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Jamestown
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:15 am
by Randi
Bob wrote:Sat Aug 15, 2015 12:24 pm
It would be fun to do a daily blog riffing on the background of interesting items found in the logs while transcribing. There are certainly enough of them, all I need is the extra two (or three or twenty) hours a day for rummaging around the Internet...
Bob wrote:Sat Aug 15, 2015 10:11 pm
USS Jamestown
August 3, 1849
Adriatic Sea, southeast of Brindisi
Commences A brig on the lee Bow. [fresh breezes from the Nd. + Ed., course S by E]
From 4 to 8 AM. The Brig that was to leeward, crossed our bows, and hoisted a British Ensign and pendant, Got the two Bow Guns aft to the Mainmast. Trying our sailing with the Brig, (HBM Brig Racer) at 8 dropped the Brig
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/ ... _188_0.jpg
There isn't much information that turns up on the Brig 'Racer', but she was apparently for a time engaged intercepting slave ships, and once carried a delegation from the British Consulate in Tampico, led by the Vice Consul Jos. T. Crawford, to the Republic of Texas in March of 1837 (a year after the Battle of the Alamo) to report on conditions there.
Crawford's letters to his government are a detailed (and somewhat opinionated) description of the countryside, the government, the people and their then recent history of events with Mexico. He seemed satisfied that the Republic of Texas was there to stay: "[...] I may be warranted in concluding that Texas has conquered or will ultimately conquer her Independence of Mexico." In deference to their relations with Mexico, the United Kingdom never officially recognized the Republic of Texas, which became a US state in 1845.
There are records of two slave ship interceptions, a Portuguese ship, 'Bom Destino', and an American vessel, the brig 'Sooy'. The Sooy was chased into a reef near Bahia in September, 1841, and taken into Rio as a prize. The Bom Destino, intercepted in September, 1844, wasn't actually found with slaves on board, but had "suspicious alterations in the deck, and other evidences of having very recently had a cargo of slaves on board." The documents in the link include a pretty graphic description of what the 'evidences' were (First Enclosure No. 141).
The mention of moving the bow guns amidships is an interesting detail. I believe this would have been a means to bring the bow up in the water a bit for trying to gain a bit of extra speed.
Crawford Letters:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/30243039?se ... b_contents
Brig Sooy Listing:
https://books.google.com/books?id=WXg6A ... er&f=false
Dom Destino Seizure Proceedings Documents:
https://books.google.com/books?id=JZItA ... er&f=false
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:16 am
by Randi
Bob wrote:Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:31 pm
USS Jamestown
August 12, 1849
Doro Passage
From 6 to 8. [PM] Fresh breezes [from the Northd.] and passing squalls, Beating through the Doro Passage [northeasterly course].
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/ ... _192_1.jpg
The Doro Passage, Greek name 'Kafireas', is a six mile (10 km) wide passage between Euboea and Andros islands. According to the pilot guide, navigation of the Doro channel "is one of the difficulties of the Levant, especially in sailing-vessels" due to the prevailing northerly winds, particularly during the summer months. The current could also be a problem, with the pilot guide reporting an example instance in 1905 where "during a strong northerly wind, H.M.S. Sentinel experienced a southerly set of 7 knots." The Jamestown made the passage traveling northeastward against those northerly winds, taking nearly the entire day to approach and pass through the strait.
If winds and currents weren't enough, there were the occasional pirate attacks. In October, 1827, a convoy of American and British vessels was traveling southward through the straits when the wind died at dusk. A British ship (the brig Comet) drifted away from the convoy and was attacked by a large force of Greek pirates, with 200 to 300 men in five small galleys. The ship was taken by the pirates, but a rescue force of 35 men was dispatched in oared boats from the main convoy, which managed to recapture the ship, allegedly causing 80 to 90 pirate casualties. I suspect the pirate numbers may be exaggerated, but it makes a good story.
Modern Map:
http://www.geographic.org/geographic_na ... 2&c=greece
1844 British Admiralty Map of Andros Island and Doro Channel:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... d-1844.jpg
Mediterranean Pilot Entry (1908):
https://books.google.com/books?id=ADqwA ... el&f=false
Battle of Doro Passage Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Doro_Passage
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:17 am
by Randi
Bob wrote:Mon Aug 17, 2015 9:20 pm
USS Jamestown
September 14, 1849
Constantinople
From 8 to Meridian.
At 12 hoisted the Turkish [flag] at the Fore. Manned the yards, and fired a salute of 21 guns, as the Sultan passed going to Mosque.
