of 730 tons, Captain 
 Nye, made the voyage from New York to Liverpool, 
 in the course of the present year, in 14 days; and 
 the Toronto, of 650 tons, Captain Griswold, made 
 the voyage from New York to Portsmouth in the 
 same-time. And it is material to observe that these 
 voyages are not reckoned from land to land but 
 from port to port, 
 
 "Cabin passage to New York from London and 
 Liverpool 35 guineas; from New York to London 
 and Liverpool 140 dollars; a cabin passage to New 
 York from Havre 140 dollars and from New York 
 
The Yankee Packets 147 
 
 to Havre the same. This includes provisions, wines, 
 beds, &c., so that the passengers have no occasion 
 to provide anything except personal apparel. 
 
 "Each ship has a separate cabin for ladies; each 
 stateroom, in the respective cabins, will accommo- 
 date two passengers; but a whole stateroom may be 
 secured for one individual at the rate of i>^ pas- 
 sage, that is 52j^ guineas to New York. 
 
 "The rate of steerage passage varies, in the course 
 of the year, considerably; depending upon the num- 
 ber of ships and the number of passengers going at 
 the time. ... It fluctuates from three to six 
 guineas for each full-grown person; and children 
 under fourteen years are taken at half price. . . . 
 For these rates the ship provides nothing but fire 
 and water; the passengers provide their own pro- 
 visions, bedding, &c. 
 
 "Steam Packets. — It has been proposed to es- 
 tablish steam packets between New York and 
 Valentia harbour, on the west coast of Ireland; but 
 as yet little progress has been made in the under- 
 taking. It may be doubted, indeed, seeing how well 
 the intercourse is maintained by the sailing packets, 
 whether the introduction of steam packets would be 
 of material service." 
 
 The "Dictionary" also says that the prices 
 charged passengers by the packets were always at 
 least 40% higher than those of the hit-or-miss car- 
 riers, and in some cases they were 100% higher. 
 
148 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 The freight rates of the packets were around 
 33 1/3% higher. And that Is to say that the ships 
 which gave the most satisfactory service secured the 
 cream of the traffic (more especially the package 
 goods), and all at a highly profitable rate. Service 
 was, and always Is, worth an extra price. 
 
 The exigencies of the packet trade naturally cre- 
 ated a demand for captains who were able to handle 
 ships under all circumstances, and more especially 
 to keep them going at the highest possible speed. A 
 packet captain needed, first of all, a knowledge of 
 what his ship could endure under a press of canvas 
 — he needed to know when he might spread more 
 canvas to the gale and when he must reef down 
 to save the spars. Having this knowledge It was 
 imperative that he should also have the courage to 
 carry sail when an ordinary captain would reef down 
 — to carry as much sail in the midwatch as in the 
 morning watch. It was a courageous seaman who 
 could order the crew to shake out the reefs in the 
 topsails at the call of the watch at midnight, even 
 though the power of the gale had moderated some- 
 what. 
 
 Of little less Importance was the personal bear- 
 ing which made the crew feel that the captain was 
 an absolute monarch whose orders iuust be obeyed 
 under all circumstances. In pleasant weather this 
 was a matter of less Importance, but when the ship 
 was driven until the timbers groaned and the rig- 
 ging shrieked under the strain, it was absolutely 
 
The Yankee Packets 149 
 
 necessary that the crew run with all their might at 
 the order to reef down. It was only by their utmost 
 exertions that the crew could then save the canvas 
 or even the ship itself from destruction, and a man 
 who could compel them to work in that way was 
 needed. The owners of the packet lines searched 
 the ports of the nation to find the men they needed. 
 
 Because many books, and more particularly novels, 
 have declared that the seamen were brutally treated 
 on the American packets, it seems worth while to 
 give a paragraph to the facts here. While the 
 packets were increasing in number and efficiency 
 it appears that seamen were scarce. To keep their 
 ships well manned the packet captains paid higher 
 wages than any others in the world. When the 
 foremast hand in the navy received but $12 a month 
 the sailors on the packets were paid $17 to $18. 
 There is a record of a packet race in which one ship 
 (the Sheridan) carried a crew of forty picked men 
 who received $25 a month. The food supplied the 
 sailors was of good quality and ample in quantity. 
 
 Because of these conditions and because the pas- 
 sage was usually short a remarkable class of men 
 came to the packet forecastles. They were all for- 
 eigners save a few American youngsters shipped 
 solely with a view to promotion — never to join the 
 forecastle "labor class." There never was a fore- 
 castle class among American seamen. The for- 
 eigners were a husky lot on the topsail yard, but as 
 a rule men who preferred this service because it 
 
150 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 transferred them swiftly from the brothels of one 
 port to those of another. They were well able to 
 "hand, reef and steer," but they knew nothing of 
 the nice work of the "marlinspike sailor," because 
 they never had opportunity to learn It. Such work 
 was done on the long voyages only. 
 
 When these foreigners came for the first time to 
 the packets they had sea habits which usually made 
 trouble. The best of them came from the service of 
 the British East India Company ships all of which 
 sent down royal yards every night, even in the finest 
 weather, and whereon the topgallant sails were 
 furled and a reef was turned into the topsails when- 
 ever there was the least sign of worse weather. 
 Naturally such sailors moved In a leisurely fashion 
 — at first. A man who had been called to shorten 
 sail might stop long enough to take a chew of to- 
 bacco before responding. He was also likely to 
 fail In showing the respect due to a superior officer, 
 for discipline was slack on most European ships, but 
 the unpardonable sin was failure to "show willing" 
 when ordered to work. As to the worst class of 
 foreign sailors they were simply the offscourings of 
 the ports — vicious brutes who were always looking 
 for trouble. Taken as a whole. It must be said that 
 the most difficult crews to control that were found 
 afloat in the packet days were those in the packet 
 forecastles. 
 
 The master of a packet needed knowledge, skill, 
 and courage as a seaman, but more than all else 
 
The Yankee Packets i^t 
 
 needed the ability to maintain discipline at all times 
 while yet influenced by a strong sense of justice. 
 Finally he needed the tact by which selfish, sick and 
 unreasonable passengers are handled when at sea. 
 As said, the owners of the packets of New York 
 were constantly searching the ports of the nation for 
 captains who were in all respects fit for the impor- 
 tant post on the quarterdeck of a Liverpool liner. 
 
 They were searching when Captain Palmer re- 
 turned from the voyage around the Horn in the 
 Annawan, and they then came to hear the story of 
 his adventure with the mutinous convicts. The cap- 
 tain was already well known among owners of 
 coasters, at least. They knew that he had non- 
 chalantly sailed a fifty-foot sloop through the gales 
 and among the clashing ice-fields on the rim of the 
 Antarctic Continent, and that he had fitted out and 
 sailed a brig on an exploring expedition through the 
 unknown seas southwest of Cape Horn. They had 
 discussed his ability as a diplomat when dealing first 
 with the sensitive lieutenants of Bolivar and then 
 with the titled and snobbish officers in command in 
 Cuba — officers who held all Americans in contempt. 
 To the record thus made was added now the story 
 of the Annawan at Juan Fernandez and the owners 
 of the packets were convinced that the young cap- 
 tain from Stonington was of the breed needed for 
 packet ship command. 
 
 The packet manager to act first on the opinion 
 that Captain Palmer was of the right build, was 
 
152 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 E. K. Collins, managing owner of a line of ships 
 trading between New York and New Orleans. He 
 placed the captain in command of the ship Himts- 
 ville. It is worth noting that Captain Alexander S. 
 Palmer, the young brother who had sailed on the 
 exploring expedition in the schooner Penguin, was 
 also taken into this service and given the command 
 of the Louisville. 
 
 As the reader knows, the New Orleans service 
 was peculiar in one respect. The passengers who 
 were carried were usually from the slave-states — 
 either slave owners or in full sympathy with slave 
 owning. Those people were, as a rule, seriously 
 prejudiced against every one of the Yankee breed. 
 To hold the good will of these patrons of the line 
 without a sacrifice of principle required diplomacy; 
 but it is a matter of record that Palmer w^as called 
 "Captain Nat" in New Orleans as he was in Nev/ 
 York. 
 
 While Captain Palmer was in command of the 
 Hiintsville, Collins was considering the feasibility of 
 establishing a new packet line between New York 
 and Liverpool. The five lines already in that trade 
 had given good satisfaction, as McCulloch's "Dic- 
 tionary," quoted above, said, but Collins was of the 
 opinion that the service rendered might be improved. 
 The care and comforts given the passengers, as he 
 supposed, were not quite up to date, and he was 
 contemplating the initiation of a superior service. 
 
 To learn how Liverpool people might regard the 
 
The Yankee Packets 153 
 
 establishing of a new line, Collins sent Captain 
 Palmer there in 1835. While the report the cap- 
 tain made on his return has been lost, it appears 
 that Collins, and his associates in the New Orleans 
 line, were convinced that the contemplated line 
 would prove to be a commercial success. When they 
 had come to this decision they determined that new 
 ships, especially designed for the trade, should be 
 built, and Captain Palmer was employed to make 
 the model and superintend the building. 
 
 For, during all the years since he had listened 
 to the discussions among the ship carpenters in his 
 father's yard at Stonington, Captain Palmer had 
 worked over and dreamed about models of ships. 
 When telling what he was doing while pacing the 
 deck of the fog-bound Hero, on his return from the 
 shores of the Antarctic Continent, he said he was 
 ''building castles in the air." We may believe, from 
 what we know of his habit of thought, that he laid 
 out a shipyard beside each of those castles and 
 that each yard was provided with an ample loft 
 wherein the dreamer was to lay down the lines of 
 many ships of improved models. At any rate it 
 was the captain's manifest and oft-expressed interest 
 in the improvement of shipping that led Collins to 
 employ him as the designer of the Dramatic Line of 
 packets, as the new fleet was named. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 COMMODORE OF THE DRAMATIC LINE 
 
 A RECORD of the work done in Brown & Bell's 
 shipyard, at the foot of Stanton Street, 
 ■ New York City, between the years 1821 
 and 1847 (printed in Hunt's Merchants' Magazine, 
 December, 1848), shows that four ships were built 
 there for Collins's Dramatic Line, as follows: 
 
 In 1836 the Garrick and the Sheridan were 
 launched. Both were from the same model and each 
 measured 927 tons. In 1837 the Siddons was built 
 from the same model as the other two, and finally, 
 in 1839, the Roscius was built from a new and im- 
 proved model, her measurement being 1,009 tons. 
 A description of the Roscius, which was printed in 
 the New York Express at the time she was launched, 
 runs as follows : 
 
 "We have from time to time given descriptions 
 of the various ships which have been put afloat. . . . 
 We have now another to add — the ship Roscius, 
 built by E. K. Collins, belonging to the Dramatic 
 Line, and to be commanded by Captain John Col- 
 lins. She is the largest that has yet been built, and 
 for strength and beauty is a noble specimen of 
 
 154 
 
Commodore of the Dramatic Line 155 
 
 American shipbuilding. The following are her di- 
 mensions : 
 
 "Burden, 1,100 tons; length of main deck, 170 
 feet; length of spar deck, 180 feet; breadth of beam, 
 36^ feet; depth of hold, 22 feet; height of cabin, 
 6^2 feet; height from keelson to main truck, 187 
 feet; length of main yard, 75 feet." 
 
 To describe in detail the velvet used upon the 
 sofas, the Wilton carpets on the cabin floor, the 
 "scarlet marino" drapery, the "white curtains" and 
 other features of the cabin, as the Express did, 
 would require too much space. It is enough to say 
 that she was in this matter more luxuriously pro- 
 vided than any ship on salt water. Perhaps it should 
 also be noted that she cost $100,000, or $100 a ton, 
 and was therefore the most expensive ship in the 
 transatlantic trade. It was not because we could 
 build wooden ships at a less cost than the Europeans 
 that our packets dominated the North Atlantic. It 
 was because we could and did build the most efficient 
 ships for the trade. 
 
 The peculiarities of the models of our ships shall 
 be considered in another chapter wherein the work 
 of Captain Palmer in developing the famous fleet 
 of American clipper ships is described. Here it 
 may suffice to say that while only one of the four 
 ships of this line ever broke the record for swift 
 passages across the Atlantic in either direction, they 
 stood at the head of the procession of the American 
 
156 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 packets for all around efficiency before the first 
 clipper ship was designed or even thought of. That 
 is to say, the record of the ships as a fleet — or say 
 squadron — for continuous good and profitable work, 
 excelled the records of the other lines of packets. 
 The Dramatic Line obtained and held its lead among 
 the packets because its ships, year in and year out, 
 were the most dependable afloat. 
 
 With the exception of the Roscitis, Captain 
 Palmer took command of each of these ships for 
 one voyage when it w^as put in commission. He was 
 the commodore of the finest fleet of ships in the 
 North Atlantic, just twenty-two years after he had 
 shipped as a boy of fourteen on a blockade-runner, 
 on Long Island Sound, during the War of 18 12. In 
 those days sailormen used to hold long arguments 
 over the question as to whether the most efficient 
 ship masters were those who began sea life before 
 the mast or as clerks in the cabin. In the vernacular 
 the question was : Is it better to crawl in through the 
 hawse pipes and work your way aft, or to blow in 
 through the cabin windows? The question is yet 
 discussed in a mild, academic way, with no decision 
 in view, for the reason that good captains have come 
 to the quarterdeck by both routes ; but when the ques- 
 tion was argued in the old days those who favored 
 the forecastle route were able to point with pride to 
 Captain Nat Palmer, one who arrived by working 
 his way aft. 
 
 Of Captain Palmer's life as a captain in the Liver- 
 
Commodore of the Dramatic Line 157 
 
 pool trade few stories are remembered [there Is one 
 to be related in the next chapter] because he never 
 had any trouble with his crews or any adventures. 
 His ship went to sea, made her passage, discharged 
 her cargo, took on another and returned home. 
 Passengers and cargoes were delivered in excellent 
 order. He was highly esteemed because his voyages 
 were uneventful. He earned the highest praise be- 
 stowed by ship owners and other alongshore people 
 when it was said of him that "he never cost the 
 underwriters a cent." 
 
 As Captain Palmer was, during these years, grow- 
 ing wealthy — gaining through faithful work a posi- 
 tion among the "capitalistic class" — a paragraph 
 about the pay of the packet captains may be worth 
 giving. Like that of the others in the trade the cap- 
 tain's pay — his regular salary — was $30 a month. 
 To this absurd sum, however, was added 5% of the 
 money received for freight, 25% of the money paid 
 for cabin passages, and all the money received for 
 carrying the mails. The captain was also allowed 
 to carry his wife, board free. 
 
 To get an idea about the amount of freight money 
 collected for passage, here is a note about the 
 Dramatic Line ship Garrick. She was driven ashore 
 on the Jersey Beach in January, 1841, and Niles's 
 Register, when reporting the fact, announced that 
 she was bringing "cargo estimated to be worth 
 400,000 dollars — though she was not more than one- 
 third loaded." For the cargo on a single passage 
 
158 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 the packets sometimes received from $30,000 to 
 $50,000 as freight money, and on this the captain 
 collected 5%. The number of passengers varied 
 from 20 to 100. Because of his very great popu- 
 larity among travelers that frequented the packets, 
 Captain Nat had a greater number in his cabin than 
 the average ship — say 400 in the course of a year, 
 at $140 each, of which he received 25%. Of the 
 number of letters carried no estimate is to be found, 
 but it is to be remembered that the postage rate in 
 those days was 24 cents per >^ oz. 
 
 As said. Captain Palmer grew rich rapidly after 
 he entered the packet service. And in connection 
 with this matter it is to be noted that he, like all the 
 captains in the trade, owned a share of a sixteenth 
 or an eighth in every ship he commanded, and every 
 ship was expected to earn her cost in every year she 
 was afloat. 
 
 While the records of the voyages which the cap- 
 tain made in the Liverpool service are devoid of 
 such incidents as strandings and collisions and fires 
 in the hold and dismastings during the gales, there 
 is one feature of his work as a master that may yet 
 be described, and that was his method of taking the 
 ship from her pier to sea, and from the sea to 
 her pier, when wind and tide favored. People who 
 go to the New York piers in modern days to see 
 their friends depart for Europe observe that the 
 captain of the steamer, though perched on a high 
 bridge, is an inconsequential figure — one, in fact, 
 
Commodore of the Dramatic Line 159 
 
 who Is not commonly noticed by the people who are 
 standing on the pier. If the attention of spectators 
 should be especially called to him they may see him 
 wave his hand to somebody on or perhaps off the 
 bow of the ship — wave It as an order to cast off 
 the lines holding the steamer to the pier. Another 
 wave or two releases her at other points. Then as 
 the water is churned up beneath her stern by the 
 revolving propeller she backs slowly into the river, 
 where a lot of fussy tugs gather around her and push 
 on one bow and on the opposite quarter until she 
 is at last headed down toward the sea. Then she 
 manages to get away on her course. 
 
 When the wind and the tide served as the Garrick 
 lay stern to at her East River pier, Captain Palmer, 
 big, burly and commanding, came to the starboard 
 side of the quarterdeck and with trumpet in hand 
 gave orders, distinctly heard but never boisterous, 
 under which the great topsails were spread by sheets 
 and halyards flat aback to the breeze, the jibs were 
 hoisted and the spanker loosened. The straining 
 lines holding the ship to the pier were now cast off, 
 and under the impulse of the breeze alone she backed 
 into the river where her stern was turned up to the 
 north by the handling of the jibs and the bracing of 
 the yards on which sails had been set — she was 
 backed until she was well clear of the pier — and the 
 bow was pointed toward the sea. Then the spanker 
 was hauled aft, all the lighter sails and the courses 
 were swiftly spread, the staysails were run up be- 
 
i6o Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 tween the masts and with a throng of enthusiastic 
 spectators shouting themselves hoarse in vain efforts 
 to express their appreciation of the master's skill, the 
 ship fled rippling down the bay. 
 
