Clipper Panther - Famous Ships Of The British Columbia Coast

THE HISTORY OF THE CLIPPER PANTHER

"That good ship and true was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early......"

Long shown on B.C. Nautical Charts, the sailing vessel Panther is one of the most well known wrecks of the British Columbia Coast. It was the first wreck surveyed in 1976 by the University of British Columbia and the Underwater Archeology Society Of British Columbia and today, its silhouette forms the Society's Logo. On November 5, 1983 the society placed a plaque on the wreck in hopes to "instill in the growing number of scuba divers who visit the sites, a respect and responsibility towards this part of B.C'.s Maritime Heritage"

The Underwater Archeological Society Of B.C. was the first to survey the wreck site in 1976.
The ship silhouetted in the logo, is the SS Panther.

The wreck is located on a reef in about 30-60 feet of water on the southern tip of Wallace Island (formerly Narrow Island). The reef bears the ships name, Panther Point. The point has been marked on navigation charts for nearly a century, and a large orange triangular reef marker points the way to the hazard just below the waters surface.
 

An 1898 nautical chart showing hydrographic surveys between 1854-1898. The wreck lies just off the south tip marked at 3 1/4 fathoms. Narrow Island was renamed Wallace Island  in 1905, by Captain John Parry, after Captain Wallace Houstoun of the HMS Trincomalee, who first surveyed the area in the 1850's.	Following island tradition, the southern tip of the island was named after the wreck, and  today is commonly  referred to as "Panther Point". The wreck is a mere 100 yards from the end of the pine trees, just past the tip of the reef marker.

While the wreck of the Panther is quite well-known, the story of the Panther has been for the most part lost to the annuals of time and sealed over by the sea. Some have claimed that she was old British warship, the HMS Panther and was converted to a coal barge at the time of her loss. Others, have speculated that she was an old three masted barque, and some know that she was once a magnificent clipper ship. Ironically, the most common date for her sinking on the point, in November is even inaccurate - she actually went down on January 17, 1874. The Panther has a remarkable and impressive story to tell. 

THE HISTORY OF THE PANTHER

The Panther was one of Paul Curtis' celebrated designs. She began her career early in 1854 at the shipyard in Medford, Mass. The Panther was built at the end of an era which saw an impressive amount of clipper ships built in the surrounding area, it was only a decade earlier when nearly one-quarter of all shipwrights in Massachusetts were employed in the Medford shipyards. The shipyards were clustered along a one-mile stretch of the Mystic River riverfront, and Curtis' yard was between South, Winthrop and Curtis Streets. He launched his ships directly across the South Street roadway. The yards drew upon the ready supply of local timber until the local woods were depleted. Ships were then built from timber cut down and floated south from the hardwood forests of New Hampshire. Each ship was built from fifteen or more species of wood carefully pieced together where the special properties of each would do the most good.

The Clipper Reporter  designed and built by Paul Curtis in 1853
was the last ship built by Curtis prior to launching the Panther.
The Panther was of similar size and lines.

The Panther was a particularly fine model, and very strongly built. She was diagonally braced with iron straps in the lower hold and between decks. She was built of out solid wood up to her bilge, and every knee in the ship was overbolted. It has been said that in some cases there were no less than thirty-two bolts in each knee, giving the ship an appearance when viewed between decks, from forward or aft, as an immense salamander safe. Shortly after her launching in 1854 she arrived in San Francisco where she has been described as "one the best built ships ever entering into this port." Her overall dimensions were 198 feet in length; breadth 28 feet ;  and depth 24 1/2 feet. She was rated at 1,278 tons.

Old Ship knees from the Wawona, built in 1897. Broken up for salvage.	The overbolting of the ships knees in the Panther has been described as resembling a Salamander Safe perhaps such as the one shown above circa 1824.

The Panther began her career under the ownership of R.C. Mackay & Sons of Boston, who were prominent in trade from England to India. Their offices were located at 16 Union Wharf. Robert Caldwell (R.C.) Mackay who owned the Panther, was the grandson of William Mackay, and the family was long established in Boston.

