China Trade at Mystic Seaport

Like many maritime museums, Mystic Seaport has a fine collection of items brought to America by sea from China. One such piece is a Chinese porcelain punch bowl. Illustrated in the Museum's book on the Treasures of the Collection, the caption reads as follows:

"Direct trade between America and China began in 1784 when the ship EMPRESS OF CHINA left New York for Canton carrying lead, lumber, cotton cloth, ginseng and silver specie. A year later she returned to New York with a cargo of tea, silks and porcelain, as well as this punch bowl, which had been purchased by the ship's carpenter, John Morgan, who died on the return passage."
Accession number 1938.77

Shipboard Reading...

This plaque pictured here is affixed to the door of what is known as a loan library. Beginning in the mid-19th century, the American Seamen's Friend Society supplied three-shelved boxes fitted out with inspirational and practical books for use by sailors aboard ships. Volume 3, Number 1 of the journal CORIOLIS features an article about the thousands of libraries that went to sea and the handful that remain. The library described on the plaque is is one of three such libraries that reside in the Collections Research Center at Mystic Seaport.

Measuring Speed at Sea

The Common Log shown here (accession number 1934.9)was used to measure the distance a ship traveled through the water, thus allowing the calculation of speed. The log consists of a reel with line marked at set lengths with knots and a wooden "chip" attached. Additionally, a log glass, or half-minute glass similar in shape and function to an hour glass, is pictured. The process by which the log is used is called "heaving the log". It is usually a three-man operation with one person holding the reel, another the glass and the third the line with the chip. The chip, which is weighted on the bottom to hold it perpendicular in the water, is heaved over the lee side at the stern by the third man and at the appropriate time he commands the glass to be turned. The line runs off the reel, pulled by the resistance of the chip in the water, and after the glass is empty the line is stopped from paying out any further. The number of "knots" on the line that has run out indicates the speed of the vessel. For a more complete description, see the following link to the Museum's digital copy of William Falconer's 1815 book, A New Universal Dictionary of the Marine.

Darwin's BEAGLE

"July 5, 1832. In the morning we got under way, and stood out of the splendid harbour of Rio de Janeiro. In our passage to the Plata, we saw nothing particular, excepting on one day a great shoal of porpoises, many hundreds in number. The whole sea was in places furrowed by them...". Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the Beagle.

The model pictured is the H.M.S. BEAGLE as constructed by Alexander G. Law, an extraordinary modeler who worked from the 1930's through the 1960's. Law built everything in miniature. As an example, the case for this model is 7.5 by 11 inches, so the small scale of the model is evident. Law placed his models on hand-painted charts of regions traversed by the vessels, thus a chart of the La Plata River outside Rio graces this case. He would also place a book about the modeled vessel in a drawer fashioned into the case. Mystic Seaport has 20 models by Mr. Law and the BEAGLE can be seen in the exhibit, "Treasures from the Collection" opening in April.

The Famous Yacht ATLANTIC

This binnacle stand, from the yacht ATLANTIC, rests on a decorative metal tripod with a stylized lion head at the top of each leg and a dolphin representation on each foot. It contains a 7" magnetic compass which is hung in 4-way gimbals. It has a brass hood with an oval reading window and 2 receptacles for oil lights, one on either side.

In 1905 the ATLANTIC won the Kaiser’s Cup in a trans-Atlantic record-setting time for a monohull boat that stood for nearly 100 years. The Museum has a number of artifacts from the ATLANTIC.

Accession number: 1952.1044

Battle of Stonington, 1814

With the advent of the bicentennial of the War of 1812, it seems fitting to highlight one of the defenders of Stonington, CT during the British attack of 1814. The man with the intriguing eyes is Simeon Haley, captain of the Schooner Sally Ann. The portrait appears in the book America and the Sea: Treasures from the Collection of Mystic Seaport. The book will be brought to life as an exhibit in the Museum's Schaefer Exhibit Building at the end of March.

After participating in the battle, the next day Captain Haley was involved in a daring ruse whereby he purportedly sailed a small boat with a few other men to attract the attention of a British ship. The ship lowered a boat of marines to capture Haley's boat but Haley and company grounded the boat, and with the help of others on shore, captured the marines instead.

Christmas on the CHARLES W. MORGAN, 1889

The G.W. Blunt White Library recently received a journal for the 1889-90 voyage of the CHARLES W. MORGAN out of San Francisco. There has been tremendous interest in this journal, because the keeper, Honorio A. Martin, the second mate, along with the crew of his boat, were left behind by the MORGAN after a Nantucket sleigh ride took them out of range of the ship. They eventually ended up on Sakhalin Island (as reported in the papers of the time), were initially arrested, then made their way to Hong Kong before eventually getting back to San Francisco a month after the MORGAN had returned.

However, the initial part of the voyage was uneventful, and a melancholy second mate Martin recorded the following on the 21st day out of San Francisco as they headed for the Japan and Okhotsk grounds:

"Wednesday, December 25th. Another Christmas is passed by. Still I am wandering on the high seas without a home or abiding place. I wonder how many more I have to pass at sea. Not many, I hope. I am almost tired of this sea life and as soon as possible I will leave it and try to make a living on shore. Today we finished overhauling forward."

Well, his holiday blues and his later brush with death did not dissuade him from doing at least one more voyage as his journal picks up again in 1891 aboard the bark TRITON leaving on a whaling voyage out of San Francisco.

The journal will be available for research purposes once it is cataloged.