 More difficult still was bringing the ship to her 
 pier at the end of the voyage. Tugs were to be had 
 — great, squat, side-wheelers, as homely as sin — but 
 when the wind and tide favored Captain Palmer 
 would have none of them. Coming up East River 
 on the port tack with all plain sail set he stood well 
 over to the Brooklyn side until the ship's pier had 
 been passed to the exact distance needed. Then he 
 turned the ship to the starboard tack, reached across 
 to the pier, and while the crew lowered away on 
 halyards and hauled up on all clewlines and bunt- 
 lines, and yanked at the downhauls hand over hand, 
 the clean hull slipped Into her berth without so much 
 as scraping her freshly painted side on a string- 
 piece, until her fasts were thrown over the timber- 
 heads. 
 
 It is pleasing to recall, now, that when an Ameri- 
 can ship master brought his ship to her pier under 
 sail the British captains who happened to be in port 
 always joined most cordially In the applause which 
 greeted the exploit. Moreover, the record-breaking 
 feats of all the American packets, and the new 
 packets as they appeared, were described in the 
 British papers In terms of highest praise. There 
 was nothing small about the most energetic rivals of 
 the Yankee sailor of the sail. 
 
Commodore of the Dramatic Line i6i 
 
 It Is therefore proper to Inquire how It came to 
 pass that Yankee captains were so far superior to 
 those of all other nations. The British themselves 
 answered this question for the benefit of their own 
 seamen. A committee of Parliament, which had 
 been appointed ostensibly to "Inquire Into the cause 
 of shipwrecks In the British merchant service," made 
 a report which was printed In the London Courier 
 on August 1 8 and 20, 1836, and reprinted, In part. 
 In the Army and Navy Chronicle (Washington) on 
 October 6. The following paragraph appeared In 
 that report : 
 
 "American Shipping. — That the committee can- 
 not conclude Its labors without calling attention to 
 the fact that ships of the United States of America, 
 frequenting the ports of England, are stated by sev- 
 eral witnesses to be superior to those of a similar 
 class amongst the ships of Great Britain, the com- 
 manders and officers being generally considered to 
 be more competent as seamen and navigators, and 
 more uniformly persons of education, than the com- 
 manders and officers of British ships of a similar 
 size and class trading from England to America; 
 while the seamen of the United States are considered 
 to be more carefully selected and to be more efficient; 
 that American ships sailing from Liverpool to New 
 York have a preference over English vessels sailing 
 to the same port, both as to freight and rate of In- 
 surance ; and, higher wages being given, their whole 
 equipment is maintained In a higher state of perfec- 
 
1 62 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 tion, so that fewer losses occur. . . . The tempta- 
 tions offered by superior wages of American vessels 
 cause a large number of British seamen every year 
 to leave the service of their own country, and to 
 embark in that of the United States, and these, com- 
 prising chiefly the most skilful and competent of our 
 mariners, produce the double effect of improving 
 the efficiency of American crews and in the same 
 ratio diminishing the efficiency of the British mer- 
 chant service." 
 
 Captain Palmer was conspicuous among those 
 American ship masters who were, as the committee 
 of Parliament declared, "more uniformly persons of 
 education" than British ship masters, but it is to be 
 remembered that after he was fourteen years old his 
 schooling was secured on board American vessels. 
 He had by conscious endeavor educated himself 
 throughout his career as foremasthand, second mate, 
 mate and master. 
 
 For the American people who are now (1921) 
 trying to maintain an overbuilt merchant marine, the 
 quotation above from the report of the Committee 
 of Parliament contains some of the most important 
 statements of fact ever printed. Summed up in a 
 single sentence the committee's report said that 
 American ships had a "preference over English 
 vessels" solely because vessel and crew taken to- 
 gether as a unit were more "efficient." The whole 
 story of American leadership at sea Is told by that 
 
Commodore of the Dramatic Line 163 
 
 single word efficient. The cost of our packets at 
 an average $90 a ton was higher than the cost of 
 British ships of a similar size, and the crews received 
 higher wages, but this combination of cost produced 
 a more efficient carrier and it was therefore more 
 profitable. 
 
 In the earlier years of the century while seals were 
 to be had, our ships dominated the fishery. After 
 the seals failed, our ships rapidly secured the lead 
 in the whale fishery, a lead that was greater than 
 any other whaleships had had even when the War 
 of 18 12 was raging. Between 18 16 and the advent 
 of the steamship, our Liverpool packets were with- 
 out foreign competition. But until the year 1844 
 the long-haul trade between Canton and civilized 
 ports was chiefly in the hands of British shipping. 
 There were American ships in the trade that made 
 money, but they did not encroach, or say dominate, 
 as they did in all other trades of importance. How 
 the Yankees gained supremacy in the China trade 
 after 1844 is one of the most interesting chapters 
 in the history of the sea and the story shall be told 
 because of Captain Palmer's part in the work. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 RECORD PASSAGE FROM LIVERPOOL TO NEW YORK 
 
 BEFORE describing the work and Influence of 
 Captain Palmer upon the American clipper 
 fleet It Is necessary to tell why he left the 
 packet service. As previously noted, the packet 
 service demanded that every ship be driven to the 
 last gasp on every passage In either direction. 
 There was no weather bureau to give advance notice 
 that a storm was Impending, and If such a notice had 
 been printed the packet captain would have rejoiced 
 to take advantage of the power of the gale. 
 
 Even when the first northeast breath of a West 
 India hurricane came, moisture laden, across New 
 York Bay at the hour of his departure. Captain 
 Palmer hauled his ship Into the stream, scudded 
 down the bay to Sandy Hook, discharged his pilot, 
 and then, with all plain sail set at least up to top- 
 gallant sails, he stood out to sea. The long waves 
 — "the dogs coming before their master" — with the 
 growing weight of the wind compelled him, in time, 
 to decrease the spread, but he did It grudgingly, one 
 sail at a time, and only when the ship was reeling 
 her lee scuppers into the solid water, and the lee 
 yard arms were down to the waves, was a reef turned 
 into the topsails. 
 
 164 
 
Record Passage from Liverpool to New York 165 
 
 While the ship plunged and plowed her way 
 to eastward the captain remained on deck, no mat- 
 ter how competent the junior officers, for he alone 
 was responsible for the speed of the passage and the 
 safety of the ship. All night he paced the quarter- 
 deck. When day came struggling through the murk 
 the steward brought a big armchair and secured it 
 under the weather rail. In that the captain sat down 
 for a rest, now and then, but never for a moment 
 did he fail to give heed to the wet sails and the strain- 
 ing gear aloft. His meals were brought to him as 
 he sat in the chair, with now and then a cup of coffee 
 between times, but he was on his feet, pacing to and 
 fro or walking forward for a look at the head sails 
 during many more hours of the day than he was 
 seated in the chair. The next night found him as 
 vigilant as ever. For him there was no watch below. 
 Day on day and night on night he turned his eyes 
 from the reeling spars to the raging seas and back 
 again to the spars. He was wet by the clouds of 
 spray that came over the weather rail and by the 
 solid blue water into which the lee rail sagged at 
 every roll; he was chilled by the wind as well as the 
 water; but he remained on deck, ready on the Instant 
 for every emergency, while the storm lasted. No 
 firmer hand than his ever drew the reins over Nep- 
 tune's white-manned horses. 
 
 For a summer storm, no matter how long it en- 
 dured, such an experience rarely if ever provoked 
 a comment on his arrival in port, unless, indeed, he 
 
1 66 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 happened to be racing with a steamship, when he 
 would ask by how many hours he had beaten her. 
 And even when he had faced the snow-laden and 
 sleet-laden blasts of winter in the "Roaring Forties" 
 for a fortnight at a stretch, with no more sleep than 
 could be had in an occasional nap in his armchair, 
 he spoke of the experience, if at all, only as a matter 
 for quiet satisfaction rather than complaint. 
 
 Nevertheless a time came, when his body could no 
 longer endure the strain even though it were sus- 
 tained by an iron will, and his health failed so far 
 that he had to leave the service. Of course he did 
 not sever his connection abruptly. He went to New 
 Orleans in 1839 for a rest. He had a brother who 
 had been established in business there for years, and 
 the manner of life in the Crescent City delighted 
 him and brought renewed strength. So he came 
 back to command the Siddons, and in a passage be- 
 ginning at Liverpool in October, 1840, he drove his 
 packet across the Atlantic and to her pier in New 
 York in fifteen days. This was the shortest west- 
 ward passage between Liverpool and New York of 
 which there is any record. The next in length of 
 time was made by the Yorkshire, Captain Bailey, in 
 1846. She crossed in sixteen days. The passage of 
 the Siddons has been overlooked by modern writers 
 because the captain avoided instead of seeking news- 
 paper notoriety. In a letter to his family in Ston- 
 ington, dated October 25, he gives the length of the 
 passage, but adds no details. The important news, 
 in his view, which he had to convey was the effect of 
 
Record Passage from Liverpool to New York 167 
 
 the strain he had suffered upon his health. He had 
 finally broken down and was to sail immediately for 
 Havana in the hope that the change of climate would 
 prove beneficial — as it did. But the unequaled west- 
 ward passage of the Siddons was his last as a master 
 in the packet service. 
 
 Among the few remaining notes on the life of the 
 captain in the interval after he left the packets and 
 before he began his career with the clippers is one 
 that says he made a voyage to Rio Janeiro for a 
 cargo of coffee, in the ship Hibernia. He was back 
 in New York on May 20, 1841. On July 4 he went 
 fishing off Block Island and caught eighty mackerel. 
 On January 12, 1842, he sailed from Norfolk, Va., 
 in the U. S. Sloop of War Marion, Captain Goulds- 
 borough, bound for Rio Janeiro, where he was to 
 take command of a vessel loaded with coffee. His 
 next command was the ship Paul Jones, belonging 
 to Robt. B. Forbes, of Boston, and Russell & Co., 
 of Hong Kong. She was a new ship, bound to Can- 
 ton for a load of China goods. She sailed from 
 Boston on January 15, 1843, and made the passage 
 to Hong Kong in 1 1 1 days, a short time for that 
 day. The voyage as a whole was uneventful in all 
 respects but one. While on the way home he car- 
 ried a passenger with whom he frequently discussed 
 the conditions then prevailing in the China trade, 
 with the result that he determined, after arriving in 
 New York, to enter the China service as part owner 
 and master of a ship, and this ship became the first 
 of the great fleet of American clippers. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE FIRST YANKEE CLIPPER 
 
 THE Story of the American clippers is mani- 
 festly of growing rather than of waning 
 interest to American readers, for it has ap- 
 peared in our magazines bristling with the records 
 of day-runs and of passages from port to port at 
 intervals ever since the last of the mighty fleet was 
 deprived of her wings and set at work as an along- 
 shore tow-barge. The newspaper editor who dis- 
 cusses any feature of our modern oversea commerce 
 usually adorns and emphasizes his argument by a 
 reference to the days "when our ships dominated 
 the Seven Seas" ; and in doing so he assumes that 
 every reader already knows the facts well enough 
 to appreciate the force of what he says. Perhaps it 
 is safe to say that certain features of the story of 
 the clippers are as well known to ordinary readers 
 as any chapter in American history. 
 
 Nevertheless the records at Stonington, though 
 few in number, add some facts of interest to those 
 already printed in connection with the clipper era. 
 In order to make the story clear it seems advisable 
 to explain exactly what is meant herein when the 
 term clipper ship is used and to define the period 
 
 i68 
 
The First Yankee Clipper 169 
 
 called the clipper ship era. The word clipper was 
 first applied to the swift privateers built at Balti- 
 more during the War of 18 12. It was derived, of 
 course, from the verb clip which means to cut or 
 shorten. The Baltimore clippers certainly did 
 shorten the time theretofore required to sail a sea 
 mile. 
 
 As used here the word clipper is applied to a 
 class of carriers which were built at first especially 
 for the China trade. After the discovery of gold 
 in California the fleet was rapidly enlarged for use 
 in the trade to San Francisco. All of these ships 
 were designed for high speed instead of great cargo 
 capacity. They were not yachts, built solely to break 
 speed records; they were cargo carriers built for 
 profits. Speed was considered more desirable than 
 cargo capacity solely because of the well-founded be- 
 lief that speed would bring more profits than a slow 
 ship of great capacity; and never was the theory 
 that profit and progress go hand in hand illustrated 
 more clearly than in the evolution of these ships. 
 
 Thus, the first ship built for speed instead of 
 capacity was the Ann McKim, of 493 tons, owned by 
 Isaac McKim, of Baltimore, and launched in 1832. 
 She had live oak frames, mahogany deck finishings, 
 with no end of brass work, and was copper fastened. 
 The cost was excessive and because she had a sharp 
 model her cargo capacity was relatively small. She 
 therefore made less profits than the other ships in 
 the trade and was regarded by other ship merchants 
 
1 70 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 as an example to be avoided rather than imitated. 
 She therefore had no Influence In bringing on what 
 Is called the clipper era. 
 
 The plans for building the China clippers (two 
 in number) which initiated the clipper era were 
 drawn in 1843. One of the ships was launched in 
 May, 1844; the other In January, 1845. -Both were 
 larger than any ship previously in the China trade, 
 and both were of refined model. In spite of sharp 
 models, however, both proved to be immensely 
 profitable. Their owners therefore at once built 
 others to similar models. These proved to be still 
 more profitable and the profits being In considerable 
 measure due to speed, other merchants were led to 
 consider the advisability of building similar ships. 
 The urgent demand for tonnage which followed the 
 discovery of gold In California and the still more 
 urgent demand that the ships in this trade should 
 be swift — the fact that speed added greatly to the 
 profits of tonnage In this trade — was the final Im- 
 pulse which brought the clipper ship evolution to its 
 zenith of splendor in size and speed. Indeed, 
 builders and merchants lost all sense of proportion 
 and built beyond the needs of the period so that 
 profits fell off; whereupon there was a return to 
 what may be called the capacity model. But mar- 
 velous speed records were made, and European 
 merchants and builders were compelled to acknowl- 
 edge the supremacy of American ships In the long- 
 
The First Yankee Clipper 171 
 
 haul trades as they had previously acknowledged 
 that supremacy on the North Atlantic. 
 
 In the meantime, certain schooners and brigs 
 which had been engaged in the coasting trade of 
 China had been called clippers because they had been 
 modeled for speed rather than capacity. Speed was 
 absolutely necessary to profits in that trade, for the 
 vessels had -to beat against powerful currents and 
 dodge pirates. These vessels are of interest here 
 not because they were a part of the great fleet of 
 American clippers, properly so called, but because 
 the profits which they made led Captain Palmer to 
 design and build the first of the China clippers that 
 was put in commission. 
 
 Let it be said once more than the clippers com- 
 posed a distinct fleet. The packets were passenger 
 carriers, sailing on schedules. The clippers were 
 cargo carriers only (a few passengers were carried 
 on some of them) and they sailed when loaded. 
 The packets in their record-breaking passages prob- 
 ably attained speeds up to fifteen knots an hour, 
 though the records do not give the exact facts. Sev- 
 eral of the clippers exceeded eighteen knots an hour 
 and the log book of the Lightning, quoted by Capt. 
 Clark in his "Clipper Ship Era," says she dragged 
 out twenty-one knots in one heave of the log. 
 
 If these statements need be argued no further 
 now, we will consider how it happened that a de- 
 mand arose for improved ships in the China trade, 
 
172 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 where the first clippers appeared. The American 
 trade with China was opened when the ship Empress 
 of China, Captain John Green, sailed from New 
 York (February 22, 1784) for Canton with a cargo, 
 the principal item of which was ginseng roots — 
 14,666 pounds, worth in Canton a dollar a pound on 
 the average. The passage out was covered in 174 
 days. An old account of her arrival says "it is 
 pleasing to notice the courtesy with which the Amer- 
 icans were welcomed" at Whampoa, Canton's sea- 
 port. There were thirty-four ships (seventeen 
 British) at anchor there and every one of them 
 fired a salute when the Yankee, with her flag flying, 
 came to join them. 
 
 After exchanging her ginseng for tea and other 
 goods the Empress sailed home in 135 days. The 
 account quoted says "the profits of the voyage were 
 $30,000, upwards of 25% on the capital employed." 
 The merchants of that day thought 25% a small re- 
 turn on a voyage requiring a year's time, but they 
 persisted in the trade because they observed that 
 with added experience and a larger capital they could 
 make more. By 1792 they considered the trade 
 well established because the American import of 
 tea, during that year, amounted to 2,614,008 
 pounds, a part of which was received in exchange 
 for seal skins taken in the Cape Horn region. 
 
 Thereafter, by irregular advances, the amount of 
 tea imported increased to 20,000,000 pounds, worth 
 $5,427,010, in 1841. In that year 35 American 
 
The First Yankee Clipper 173 
 
 ships of the average size of 390 tons were employed 
 in our trade to China. 
 
 The distance from New York to Canton, as the 
 ships sailed, was around 14,000 miles and the time 
 required for a voyage (out and back) was about 
 one year. It was obvious that if the length of time 
 consumed could be shortened the expense would be 
 decreased. The fact that tea deteriorated during 
 a long passage was another inducement to shorten 
 the time required. The new crop tea, called Young 
 Hyson, consisting of the partially developed leaves, 
 was especially subject to injury. A simple calcula- 
 tion showed every tea merchant that if a cargo of 
 this new crop could be landed in New York say a 
 month ahead of the coming of the fleet, the owners 
 would make a profit of from 100% to 150% on 
 all the capital used in the venture. And yet down 
 to the year 1843 but one tea merchant of the United 
 States had built a ship that was especially designed 
 to make such swift passages as that. 
 