William Mackay was one the founding members of the Sons of Liberty in Boston. The Sons of Liberty was an organization of American patriots that originated in the North American British colonies. The group was formed to protect the rights of the colonists and to take to the streets a movement against the abuses of the British government. They are best known for undertaking the Boston Tea Party in 1773 in reaction to the Tea Act, which led to the Intolerable Acts (an intense crackdown by the British government), and a counter-mobilization by the Patriots. Their slogan was "no taxation without representation". In short, William Mackay was an important supporter and instigator of the American Revolutionary War.

Robert Caldwell (R.C.) Mackay inherited from his grandfather an unusual artifact with a particularly significant historical importance to the founding of the United States and is worth mentioning. R.C. Mackay was given a large silver bowl known as "The Liberty Bowl", upon which engraved on the front of the bowel is a Liberty Cap in a wreath that is centered above horizontal and  has longer vertical leafy scrolls partly enclosing a famous inscription: "To the Memory of the glorious NINETY-TWO: Members / of the Honbl House of Representatives of the Massachusetts-Bay, / who, undaunted by the insolent Menaces of Villains in Power, / from a Strict Regard to Conscience, and the LIBERTIES / of their Constituents, on the 30th of June 1768, / Voted NOT TO RESCIND".

On one side, in a circle with a scroll and foliated frame topped by a Liberty cap flanked by flags is engraved: "Magna/Charta" and "Bill of/Rights." Inside the circle is inscribed: "No45. /Wilkes & Liberty" over a torn page labeled "Generall/Warrants."

Inscribed below the rim: "Caleb Hopkins, Nathl Barber, John White, Willm Mackay, Danl Malcom, Benjn Goodwin, John Welsh, Fortescue Vernon, Danl Parker, John Marston, Ichbod Jones, John Homer, Willm Bowes, Peter Boyer, Benja Cobb."

Stamped on the bottom is the mark of Paul Revere who made the bowl, originally it had a silver plate and ladel. The Plate is reported to have been one inch thick and about a foot in diameter.

William Mackay bought out the other shares of his associates in the bowl.  The "Liberty Bowl" honored ninety-two members of the Massachusetts House of Representatives who refused to rescind a letter sent throughout the colonies protesting the Townshend Acts (1767), which taxed tea, paper, glass, and other commodities imported from England. This act of civil disobedience by the "Glorious Ninety-Two" was a major step leading to the American Revolution. The bowl was commissioned by fifteen members of the Sons of Liberty, a secret, revolutionary organization to which Revere belonged; their names are engraved ...on the bowl as are references to Englishman John Wilkes, whose writing in defense of liberty inspired American patriots. The Liberty Bowl, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution have been called the nation's three most cherished historical treasures. The "Liberty Bowl" was eventually purchased by the Museum Of Fine Arts in Boston in 1949, with funds that included seven hundred donations by Boston schoolchildren and the public. It remains in the collection today.

R.C. Makay the original owner of the clipper ship Panther

The Mackay's were Boston merchants who were prominent in Calcutta and had contracts with the East Indian Railway company that was established in 1845 in London to build a railway through eastern and northern India from Calcutta to Delhia via Mirzapur.

The East India Company sent Rowland Macdonald Stephenson along with three assistants to India from England in 1845 and they "with diligence and discretion" surveyed, statistically studied and estimated the potential traffic for a railway route from Calcutta (the then commercial capital of India) to Delhi via Mirzapur in India.

A contract was signed between the East India Company and the East Indian Railway Company on 17 August 1849, entitling the latter to construct and operate an "experimental" line between Calcutta and Rajmahal, 161 km (100 miles) long at an estimated cost of £1,000,000. They planned to  later extend the route to Delhi via Mirzapur.

All permanent ways,  and rolling-stocks were to be transported from England in clipper ships to Calcutta via the Cape of Good Hope. At the time of the Panther's launching in spring of 1854, it was estimated that over 100,000 tons of rails, 27,000 tons of chairs, and some 8000 tons of keys, fish-plates, pins, nuts and bolts were needed to build the railway.
 

The Panther began her career helping to build the East Indian Railway by shipping railway iron from England to Calcutta from 1854-1857.