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/ ... _018_0.jpg
This was Abdulmecid I, who became Sultan at the age of sixteen in 1839. He was notable for continuing a program of reforms, started by his father Mahmud II, with the goal of strengthening the Ottoman empire through modernization and engagement with Western countries. The reforms included changes to the taxation, financial and legal systems, establishment of modern schools, expansion of rights to non-Muslim Ottoman subjects, and the banning of turbans in favor of the fez. He was also married twenty-five times and had a few dozen children. He died of tuberculosis in 1861.
His main architectural legacy, apart from restoring the Hagia Sophia, was the European-style Dolmabahce Palace. Constructed in Istanbul, it cost the modern equivalent of about 1.5 billion $US, starting a slide into eventual state bankrupcy. Fourteen metric tons of gold leaf were used in its ceilings. There's also a 4.5 metric ton crystal chandelier, and all manner of other niceties befitting a dwelling that cost the equivalent of a quarter of the empire's annual tax revenue.
Abdulmecid I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd%C3%BClmecid_I
Dolmabahce Palace
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmabah%C3%A7e_Palace
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:18 am
by Randi
Bob wrote:Wed Aug 19, 2015 9:50 pm
USS Jamestown
October 15, 1849
Alexandria, Egypt
From Meridian to 4. Passd. Midspn. E Y McCauley reported for a passage to the squadron.
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/final/USS%20Jamestown/vol005of067/vol005of067_033_1.jpg
This would have been Edward Yorke McCauley, the Consul General's son, who went on to become a Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy. He grew up in the Mediterranean area as his father moved around to different posts, and spoke French, Italian, Arabic and Turkish. His career included service on Commodore Perry's flagship for the 1852 expedition to Japan and blockade duty during the Civil War, after which he worked his way up the command ladder, finishing with command of the Pacific Station. His diaries from the Perry expeditions were later published in book form, and he wrote a dictionary of the Egyptian language.
His father, David Smith McCauley, was the first American diplomatic envoy to Egypt and arrived with his family, and a new baby, on the USS Constitution earlier in 1849, as mentioned in a previous forum post by Craig (see link below). The Philosophical Society Proceedings said of this:
"[...] the frigate Constitution conveying him and his family with their effects to his new post. On the day of the arrival of the frigate at Alexandria a boy was born to the Consul General, who, esteeming it a happy omen that a son of his should first see the light on a vessel so identified with the naval history of the family, named the child 'Constitution Stewart McCauley'."
Edward had just started his career with a posting to the Constitution. His great-uncle, Rear Admiral Charles Stewart, commanded the Constitution from 1813-1815, which included an action in February, 1815, where he captured two British warships; technically after the war of 1812 had ended, but word hadn't got to the combatants yet.
Craig's post mentioning the McCauley family's passage to Egypt on the Constitution:
http://forum.oldweather.org/index.php?t ... 6#msg71216
Edward McCauley, In Memorium Bio, American Philosophical Society Proceedings, 1895:
https://books.google.com/books?id=KsIAA ... 49&f=false
Charles Stewart Article:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_S ... %931869%29
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Apr 16, 2020 1:19 am
by Randi
Bob wrote:Thu Aug 27, 2015 11:45 pm
USS Jamestown
April 22, 1851
Norfolk Navy Yard
From 4 to 8 Sent the Marines on shore to attend the burial of the late Commodore Barron.
From Mer to 4 At 1.30 fired in company with the Adams & Pennsylvania 13. minute guns as a mark of respect to the late "Commodore Barron".
http://oldweather.s3.amazonaws.com/ow3/ ... _004_1.jpg
Commodore James Barron, who died in Norfolk the day before the ceremonies mentioned here in the log, seems an unlikely recipient of such honors. He was court-martialed in 1807 for surrendering the frigate USS Chesapeake to a British warship practically without a fight, and killed Commodore Stephen Decatur in a duel in 1820.
The so-called Chesapeake-Leopard Affair occurred in June of 1807, when the USS Chesapeake, under the command of Commodore Barron, was intercepted by the HMS Leopard soon after it had departed Norfolk, bound for the Mediterranean. Officers from the Leopard demanded the Chesapeake surrender some alleged deserters from the Royal Navy. The Chesapeake refused to cooperate, and the Leopard then fired broadsides into the Chesapeake, killing and wounding several crew. The Chesapeake only managed to fire a single gun before Barron struck his colors and surrendered. Four Royal Navy deserters, three of them actually American citizens, were removed to the Leopard, and the damaged Chesapeake was released to return to port.
Barron was subsequently tried on several counts of negligence, primarily for not having the ship completely ready for duty before departure (there were problems with the gun carriages and other equipment) and surrendering the ship too readily. He was found guilty of some of the charges and suspended from duty for five years. He soon left the country and traveled overseas for several years.