 In view of the competition between American 
 tea merchants, and of what had been done in the 
 way of increasing speed among the Liverpool 
 packets, the continued use of relatively slow little 
 400-ton droghers in the tea trade seems at first 
 thought discreditable to the merchants. But an ex- 
 planation of this conservatism is found in the extent 
 of the trade. Large ships were not needed. The 
 20,000,000 pounds imported in 1841, reduced to 
 deadweight tons, was but little more than the weight 
 
174 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 carried by ten such ships as the packet Roscius; and 
 yet this total of 10,000 tons was, of course, dis- 
 tributed among all the 35 ships in the trade. To 
 build a ship large enough to give a material increase 
 of speed in the long passage was not attempted be- 
 cause even the larger ships in use came home with 
 less cargo than they might have carried. 
 
 Beginning in 1839, however, events occurred in 
 China which gave an entirely new aspect to the 
 trade. In that year the Chinese Government began 
 trying to exclude opium from the realm and thus 
 brought on what was called the Opium War with 
 England. During 1842 the Chinese were beaten 
 and they made peace (August 29) by ceding Hong 
 Kong in perpetuity to the British and by paying an 
 indemnity of $21,000,000. They also opened to 
 foreign trade four ports in addition to Canton. 
 
 In the American view the most important result 
 of the war was the opening of the additional ports 
 to foreign trade. It was like "the discovery of a 
 new continent, ready peopled with a rich, industri- 
 ous" race; it was "one of the greatest commercial 
 revolutions that ever took place." So said Hunt's 
 Merchants^ Magazine. "Moreover," said Hunt, 
 "the march of events will ultimately give the United 
 States the mastery" in the trade. 
 
 It was on January 4, 1843, that Captain Palmer 
 sailed for Canton in command of the Paul Jones. 
 Some of the events of the Opium War had been 
 
The First Yankee Clipper 175 
 
 described, of course, in the American newspapers, 
 and the American people — more especially those en- 
 gaged in the China trade — were greatly interested 
 in the results expected to follow. It was therefore 
 natural that Captain Palmer should make a careful 
 study of the commercial conditions prevailing in 
 Asia while he was at Canton. 
 
 He perceived first of all that American trade 
 with China would be increased by the opening of 
 the new ports quite as rapidly as that of the British, 
 if not more so; for while the Chinese did not refuse 
 to trade with the British they favored the Ameri- 
 cans whenever possible. 
 
 The opium trade received the captain's especial 
 attention, partly because it had led to the war, but 
 chiefly, perhaps, because a swift little American 
 brig named the Antelope, belonging to the owners 
 of the Paul Jones, was engaged In it. The opium 
 was a product of India and the principal port of 
 shipment was Bombay. The Antelope was plying 
 between Bombay and Canton, making large profits. 
 Captain Palmer perceived that the opening of four 
 more China ports would give opportunity for at 
 least one more swift Yankee ship in the opium trade. 
 For the trade would inevitably increase and it was 
 the speed of the Antelope that made the merchants 
 favor her. Having designed four splendid packets 
 in the Dramatic Line, Captain Palmer was confident 
 that he could build a ship for the trade between 
 
176 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Bombay and, say, Shanghai, the principal of the new 
 ports, that could hold a lead over all others on the 
 coast of Asia. 
 
 Now, It happened that when Captain Palmer had 
 loaded the Paul Jones for New York, a man named 
 William H. Low, with his wife, engaged passage. 
 Mr. Low was a brother of Ablel Abbott Low, of the 
 New York tea firm of A. A. Low & Brother (there 
 being only two of the brothers then In the business). 
 He was one of the firm of Russell & Co., Hong 
 Kong, and on the way home he and Captain Palmer 
 discussed the foreign trade of China from every 
 point of view. The kind of a ship needed — the size, 
 model, rig and so on — was a matter of special Inter- 
 est to them. As a result of these discussions the two 
 eventually agreed that larger ships than those al- 
 ready engaged should prove more profitable, and 
 they then concluded that, as an experiment In the 
 growing trade, a vessel designed for the opium 
 trade between Bombay and some port In China 
 would have more chances for profit than any other. 
 
 In a letter which Captain Palmer wrote to A. A. 
 Low on August 8, 1875, he referred to this matter 
 as follows: 
 
 *'At the period of my first visit to China the opium 
 trade was in full tide of prosperity. The Antelope 
 and other clippers were running between Bombay 
 and other Indian ports, making large freights and 
 doing a fine business; and It did not appear that any 
 material change would take place for years to come. 
 
The First Yankee Clipper 177 
 
 Your brother and myself came to the conclusion 
 there would be a good opening for a fast clipper 
 in the opium business between China and Bombay, 
 and we decided to carry out the enterprise on our 
 arrival home. I was to take one-quarter interest 
 and he was to take care of the other three-quarters. 
 He stated that he had no doubt but you would be 
 interested in the enterprise on arrival home in 
 October, 1843. 
 
 "I had not the pleasure of knowing you at this 
 time. I was taken by your brother William to your 
 place of business in Fletcher Street, and formally 
 introduced. When the project was made known you 
 readily approved of it, and authorized me to con- 
 tract for a suitable vessel. 
 
 "I went immediately to Messrs. Brown & Bell, 
 the most eminent shipbuilders in the city and con- 
 tracted with them to build a brig 120 feet long, 13 
 feet deep and 28 feet beam, making a vessel of 450 
 tons, costing for hull and spars $16,500. Before 
 the model was finished and the vessel begun it 
 occurred to me that a vessel of the shape and dimen- 
 sions as above would be unsuitable for any other 
 purpose than the opium trade. Consequently I sug- 
 gested to enlarge the dimensions to a vessel 132 feet 
 long, 17 feet depth of hold and 32 feet beam, which 
 was approved of, and [I] was authorized to ascer- 
 tain what the additional cost would be. I immedi- 
 ately called on Mr. Brown and asked what the 
 additional cost would be. He said : 
 
178 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 " 'That is just such a vessel as I want to build, 
 and I will do it for $3,000 additional.' " 
 
 The increase of cost was approved by Mr. Low 
 and the ship was then "built and fitted out under 
 my supervision, and all contracts were made by me 
 from keel to truck," to quote still more from the 
 letter. 
 
 Captain Charles P. Low (a brother of A. A. 
 Low), who later commanded three different clippers 
 designed by Captain Palmer, writes in his auto- 
 biography, "Some Recollections," as follows re- 
 garding this ship : 
 
 "Soon after I left home for London my brother 
 William came home from China with Captain Nat 
 Palmer, in the ship Paul Jones. During the voyage 
 Captain Palmer had made a model of a clipper ship 
 and my brother took him to my brother Abbot and 
 persuaded him to have a ship built after the model. 
 It was to be built like a man-of-war, with solid bul- 
 warks and pierced for sixteen guns — eight on a side. 
 She was to be very fast. This vessel, when I re- 
 turned from London, was being built at Brown & 
 Bell's yards." 
 
 The exact day in October, 1843, when Captain 
 Palmer called on the Lows in connection with this 
 ship is not recorded, but the contract for the ship 
 was signed about November i. The captain says 
 distinctly that she was the "first clipper ship built 
 
The First Yankee Clipper 179 
 
 for commercial purposes'* and that she sailed for 
 China, "admired by all," in June, 1844. 
 
 That the Houqua, as this ship was called, was one 
 of the clipper fleet, as claimed by Captain Palmer in 
 the above letter, is distinctly asserted by several 
 periodicals published while she was in commission. 
 For example, in a description of the clipper ship 
 Staghoundf which was published in the Monthly 
 Nautical Magazine, dated August, 1855, by John 
 Willis Griffiths, the editor, are the following state- 
 ments : 
 
 "The construction of this ship may be said to 
 mark the introduction of the late clipper era to 
 Boston. The building of fast vessels for foreign 
 trade had for several years been adopted in New 
 York, having been first undertaken by William H. 
 Aspinwall for whom Smith & Dimon constructed 
 the clipper ship Rainbow, in 1843, which was fol- 
 lowed by the Houqua and Samuel Russell, by 
 Brown & Bell ; and the famous Sea Witch, also built 
 by Smith & Dimon. . . . Such was the condition of 
 enterprise in New York for several years before 
 Boston awoke to distinguish herself in clipper build- 
 ing, and give to the world many of the fastest fleets 
 and largest ships in commercial service." 
 
 When Griffiths spoke of "building of fast vessels 
 for foreign trade" he meant to say for the long- 
 haul trade, beginning with that to China, in order 
 to distinguish these ships from those employed in 
 
i8o Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 the packet trade of the North Atlantic. He then 
 continued : 
 
 "The bold mind of Donald McKay grew restless 
 under the idea that a sister city was monopolizing 
 the construction of fast vessels, and for many years 
 he urged Boston merchants to enter the lists with 
 Messrs. Aspinwall, Captain N. B. Palmer and 
 others, and dispute for the palm of speed." 
 
 Editor Griffiths was the designer of the two ships. 
 Rainbow and Sea Witch, built by Smith & Dimon, 
 of which he made mention, and his statement that 
 the Houqua was a clipper is therefore conclusive 
 evidence that she was so. 
 
 Another quotation which seems worth giving here 
 is found in an essay, entitled "Ships, Models, Ship- 
 building, &c.," which was printed in Hunt's Mer- 
 chants* Magazine, in February, 1848. The un- 
 named writer considers at length certain innovations 
 in models which had appeared in recent years and 
 the arguments for and against them. These innova- 
 tions had been introduced by Editor Griffiths, who 
 supported them with mathematical calculations 
 which the ordinary shipbuilders could not make. 
 The writer of the essay was unconvinced by the 
 scientific calculations, and he was still doubtful after 
 considering the speed records of the two Griffiths' 
 clippers, Rainbow and Sea Witch. In fact, his chief 
 object in writing the essay was to prove that "ex- 
 perience, judgment and talent are requisite," and in 
 
The First Yankee Clipper i8i 
 
 fact were more important, when a fast ship was to be 
 designed, than "science and mathematics." 
 
 In the course of his argument he wrote as follows : 
 
 "The Houqua, Coquette, Crusader , Valparaiso , 
 Paul Jones, and other ships were not built by mere 
 science and mathematics; and yet few vessels built 
 at navy yards equal them." 
 
 The fact that the Houqua came to the mind of 
 this writer first of all shows, of course, that she 
 was a noted ship in 1848, and that was at a time 
 when new records for speed were the chief topic 
 of conversation in New York City. 
 
 No writer has ever disputed the claim that the 
 Houqua was a noted clipper, but it has been said by 
 modern writers that the Rainbow was the first of 
 the famous fleet, while Captain Palmer asserted that 
 his Houqua was first. The question at Issue is 
 therefore primarily one of dates only. Was the 
 Houqua the first ship to enter the China trade or 
 was the Rainbow? 
 
 In the letter previously quoted. Captain Palmer 
 says that the contract for the Houqua was signed 
 the first of November, 1843, ^^^ that she sailed 
 for Canton in June, 1844. To support these state- 
 ments of fact there is a list of the ships built by 
 Brown & Bell, between 1821 and 1847, inclusive, 
 which was printed in the Merchants^ Magazine in 
 December, 1848 (p. 643). This table says that 
 the Houqua, of 706 tons, was launched in 1844, and 
 
1 82 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 was the first of two that were built there during that 
 year. Searches have been made in files of the New 
 York Herald and other New York periodicals and 
 in the records of Lloyds' "Register of Shipping" for 
 the exact date when the Houqua was launched, but 
 without avail. Nor was the exact date of the launch- 
 ing of the Rainbow found. But it is not doubted 
 that the Houqua went afloat some time in May, 
 1844. As to the Rainbow it appears from various 
 accounts that her keel was placed on the blocks 
 early in 1843 — certainly several months before the 
 keel of the Houqua was stretched. But because of 
 disputes between William H. Aspinwall, the owner, 
 and John Willis Griffiths, the designer, the work of 
 building her was delayed so long that she was not 
 launched until January, 1845. The most interesting 
 of all the magazine histories of this ship which have 
 been printed was written by William Brown Meloney 
 for the Saturday Evening Post, of Philadelphia. It 
 appeared on February 26, 19 16, and the following 
 is quoted by permission: 
 
 "So it was not until a cold and cheerless morn- 
 ing in January, 1845, that the Rainbow, whose keel 
 had been laid nearly two years before, was ready 
 to leave the ways. . . . The Rainbow sailed in 
 February for China." 
 
 Meloney's statement is confirmed by Captain 
 Clark's "Clipper Ship Era." It is therefore certain 
 that the Rainbow was launched seven months after 
 the Houqua had sailed for Canton. 
 
CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE GRIFFITHS CLIPPERS 
 
 WHILE the records show that the Rainbow 
 sailed for China long after the sailing 
 of the Houqua, it must be obvious to the 
 reader that In any consideration of the relative in- 
 fluence of the two ships upon the evolution of the 
 clippers the character of each as a cargo carrier is 
 of more importance than the date on which each 
 was commissioned. 
 
 Perhaps it should be said, first of all, however, 
 that while Griffiths and Captain Palmer differed in 
 their opinions of models, their personal relations 
 were friendly. The references to Captain Palmer's 
 work which Griffiths wrote in the Nautical Maga- 
 zine are conclusive evidence that their rivalry, such 
 as it was, was entirely devoid of personal ill will. 
 There was, indeed, no occasion for any such feeling, 
 for each was amply supported by the ship owners 
 of the coast, and the results obtained by each were 
 unmistakably set forth in the records of the ships 
 and the bank accounts of the owners. 
 
 Because there were two distinct lines of evolution 
 in the development of the clippers — rather say two 
 lines of models — the variety which Griffiths origi- 
 
 183 
 
184 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 nated shall have first consideration here. The fact 
 is that the circumstances under which this naval 
 architect became prominent, as well as the records 
 of the ships he designed, indicate attention herein 
 to his work as a designer ahead of that of Captain 
 Palmer. 
 
 In 1841-J'ohn Willis Griffiths was a draftsman in 
 the employ of Smith & Dimon, then well known ship 
 builders. He was a man of education — able, for ex- 
 ample, to calculate the displacement of a ship, the 
 center of gravity of her hull and the center of effort 
 of her sails, all from her plans. 
 
 His work as a draftsman naturally made him 
 entirely familiar with models of the swift packets 
 of the day, but while these vessels were acknowl- 
 edged to be superior in all respects to the competing 
 ships, Griffiths became convinced that in certain 
 features of the hulls they might be greatly im- 
 proved. At a meeting of the American Institute in 
 1 84 1, he delivered a lecture, illustrated with draw- 
 ings, by which he sought to prove that existing 
 models were defective. His effort attracted little 
 attention but a year later he came again, this time 
 with a model, and repeated his criticisms. For this 
 lecture he was jeered. 
 
 Griffiths, however, had the admirable quality of 
 persistence. He sought and secured opportunities 
 for explaining his views in public, until he obtained 
 as a respectful listener one of the most enterprising 
 merchants in New York, Mr. William H. Aspin- 
 
The Griffiths Clippers 185 
 
 wall, the one who, later, built the Panama Railroad. 
 Asplnwall believed that American trade with China 
 would be greatly Increased by the results of the 
 Opium War, and soon after hearing, early in 1843, 
 that four ports had been opened in China, he de- 
 termined to build for the trade a ship of about 750 
 tons — much larger than the average of those pre- 
 viously engaged in it. He knew, of course, that a 
 swift ship was most desirable, and, having been 
 favorably impressed with the views of young 
 Griffiths, he was persuaded to sign a contract with 
 Smith & Dimon for a Griffiths model. The name 
 Rainbow was given to the ship to express the hope 
 that her size as well as her speed would suit the 
 trade; for a ship of her tons was as yet experimental. 
 Consider, now, the peculiarities of model for 
 which Griffiths contended. As editor of the Nau- 
 tical Magazine, later, he wrote a number of ar- 
 ticles in which he set forth his views of models. 
 Thus, in describing the Lightning, built by Donald 
 McKay, of Boston (McKay had been converted to 
 the Griffiths views), the following words were used: 
 
 "No timid hand or hesitating brain gave form 
 and dimensions to the Lightning. Very great sta- 
 bility; acute extremities; full, short midship body; 
 comparatively small deadrise, and the longest end 
 forward, are points in the excellence of this ship." 
 
 To secure "acute extremities" the underwater 
 lines at each end were made concave instead of 
 
1 86 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 convex — she had hollow water lines, to use the 
 vernacular. The bow was comparable to an old- 
 fashioned, hollow-ground razor. One may imagine 
 that Griffiths conceived this shape for bow and stern 
 while shaving. 
 
 Donald McKay, as noted above, adopted the 
 Griffiths view. Another notable designer who did 
 so was George Steers, who designed the famous 
 yacht America. The Rainbow and the Sea Witch 
 were the only ships of Griffiths design which became 
 famous, but Donald McKay turned out a great 
 fleet which made most remarkable passages. 
 
 But Griffiths certainly had much trouble with the 
 first of his ships. As already intimated the launch- 
 ing was delayed nearly two years. The designers 
 of the ordinary models continued jeering the new 
 model after Aspinwall signed the contract, and the 
 newspapers printed the criticisms. Aspinwall was 
 greatly affected by the adverse comment and made 
 many efforts to induce Griffiths to yield to the clamor, 
 but without avail. He even sent to England for 
 a sail plan for use on the new ship — that too, al- 
 though the American packets had a lead on the 
 Atlantic which England had never disputed. Grif- 
 fiths was obliged to accept this plan without open 
 protest, but he nevertheless used his own when the 
 spars were set and the sails were made; and so at 
 last the Rainbow as launched was his in model from 
 truck down to keel. 
 