Under the command of Captain Nat. G. Weeks, the Panther began her career with her first three voyages to Calcutta with railroad iron from England to help build the East Indian Railway. R.C. Mackay's son, George H. Mackay was dispatched as supercargo on the Panther from the counting rooms of the firm at age 19 1/2 to oversee the operations in India.

On her maiden voyage, she sailed out of Boston on March 4, 1854 and soon encountered a very heavy storm, and was 32 days on the run to New Orleans, and then 37 days on the crossing to Liverpool. From there, it is said she achieved some amazing sailing speeds, having made 3000 miles in the first 17 days enroute to Calcutta, and took only 99 days to reach Calcutta, and made the return to Liverpool in just 100 days. On her second voyage, she bettered the time, arriving in just 93 days.

During the return however she was not as fortunate as she hit a series of severe weather in the Bay of Bengal, and in the Indian Ocean. She did not clear the cape until 70 days out. However, it was her third voyage that established the Panther as capable sailor able to handle rough weather, as on leaving Calcutta she encountered a series of ferocious storms, and nearly foundered having sprung a leak that forced her back to port. However, the Panther was a well-built ship, and upon repair made her best run yet, leaving Sand Heads, Jan. 16 1857, she later arrived at Boston, on April 17th, in a fine run of 91 days.   

THE FINANCIAL PANIC OF 1857

The Panic of 1857 was a sudden downturn in the economy of the United States.  A general recession first emerged late in 1856, but the successive failure of banks and businesses that characterized the panic began in mid-1857. While the overall economic downturn was brief, the recovery was unequal, and the lasting impact was more political than economic. The panic began with a loss of confidence in an Ohio bank, but spread as railroads failed and fears that the US Federal Government would be unable to pay obligations in specie mounted. More than 5,000 American businesses failed within a year, and unemployment was accompanied by protest meetings in urban areas. Eventually the panic and depression spread to Europe, South America and the Far East. No recovery was evident in the northern parts of the United States for a year and a half, and the full impact did not dissipate until the American Civil War.

There were several major incidents that lead to the downturn in the economy worldwide, which spread to the United States and had direct impact especially to merchants and shipping companies in New York, and Boston: 

The Indian Rebellion of 1857

In May 1857 soldiers of the Bengal army shot their British officers, and marched on Delhi. Their mutiny encouraged a rebellion by a considerable number of Indian civilians in a broad belt of northern and central India - roughly from Delhi in the west to Benares in the east.  This uprising became known as India's First War Of Independence. 

Prior to the rebellion, in the first half of the 19th century, the East India Company still ruled India on Britain's behalf, and there was a heady rhetoric of reform and improvement in some British circles. The aspiration of Thomas Macaulay - a member of the Company's ruling council in 1835, as well as a historian was to foster "a class of persons, Indian in blood and colour, but English in taste, in opinions in morals and in intellect." However, it was his belief that given the resources, "it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the people."

European influences were strongest in the populated cities and towns of India. This was especially true in the old bases of British trade, such as Calcutta, Madras or Bombay, where a new Indian intelligentsia had begun to take root. Despite whatever Britain may have intended, their early rule seems generally to have consolidated the hold of what they regarded as 'traditional' intellectuals, rather than displacing them by new ones, and the authority of Brahmins, the ruling caste and the doctrines of caste separation grew stronger and not weaker.

Furthermore, upper middle classes in a newly acquired region of India, the Kingdom of Awadh, were annexed from their estates. Taxes were high throughout the region, and there were few opportunities for the enterprising to make a profit. Most of the Western influences were limited to the towns, where the first Christian missions had first appeared and new colleges had opened, this was an unwelcome intrusion to many devout Hindus and Muslims. They fed fears of a Christian offensive and forced conversions. 

After Britain had gained two-thirds of India's land and imperialism had begun to affect every part of Indian life (whether by technology like the telegraph, evangelical missionary efforts, or administrative and land ownership reform), there was an incredible amount of tension that only needed a small spark to set off a huge revolt.  There had been minor outbreaks within the sepoy ranks before 1857, but these had all been quickly and brutally suppressed.  The "spark" that came to begin this period of revolts was the introduction of the new, more accurate breech-loading Enfield rifle.  The loading of these rifles entailed the biting of a greased cartridge, which the sepoys feared was made with either cow or pig fat - "the first, from an animal sacred to the Hindus, and the second from an animal held unclean by the Muslims.  The Hindu sepoys saw this as an attempt to break their caste as a preliminary to making them all Christians."  The Muslim troops were disgusted and no less insulted than the Hindus and the revolts were about to happen.