Barron returned to America after the start of the War of 1812 and petitioned the Navy for reinstatement to command. Decatur, who had been one of the court-martial presiding officers, was outspokenly critical of Barron's performance with the Chesapeake, and opposed Barron's reinstatement. Barron challenged Decatur to a duel over the matter, in which both men were shot. Decatur died of his wound the next day, Barron eventually recovered from his.
Despite the Chesapeake embarrassment and the killing of a national hero, Barron remained in the Navy on shore duty, eventually becoming its senior officer, and retained the privilege of a formal salute from the fleet after his death.
James Barron:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Barron
Chesapeake-Leopard Affair:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chesapeak ... ard_Affair
Court Martial Proceedings:
https://books.google.com/books?id=NeY-A ... gs&f=false
Stephen Decatur:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Decatur
Bob wrote:Fri Aug 28, 2015 12:37 am
Indeed. There's a book out there called The Tragic Career of Commodore James Barron, published in 1942, so I'm sure there's a more sympathetic side to his story that doesn't come through very strongly in the immediately available versions.
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Sat Jun 13, 2020 3:53 pm
by Randi
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2020 11:29 pm
by Randi
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 5:35 pm
by Chicago Al
Randi suggested this would be the best place for my initial post in this forum, so here goes.
I'm using the logbooks of the Jamestown and the Ossipee for a personal research project about a 'collateral ancestor.'
I found Old Weather while researching my great-grand-uncle, Dr Edward Cassin Thatcher, better known as E.C. Thatcher, who was assistant surgeon on the Jamestown in the Pacific in 1870-71. Prior to that he'd been on the Ossipee, and following the Jamestown cruise he went back to the east.
The first inkling I had of the existence of these ships' logbooks was a post on the navalhistory.net site, with a fairly remarkable gleaning someone, obviously an Old Weather contributor, had transcribed from the 'miscellaneous events' pages of the Jamestown's log.
One morning in October 1870, while the Jamestown was anchored in Honolulu harbor, Dr Thatcher was placed under arrest, stripped of rank, and rowed across the harbor by the ship's master to the British navy gunboat HMS Ringdove, to make apologies for 'insulting remarks' he had made while in a state of intoxication. Returning to the Jamestown, he was restored to rank, and (apparently) all was forgiven. In view of what I'd already earned about Dr Thatcher's later life, this seemed like ominous foreshadowing, but at the time it was probably a trifle: he had not been on duty, and heavy drinking while partying with other young officers was not only normal, but expected.
My research project had initially been spurred by a simple desire to fill in a few lines in our family's genealogy. We knew almost nothing about Edward, except that he'd been a doctor in the Navy; we didn't even have a date of death for him. My grandfather knew nothing about this uncle (I asked, 40 years ago!), which was remarkable in our Quaker family, which is well-documented all the way back to England.
Over the last two years and many hours of reading from old newspapers and navy records, I have found that Edward Thatcher had a dramatic life, tumultuous and sadly foreshortened, and he passed through some very interesting episodes in American history. To name just one: apparently drawing on knowledge of Alaska he'd gained while there in the Navy, he took part in at least two expeditions to poach fur seals from the Pribilof Islands in the Arctic Sea!
Edward travelled quite far away from his family, and seemed to want nothing to do with their quiet, steady way of life, but he was not really a 'black sheep.' In fact, he stayed in contact with them, and his brother, my great-grandfather, came to his aid at a crisis near the end of his life.
I'm writing up an essay about Edward Thatcher and the times he lived in, and the logbooks of the Ossipee and Jamestown provide a way of knowing exactly where he was, and perhaps even what he was doing, when he was the farthest from home he ever got.
I have several hundred pages of logbook to get through. If anyone has any suggestions for ways to streamline that process I'd welcome them. That florid 19th c penmanship is beautiful, but time-consuming to get through! There isn't an OCR program that works on this kind of handwriting, at least that I've found.
I'd be delighted to compare notes with anyone else doing this kind of research, and I hope to make some kind of contribution here.
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 7:31 pm
by studentforever
I wondered if I could help but although I have several logbooks of Jamestown in various stages of transcription that period is not included. I know only too well the problems of reading handwritten logs, just as you've got used to a writer they CHANGE HIM. Your ancestor sounds quite a character - they certainly liven up the transcription so I hope someone can help you.