 Meloney notes in the Saturday Evening Post that 
 
The Griffiths Clippers 187 
 
 the Rainbow cost Aspinwall $45,000, which the 
 reader may compare with the $19,500 which the 
 Lows and Captain Palmer paid for the Houqua; 
 for the percentage of profit made on any venture 
 is figured, of course, from the original investment. 
 
 But when at last the Rainbow sailed from Sandy 
 Hook on her way to Canton, the troubles of John 
 Willis GrifHths as a designer were at end; for she 
 proved to be a swift and profitable ship. The record 
 of her passages to and from Canton in her maiden 
 voyage have been lost but in her second voyage 
 she beat her way against the northeast monsoon 
 and arrived out in 92 days while her homeward 
 passage was made in 88 days. She was thus only 
 180 days at sea in this voyage. Better yet she made, 
 it is said, a profit of 100% on her cost. 
 
 In the magazine stories of the clipper era It is 
 commonly asserted that the short voyages of the 
 Rainbow led to the building of the next Griffiths 
 clipper, the Sea Witch, As a matter of fact the 
 Rainbow^s passages were, as said, wonderful, but 
 they did not break the speed record. They did not 
 even equal the record of the Houqua. A ship named 
 the Natchez, to be described in another chapter, had 
 set a pace which but one ship ever equaled on the 
 Canton-New York route, and it was the work of the 
 master of the Natchez, Captain Robert H. Water- 
 man (Captain "Bob"), that led Rowland & Aspin- 
 wall to build another sharp-hulled ship for the China 
 trade. Waterman went to the yard of Smith & 
 
1 88 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Dimon to superintend the construction of this 
 ship, but Griffiths drew her plans. She was launched 
 under the name of Sea Witch. She was 170 feet 
 long, 33 feet, 11 Inches wide and 19 feet deep. 
 She measured 890 tons. She sailed for China on 
 December 23, 1846, and poked the golden dragon 
 on her cutwater Into the harbor of Hong Kong 
 104 days later. She then came home from Canton 
 in 81 days, which was not the record run, though 
 really a wonder. 
 
 In her second voyage the Sea Witch made Hong 
 Kong In 105 days and then on her return broke all 
 records and made a new one which stands to this 
 day; for she arrived in New York at the end of 
 77 days from Canton. A picture of this ship under 
 all sail including royal studding-sails, which was 
 used to illustrate Captain Arthur Clark's "Glimpse 
 of the Clipper-Ship Days," in Harper's Magazine^ 
 dated July, 1908 (copyrighted), was labeled "The 
 Swiftest Clipper of Her Day." 
 
 Griffiths always declared that the Sea Witch had 
 more Influence upon the models of the clippers built 
 thereafter than any other ship of the period. Just 
 how far this claim was justified cannot now be de- 
 termined, but it is certain that Griffiths' chief Ideas 
 were adopted by Donald McKay, and that McKay 
 built more clippers which became famous for speed 
 than any other shipbuilder of the era. 
 
 It is therefore proper to give here, in connection 
 with Griffiths' work, the records made by some of 
 
The Griffiths Clippers 189 
 
 the McKay ships which were built to the Griffiths 
 model. 
 
 The Lightningy mentioned above as having 
 dragged twenty-one knots of logline from the reel 
 during one turn of the glass, made the record run 
 for twenty-four consecutive hours — 436 miles. Per- 
 haps it should be said here that every use of the 
 word mile in this book means a sea mile, 6,080.27 
 feet long, and not a land mile which is 5,280 feet 
 long. McKay's Sovereign of the Seas, commanded 
 by Captain Laughlan McKay, a brother of Donald, 
 in a run of 82 days from Honolulu to New York, 
 covered (in March, 1853), 3,562 miles in eleven 
 consecutive days. She crossed from New York to 
 Liverpool in 13 days and 19 hours. Later, in a 
 passage from San Francisco to New York, she cov- 
 ered 6,245 miles in 22 days. 
 
 The Flying Cloud, built by McKay for Enoch 
 Train, of Boston (she was commanded by Captain 
 Josiah P. Cressy), made the record passage from 
 New York to San Francisco in 84 days. The record 
 from San Francisco to New York, 76 days, was 
 made by three different ships — the Comet, the 
 Northern Light and the Trade Wind. The record 
 voyage around the world, 132 days between ports, 
 was made by the James Baines, a McKay ship, be- 
 ginning December 9, 1854 (Meloney). 
 
 In connection with these records consider two ex- 
 tracts from log books of clippers which are printed 
 in Clark's "Clipper Ship Era." On February i, 
 
190 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 1850, the Great Britain, Captain Philip Dumaresq, 
 "passed a ship under double reefs with our royals 
 and studding sails set." On June 16, 1854, the 
 James Baines, while sailing 17 knots an hour under 
 skysalls, passed a ship named the Lihertas under 
 double reefed topsails. Can any one now imagine 
 the feelings of the captain of the Lihertas as he 
 saw that glorious Yankee clipper sweep past the 
 hulk he commanded? 
 
 With the records of the two Griffiths ships, Rain- 
 how and Sea Witch, before them, together with 
 those of the McKay ships Lightning, Sovereign of 
 the Seas and Flying Cloud, it was entirely natural 
 that writers should have believed that the Griffiths 
 model was "the one which the sea liked best." 
 Nevertheless, if all the facts in the clipper records 
 be considered in connection with modern, or say 
 later, usage in the design of swift models of the 
 sail, it can be demonstrated beyond dispute that 
 the chief feature of those swift clippers — the hollow 
 water line — was a positive detriment. The ships 
 made short passages because of certain other fea- 
 tures of model and construction, and because of the 
 way they were handled. But before going Into a 
 discussion of these technical points of ship construc- 
 tion the clippers designed by Captain Palmer, and 
 their records, must have consideration. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE CAPTAIN AND HIS FLEET 
 
 THE name Houqua, which was given to the 
 first ship of the great American clipper 
 fleet, was that of a native merchant of 
 Canton. The foreign trade of Canton was done 
 by a dozen natives who owned big warehouses 
 called hongs, and who were known as hong 
 merchants. The emperor held them responsible 
 for all import duties and they were in several 
 ways men of much importance. The twelve were 
 under the command of one known as the senior 
 hong merchant, and the one who held this post in 
 1843 was named Houqua, a man who was famous 
 for ''sound judgment; true prudence; wary circum- 
 spection and a wise economy," to quote an appre- 
 ciation printed in Hunt's Merchants^ Magazine, 
 Moreover "his predilections were American." 
 
 While the ship was on the ways, a beautiful full- 
 rigged model of the Houqua was made to carry as 
 a present to the merchant, but he had died in Sep- 
 tember, 1843, before her keel had been laid on the 
 blocks. The model was delivered to his family. 
 
 In her first voyage. Captain Palmer commanded 
 the Houqua, with Thomas Hunt as first mate, Wil- 
 
 191 
 
192 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Ham Gardner, second mate, and Charles P. Low, 
 third mate. Low, in his autiobiography, mentioned 
 above, naturally had much to say about the ship 
 and her officers. He had already made a voyage 
 to China in a ship called the Horatio, the fastest 
 ship in the China trade (1842), "but she could not 
 make over ten knots an hour." 
 
 While the exact date of the launching of the 
 Houqua is not given, he notes that "Captain N. B. 
 Palmer had no superstition as to Friday being a 
 bad day to sail, though at that time sailors objected 
 to going to sea on Friday and many merchants were 
 superstitious enough to wait for Saturday and even 
 Sunday before sending their ships to sea. The 
 Houqua was launched on Friday, was towed down 
 town on Friday, went to sea on Friday and arrived 
 in Hong Kong on Friday, but she was a very lucky 
 ship for years, at any rate." 
 
 The ship was loaded at Peck Slip. "Times had 
 changed in the short interval since my coming home 
 in the Horatio/' (A change due to the Opium War.) 
 "Then the ships went out with almost no cargo but 
 lead and coal, and now our ship was loaded with 
 pig lead, lumber, cotton sheetings and naval stores — 
 pitch, tar and turpentine. She was full, so there 
 was no 'tweendecks for the sailmaker, carpenter 
 and boys. The boys had to go to the forecastle 
 with the men and a house over the main hatch was 
 fitted for the third mate, carpenter and sailmaker. 
 

 
The Captain and His Fleet 193 
 
 It was a good sized room and very comfortable. 
 . . . We had quite a number of passengers. 
 
 *'We had a good sendoff by our family and a 
 large number of friends who went down the bay 
 with us. . . . Captain Palmer was a rough old sailor. 
 He was determined to see me get along, and helped 
 me more than any other man to know my duty 
 as an officer and to fit me for a master. . . . Be- 
 sides teaching me seamanship, Mr. Hunt, with the 
 captain's knowledge, had me take my quadrant and 
 take the sun at noon and work up the latitude by 
 observation and find the latitude and longitude by 
 dead reckoning. The captain is the only one who 
 finds the longitude by chronometer. . . . Captain 
 Palmer and Mr. Hunt got along splendidly and 
 of course everything went off happily. . . . Mr. 
 Hunt was a jolly fellow and apt to make too free" 
 with some kinds of captains, but "Captain Nat Pal- 
 mer rather enjoyed his wit and stories." 
 
 "The ship made a fine passage of 72 days to 
 Anjer, where we laid in a stock of chickens, turtles, 
 yams, bananas, oranges, and mangusteens. Captain 
 Palmer was a believer in good feed, not alone for 
 the cabin; he believed in giving the sailors the very 
 best of salt beef and pork, and plenty of it; and 
 everything else they had to eat was of the very 
 best. . . . Here we filled our casks with fresh water 
 brought by the natives. After doing this we pro- 
 ceeded up the China Sea and sailed into Hong 
 
194 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Kong, 84 days from New York, a splendid 
 passage." 
 
 The Houqua was soon ordered to Whampoa (12 
 miles below Canton), where all ships were loaded 
 from Chinese boats that came down from the city. 
 It was custom of the ship captains to go up to the 
 city to live while waiting for cargo, but Low says 
 that "Captain Palmer was very fond of his ship 
 and would rather live on board at Whampoa and 
 have company than stay in Canton. . . . He had 
 a room on shore assigned to him and was welcome 
 to stay as long as he liked; and when he did go 
 up he had a fast sampan, or Chinese boat, to take 
 him up and bring him back. 
 
 "All the ships had to lie a long time in port, 
 and after the rigging was overhauled and tarred 
 down, and all was painted aloft, the hull was painted 
 inside and out, the deck was holystoned as white 
 as snow, and then everything was kept in splendid 
 order.'' 
 
 Unhappily for the peace of the second mate of 
 the Houqua, however, the sailors had a pet monkey 
 that was, on a certain Saturday afternoon, fastened 
 on the bowsplit within reach of a 50-pound keg 
 of black paint. "Like a monkey, always full of 
 mischief, he upset the paint, which ran down the 
 scuppers as far as the mainmast and over the clean 
 white deck. The second mate caught the monkey 
 and swabbed the paint up with him till he would 
 hold no more, and then threw him overboard. But 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 195 
 
 this made matters worse, for the monkey caught 
 the side ladder and came up; and before any one 
 could stop him ran the whole length of the bulwarks 
 leaving black paint all over the fresh straw-colored 
 paint, and making an awful mess." 
 
 As the ship had to be Immaculate for Sunday all 
 hands turned to and cleaned up the mess the monkey 
 had made, and when this had been done the beast 
 was shaved, washed and forgiven. 
 
 The Houqua's passage of 84 days to Hong Kong 
 was then the shortest on record and It has not often 
 been equaled since then. She left for New York 
 on December 9, 1844, and arrived in 90 days. A 
 year later she made the passage home in 91 days. 
 
 In connection with these two passages home, ob- 
 serve that the famous Flying Cloudy which made 
 the record run of 89 days from New York to San 
 Francisco, used 94 days in making her shortest 
 passage from Canton to New York and 96 in mak- 
 ing her next best run on the route. The Comet, 
 that made the record of 76 days from San Fran- 
 cisco east, was 99 days making her best run from 
 Canton to New York. The Hoiiqua, though smaller 
 than either of these splendid flyers, was therefore 
 manifestly a peer. 
 
 It may also be noted that the total number of 
 days passed at sea by the Houqua during her first 
 voyage was 174. The Rainbow in her second and 
 most famous voyage was 180 days at sea. Captain 
 John Land of the Rainbow boasted, after com- 
 
196 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 pleting her second voyage, that she was the fastest 
 ship on earth, and his boast was accepted thereafter 
 by about all writers until Captain Clark published 
 the record of the Hoiiqua in "The Clipper Ship 
 Era." The Rainbow never equaled the Houqua^s 
 record. 
 
 At the end of the first voyage Captain Nat left 
 the Houqua to his brother Alexander, but he took 
 command again for the third voyage, "taking his 
 wife and a niece of his. Miss Fanning." Low was 
 now the mate of the ship and his autobiography 
 gives several Interesting little sketches of the mas- 
 ter. For example: 
 
 One day when "the ship was rolling fearfully . . . 
 the captain put his head out of the cabin scuttle and 
 asked me how the weather was. I told him It was 
 more moderate just then, but thought It would blow 
 again at 8 o'clock. He then said: 
 
 " 'Mr. Low, shake the reefs out of the maintop- 
 sail, set the main topgallantsail and main royal, and 
 let her roll over, shipshape and Bristol fashion, with 
 all her canvas on her.' At eight it began to blow 
 again and the captain put his head out of the scuttle 
 and called out : 
 
 " 'Mr. Low, take In the main royal, the main top- 
 gallantsail and close reef the maintopsall, and let 
 her roll over and be damned to her.' 
 
 "He was very passionate," Low says. "In calm 
 weather he would come on deck with an old v/hlte 
 beaver hat on, take It off and stamp on it, and damn 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 197 
 
 the calm and everything else. But he never abused 
 the men." 
 
 Because so much had been said in novels of the sea 
 about the cruelty of the officers of American ships 
 in the clippper days, perhaps an actual use of force 
 upon an American ship may be described. With 
 Captain Charles Porter Low in command, the 
 Houqua sailed from New York for China on April 
 6, 1849, ^^d a large party of friends of the Lows 
 and of Captain Palmer went down to Sandy Hook 
 with her to celebrate her departure. As it hap- 
 pened, sailors were scarce in New York, at that time, 
 and the crimps had made up the crew of the Houqua 
 from such men as could be scraped up. As the ship 
 approached Sandy Hook the sailmaker went to his 
 room and refused to come out and go to work when 
 ordered to do so by the mate. Thereupon the mate 
 took him by the throat and dragged him forth. 
 
 This use of force overcame the man's obstinacy, 
 but when the pleasure-seekers saw the mate use 
 force, they were so badly shocked (although the 
 man was not beaten) that Captain Nat Palmer felt 
 obliged to bring the Houqua to anchor, take the 
 mate back to New York and bring another in his 
 place. The Houqua was actually detained several 
 hours in order to replace a mate who had used force 
 to compel an obstinate seaman to do duty. 
 
 Low mentions once more the unusual drilling he 
 received in order to fit him for the command of a 
 ship. He not only worked out the longitude by 
 
198 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 the chronometer but he was allowed to put the ship 
 about in all kinds of weather. In short he had 
 full command of the deck. He was 22 years old 
 at the time. 
 
 Of the captain^s strength of body Low wrote: 
 "If it was necessary he could stand any fatigue 
 and exposure and I am quite sure that" his allow- 
 ing Low to manage the ship "was to teach me con- 
 fidence in myself and also to give me experience." 
 
 Speaking of live passengers in the cabin — all 
 young men — Low says : 
 
 "They had plenty of liquor on board and almost 
 every evening they would get on deck and sing songs 
 and spin yarns until 10 o'clock, when they had to 
 retire, for no lights were allowed after that. Cap- 
 tain Palmer would always absent himself till they 
 got through their fun, but he never objected." 
 
 The most remarkable passage of the Houqua was 
 that made in a run home from Shanghai in 1850. 
 The Houqua was then six years old and she had 
 been driven to the limit of endurance during all 
 her life. She had theretofore been thrown on her 
 beam ends in a cyclone and had been "strained 
 and weakened," to use the words of Captain Clark 
 in connection with the Sea Witch in one of her races. 
 To those words Captain Clark added: 
 
 "Moreover, a wooden ship, after five or six years, 
 begins to lose her speed through absorbing water, 
 and becomes sluggish in light airs." 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 199 
 
 In spite of handicaps thus described, the Hoiiqua 
 sailed home from Shanghai in 87 days, as a letter 
 from Captain Palmer to his family said at the time. 
 It was a record-breaking passage at the time, but 
 the important fact in the run is that it shows she 
 had been built for strength and endurance as well 
 as speed. A further proof of her efficiency is found 
 in the fact that she was a profitable ship in the 
 long-haul trades until 1865, when she was lost in 
 a typhoon in the China Sea. 
 
 This matter of endurance is of importance here 
 because the influence of a ship upon ships built sub- 
 sequently depends upon the profits made more than 
 upon any one fact in her history. For profit, the 
 Houqua was one of the most notable of her day 
 because, first, she was efficient, and next because 
 she cost comparatively little in the beginning. When 
 the Houqua was built, A. A. Low & Brother oc- 
 cupied a small office in Fletcher Street. The profit 
 made by the ship enabled them to move to com- 
 modious quarters in Burling Slip. The great profits 
 made by her and the other clippers built by the 
 firm created the great fortune for which they were 
 famous. It was because these ships were profitable 
 that Mr. Seth Low, son of A. A. Low, was able 
 to give Columbia University a million dollars while 
 he was at the head of that famous school. 
 
 Of course Captain Palmer shared in this pros- 
 perity. He did, indeed, receive only $500 for de- 
 signing and superintending the construction of each 
 
200 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 ship the firm brought out, for that was a day of 
 low wages; but he owned a quarter of the Houqua 
 and he held shares — usually an eighth — in each one 
 he built. It was because of his success as a ship 
 owner as well as a ship designer that he came to 
 be ranked as one of the foremost ship merchants 
 in New York. 
 