Although most of the rebellious sepoys in Delhi were Hindus, a significant proportion of the insurgents were Muslims. The proportion of Muslims grew to be about a quarter of the local fighting force by the end of the siege, and included a regiment of suicide warriors, known as Ghazis who had declared a Jihad (a holy war) from Gwalior who had vowed never to eat again and to fight until they met certain death at the hands of British troops. There were also calls for jihad by Muslim leaders like Maulana Fazl-e-Haq Khairabadi and the millenarian Ahmedullah Shah, which were taken up by Muslims, particularly artisans, which caused the British to think that the Muslims were the main force behind this event.

The first bloody uprising happened at the garrison in Meerut, in which the mutineers murdered every European they found.  Then they marched to Delhi and placed themselves under the leadership of bewildered Mogul Emperor Bahadur Shah. 

Throughout May and June the idea of mutiny spread throughout the Ganges valley, Rajputna, Central India, and parts of Bengal. Nana Sahib assumed leadership of the rebel army. Nana Sahib was an adopted son of an exhiled Peshwa (Prime Minister) of the Maratha Empire, Baji Rao II. When his father died, the East India Company's refusal to continue the pension after his father's death, as well as what he perceived as high-handed policies, compelled him to revolt and seek freedom from company rule in India. By 10 June, Nana Sahib was believed to be leading around twelve thousand to fifteen thousand Indian soldiers.

The revolt had brought about massacres and atrocities committed on both sides. James Neill was a scottish military officer, that had gained notoriety for indiscrimintate killing of Indians during the uprising.  On June 9th, ​British General Neill set out for Allahabad,  where a handful of Europeans still held out in the fort against the rebels. General Neill recaptured Allahabad and the rebel soliders that had surrendered were assembled on parade and ordered to lay down their arms and after doing so, were fired upon mercilessly by British troops. By mid-June, after securing Allahabad, he began a long march to aid beseiged Cawnpore. 

Those who were lucky to escape the massacre at Allahbad  returned to their villages only to hear of  the brutality of Neills column in sacking entire villages that lay in the path of his march. As he entered villages, he ordered the hanging of those suspected of being the mutineers. According to one of his officers, he also allowed his soldiers to kill the "native" people without due process and burn their houses and villages to the ground. 

On June 23rd, the rebel soldiers under Nana Sahib launched a major attack on the British entrenchment commanded by General Wheeler at Cawnpore. The British garrison had taken heavy losses as a result of nearly a week of successive bombardments, sniper fire, and assaults from the forces of Nana Sahib. It was also suffering from disease and low supplies of food, water and medicine. To make matters for the British worse, General Wheeler's personal morale had been low after his son Lieutenant Gordon Wheeler was decapitated by a roundshot.

On the morning of the 27 June, a large British column led by General Wheeler emerged from the entrenchment and surrendered Cawnpore to Nana Sahib. Nana Sahib sent a number of carts, dollies and elephants to enable the women, the children and the sick to proceed to the river banks to the Sati Chaura Ghat, an important maritime boarding point for the river route from Cawnpore to Allahabad. The British officers and military men were allowed to take their arms and ammunition with them, and were escorted by nearly the whole of the rebel army. Nana Sahib had arranged around 40 boats, belonging to a boatman called Hardev Mallah for their departure to Allahabad.

In Britain, when news of massacre reached the homefront, it sparked public outrage and British newspapers printed various so-called "eyewitness" accounts of attrocities committed by the Indian rebels, such as the rape of English women and girls, and reports that they were mass slaughtering innocent men, women, and children in order to stir public opinion in favour of swift and harsh military action against the rebels.

The general public unanimously approved of whatever measures were necessary for the British Government to end the revolt. 