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 5:37 pm
by Chicago Al
studentforever wrote: ↑Mon Mar 27, 2023 7:31 pm
I wondered if I could help but although I have several logbooks of Jamestown in various stages of transcription that period is not included. I know only too well the problems of reading handwritten logs, just as you've got used to a writer they CHANGE HIM. Your ancestor sounds quite a character - they certainly liven up the transcription so I hope someone can help you.
Thanks for the thought anyway! I see we are on 'parallel courses' as are several other contributors here, looking through these haystacks for needles of historical interest. I keep seeing things that don't bear directly onto the story I'm after, but offer important context.
For example: the Captain of the Jamestown when E.C. Thatcher came aboard was William Truxton. So young was the country, and so small and nepotistic the Navy's officer class, that Truxton, a third-generation Naval officer, had served as a midshipman on a ship named after his grandfather, who in turn had been the original captain of USS Constellation (1798).
I am finding the Ossipee's logbook for 1868 relatively easy to read, and have found the exact entry when E.C. Thatcher reports on board (Aug 31, 1868). He was much needed, because the Ossipee seems to have been in something of a medical crisis. His predecessor as assistant surgeon had died at sea the previous month, as had two other officers, a midshipman and an asst paymaster, and several enlisted me as well. I'm now backtracking to see if there's any indication of disease coming on board or setting in during that cruise. The logbook is quite taciturn, of course, just 'departed this life' for when anyone dies, no indication of 'third death from the yellow fever' or whatever, though I imagine that may be the cause.
The Ossipee's logbook doesn't track the ship's sick list, but the Jamestown's does, so that's at least a bit more information. When E.C. Thatcher transferred to the Jamestown, that ship had been through another crisis in the medical department. During its previous cruise, the senior surgeon was relieved from duty, then reinstated, then relieved again, and finally removed from the ship and court-martialed for drunkenness on duty. His assistant, Dr Payne, had taken over his duties, which he continued until a full rated surgeon could take over.
I ran across something of circumstantial interest: When E.C. went west to join the Pacific squadron, I had assumed he went down the east coast to Panama, as a passenger on Navy or commercial ship, then across the isthmus, then caught another ship N to San Francisco and Mare Island. When he went back east 3 years later, the railroad route was complete, and there's a record of him checking into a Salt Lake City hotel during his journey. I doubt there's any surviving direct evidence of ECT making the initial trip, but I did see in the logbook a directive that a midshipman go east and report to Washington DC, and his route via Panama is explicitly spelled out. That's as good a confirmation as I will likely find.
Amazing how we (or at least I) can get so interested in knowing about something so trivial, that happened so very long ago...
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Mar 30, 2023 7:44 pm
by studentforever
No, especially when doing family history and therefore answerable only to yourself (and possibly your immediate family) you can head off where your curiosity takes you. A distant branch of my family married into a family of Pickstocks who indulged in obscure biblical or classical names for their children. My favourite was 'Julius Caesar Pickstock' but I bet he found it difficult to live up to - especially if they did the History of Ancient Rome at school! Several family members worked salt mines of varying types in mid Cheshire and I learned more about turning the original brine into usable table salt than I previously thought I needed to know.
Have fun. It might be worth enquiring in the National Archives if they have any other paperwork connected to Jamestown in the years of interest, or if there are any local museums/libraries which may have family documents originating from her officers. It depends on how much you want to know. It might even be worth thinking about social media but this has its dangers so needs careful consideration.
Anyway, good luck and good hunting.
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2024 3:24 am
by Chicago Al
Hello studentforever and anyone else who might happen on this post. It's now 18 months since I chimed in about the Jamestown's logbook. I must confess I haven't done much--okay, anything--with that log yet, and I haven't even gotten far with the Ossipee's, that being the ship that E C Thatcher, assistant surgeon, had been on. However I have just engaged a researcher who works (freelance) in the British National Archives to see if the incident I referred to above left any trace in the records of HMS Ringdove, or of the British Consulate in Hawaii.
When composing my email to this researcher I mentioned how I'd stumbled upon someone's transcription of the 'Honolulu' incident, on the site navalhistory.net. And I now find that I can't reach that site.
Is navalhistory.net gone, or maybe just temporarily down?
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2024 3:26 am
by Randi
I was just able to access
http://www.naval-history.net/index.htm
What time period?
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2024 6:47 am
by Maikel
Must have been a temporary problem, because it's working for me as well (6.40 UTC).
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2024 11:56 am
by Chicago Al
Hurrah, there it is! I don't think I had a mistake in the address, but it's possible. Thanks for checking my work!
Re: Jamestown
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2024 1:53 pm
by Randi
In your post above, you have navalhistory.net. However it is really naval-history.net. Perhaps that was the problem?