 It was the profit made by the Houqiia, of course, 
 that led the Lows to build the Samuel Russell, of 
 940 tons. She was named for the head of the 
 famous American firm of Russell & Co., of Hong 
 Kong. 
 
 Captain Clark, in "The Clipper Ship Era," says, 
 "She was a beautiful vessel, heavily sparred, with 
 plenty of light canvas for moderate weather, and 
 every inch a clipper," 
 
 The Russell is frequently mentioned in the stories 
 of the American clippers. For example, it is said 
 that in her first passage out she required 114 days, 
 a long time for a clipper; and yet on one day when 
 she had a breeze she covered 328 miles in twenty- 
 four consecutive hours, a distance that was then 
 astounding. Better yet, in a run home from Canton 
 in 1 85 1 (when she was five years old) she covered 
 6,722 miles in thirty consecutive days, an average 
 of 226 miles a day. 
 
 In one magazine. Captain Palmer is credited with 
 this run but he was in New York at the time. He 
 had recently sent the Contest afloat and was prepar- 
 ing to build the David Brown. 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 201 
 
 In the meantime the Russell had engaged in a 
 famous race from New York around the Horn to 
 San Francisco, in which seven clippers competed, 
 the more famous of which were the Houqua and 
 the Sea Witch. The Russell arrived out in 109 
 days, and thus broke the previous record by twelve 
 days, but the Sea Witch made the passage in 97 
 days. The Houqua was 120 days on the way. 
 
 The Russell was commanded by Captain Charles 
 P. Low, for this voyage, and his account of it seems 
 worth quoting in part because it shows not only 
 the quality of the Palmer design but how ships were 
 loaded when freights were high. Low received let- 
 ters, while in Whampoa, telling him he was to take 
 the Russell on his return to New York, and the 
 Houqua, on arrival at New York, was towed directly 
 to the pier where the Russell had been taking in 
 cargo. Low found Captain Theodore Palmer, a 
 young brother of Captain Nat, temporarily in com- 
 mand of the Russell, and he was to take her to sea 
 in case Low failed to arrive in time or refused to 
 go in her. 
 
 Palmer at once inquired if Low would go in her 
 and Low replied that he would. The narrative 
 continues ; 
 
 "He [Theo Palmer] then went on board the 
 ship and ordered the mate to have all the sails taken 
 out of the fore peak and put in the cabin to make 
 room for more freight. The mate said: 
 
202 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 '' 'Captain Low is going in the ship, is he not?' 
 and Captain Palmer said: 
 
 " 'Yes, he will take command.' The mate said: 
 
 " 'I knew it, for if you were going this would not 
 be done; for the ship is loaded now as deep as a 
 sand barge.' 
 
 "And she was; her scuppers were not more than a 
 foot out of water. There was plenty of freight 
 offering and the ship had a freight list of nearly 
 $75,000, and she received a dollar and a half a foot, 
 or $60 a ton, for all she had on board. . . . On the 
 15th of January, 1850, I left the pilot at Sandy 
 Hook, bound on a voyage around the world. We 
 had a fresh wind from westward, and when we 
 reached the Gulf Stream we found how deep in 
 the water the ship was and how slowly she rose 
 to the seas. The wind increased to a heavy gale 
 and while running under close reefed topsails and 
 a foresail, a sea boarded us over the starboard 
 quarter." It swept the captain and the mate for 
 sixty feet along the deck and landed the man at the 
 wheel in the mizzen rigging. All the compasses in 
 the ship were destroyed save a little one designed 
 for small boats, "but we managed to get along and 
 in twenty days crossed the line, ... a great run of 
 luck." Off Rio, a ship bound for San Francisco 
 was overhauled and two compasses were borrowed 
 from her. 
 
 Then came the Horn. Low was in waters with 
 which he was unacquainted. "The barometer was 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 203 
 
 unusually low and I lost some days from carrying 
 small canvas In preparation for gales that never 
 came. . . . We had very high seas and the ship's 
 deck was flooded, day after day. Sometimes she 
 would go under water and it seemed as though she 
 would never come up." 
 
 And yet she arrived in San Francisco in 109 days 
 from New York, breaking the record, and the San 
 Francisco newspapers Issued extras in celebration 
 of the event. 
 
 It is worth recalling that Low sailed the Russell 
 into port without a pilot. The pilot hailed him off 
 the Farallones and Low asked the price. The pilot 
 replied $8 a foot for the total draft of the ship, 
 but he added in a reply to a question that if the ship 
 entered without a pilot only $4 a foot would be 
 collected. The ship was drawing twenty feet. Low 
 says he sailed in without a pilot in order to save 
 $80, but the context shows that he was animated 
 by pride of achievement only. At any rate he de- 
 clared that a captain who was worth his salt should 
 be able to enter a port like San Francisco aided 
 by the chart only, even though he had never seen it 
 before. It was, in fact, characteristic of our sailors 
 of the sail to handle their ships in ways requiring 
 extraordinary skill and then airily declare that they 
 were merely anxious to save some trifling sum of 
 money. 
 
 In his summary of records of the California 
 clippers Captain Clark divides the passage from 
 
204 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 New York Into sections and gives the records of 
 various clippers In each section. The Great Re- 
 public, after she was rebuilt by Captain Palmer, as 
 described In another chapter, held the honors for 
 the passage from Sandy Hook to the Equator, hav- 
 ing made the run in i6 days. The Samuel Russell 
 made the shortest run from Cape St. Roque to 50° 
 south latitude In the Atlantic In 16 days. The Young 
 America made the record run from 50° south In the 
 Atlantic to 50° south In the Pacific in 6 days. The 
 Live Yankee and the Mary L. Sutton ran from 50° 
 south to the Equator In the Pacific in 16 days, while 
 the White Squall made the record from the Equator 
 to San Francisco in 14 days. 
 
 The White Squall (1,118 tons) was "very simi- 
 lar In design and construction to the Samuel Russell 
 and Oriental,'^ according to Captain Clark. 
 
 If any ship had been able to equal the record 
 over each of the sections (allowing two days for 
 the run from the Equator to Cape St. Roque), she 
 might have made the passage from Sandy Hook to 
 San Francisco In less than 70 days. 
 
 The Russell endured the strains of hard driving 
 until 1870, when she was wrecked in Caspar Strait. 
 
 The most famous of the clippers designed by 
 Captain Palmer was the Oriental, which followed 
 the Russell in 1849. I^ one respect she was the 
 most famous of all the clipper fleet, for it was when 
 she appeared in London after a record run from 
 Canton that the British for the first time, freely 
 
Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer. 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 205 
 
 and cordially acknowledged American supremacy In 
 the long-haul trades, as they had previously acknowl- 
 edged our lead on the North Atlantic. The Oriental 
 was 185 feet long, 36 wide and 21 deep. She 
 measured 1,003 tons and she cost $70,000. 
 
 The Oriental sailed from New York bound for 
 China on September 14, 1849, under the command 
 of Captain Theodore D. Palmer, a younger brother 
 of Captain Nat. That he was abundantly able to 
 sustain the reputation of the Palmer family was 
 apparent after he had made two voyages in the 
 Oriental. For his first return from Canton was 
 made in 81 days, or only four days more than the 
 record short passage. Because of the speed of the 
 ship, and because of the record of the designer as 
 well as that of the captain, the Oriental was next 
 chartered to carry tea from Canton to London.* 
 
 On May i8th the ship sailed from New York for 
 Hong Kong and arrived out In 81 days, breaking 
 the record for the passage east. Then she took on 
 a load of 1,600 tons of tea for London. No 
 American ship had ever been chartered to carry tea 
 from China to London. In fact, no Yankee clipper 
 of any size had appeared in any English port, 
 though, as Lindsay notes in his history, the records 
 of the clippers were as well known In London as 
 In New York. Young Captain Theo. Palmer knew 
 very well how the seafaring population of the 
 
 *The ship was loaded by Russell & Co., of whom Captain R. B. 
 Forbes, of Boston, was then the head. 
 
2o6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 British capital would receive him if he were able 
 to make a record passage, and he realized that he 
 had other reasons for driving his ship to the utmost 
 limit. In fact, he felt that the honor of the Ameri- 
 can merchant service was, in a very real sense, in 
 his keeping. But while he thus had every induce- 
 ment for vigilance and persistence he must have felt 
 a sinking of hope when he was ready to depart, for 
 an adverse change in the monsoon occurred before 
 the ship was loaded. 
 
 Monsoon is the name given to the prevailing 
 winds along the south and east coasts of Asia, and 
 more especially the winds that prevail on the Indian 
 Ocean at certain seasons. 
 
 "From October to April," says the Cyclopedia of 
 Commerce, *'a gentle, dry, northeast breeze pre- 
 vails." It was against this gentle breeze that Cap- 
 tain John Land sailed the Rainbow in her second 
 passage to Canton. "From April till October," con- 
 tinues the Cyclopedia, "a violent southwest wind 
 blows, accompanied with rain." 
 
 Captain Palmer in his effort to make a notable 
 passage from Canton to London was obliged to beat 
 his way down the Asiatic coast and across the Indian 
 Ocean against this ^'violent southwest wind." 
 
 It was a race against time. All previous record- 
 breaking passages from Canton had been made with 
 studding-sails spread alow and aloft before the 
 "gentle, dry, northeast breeze." The Oriental had 
 to smash her way through adverse gales, but she 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 207 
 
 won. When the British clipper Challenger^ in later 
 years, made the passage in 113 days she was hailed 
 as a superb sailer, and so she was; but the Oriental 
 was driven to London in 97 days. 
 
 As Meloney says in the story already quoted: 
 
 "The Oriental was the first out-and-out clipper 
 London ever saw. Photographs of her were 
 printed; she became the subject of newspaper lead- 
 ers adjuring Britishers to take a lesson from her 
 or prepare to forsake the sea. . . > The Gov- 
 ernment copied her lines while she lay in drydock. 
 Afterwards the lines of other Yankee flyers were 
 taken off similarly, but the Oriental was the first 
 inspiration of British builders, who, though they 
 were to launch many beautiful cracks, never suc- 
 ceeded in producing one to vie with the American 
 champions." (Italics not in original.) 
 
 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer was in London 
 when the Oriental arrived, and a letter he wrote 
 about the matter, said that Captain Theodore was 
 "a Lion" in that port. He also brought home a 
 copy of the Illustrated London News, dated De- 
 cember 21, 1850, which contained a picture of the 
 Oriental, and the following : 
 
 "The Ship Oriental. 
 "Although many British ships have arrived at 
 New York and Boston from China, since the altera- 
 tion in the Navigation Laws, the first American 
 
2o8 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 ship (the Oriental) only arrived in the West 
 India docks on the 3d instant. 
 
 "The ship Oriental, of New York, Captain 
 Palmer (above 1,000 tons), was built for the 
 China trade : she sailed from New York on her 
 first voyage, the 14th of September, 1849, ^^^ ^^' 
 rived at Hong Kong by the Eastern Passage, Jan- 
 uary I, 1850, being 109 days.' She discharged and 
 took in a full cargo for New York, sailed 30th 
 January, and arrived in New York April 21st, mak- 
 ing eighty-one days' passage; discharged and took 
 in full cargo, and sailed May i8th for Hong Kong; 
 arrived August 8th, making eighty-one days' pas- 
 sage : discharged and took in full cargo and sailed 
 for London, August 28th; beat down the China sea 
 against the S. W. monsoon in twenty-one days to 
 Anjer, and arrived off Scilly in ninety-one days, and 
 into West India dock in ninety-seven days. A period 
 of fourteen months and nineteen days has elapsed 
 since she sailed on her first voyage from New York, 
 since which time she has sailed 67,000 miles, and 
 is now chartered to sail again for Canton, on loth 
 January, 185 1. The above facts are taken from the 
 log-book, by permission of Capt. T. D. Palmer, by 
 M. J. Skiller of Wapping. 
 
 *'We should add that the Oriental brings about 
 1,600 tons of tea at £6 per ton, whilst all the ships 
 loading at Whampoa at the same time only got 
 £3 I OS. The bulk of her cargo is consigned to three 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 209 
 
 firms of the highest eminence, whose Correspondents 
 av^alled themselves of the opportunity even at such a 
 high rate of freight, the Oriental being known 
 for her fast sailing qualities, which she fully verified. 
 
 "This Is a severe lesson to our ship owners, and 
 will show them that the British merchants abroad 
 are still ready to pay high freights for superior ships. 
 
 "The main dimensions of the Oriental are; 
 Length, 183 feet; beam, 2>^ feet; hold, 21 feet; poop 
 deck, 45 feet; topgallant forecastle, 30 feet." 
 
 Lindsay, the English author of a "History of 
 Merchant Shipping," necessarily gave considerable 
 attention to the American clippers In the China trade. 
 He says that beginning In 1845 "various vessels 
 were despatched from New York and Boston to 
 Whampoa [Canton's port] which surpassed ours 
 in speed, having low hulls, great beam, very fine 
 lines and with yards so square as to spread a far 
 larger amount of canvas in proportion to their 
 tonnage than any vessels hitherto afloat." 
 
 The names of the clippers which had especially 
 attracted his attention were given (Vol. Ill, p. 292), 
 in the following paragraph: 
 
 "There is no doubt that at this period there were 
 few ships afloat which could rival In speed the 
 Oriental, Challenge, Sea JVitch, Flying Cloud and 
 various similar vessels the Americans had sent forth 
 to compete with us In the trade from China." 
 
2IO Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 In describing the effect of the Oriental upon the 
 people of London Captain Clark's "Clipper Ship 
 
 Era" says: 
 
 "Throngs of people visited the West India Docks 
 to look at the Oriental. They certainly saw a beau- 
 tiful ship ; every line of her long, black hull indicated 
 power and speed; her tall, raking masts and skysail 
 yards towered above the spars of the shipping in 
 the docks ; her white cotton sails were neatly furled 
 under bunt, quarter, and yardarm gaskets; while 
 her topmast, topgallant and royal studdingsail 
 booms and long, heavy lower studdingsail booms 
 swung in along her rails, gave an idea of the enor- 
 mous spread of canvas held in reserve for light 
 and moderate leading winds; her blocks, standing 
 and running rigging were neatly fitted to stand great 
 stress and strain, but with no unnecessary top-ham- 
 per or weight aloft. On deck everything was for 
 use. The spare spars, scraped bright and varnished, 
 were neatly lashed along the water ways; the inner 
 side of the bulwarks, the rails and the deck houses 
 were painted pure white; the hatch coamings, sky- 
 lights, pin-rails, and companions were of Spanish 
 mahogany; the narrow planks of her clear-pine deck, 
 with the gratings and ladders, were scrubbed and 
 holystoned to the whiteness of cream; the brass cap- 
 stan heads, bells, belaying pins, gangway stanchions, 
 and brass work about the wheel, binnacle and sky- 
 lights were of glittering brightness. Throughout 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 211 
 
 she was a triumph of the shipwright's and seaman's 
 toil and skill. 
 
 ''No ship like the Oriental had ever been seen in 
 England, and the, ship owners of London were con- 
 strained to admit that they had nothing to compare 
 with her in speed, beauty of model, rig, or construc- 
 tion. It is not too much to say that the arrival of 
 this vessel in London with her cargo of tea in this 
 crisis of 1850, aroused almost as much apprehen- 
 sion and excitement in Great Britain as was created 
 by the memorable Tea Party held in Boston in 
 I773-" 
 
 The London Times is quoted as follows: 
 
 "We must run a race with our gigantic and un- 
 shackled rival. We must set our long-practised 
 skill, our steady industry and our dogged determina- 
 tion against his youth, ingenuity and ardor. It is 
 a father who races with his son. A fell necessity 
 constrains us and we must not be beat. Let our 
 ship-builders and employers take warning in time." 
 
 The Yankee ship of the sail was at last the swag- 
 gering lord of all the Seven Seas, and it was a ship 
 designed by Captain Palmer that compelled this 
 final recognition of American ability. The captain 
 had come late to the work of building up the reputa- 
 tion of the Liverpool packet fleet, but he led all 
 others in spreading the fame of the clippers in the 
 
212 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 home of Britannia, the one-time (also the modern) 
 mistress of the seas. 
 
 The next ship built after the Oriental to the 
 captain's designs was named for him — the TV. B. 
 Palmer. She was one of the largest of his clippers — 
 214 feet long by 39 broad and 22 deep. She meas- 
 ured 1,490 tons. Captain Clark wrote as follows 
 regarding this ship : 
 
 *'The N. B. Palmer was perhaps the most famous 
 ship built in the Westervelt yard. In China she 
 was known as 'the Yacht,' and with her nettings 
 in the tops, brass guns, gold stripe and her lavish 
 entertainments on the Fouth of July and Washing- 
 ton's Birthday, she well deserved the title. . . . 
 A full rigged model of the A^. B. Palmer was ex- 
 hibited at the Crystal Palace, London, in 185 1, and 
 attracted much attention as a fine example of the 
 American clipper type." 
 
 Captain Charles P. Low, who commanded this 
 ship for several years, wrote as follows regarding 
 her launching: 
 
 "Some time in March, 185 1, the ship was ready 
 for launching; she had all her spars aloft, royal 
 and skysail yards crossed, and ... no ballast but 
 her chain cables in her hold. ... A finer, hand- 
 somer ship never was built. . . . Captain Palmer, 
 to my disgust, put me in charge of a steam tug, 
 with a large number of young girls and men and 
 women of his acquaintance, to go and see the launch- 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 213 
 
 ing from the water. I wanted to be launched in the 
 ship. However, I had a jolly crowd to take care of, 
 and we had a fine lunch, champagne and cigars, on 
 board, and a better view of the launching than they 
 had on shore. It was a splendid sight to see that 
 huge craft slide down the ways. . . . After it was 
 over ... I went up to the ship yard and found 
 the ship alongside the wharf, leaking like a sieve, 
 and Captain Palmer in no good humor." 
 