"Justice", a print by Sir John Tenniel
 in a September 1857 issue of Punch Magazine

Vengeance was swift and harsh: suspected mutineers were tied to cannons and executed:  "In six months, the mutiny had been broken, and, within the next year, British power was restored". However, the revolt had economic implications, the East India Company was dissolved by 1858, and during the revolt, export of Indian goods such as cotton to Britain were halted, railroad stations and equipment were destroyed and stolen. This particularly impacted trade between United States and Britain during this time, as exports to Britain of high-end manufactured goods, were greatly diminished by the rebellion, and while the need by Britain to import raw cotton for manufacturing textile goods increased slightly, manufactured goods and more expensive commodities were reduced. The mainstay of the business for the Panther were the railway supplies to India via Britain, which at that point was at a standstill.

The Indian rebellion also coincided with end of the Crimean war (1853-1856), a bitter, drawn-out war in the Near East which had erupted between Britain, France and Russia and was focused on the Crimean Peninsula. In order to feed its military, Britain needed wheat, and it needed more grain than could can be grown at locally. Normally prior to the conflict, 35% of Britain's wheat exports came from Russia. During the Crimean War, wheat prices soared as demand in Europe was great. In addition, British grain crops had failed in the previous years and with the necessity of feeding troops in the field, other sources of the essential grain were needed.

Fortunately, Britain's allies, the U.S. and Canada were able to provide to the much needed grain, and every effort was made to convert unused land into fertile farmland. Grain prices in 1855 skyrocketed to $2.19 a bushel and farmers began to purchase land to increase their crop supply, which in turn would increase their profits.  Railroads were planned and financing secured for farm and railroad expansion based upon speculation that the agricultural boom would continue. 

However, in 1857 with the end of the Crimean war, the United States was left with a large grain surplus, and rock-bottom prices and by 1858, grain prices dropped severely to $0.80 a bushel. The predicted boom and agricultural prosperity had not continued, leaving many small midwest towns such as Keoku, Iowa under immense financial pressure:

"A huge municipal debt magnified Keoku’s problems. By 1858 the town owed $900,000, mostly on railroad bonds, while the value of its taxable property dropped by $5.5 million. Lots that brought $1,000 before the crash now could not be sold for $10. Hard-hit property owners were unable to pay their taxes, and thousands of properties slipped into tax delinquency."

In round numbers, normally nearly two-thirds of the United States exports were sold and shipped to England, and her colonies. By the same token, usually only half of the United States imports were bought and shipped from Britain and her Colonies. This left a slight trade surplus, but in the years between 1856-1858 this balance changed. A newpaper article in May of 1858, sums up the difficulty, it compares the imports and exports to Britain between 1857 and 1858:

"The declared value of British manufactures and produce exported from the United Kingdom during May was less by a million sterling than in the corresponding month of last year; but even this decline was an improvement upon the average of five months, the falling off on the exports amounted to about seven millions compared with 1857. The import accounts of the Board of Trade, delivered to the legislature on the day the mail was made up in London, show increased supply of Cotton both as regards to the month of May, and the whole expired portion of the year, as compared with the corresponding periods of the year, as compared with the corresponding periods in 1857. The imports of the month amounted to 1,376,912 cwts, against 917,872 cwts, and of this quantity 1,228,127 cwts. was the produce of the United States. There was an increase from Egypt and Brazil, but the supply from India diminished more than half. The existing hostilities in the latter country are beginning seriously to affect the supplies of all kinds of Indian produce, whiule the contrary is the case as regards the exportation of British Manufacturers, for which India and Australia are the two best markets the merchant has. The quantity of wheat imported into the United Kingdom during the month was 508,567 qrs., but of this large amount only 18,842 qrs. was furnished by the United States against 22,725 qrs. in the corresponding month of last year. Nearly a third of the supply came from Prussia, but there was also considerable increase in the arrivals from Turkey and Egypt. Of flour, 414,955 cwts. were imported against 189, 172 cwts., the American portion of this supply  being 156, 457 cwts against 151,339 cwts. The amount of bullion and specie for the month shows an importation of £140,643 from against only £7,414 to, the United States. Nearly half of the total imports were from Australia and the bulk of the exports to France.The shipping accounts show that of 3,482 vessels which entered British ports in May 1857, who tonnage amounted to one-sixth of the whole belonged to the United States. The entries and clearances of vessels continue to increase, notwithstanding the prolonged depression of trade. The increase embraced every flag except those of Denmark, Holland, Belgium, the Hanse towns and Spain. "

