Mapping the Pacific

This month's staff pick is a chart/sketch of the "Gulf of California drawn from the surveys made by the Spanish Officers and pilots of St. Blas" the chart details soundings, tracks, anchorages as well as missions and towns. The sketch is from Coll 304, v. 7, of The William T. Skiddy Collection.
and can be viewed in the Collections Research Room. Pictured on the left is another harbor sketch by Skiddy showing the Bay of Pisco on the coast of Peru.

William T. Skiddy was an artist, naval architect, Captain and an entrepreneur. In 1805 at the age of ten he signed on as a cabin boy aboard the packet ship the ROSE-IN-BLOOM. After a voyage to Charleston, S.C. he returned to New York City and become an assistant steward for his step-father, John R. Skiddy, a ship captain of Stamford and New York.

With the exception of his three years of schooling in France he stayed in the merchant service until 1812. He then spent eight months as a prisoner of war when the crew of the Brig STEPHEN was captured by the British frigate ANDROMACHE. The day after his release he joined the US Navy and received his Midshipman's commission from President Madison. Captain James Lawrence ordered him to report to the HORNET as a master-mate where he served under the command of Captain James Biddle for the duration of the war.

In 1816 he returned to merchant service where he was given the command of the ship MARIA THERESA. He was in the South Pacific during the blockade of Callao by Lord Cochrane, at which time he ran the blockade and brought away the Spanish Viceroy of Peru.

During his many voyages along the Pacific coast he surveyed and charted many of the ports he visited including the Gulf of California chart selected as this months Staff Pick.

In 1844 he entered into the naval construction business with his half-brother Francis. Soon after he was appointed by the US government to superintend the construction of the Collins steamers, which were used as mail steamers.

During his life at sea, Capt. Skiddy kept a journal, and at some point in his life he transcribed them into two volumes entitled "The Ups and Downs of a Sea Life from 1805" which are excellent description of life at sea are also part of Mystic Seaport's wonderful collections.

Primary Sources Online

The Navigation Workbook, ca. 1820, of Joseph Robinson is now online at the request of the Education Department who plans to use the workbook as part of an off-site math class. The workbook contains rules and problems for plane, traverse, Mercator's current and middle latitude sailing, instructions for keeping a journal, description and use of Hadley's quadrant, use of log line and half-minute glass, rules for correcting dead reckoning, illustration, and sketches. It also has some great drawings. (this one of the mariners compass is now my desktop background)

Newly Cataloged Collections

Here are some manuscript collections that are newly processed, thanks to our cataloging staff and volunteers. If you have any questions or would like to research our collections, the Access Reading room can be reached at (860) 572.5367 and is located in the Collections and Research Center, open 10-5, Mon.-Fri. Or explore the links below!

Papers, 1911-1995, of Henry Hill Anderson. Includes a variety of unbound logs, narratives, and journals as well as correspondence concerning Anderson pleasure voyage from 1911 Nov-1912 on the bark FOOHNG SUEY, from New York to Hawaii. During this voyage around Cape Horn he records navigational data, what he learns from the many different men on board, and the death of one of the men at the hands of the cook, who later jumped overboard mid-ocean. The different documents all record the same events and voyage but are written at different times and not all are complete. Anderson made this voyage following his graduation from the Adirondack-Florida School and before matriculating at Yale University. The collection also contains an edited log from his son, Henry Hill Anderson, Jr.'s, voyage on the schooner GEORGE B. CLUETT and the STRAHCONA from 1939 Jun 24-Sep 3 as part of the Tanner-Forbes charting expedition from Boston to Newfoundland and Labrador.
http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/coll/coll341.cfm

Records of the Schooner Orville Horwitz (Coll. 344): Records, 1846-1887, of the schooner ORVILLE HORWITZ. This collection includes paid bills, the protection certificate for Captain Chauncey Kelsey, and other papers. There are also two account books. The first contains the vessel's accounts for each port and details of the cargos for each trip. The second contains the date when each crew member was hired and their wages for each voyage. It is not clear who kept these records.
http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/coll/coll344.cfm

Isaac Henry Strauss Collection (Coll. 348): Includes a variety of government documents from Strauss's time in the United States Navy, including personal identification cards, his Navy training course certificate, government dispatches, and two copies of the servicemen's magazine, "The Chaser." The largest series of government documents concerns the sinking of the USS POLLUX, on which Strauss was serving at the time, in Placentia Bay, Newfoundland on February 18, 1942 and the investigation that followed. The documents concern both the USS POLLUX as well as the USS TRUXTUN, which also wrecked that night, and the USS WILKES which was escorting both ships and include American and Canadian action reports, press releases, a list of the sailors who died in the wreck, copies of deck logs, trial documents, administrative and battalion orders, and Strauss's citation for outstanding performance of duty. The collection also includes correspondence regarding articles in Readers Digest and Oceans magazine that Strauss wrote about the disaster, to and from fellow survivors and readers, as well as correspondence about reunions organized by the St. Lawrence Heritage Society, the memorials at the wreck site, and the dedication of the United States Memorial Hospital in St. Lawrence. There are also clippings from Strauss's time in the Navy about war time events and the shipwreck, as well as later clippings that include the articles Strauss wrote about the disaster and clippings about the memorials at the wreck site, the United States Memorial Hospital, and Strauss himself. The collection also contains manuscript drafts, including a personal account of the shipwreck written by Strauss while he was in the hospital following the wreck, a rough draft of his article for Oceans magazine, and two other drafts of chapters written by Cassie Brown and George Whitely. This collection complements photographs in the general collection.
http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/coll/coll348.cfm

Harlow Collection (Coll. 349): Collection, 1856-2006, of John Jones Harlow includes a personal memoir of his life on whalers, a logbook from the whaling brig LEONIDAS, papers relating to whaling and other personal papers. Memoirs and logbook contain descriptions of whaling mutinies, injury at sea as well as shipboard life. Logbook also contains whale and porpoise stamps.
http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/coll/coll349.cfm

Roy G. Roberts Collection (Coll. 337): Collection, 1938-1964, consists mainly of U.S. Merchant Service instructor training manuals for Sheepshead Bay New York, New York and officer's training at Fort Trumbull, New London Connecticut. It also contains logbooks and papers related to shipping.
http://library.mysticseaport.org/manuscripts/coll/coll337.cfm