 It was then too late to put her in drydock to ex- 
 amine her for the leak and so men were hired 
 to pump her out during the night. Next day it was 
 learned that an inch and a quarter treenail had been 
 left out below the water line, "and a whole lot of 
 water can be forced through such a hole." 
 
 The ship sailed for San Francisco on May 6, 185 1, 
 and arrived out without special incident in 107 days. 
 A pilot took her in and anchored her three miles 
 from her wharf. Low rowed ashore and met the 
 owners' agent, "a Nantucket man and a regular 
 driver," who "wanted to know why I had not 
 brought the ship up near the wharf." 
 
 "The pilot refused to bring her any nearer," was 
 the reply. 
 
 "The ship must come up to the wharf." 
 
 "If she must she must." 
 
 Thereupon Captain Low went back to the ship 
 where the pilot refused once more to take her 
 to the wharf — why, is not told. So Low called all 
 
214 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 hands and set all plain sail to skysails. The wind 
 was light abeam. "We got under way and went 
 along finely. I knew that sails would stop a ship as 
 well as send her ahead and I kept every stitch of 
 canvas on her. ... As soon as I got near enough I 
 backed the main yard and went along side so easily 
 that there was hardly a jar. ... A great crowd 
 on the wharf cheered me most heartily." 
 
 The Palmer sailed from San Francisco to Canton 
 in ballast, carrying 75 Chinese bodies as freight at 
 $75 per body. Her passage from Canton to New 
 York was made in 84 days. In her next voyage 
 the Palmer made her best records for speed. Be- 
 ginning on the third day out of New York she 
 covered 396 miles in twenty-four hours. On July i, 
 1852, she overhauled the celebrated Flying Cloud 
 that had sailed ten days ahead of her. The Flying 
 Cloud eventually beat her to San Francisco but she 
 left San Francisco ten days after the Flying Cloud 
 and beat her to China. And she beat the Flying 
 Cloud from Canton to New York. 
 
 In April, 1854, the Palmer loaded whale oil at 
 Honolulu for New York and sailed on the 23d. She 
 crossed the line in six days and rounded the Horn 
 in thirty-eight "with skysails and royal studdingsails 
 set. In 57 days we crossed the line in the Atlantic, 
 a splendid passage. We were ten days ahead of the 
 famous Sovereign of the SeasJ* 
 
 This is not to claim that the A^. B. Palmer was 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 215 
 
 a swifter ship than either the Flying Cloud or the 
 Sovereign of the Seas, but it Is to say with emphasis 
 that she was of their class — one of the swiftest of 
 the clippers.* 
 
 Captain Low was one of the few captains of the 
 day who carried their wives. Mrs. Low was a 
 woman of remarkable beauty and whenever the ship 
 was in port the cabin was a much-sought social center. 
 
 The Palmer was eventually sold In Europe. 
 
 The years 1 850-1 851 were memorable In the 
 annals of Captain Palmer's life because of the build- 
 ing of another notable clipper, named the Contest, 
 This ship measured 1,098 tons and for her size 
 she was a splendid racer. Her record in the run 
 from New York to San Francisco was 97 days, 
 the same as that of the Sea Witch. In the return 
 run to New York she sailed in a race with the 
 Northern Light, which was bound for Boston. 
 
 The Contest covered the 16,000 miles in 80 days, 
 but the Northern Light arrived at her destination 
 in 78 days and 5 hours. 
 
 The Contest was one of the beautiful Yankee 
 clippers captured by Captain Raphael Semmes, of 
 the Confederate cruiser Alabama. The ship was 
 burned off Batavia, while on her way from Yoko- 
 
 * Mr. J. Murray Forbes, of Boston, is probably the only man 
 now living who sailed in the A^. B. Palmer. In 1863 he crossed 
 from San Francisco to Canton in her, and passed through a typhoon 
 that carried away some top hamper, but demonstrated that she was 
 an excellent sea boat. 
 
2i6 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 hama to New York, on November ii, 1863. 
 Semmes described the capture and destruction of 
 the ship in his "Service Afloat" as follows: 
 
 "It was now about two o'clock A. M., and the 
 Alabama getting up her anchor, steamed out into 
 the China Sea, by the light of the burning ship. We 
 had thus lighted a bonfire at either end of the re- 
 nowned old Strait of Sunda. After having thus ad- 
 vertised our presence in this passage, it was useless 
 to remain in it longer. Ships approaching it would 
 take the alarm, and seek some other outlet into the 
 Indian Ocean. Most of the ships coming down 
 the China Sea, with a view of passing out at the 
 Strait of Sunda, come through the Caspar Strait. 
 I resolved now to steam in the direction of this 
 latter strait, and forestall such as might happen 
 to be on their way. By daylight we had steamed 
 the coast of Sumatra and Java out of sight, and 
 soon afterward we made the little island called the 
 North Watcher, looking, indeed, as its name implied, 
 like a lone sentinel posted on the wayside. We had 
 lost the beautiful blue waters of the Indian Ocean, 
 with Its almost unfathomable depths and entered 
 upon a sea whose waters were of a whitish green, 
 with an average depth of no more than about twenty 
 fathoms. Finding that I should be up with Caspar 
 Strait sometime during the night, If I continued 
 under steam, and preferring to delay my arrival 
 until daylight the next morning, I let my steam go 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 217 
 
 down, and put my ship under sail, to take it more 
 leisurely. 
 
 "We were about to lift the propeller out of the 
 water, when the cry of 'sail ho' came from the 
 vigilant look-out at the mast-head. We at once 
 discontinued the operation, not knowing but we 
 might have occasion to use steam. As the stranger 
 was standing in our direction, we soon raised her 
 from the deck, and as my glass developed, first one, 
 and then another of her features, it was evident that 
 here was another clippership at hand. She had the 
 well-known tall, raking masts, square yards, and 
 white canvas. She was on a wind, with everything 
 set, from courses to skysails, and was ploughing her 
 way through the gently ruffled sea, with the rapidity, 
 and at the same time, the grace of a swan. We 
 made her a point or two on our lee bow, and not 
 to excite her suspicion we kept away for her, so 
 gradually, that she could scarcely perceive the al- 
 teration in our course. We hoisted at the same 
 time the United States colors. When we were 
 within about four miles of the chase, she responded 
 by showing us the same colors. Feeling now quite 
 sure of her, we fired a gun, hauled down the enemy's, 
 and threw our own to the breeze. (We were now 
 wearing that splendid white flag, with its cross and 
 stars, which was so great an improvement upon 
 the old one.) So far from obeying the command 
 of our gun, the gallant ship kept off a point or two — 
 probably her best point of sailing — gave herself 
 
2i8 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 topgallant and topmast studding-sail, and away she 
 went ! 
 
 "I had been a little premature in my eagerness 
 to clutch so beautiful a prize. She was not as yet 
 under my guns, and it was soon evident that she 
 would give me trouble before I could overhaul her. 
 The breeze was tolerably fresh, but not stiff. We 
 made sail at once in chase. Our steam had been 
 permitted to go down, as the reader has seen; and 
 as yet we had not much more than enough to turn 
 the propeller. The chase was evidently gaining on 
 us. It was some fifteen or twenty minutes before 
 the engineer had a head of steam on. We now 
 gave the ship all steam, and trimmed the sails to 
 the best possible advantage. Still the fugitive ship 
 retained her distance from us, if she didn't increase 
 it. It was the first time the Alabama had appeared 
 dull. She was under both sail and steam, and yet 
 here was a ship threatening to run away from her. 
 She must surely be out of trim. I tried, therefore, 
 the effect of getting my crew aft on the quarter- 
 deck, and shifting aft some of the forward guns. 
 This helped us visibly, and the ship sprang forward 
 with increased speed. We were now at least hold- 
 ing our own, but it was impossible to say, as yet, 
 whether we were gaining an inch. If the breeze 
 had freshened, the chase would have run from 
 us beyond all question. I watched the signs of the 
 weather anxiously. It was between nine and ten 
 o'clock A. M. Fortunately, as the sun gained power, 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 219 
 
 and drove away the mists of the morning, the breeze 
 began to decline ! Now came the triumph of steam. 
 When we had come within long range, I threw the 
 spray over the quarter-deck of the chase, with a 
 rifle-shot from my bow-chaser. Still she kept on, 
 and it was not until all hope was evidently lost, that 
 the proud clipper-ship, which had been beaten by 
 the failure of the wind, rather than the speed of 
 the Alabama, shortened sail and hove to. 
 
 "When the captain was brought on board, I con- 
 gratulated him on the skilful handling of his ship, 
 and expressed my admiration of her fine qualities. 
 He told me that she was one of the most famous 
 clipper-ships out of New York. She was the Con- 
 test, from Yokohama, in Japan, bound to New York. 
 She was light, and in fine sailing trim, having only 
 a partial cargo on board. There being no attempt 
 to cover the cargo, consisting mostly of light Jap- 
 anese goods, lacker-ware, and curiosities, I con- 
 demned both ship and cargo. I was sorry to be 
 obliged to burn this beautiful ship, and regretted 
 much that I had not an armament for her, that I 
 might commission her as a cruiser. Both ships now 
 anchored in an open sea, with no land visible, in 
 fourteen fathoms of water, whilst the crew was 
 being removed from the prize, and the necessary 
 preparations made for burning. It was after night- 
 fall before these were all completed, and the torch 
 applied. We hove up our anchor, and made sail 
 by the light of the burning ship. Having now burned 
 
220 Captain Nathaniel Brown Pahner 
 
 a ship off Caspar Strait, I turned my ship's head 
 to the eastward, with the intention of taking the 
 Carimata Strait." 
 
 Semmes valued the prize at $122,815. The 
 American claim before the Geneva Board of x\rbi- 
 tration (Vol. Ill of the Reports, p. 348) was 
 $158,465.97. In May, 1876, A. A. Low, as at- 
 torney for the owners, collected $66,994.96, "being 
 the amount due" from the sum awarded to the 
 United States for the Alabama claims, so-called. 
 From this sum commissions and attorney's fees were 
 deducted so that the owners actually received only 
 $47,465.75, of which Captain Palmer's share was 
 $5,933.22. He was the owner of four shares — 
 thirty-seconds. The Contest cost $95,000 and was 
 the most expensive clipper that Captain Palmer had 
 built. She was nevertheless a highly profitable ship 
 during her twelve years afloat. Her first cargo 
 (May, 1 851) yielded $48,000 freight. 
 
 Of the David Brown, the largest of Captain 
 Palmer's designs (1,715 tons), it may be noted that 
 she made the New York-San Francisco run during 
 1854, in 98 days. Two years later she made it in 
 103 days. In Clark's list of twenty-six clippers that 
 completed this run in less than no days the David 
 Brown stands fifth, the Sea Witch seventh, the 
 Contest eighth. The Comet, with the record of 76 
 days for the eastward run stands twenty-first in this 
 list. 
 
The Captain and His Fleet 221 
 
 In order to give an idea of the speed of the really 
 short passages among the average of the whole 
 American fleet engaged in the trade, it should be 
 noted that (Hunt's Merchants' Magazine^ Vol. 28, 
 p. 623), only twelve vessels out of 161 made the 
 passage from the East to San Francisco in less than 
 no days during 1852. Among these only two were 
 at sea less than 100 days. The Sword Fish required 
 92 days and the Flying Fish, 98. On the other hand, 
 by way of contrast, twelve vessels required more 
 than 200 days, among which the Alesto, from Bos- 
 ton, was on the way 295 days, and the John Jay, 
 from New York, 270. The average of all arrivals, 
 month by month, varied from 137.5 <^^ys i" April 
 to 161 days in November. As the total number 
 of arrivals reported was 161, only a little more than 
 7% of the vessels covered the route in less than no 
 days while only 1.2% arrived in less than 100 days. 
 
CHAPTER XIX 
 
 GOOD QUALITIES OF THE CLIPPERS CONSIDERED 
 
 THAT the swift passages of the ship Natchez 
 should have been included in all magazine 
 stories of the Yankee clippers is one of the 
 more interesting facts in the history of the clipper 
 era; for the Natchez was in all respects a type 
 the very reverse of the clippers. But of all the 
 stories ever written about the ships of the deep 
 blue sea the one that should be of most interest to 
 naval architects is that which tells how Captain 
 "Bob" Waterman drove the Natchez from New 
 York to Canton and back at the very beginning of the 
 clipper era. Indeed, the story, being brief, might 
 well be printed in bold type on cardboard and hung 
 on the wall of every school room used for instruct- 
 ing youths who would learn to design ships. 
 
 The Natchez was built in 1831 by Isaac Webb, 
 for the Collins-New York and New Orleans packet 
 line. In those days the water in the passes of the 
 Mississippi was always shallow and every vessel 
 trading regularly to New Orleans was built with a 
 broad beam and relatively little depth. Because no 
 such a model was supposed to be speedy, the hulls 
 were designed to carry the utmost amount of cargo 
 
 222 
 
Good Qualities of the Clippers Considered 223 
 
 possible, and that is to say the ends were as blunt 
 as any afloat; for cotton was the most important 
 item in the cargo and the hold of the ship was 
 crammed full of it, the final bales in each tier being 
 forced in with big screws. 
 
 In short, the Natchez had a model comparable 
 with that of an Erie canal boat. One writer, speak- 
 ing of her as she appeared in 1843, called her an 
 "old flat-floored cotton wagon." Note that she was 
 especially old, for the best of ships were reduced 
 in grade for insurance purposes at the age of ten, 
 and the Natchez was then twelve years old. 
 
 However, in 1843 Howland & Aspinwall took 
 over the Natchez, placed her under the command of 
 Captain Robert H. Waterman and sent her to Can- 
 ton for tea. Captain Bob, as he was called by a 
 great host of friends, had made a splendid reputa- 
 tion as a mate in the Black Ball packet line. He 
 was now to have a remarkable career in the China 
 trade. Taking the Natchez to Canton he loaded 
 tea and brought it home in a passage of 94 days, 
 a length of time which was exactly equaled, but 
 never excelled by the celebrated clipper Flying 
 Cloud. 
 
 In 1844, Captain Waterman took the Natchez 
 by way of the west coast of South America to 
 Hong Kong, where he arrived in the short time 
 of 133 days of sailing. He then took on tea, and 
 on January 15, 1845, 01* about the day when the 
 clipper Rainbow was launched, he sailed for New 
 
224 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 York. He was off the Cape of Good Hope In 39 
 days and on April 3, just 78 days from Canton, he 
 arrived In New York. 
 
 "This whole passage," says Clark, "was most re- 
 markable, as the Natchez had established the reputa- 
 tion of being an uncommonly slow ship." 
 
 It Is Intimated In some of the magazine stories, 
 as said, that Howland & Asplnwall built their second 
 China clipper, the Sea JVitch, because of the ad- 
 mirable work of their first clipper, the Rainbow. 
 The truth Is they built the Sea JVitch because of the 
 marvelous work of Captain Waterman with the 
 Natchez; but they built her to the plans of Griffiths 
 because of the success of the Rainbow. In fact, when 
 the sail plan of the Sea JVitch was drawn Griffiths 
 consulted frequently with Captain Waterman. When 
 building the Sea JVitch her owners argued that if 
 Captain Waterman could bring the "old flat-floored 
 cotton wagon" home In 78 days he could lower that 
 record by something memorable with the new Grif- 
 fiths clipper. 
 
 And so he did by something most memorable — 
 eventually. The Sea Witch sailed on her first voyage 
 to China on December 23, 1846, and arrived at 
 Hong Kong In 104 days, or twenty more than was 
 required by the Houqua in her first voyage. She 
 sailed from Canton for New York on July 25, 1847, 
 and arrived In 81 days, or three more than had been 
 required by the "old, flat-floored cotton wagon." 
 
 However, a day of glory was to come with the 
 
Good Qualities of the Clippers Considered 225 
 
 second voyage. The Sea Witch made the run out 
 to Hong Kong In 105 days and then, on November 
 7, 1847, sailed for New York on a passage never 
 equaled either before or since. She was expected 
 to lower the record of the Natchez to a memorable 
 extent, and as said she did. She arrived in New 
 York in 77 days. She lowered the record of the 
 "old cotton wagon," in a race 14,000 miles long, 
 by just one day. In two subsequent voyages she 
 came home in 79 and 81 days respectively. She 
 was thus unable to equal the record of the Natchez 
 on these runs. 
 
 Of course all four of her passages were marvelous 
 examples of speed but in view of the Natchezes 
 "well-earned reputation of being an uncommonly 
 slow ship" is it unfair to suggest that the ability of 
 Captain Waterman had quite as much to do with the 
 speed record of the Sea Witch as did her model? 
 Moreover, since the Rainbow never equaled the 
 record of the Natchez, is it not manifest that the 
 model of the Rainbow and the Sea Witch had much 
 less influence upon the development of the clippers 
 than modern writers have been disposed to assert? 
 
 Because the record of the Natchez has never been 
 equaled by any other Canton trader than the Sea 
 Witch, and because it was surpassed by the run of 
 this extremely sharp ship by only one day, the in- 
 fluence of the shape of a hull upon speed may well 
 have consideration here. What shape of hull is 
 best adapted for speedy passages between ports that 
 
226 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 are far apart? Griffiths's whole theory of shape 
 was expressed in his description of the Lightning 
 {Nautical Magazine, Vol. II, p. 9), already quoted. 
 
 "Very great stability; acute extremities; full, 
 short midship body; comparatively small deadrise, 
 and the longest end forward, are points in the ex- 
 cellence of this ship." 
 
