Crew and ships met

[ggordon]

Not all logs provide a crew list. You might find names in the log to post here. If you would like to mention ships that they mention you can make those notes here too.

[ggordon]

18810418
1600: Shipped one man A Smith at 150th lay and 60$ Advance, all told 33 men,

18810419
Mr Mitchel

[ggordon]

18810505 The Steamer Flora
the Steamer Flora Capt came and spoke us she is employed by the American Fur Company to convey freight and passengers to St Paul & St George and the Fox Islands during summer months. We sent letter by them to be forwarded to St Francisco

18810524 The Bark Fleetwing, Capt Heppingstone
Spoke the Bark FleetWing Capt Heppingstone of NB. Four whales this season I went on board a few minutes
Next day:
At 6 PM we lowered a boat and carryed two cases of Tobacco which we brought out for the Bk Fleetwing on board of her also 50 iron picks gamed the evening


18810710
July 10th 1881
went on board of Bk Hunter Capt Fisher which had ten whales

[ggordon]

Here is Capt Benjamin Franklin Wing


Please look at the photos here,
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/300 ... wing/photo

which show his house and grave

[ggordon]

That's fascinating - thanks SPHolmes I must say - he has a very Arctic-proof set of whiskers

[ggordon]

Just found this, it's Benjamin's brothers

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/810 ... etson-wing


The Joseph, John & William Ricketson Wing Company was the largest whaling firm in the United States, although it was primarily a clothing and dry goods suppliers for the industry. Based in New Bedford, Massachusetts during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the J. & W. R. Wing Co. was the agent for 236 whaling voyages from 1852 until 1914 and was among the very last whaling companies operating in the United States.

Brothers Joseph Wing (1810-1895, John (1833-1915) and William Ricketson Wing (1830?1908) were born on a farm at Russells Mills near South Dartmouth, southwest of New Bedford. They opened as partners in a dry goods business in a New Bedford in 1849, providing clothing for mariners embarking and returning on New Bedford whaling voyages.

The Wings began to invest in whale ships in 1849, and in 1852 they became the owners and agents of their first vessel.

The Wings made their fortunes primarily from outfitting seamen, and to a lesser extent from the production and sale of the whale oil and whalebone. Typically, they would indebt a recruited sailor for the cost of their clothing and supplies, the cost for boarding them before the ship departed, and then charge substantial interest on these loans.

The Wings increased their fleet during the Civil War, and by 1866 were managing 16 vessels. By 1870 they controlled the largest fleet of whaleships in the United States. Among their possessions was the Charles W. Morgan, today moored at Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Connecticut.

In 1908, 78-year-old William R. Wing and his ten-year old grandson Charles Morgan Hussey, Jr. were killed when the horse-drawn buggy they were driving was struck by a train. The last whaling voyage by the J. & W. R. Wing Co. was in 1914, the voyage of the bark Andrew Hicks under Capt. Charles A. Chace.

The family home was at 51 Walnut Street, New Bedford. Wing was 79 years, 4 months and 10 days at his death.

I see lower-down on that page that they are related to the Howlands - I remember that John Howland is a ship met on the Mary and Helen voyage in 1880

[ggordon]

Goodness - what a find SPHolmes! I had no idea that we were dealing with, I suppose effectively, whaling royalty!

I see lower-down on that page that they are related to the Howlands - I remember that John Howland is a ship met on the Mary and Helen voyage in 1880

I noticed that too - we've done logs from the Howland on Old OldWeatherWhaling (OOWW)

There are going to be some amazing ties found during this set of logbook treanscriptions.

[ggordon]

I'm building up a family tree of them on ancestry.co.uk

[ggordon]

Magnificent find!

[ggordon]

Here is the store:


and more here
http://www.whalingcity.net/picture_1897 ... nd_co.html

There's also John Howland's house here
http://www.whalingcity.net/picture_1834 ... house.html

[ggordon]

[ggordon]

That's pretty cool history work there SPHolmes

I noticed this: 'The Wings also offered custom tailoring.' You know, getting your Sou'Wester tailored to fit would make you the dandy of the Arctic.

I love the work of restoration done on the Howlands House. It's a fine building and should never have been allowed to become shuttered up.

[ggordon]

On another thread we mentioned the Tom Pope - I googled and came across this reference



Petticoat Whalers: Whaling Wives at Sea, 1820-1920
By Joan Druett
(https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lwf ... ng&f=false)

also in 1881 Captain Martin Van Buren Millard of the Mary and Helen in 1880 was Master of the Thomas Pope

and


https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CoQ ... rd&f=false

so it's interesting to see how the masters obviously moved around and worked in company with ships that they'd been master of , before

[ggordon]

I wonder how many familiar names would appear commonly in the local telephone directory of New Bedford?
John Muir we've come across before - I think from the log of the Corwin (and others). And I seem to recall that he started one of his epic outings by putting some bits and bobs in a bag, walking out of his door, and jumping the garden fence...

We've got a lot of references to Muir To search broadly go to the main Old Weather forum page and enter John Muir in the Search box, top right

[ggordon]

I just found an interesting piece about the ship Charles W. Morgan have mentioned in SPHolmes' fascinating study of the Wing family (Captain of the Atlantic) above.
Charles W Morgan sails again at 173 years old
https://www.youtube.com/embed/9jZLSehPvB0

Still can't imagine the hard life of working one of these ships in the bitter Arctic waters.

[ggordon]

From the Atlantic's log - bad news... August 1st 1881

'Bark John Howland set her colors I went on board a few minutes Capt Green Informed me that the BK. Daniel Webster was lost crushed in the ice of July and Capt. Gifford was on board of BK Coral'



John Muir reports, from the Revenue Cutter Corwin, that on the 15th August 1881, near Icy Cape they spoke to one of the whalers from whom they learned that the Daniel Webster was crushed and sunk, that about half the crew had made their way down the coast to near Icy Cape, where they found the Coral and were taken on board, and that the others were still at Point Barrow or scattered along the shore, unless picked up by some of the fleet that were going north in search of them as fast as the state of the ice would allow. Captain Owen of the Belevdere sent a letter to them by one of the natives, directing them to build large driftwood fires on the beach to indicate their positions...

The Webster had, in fact, sunk on July 2nd about 5 miles south of Point Barrow.

[ggordon]

Here are the ships met on Stream C of Atlantic

Date	Name	Capt
18810505	steam Flora
18810522	bark Abram Barker	Capt Smith
18810524, 0615, 0619	bark Fleet Wing , New Bedford	Capt Heppingstone
18810526	John Howland	Capt Green
18810526, 0529,0601,0611	steamer Belvadere	Capt Owen
18810526	Bark Sapho	Capt Edick
18810528	barks Lapwing (Transcribers Note: should be Fleetwing)	Capt Heppingstone
18810607	bark Pacific	Capt Baker
18810610	bark Rainbow	Capt Laphorn
18810620	BK Hunter	Capt Fisher

and crew - 18810418
Shipped one man A Smith at 150th Lay and 60$ advance, all told 33 men