 By acute extremities he meant the use of hollow 
 water lines and his expression "the longest end for- 
 ward" indicated that the greatest breadth of beam 
 was placed abaft the midlength section. 
 
 Were the hollow water lines as advantageous as 
 Griffiths, Steers and McKay supposed they were? 
 Evidently McKay came to have doubt in the matter 
 because he gave the Lightning very deep hollows, 
 but the bows of the Great Republic, the pride of 
 his life, "were wedge like, being slightly concave 
 below water and convex above, with much sameness 
 in shape," to quote the description written by 
 Griffiths in the Nautical Magazine. 
 
 More important than the views of McKay in this 
 matter, however, is the modern practice In modeling 
 hulls for speed only. The yacht America had hollow 
 waterlines, but the modern defenders of her famous 
 cup, beginning with the Vigilant, have all had what 
 has been called spoon-shaped bows. The hollow 
 waterline was abandoned as a detriment to speed. 
 
 As to the location of the greatest breadth of 
 
Good Qualities of the Clippers Considered 227 
 
 beam — whether forward or abaft the midlength sec- 
 tion — an inspection of the records of the swiftest 
 American ships shows that some "with the longest 
 end forward," like the Lightning, have been ex- 
 ceedingly swift and some like the Liverpool packet 
 Dreadnought, have had "the longest end" aft. The 
 Dreadnoughts widest section was three feet for- 
 ward of the beam; the Lightning^ s eight feet abaft. 
 
 This Is not to argue that one model Is as good 
 as another. What we need to learn Is the features 
 of the clippers which gave them great speed, and 
 but little inquiry Is needed to show that the relative 
 dimensions were of much more importance than any 
 peculiarity of shape. 
 
 An examination of the Palmer hulls Is interesting 
 in connection with this discussion. The Houqua 
 was 132 feet long by 32 wide and 17 deep. She 
 was a little more than four times as long as she 
 was broad. The Oriental was 185 feet long by 36 
 broad and 21 deep. She was therefore five times 
 as long as she was broad. When designing the 
 Houqua the captain was venturing into a new field 
 and he was therefore conservative In his model. The 
 relation of length to beam was that found in some 
 older cargo ships. Later experience led him to make 
 his models relatively longer. 
 
 An examination of the known proportions of the 
 famous clippers shows that most of them were 
 around five times as long as they were broad. Some 
 were longer. The Flying Cloud and the Lightning 
 
2 28 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 were about five and a half times as long as they 
 were broad, the Sovereign of the Seas was nearly 
 six times, and the Great Republic was more than 
 six times as long as she was broad. The Sea TVitch^ 
 the Oriental, the Lightning, were swift because, first 
 of all, their dimensions were well proportioned. 
 
 In this feature the clipper models were a distinct 
 departure from previous models. Dana's "Seaman's 
 Friend" describes the Damascus built at Boston in 
 1839. She was 4.6 times as long as she was broad. 
 The Rajah was of about the same proportions. Two 
 British men-o'-war described were still wider. One 
 was but 3.2 times as long as she was broad and the 
 other 3.13. 
 
 A relatively long hull enabled the designer to give 
 his model long wedges at the bow and stern, and 
 every backwoodsman knows that a long wedge is 
 easier to drive than a short one. 
 
 It may be noted that the Houqua was relatively 
 shallow; she was a "skimming dish!" Her speed 
 was due to this feature, one may suppose, for a shoal 
 depth makes for speed, as the America's cup races 
 have proved. 
 
 Undoubtedly the most important feature of the 
 clipper was her sail plan. The masts and yards were 
 relatively enormous. Large sails meant great 
 power, but it was not alone in spreading much can- 
 vas to storm winds that the clippers exceeded all 
 other ships. For the lofty spreads of light canvas 
 — skysails and royal studdingsails — caught many a 
 
Good Qualities of the Clippers Considered 229 
 
 vagrant breeze and carried the clippers swiftly across 
 the doldrums between trade-winds areas when the 
 ordinary ships lay rolling idly for weeks at a stretch. 
 
 The Damascus, mentioned above, was 32 feet 
 wide. Her main yard was 60 feet long — less than 
 twice her width. The Stacji Hound was 40 feet wide 
 and carried a main yard 86 feet long. The Great 
 Republic was 53 feet wide and was originally pro- 
 vided with a main yard 120 feet long. 
 
 Furthermore the clippers carried sails which were 
 proportioned to the masts in such a way as to give 
 a balance; with all plain sail set the ship would 
 "steer herself," as the sailors used to say. It was 
 because the canvas on the TV. B. Palmer was per- 
 fectly balanced, fore and aft, that Captain Low was 
 able to take her to her wharf at San Francisco under 
 canvas when the pilot refused to do so. 
 
 Perhaps the feature of Captain Palmer's clippers 
 which made the strongest appeal to the owners of 
 the day was their strength. When designing a ship 
 for speed the size of the timbers used in the framing 
 had to be adjusted to suit the strains on the hull. 
 The rock maple keel, the white-oak ribs and the 
 long-leaf pine beams, were all heavy and expensive. 
 The builders were tempted to scamp the size of all 
 these timbers in order to save both weight and 
 money, and many yielded to the temptation. Hav- 
 ing been built with scamped timbers some ships de- 
 signed as clippers were hogged — their backs were 
 broken — when they were launched. The hulls of 
 
230 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 others were drawn out of shape by the pressure of 
 the waves when they were driven hard against a 
 gale. The tremendous pressure of the masts on the 
 keel, when a ship was straining under a press of 
 canvas, sometimes drove the keel down until the 
 garboard strake seams were opened, creating leaks 
 which spoiled the cargo and even sank the ship. The 
 pull of the shrouds sometimes drew the bolts which 
 held the lower fittings of the shrouds to the sides 
 of the hull and sometimes opened the seams on the 
 sides. The same strain frequently wrecked the too- 
 slender masts and yards. 
 
 The experience of the Houqua during a cyclone 
 which overtook her on the Indian Ocean, soon after 
 midnight on January i6, 1848, shows at least that 
 she was built to endure the worst. The wind was 
 so powerful that within seven hours after it came, 
 all furled as well as all reefed sails had been blown 
 in small bits from the yards and spanker boom. Not 
 a rag was left. The pressure of the wind on the bare 
 jibboom not only broke that spar off in the bowsprit 
 cap, but It carried away the weather cathead to which 
 the jib and flying jib guys were set up. All three 
 topgallant masts followed. At 9 In the forenoon 
 the ship entered the quiet area In the centre of the 
 cyclone and the crew cleared away the wreckage 
 aloft. But at noon the wind came again with such 
 force that It was impossible to stand up on deck and 
 all hands gathered at the main rigging save only 
 
Good Qualities of the Clippers Considered 231 
 
 the man who was at the wheel. The barometer 
 stood at 27.5. 
 
 At 4 P. M. the crew saw an almost solid mass of 
 spoondrift coming with the wind. It was about 30 
 feet high, and when it struck the ship it formed, 
 for a moment, an arch over the deck beneath which 
 the mainmast was visible though the top was in- 
 visible. With that the Houqua turned over until 
 her tops were in the water alee and the deck was 
 perpendicular. 
 
 Captain Low, who was in command, fell into the 
 sea, but he caught a flying rope and climbed up to 
 the main pin rail. There, by motions, he directed 
 the crew to cut away the main rigging while the man 
 from the wheel, who had escaped to the mizzen rig- 
 ging, cut the shroud lanyards there. The masts at 
 once went overboard and the ship righted. Mean- 
 time, of course, the deck had been swept clean and 
 so much water had poured down the cabin and the 
 forecastle scuttles that the hull was half full. 
 
 But when the wind had moderated and the crew 
 had pumped the water out they found the hull as 
 tight and sound as ever, and she sailed 3>500 miles 
 under a jury rig to Hong Kong. It was after this 
 tremendous strain that she made her record pas- 
 sage from Shanghai to New York. 
 
 The final test of a design for speed was in the 
 ability of the ship to endure all strains in a storm 
 wind. 
 
232 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Perhaps the influence of size upon speed has not 
 been sufficiently considered in the clipper records. 
 All yacht clubs have rules under which the large 
 yachts give time allowances to small ones, but even 
 with the best of these rules the large yacht has yet 
 an advantage. A race between a seventy-foot chal- 
 lenger for the America's cup and a ninety-foot 
 defender is simply unthinkable. But the record of 
 the Samuel Russell, of 940 tons, is compared with 
 that of the Sovereign of the Seas, measuring 2,421 
 tons. 
 
 Confessedly when the peculiarities of the clippers 
 are considered in the light of present-day knowledge 
 it is manifest that naval architecture was not then 
 an exact science, and it is not an exact science even 
 now. Naval architects make calculations and draw 
 plans for each ship. Then they build a six-foot 
 model which they tow to and fro in a big tank built 
 for the purpose, and measure the strain on the tow 
 line with care. Next they begin to scrape away the 
 underwater body of the model, here and there, to 
 learn what alteration of shape is needed to reduce 
 the strain — to increase the speed, in other words. 
 We are yet designing ships by the rule-o'-thumb. 
 
 If the records of the Palmer clippers are consid- 
 ered all together it appears that each led to the 
 building of another because all were profitable; and 
 all became noted, not through the use of any one 
 peculiar feature of build or outfit, but as a result 
 of continuous good work. Every passage was made 
 
Good Qualities of the Clippers Considered 233 
 
 at a satisfactory speed and the cargoes were de- 
 livered in good order. So long as they were in 
 service it was said of them all, except the Houqua, 
 that they "did not cost the underwriters a cent." 
 
 The all-around efficiency of these ships should be 
 emphasized in any story of the clipper era, because 
 something more than a swift passage or two was 
 needed to induce the ship merchants everywhere 
 alongshore to undertake the building of "fast ves- 
 sels for foreign trade," to use Griffiths's words. 
 Something more was needed, that is to say, to de- 
 velop the "clipper era." Donald McKay did not 
 get his order to build the Stag Hound (the first clip- 
 per built in Boston) until 1850 — until four years 
 after the Rainbow had made her second voyage to 
 Canton, and two years after the Sea Witch, "the 
 swiftest clipper of her day," had broken the record 
 of the "old cotton wagon," Natchez. Boston mer- 
 chants knew all about these records, but they had 
 not been convinced by the short passages that sharp- 
 built ships were more desirable than others. Before 
 they would order clippers it was necessary to show 
 them that the sharp-built ships had records for mak- 
 ing more money than the ships they already owned. 
 The Palmer ships, built for the conservative firm 
 of A. A. Low & Brothers, were furnishing just such 
 records. They were the most profitable ships in 
 the China trade — that is, they yielded the highest 
 per cent of profit — though the Griffiths ships were 
 only a little behind them; and it was just when these 
 
234 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 profits became fully known alongshore that the ex- 
 traordinary demand for swift ships, to carry cargo 
 to California at $1.50 per cubic foot of space, arose. 
 The Boston merchants did not order clippers for 
 fear of losing their tea trade, nor to pose as the 
 owners of the swiftest ships in the China trade, but 
 to get a share of a transportation business wherein 
 the freight rate was $60 per measured ton. They 
 did not intend "to enter the lists with Messrs. Aspin- 
 wall, Captain N. B. Palmer, and others, and dispute 
 for the palm of speed." They did not build as a 
 sporting proposition even though thousands of dol- 
 lars were wagered on the flyers when racing from 
 port to port. The clipper era was developed by 
 men who were animated solely by the motive now 
 so often stigmatized as greed. 
 
 Working as contemporaries but not as rivals. 
 Captain Palmer and John Willis Griffiths developed 
 two styles of sharp-built ships, both of which were 
 great money makers. The era of the clipper was 
 originated when Palmer and Griffiths built the 
 Houqiia and the Rainbow. The climax was reached 
 when the ships of Donald McKay and of Captain 
 Palmer were earning gross sums in single passages 
 equal to and commonly exceeding the original costs 
 of the vessels. The business depression, which fol- 
 lowed the California inflation, reduced the freight 
 rate to $10 per ton in the New York-San Francisco 
 trade, and bluff models were seen once more in the 
 shipyards. 
 
Good Qualities of the Clippers Considered 235 
 
 Observe, now, that in his description of the Stag 
 Hound, previously quoted, Griffiths wrote as fol- 
 lows: 
 
 "The construction of this ship may be said to 
 mark the introduction of the late clipper era at 
 Boston." 
 
 The era which was begun by the building of the 
 Houqua and the Rainbow, 1 843-1 845, was called 
 "the late clipper era" in 1855 — it was then passing 
 away. Why it passed — why the splendid ships 
 which had outsailed all others and made a reputa- 
 tion as lasting as the history of the sea — failed 
 at last, shall be told in another chapter. 
 
CHAPTER XX 
 
 THE "great republic" REBUILT 
 
 AN interesting little side light on the character 
 of Captain Palmer is found in the list of 
 names given to the ships he designed. The 
 names Hoiiqua, Samuel Russell, Oriental and N. B. 
 Palmer were such as conservative merchants were 
 then in the habit of giving ships. The Boston names 
 of the most famous clippers were Stag Hound, 
 Flying Cloud, Sovereign of the Seas, Chariot of 
 Fame and Great Republic — a somewhat boastful 
 list. 
 
 The last named ship was the largest of the clip- 
 per fleet, and the largest ship of the sail ever built 
 of wood. She is of special interest here because, 
 through a vagary of fortune common enough in the 
 annals of the sea, she came into the possession of 
 Captain Palmer. 
 
 To give the story of this ship the right focus it 
 is necessary to recall first the trade between eastern 
 United States ports and San Francisco, after the 
 discovery (Jan. 24, 1848) of placer gold in Cali- 
 fornia. When the news of this discovery was 
 officially confirmed a vast host of people hastened 
 with all possible speed to the new diggings. The 
 
 236 
 
The ''Great Republic'' Rebuilt 237 
 
 congestion of people at San Francisco raised the 
 prices of commodities to an extraordinary height. 
 On July I, 1849, lumber worth $12 per thousand 
 In New York sold for $500 In San Francisco. Eggs 
 sold for $2 a dozen. Fowls were $4 each and all 
 other commodity prices were comparable with these. 
 The profits on a cargo of general merchandise 
 shipped from New York to San Francisco, at that 
 time, were so great that the demand for swift ships 
 of the largest size exceeded any ever before known 
 In the nation. This demand continued for several 
 years, and sea capitalists built for the trade with all 
 speed. In 1851 a large number of ships were 
 launched which measured from 1,500 to 1,800 tons, 
 or an average of 500 tons larger than the large ships 
 of previous years. A year later several ships 
 measuring above 2,000 tons were built with profit 
 for the owners, the largest of these, the Sovereign 
 of the Seas, measuring 2,421 tons. This ship was 
 built by Donald McKay of Boston on his own ac- 
 count, because no one was to be found who would 
 invest in a vessel as large as she was. McKay's 
 friends seriously warned him that bankruptcy would 
 follow, but when she was put in commission she 
 proved to be the most profitable ship of the whole 
 clipper fleet of the day. 
 
 It was the success of the Sovereign of the Seas 
 along with the prevailing optimism in business 
 circles — especially the prevailing optimism — that 
 led, in 1853, to the building of the Great Republic. 
 
238 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 If certain characteristics of this ship be consid- 
 ered it is seen that her name was appropriate; for 
 she was in several respects like the American nation. 
 First of all, she was thoroughly well framed and 
 put together. Her backbone — the assemblage of 
 timbers at her keel — was nine feet, ten inches deep, 
 from the top of the riding keelson to the bottom 
 of the shoe, and the breadth of this assemblage was 
 commensurate with the depth. She had bilge keel- 
 sons which were larger than the keels of many big 
 clippers. The scarfs of the timbers were long, the 
 coags big and numerous, the bolts, whether of cop- 
 per or iron, were of unusual dimensions. Finally the 
 frames were diagonally cross-braced with iron straps 
 four inches wide and an inch thick. In her construc- 
 tion she was as far superior to all sailing ships of 
 that day as the fundamentals of the America^ 
 nation were superior to those of all other nations. 
 
 Then, while some critics, including Designer 
 Griffiths, thought she lacked beauty, they all agreed 
 that she was built for speed and carrying capacity. 
 Her spread of canvas was in fact simply enormous, 
 and in proportion far beyond the usual spread. 
 Thus her main yard was 120 feet long to a breadth 
 of hull of ^2 feet, or 14 feet more than the naval 
 rule allowed in making the sail plan of swift frigates. 
 
 Her bulk was especially comparable with that of 
 the nation. She was 325 feet long on the upper 
 deck, and that was 125 feet longer than the deck of 
 the clipper Aurora, a vessel of the average size in 
 
The *'Great Republic** Rebuilt 239 
 
 the trade during 1854. She measured 4,555 tons, 
 and her capacity was 6,000 tons. She was of such 
 immense size that neither owners nor agents could 
 fill her; and a fanciful writer has compared the vast 
 empty space in her hull to the wide vacant land 
 spaces then existing in the nation. There was some- 
 thing of the "spread-eagle" in the attitude of her 
 designer, as there was in the attitude of all good 
 Yankees in those days. 
 
 When completed the Great Republic was brought 
 to New York and partly loaded for Liverpool, 
 where she was to be put into the trade to Australia. 
 But just before she was ready to sail (December 26, 
 1853) a fire which originated in a nearby warehouse 
 set her on fire aloft, for that was the day of tarred 
 rigging. The firemen flinched when asked to save 
 her, her spars and upper deck were destroyed, and 
 she was sunk at the pier. She was then abandoned 
 to the underwriters (she had been insured for 
 $400,000), and the underwriters in due course sold 
 her at auction, "as is and where is." Captain 
 Palmer bought her, as she lay on the bottom beside 
 the pier, for A. A. Low & Brothers. To show his 
 standing with this firm it may be told that none of 
 the members knew what he was doing until he went 
 to the office and announced the purchase. Mr. A. 
 A. Low at once confirmed the transaction. The cap- 
 tain took a sixteenth interest in the hulk. 
 
 Of course the captain had bid her in at a low 
 price. She was raised and towed to the shipyard 
 
240 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 of Sneeden & Whitlock, Greenpoint, where she was 
 rebuilt as a razee, to use the naval term. She was 
 rebuilt, without her original upper deck, at a total 
 cost of $27,000. 
 
 The original figurehead, by the way, was a beau- 
 tifully-carved head of an eagle, covered with gold 
 leaf. Captain Palmer saved it and took it to Ston- 
 ington, where It may now be seen in the public 
 library. The razee had no figurehead. 
 
 In her new form the Great Republic was still much 
 larger than any ship of the sail afloat, for she meas- 
 ured 3,355 tons and had a capacity of something 
 more than 4,000 tons. 
 
 Reducing the depth of hold was only one of the 
 alterations made in the Great Republic. Thus the 
 new main yard was only 90 feet long as compared 
 with the original, 120 feet long, a reduction of 25%. 
 The masts were also shortened, of course. This 
 was done to reduce the number of men required. 
 
 A novelty in the outfit of the big ship was a steam 
 engine installed on deck and connected with handy 
 winches, fore and aft. American shipbuilders had 
 led the world theretofore in adopting such labor- 
 saving devices as blocks with roller bearings, im- 
 proved windlasses and "patent" steering gear, but 
 the use of steam to save human muscle was an 
 improvement in advance of the day. The practical 
 result of all the changes made by Captain Palmer 
 in this rebuilt ship was a reduction in the number of 
 men required from 100 to 50. 
 
The ''Great Republic'' Rebuilt 241 
 
 On February 21, 1855, Captain Palmer sent the 
 Great Republic to sea, bound for London, with 
 3,000 tons of guano in her hold "for ballast." She 
 ran to the coast of England in twelve days, and 
 Admiral Preble, in his interesting account of this 
 vessel, printed in the United States Service Maga- 
 zine, recalls the fact that she sailed 412 miles in 24 
 consecutive hours while on the way. If she was able 
 to sail at that speed under a main yard 90 feet long, 
 what might she have done if equally well handled 
 under her original main yard 120 feet long? 
 
 The ship was consigned to the London firm of 
 W. S. Lindsay & Co., shipbrokers and merchants 
 of the highest standing, the head of the firm being 
 the historian whose work has been quoted herein. 
 Referring to her (Vol. Ill, p. 359), Lindsay wrote: 
 
 "She made the passage to Scilly Islands in thir- 
 teen days, beating up the channel thence in three 
 days to the Downs. But on her arrival in London 
 . . . I found her much too large to be employed 
 profitably in any of the ordinary channels of com- 
 merce; and had not the French Government, then 
 in want of transports for the Crimean War, been 
 induced by the large space she afforded for the con- 
 veyance of troops, to engage her for this purpose, 
 she must have remained, long after her arrival, 
 unemployed." 
 
 Lindsay & Co. wrote so discouragingly about the 
 employment of the big ship that the owners sent 
 
242 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 Captain Palmer to London to see what he could do 
 with her. Just how he managed the business is not 
 now a matter of record, but the Nautical Magazine 
 (Vol. II, p. 569) reported that the French Govern- 
 ment had chartered her for use as a transport (as 
 Lindsay also notes), to carry soldiers and supplies 
 from French ports to the Crimea, where war pre- 
 vailed. The price received by the owners was 
 twenty shillings net per ton register per month. For 
 his part of the task of securing this profitable char- 
 ter the Lows gave Captain Palmer $2,500. 
 
 In 1857 the Great Republic was sent from New 
 York to San Francisco with a cargo that yielded, 
 according to one report, a freight of $160,000. It 
 was in her passage to the west that she made the 
 record run between Sandy Hook and the Equator — 
 16 days. She arrived at San Francisco in 92 days. 
 As was noted at the time, she never had the luck 
 to find a driving gale that lasted for any great length 
 of time. Lieut. M. F. Maury, of the Washington 
 Naval Observatory, whose wind charts were of such 
 great value to seamen, said that if this ship had 
 been able to sail over a route in the far south where 
 the strong winds found by the Sovereign of the Seas 
 prevail, she would have exceeded all records, even 
 with her reduced sail area. 
 
 During the Civil War she was in the employ of 
 the Federal Government. In 1869 she was sold in 
 Liverpool and Clark notes that she foundered "off 
 Bermuda" in 1872. 
 
CHAPTER XXI 
 
 HAIL AND FAREWELL 
 
 AS designed, the Great Republic was the most 
 splendid wooden merchant ship ever built, 
 even though too large for profit at that 
 period. That an eager ambition to excel — that 
 pride founded on previous achievement and buoyant 
 optimism — should have produced such a ship was 
 natural and perhaps inevitable. But if rightly seen 
 the result was worth the cost. The patriot's blood 
 is stirred as he reads the description of her huge 
 hull, her extraordinary framing, and, above all, her 
 tremendous spread of canvas; and he is glad that 
 the enthusiasm needed for the production of a ship 
 like her was found in an American builder. 
 
 It is interesting to observe, too, that the conserva- 
 tive Captain Palmer had the optimism to invest in 
 this last and greatest ship of her class. He saw 
 clearly that, as designed, she was much too large 
 for the going cargoes, for he was careful, when re- 
 building her, to provide for a great reduction in 
 the number of her crew. When he substituted a 
 90-foot main yard for one that had been 120 feet 
 long, he calculated that while the ship would carry 
 almost as much cargo as any two of the ordinary 
 
 243 
 
244 Captain Nathaniel Brown Painter 
 
 clippers afloat she would require few more men in 
 her crew than one of them. There was a solid 
 foundation for his optimism. 
 
 One can believe, too, that when he was rebuilding 
 her he was animated by an unexpressed ambition. 
 It would be a notable achievement to make a profit- 
 able ship out of this magnificent monster. Perhaps, 
 too, as he recalled his work in creating the first of 
 the clippers, he dimly realized that the Great Re- 
 public was the culminant, the predominant ship of 
 the famous fleet, and that this feeling moved him to 
 buy her at the auction. At any rate he was, in later 
 years, honestly proud of having been a leader 
 among clipper owners at the end, as well as at 
 the beginning, of the wonderful era. 
 
 In connection with the story of the Great Republic 
 it is interesting to recall the fact that the English 
 were also building a ship, in those days, which was 
 much too large for the available traffic — the steam- 
 ship Great Eastern — the keel of which was laid on 
 May I, 1854. She and the Great Republic were 
 contemporary exhibits of excessive optimism, but the 
 British ship occupies a position in the history of the 
 sea far different from that of the big clipper. For 
 she was a sporadic growth in the evolution of a new 
 and more efficient type where the American ship was 
 a final specimen of a type doomed to disappear. 
 
 The fact that the ship of the sail was to be re- 
 placed in all trades by a new type is a matter of 
 especial interest here, because of Captain Palmer^s 
 
Hail and Farewell 245 
 
 connection with the contest between the two types. 
 Accordingly, a brief consideration of the evolution 
 of the deep-water steamship must be given. In 
 1838 I. K. Brunei, chief engineer of the Great West- 
 ern Railroad, in England, sent the steamship Great 
 Western from Bristol to New York (April 7-23), 
 and demonstrated that a steamship could earn a 
 profit in the transatlantic trade; for this voyage 
 yielded a profit and the ship continued to make profit- 
 able voyages for years thereafter In spite of the 
 opposition of another British line which received a 
 substantial subsidy for carrying the mails. 
 
 It Is Important to observe next that the early 
 steamships were run in opposition to our packets 
 and not to our clippers. The clippers were in the 
 long-haul trade and made their whole magnificent 
 career after the steamships had begun their contest 
 for supremacy in the North Atlantic. The Houqua 
 was launched nearly six years after the first voyage 
 of the Great Western steamship was made. 
 
 Note further that the steamships served the 
 American packet ships precisely as the packets had 
 served the preceding ships — they provided a more 
 regular and dependable service. The American 
 packets for a time made contracts with shippers by 
 which they agreed to deliver cargo in Liverpool 
 ahead of the steamships, under a penalty of a great 
 reduction In the freight rate, but they could not 
 make a similar contract for the passage to New 
 York and succeed. The steamships could and did 
 
246 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 announce in advance the days on which they would 
 depart and those on which they would arrive, 
 whether east bound or west bound, and they made 
 good the promise. So they rapidly secured the high- 
 class freights and the passenger traffic. 
 
 Efficiency won the contest and that is a statement 
 which American ship owners need to keep in mind. 
 
 When American ship owners saw the trend of the 
 business, they sought to go into steam, but they failed 
 for several substantial reasons. The British had 
 had long experience in navigating the stormy waters 
 of Europe with steamships. They had a well- 
 developed iron business where America had none. 
 The iron as well as the copper bolts with which the 
 famous Yankee clippers were fastened, were im- 
 ported; and when the Yankee built steamships he 
 imported much of the iron work. Then, too, the 
 Yankee was handicapped by the success he had had 
 in building inland-water steamers, for he tried to 
 use the kind of engines which had succeeded on the 
 inland vessel, but found them unadapted for deep 
 water. 
 
 Worst of all, the Yankee continued to use wood 
 for the hull while the British turned to iron, and he 
 used paddle wheels while the British adopted the 
 screw propeller. The critical period of the contest 
 between American and British shipping on the North 
 Atlantic came in 1850, when a line of iron packets, 
 driven by the screw propeller, was established be- 
 tween Philadelphia and Liverpool. From the build- 
 
Hail and Farewell 247 
 
 ing of Palmer's packet ship Roscius to the rebuild- 
 ing of the Great Republic there was absolutely no 
 development, or say, no evolution in the ship of the 
 sail. But the substitution of the screw for the 
 paddle wheel, meantime, was a development amount- 
 ing to a revolution; and in the meantime, too, each 
 new steamship carried minor improvements in many 
 features. The art of building ships of the sail had 
 culminated; the art of building steamships was in its 
 infancy; and yet these infant-class steamships were 
 more efficient than any ship of the sail in the Liver- 
 pool trade. The clipper era came after the superior 
 efficiency of steam on the North Atlantic had been 
 demonstrated; and with the further evolution of 
 steam the proud and beautiful ship of the sail was 
 speedily driven from all trades. 
 
 The attitude of American ship designers and 
 capitalists, among whom Captain Palmer was a 
 leader, is very well set forth in the periodicals of 
 the day. In the Nautical Magazine of August, 
 1857, the editor considered the question, 'Which is 
 the Best Material for Ship Building — Wood or 
 Iron?" Rewrote: 
 
 "Those who have tested both wood and Iron know 
 wood to be the best. . . . The English shipbuilding 
 iron Is unfit for building vessels. We know this from 
 personal experience. ... In reference to the se- 
 curity of the shaft In the sternpost, we do not hesi- 
 tate to say . . . that we can furnish greater security 
 
248 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 ... in a wooden vessel than our transatlantic 
 friends can in an iron vessel as now built." 
 
 In the editor's view the current talk about the 
 superiority of iron was heard only because "English 
 influence is endeavoring to destroy the value of our 
 forests and to increase the value of her mines." 
 
 In "A Cyclopedia of Commerce," issued by 
 Harper & Brother in 1858, is the following on page 
 1706: 
 
 "It is probable that in the end" the steamships 
 "will engross the greater part of the coasting trade 
 of most countries and of the trade between countries 
 adjacent to each other. But the improved class of 
 sailing ships have little to fear from the competition 
 of steamers in the more distant branches of trade." 
 
 In short, American shipping people could not see 
 the trend of sea transportation. 
 
 Captain Palmer's opinion of iron as a material for 
 shipbuilding has been preserved in a record at 
 Stonington, as follows: 
 
 "When he was in Liverpool with the Siddons the 
 English shipbuilders were discussing iron ships, and 
 Captain Nat laughed at them. He looked at the 
 iron plate and said he could fire a musket ball 
 through it; that with an old gun he had he could sink 
 any of their iron ships. A wager was instantly 
 made that he could not make his words good. The 
 
Hail and Farewell 249 
 
 iron plate was put in position and with an old 
 musket he fired a ball through it." 
 
 It was commonly believed in America that iron 
 was unfit for shipbuilding because it was thus easily 
 punctured. It was frequently said that if any acci- 
 dent happened to an iron ship at sea she would drop 
 from under the feet of the crew while they were 
 crossing the deck to the lifeboats. The fact that 
 the iron ship Great Britain had remained on the 
 rocks on the coast of Ireland, all one winter, and was 
 then hauled off and fully repaired at small expense, 
 was ignored. 
 
 The fact that Captain Palmer and others looked 
 on without concern while the British were develop- 
 ing their iron shipping seems, at first thought, aston- 
 ishing and even astounding. But when this apathy 
 is well considered it is understandable. It was due 
 to the bent of mind naturally developed in the sailor 
 of the sail. For the man who had designed, built, 
 and launched such ships as the Houqua and the 
 Samitel Russell, and had then driven them by fair 
 winds and through foul gales to record achieve- 
 ments, could look upon the slobbering, crashing, 
 stinking steamship with no other feeling than dis- 
 gust. The sailor of the sail was in his every fiber 
 and instinct an artist. 
 
 Nevertheless, Captain Palmer did try his hand at 
 it. He bought an interest in one built for the Black 
 Ball Line and took command of her on her first voy- 
 
250 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 age. He tried thus to adapt himself to the new 
 system of transportation, but one trial was enough. 
 On his return to New York he left the ship and 
 soon after retired from active work at sea alto- 
 gether. 
 
 With the rebuilding of the Great Republic the 
 story of Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer, in his 
 work of giving American shipping a dominating 
 influence on all seas, comes to an end. Nevertheless, 
 a few brief sketches — pictures — of his life in retire- 
 ment should prove of interest. He was one of the 
 able seamen who established the New York Yacht 
 Club, and while he lived he was active in promoting 
 its interests. That he had an inborn love for sailing 
 in small boats as well as merchant ships was shown 
 during his second voyage to Canton in the Houqua, 
 when his wife and a niece were with him. For he 
 rigged one of the quarter boats with sails and then 
 took his wife and niece, and any guest that hap- 
 pened to come to the ship, for all-day exploring 
 expeditions around the river, above and below 
 Whampoa. Having given the best years of his 
 business career to designing swift ships of the sail, 
 he found no more congenial work for his hours of 
 leisure than the designing, building and sailing of 
 pleasure ships. It is remembered that he thus pro- 
 duced seventeen different yachts. The famous 
 schooner yacht Palmer was named for him. 
 
 When sailing his yachts, whether in the races of 
 the New York Yacht Club or in cruising along 
 shore, he always carried a few of the boys of Ston- 
 
Hail and Farewell 251 
 
 ington. Some who were thus favored recall now 
 that he not only taught them the arts of handling 
 canvas, but he provided for them experiences which 
 cultivated such mental qualities as energy, endurance 
 and persistence. 
 
 Thus, it is related that when he sailed from Ston- 
 ington for Saybrook, one day, with such a crew on 
 board, the wind sagged just as he was entering the 
 river, and the tide began to ebb. The yacht lost 
 headway and then began to drift. Thereupon the 
 boys were put in a yawl, with a line to the yacht, in 
 order to tow her in ; and they were kept towing until 
 they succeeded, although it took them nearly all 
 night to do it. They thought they were "in hard 
 luck" at the time, but later they were thankful for a 
 lesson in persistence — as a record shows. 
 
 All outdoor sports appealed to the captain, and 
 he was especially fond of shooting. Having pro- 
 vided his crew with wild fowl among the islands on 
 the Antarctic coast, he renewed his youth by shoot- 
 ing coots on Long Island Sound and ducks and geese 
 on the Currituck Sound. For he was an active mem- 
 ber of the Currituck Club, a famous organization of 
 sportsmen in his day. 
 
 Hale and hearty, gentle and kindly, and with an 
 optimistic outlook on life which was founded upon 
 a sincere faith in the Christian religion as taught 
 by the Episcopal creed, he grew old slowly. Noth- 
 ing ever deeply marred his life until he lost his wife 
 in 1872, but he died at last of a broken heart. After 
 the death of his wife he became devoted to a 
 
252 Captain Nathaniel Brown Palmer 
 
 nephew, who had been named for him, the son of 
 his brother Alexander. The boy became afflicted 
 with tuberculosis and the captain made every pos- 
 sible effort to save him. He and the boy traveled 
 far in search of a climate where a cure might be 
 effected, but all in vain. 
 
 The last journey made was to China. When it 
 was finally seen that no hope remained, the two went 
 on board the City of Pekin, an American ship, at 
 Hong Kong, May 15, 1877, hoping to reach home 
 while the boy was yet alive. Though 78 years old, 
 and worn with travel and worry, the captain was 
 yet every inch a Viking lord of the sea. Captain 
 Tanner, the ship's master, said later that he always 
 felt as if he were a junior officer when in the dom- 
 inating presence of the old clipper sailor. But the 
 final and breaking strain of life was at hand, for 
 the boy died when one day out from port — May 16. 
 
 Throughout the voyage to San Francisco, there- 
 after, the captain failed steadily though not visibly, 
 for his will sustained him. On reaching port he 
 wired the death of the boy to the father. Then he 
 went to bed at his hotel and on June 21 he passed 
 aw'ay, unafraid, to the haven of all who leave a 
 record of good work well done. 
 
 On July 15, with his coffin buried under great 
 masses of flowers, his body was carried by a memor- 
 able host of his friends to the family plot in the 
 cemetery overlooking the sea at Stonington, and 
 there it rests awaiting the Master^s call. 
 
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