The recession in 1857 ended a period of prosperity and speculation that had followed the Mexican-American War and the discovery of gold in California in the late 1840s. Gold pouring into the American economy played its part by helping inflate the currency. Changes in worldwide economic trade, caused by the Crimean War between Britain and Russia, had pushed American firms into a precarious worldwide market.  The immediate event that touched off the panic was the failure on August 24 of the New York City branch of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Co., a major financial force that collapsed following widespread embezzlement.

In the wake of this event, a series of other setbacks shook the public's confidence, including:

J. Childs painting of the wreck of the SS Central American, 1857,
in the National Maritime Museum in London

Investors run to the Seaman's Saving's Bank

George Richards Minot at the time of his death had spent fifteen years at the Court Street office. He was not followed immediately at the office by a Minot for his son, William Minot, George Richard Minot II father,  was then only nineteen and graduated from Harvard a few months later with the class of 1802. Out of college, William Minot studied law and was admitted to the Suffolk County Bar in 1805. At first he tried at opening an office in Marlboro but returned almost at once to the office at 39 Court Street.

 

One of the first funds entrusted to him as trustee was $4000 which Benjamin Franklin had bequeathed to Boston and this Minot administered gratuitously for sixty-four years, at the end of which time he handed over to the city the $125,000 into which the original sum had grown under his care.

 

In 1841 William Minot’s son,  and George RIchards Minot II brother, William Jr. joined his father at 39 Court Street office, having been admitted to the bar the same year. The younger William prepared for Harvard at Boston Latin School, which then stood where the Parker House is today. He graduated with the Class of 1836 and began the study of law but because of his health he travelled abroad for a while before settling down to his life work in his father’s office and started out on his career as trustee. Young Minot soon found plenty to do. Trusteeships took up practically all of his time but he did, by request make a study of conditions of the Boston & Providence Railroad and as a result made recommendations which, being adopted, enabled the road to resume payment of dividends.

 

George Richards Minot II: Grandfather, Father & Brother
George Richards Minot I, William Minot Sr, and William Minot Jr.
 

 

Instead of following in his footsteps with his father, George Richards Minot II, became a successful merchant. 

 

"THE STEAMER CONFIDENCE -- This Splendid steamer not only started with a deal of reputation and popularity, but her officers and agent have a faculty of maintaining that popularity, which decidedly increases, the longer she runs. A captain of a steamboat in these days, should be not less a gentleman than a man of sound mind and talent. The trust imposed to his charge is important. He comes in contact with the best of society and none but such a man should have command of a splendid steamer. With this view, we must say that the agent of the Union Line, has made a very happy selection in Capt. Gannett, and the popularity of the boat is not likely to suffer in his hands. But if Captain Gannett gives such general satisfaction, we can say nothing less of the gentlemanly Clerk. Mr. Hanna is accommodating, prompt, efficient, and popular; and those that travel on the Confidence need never fear that their comfort and convenience will not be well looked after. The Senator's upper saloon is, on the one hand, spacious and princely, but on the other the saloon of the Confidence is elegant, and is just the size to induce to sociability. It is impossible for those at home to realize the splendid accommodations to be found for travelling on the Sacramento River. "

 

The Confidence - On the Hudson River, shortly after her launchings in 1849,
her sister ship Wilson G. Hunt is in the background. Painted by JJ BARD in 1849.

Maury also used the old ships' logs to chart the migration of whales. Whalers at the time went to sea, sometimes for years, without knowing that whales migrate and that their paths could be charted.

 

Maury's work on ocean currents led him to advocate his theory of the Northwest Passage, as well as the hypothesis that an area in the ocean near the North Pole is occasionally free of ice. The reasoning behind this was sound. Logs of old whaler ships indicated the designs and markings of harpoons. Harpoons found in captured whales in the Atlantic had been shot by ships in the Pacific and vice versa, and this occurred with a frequency that would have been impossible had the whales traveled around Cape Horn.

 

Maury, knowing a whale to be a mammal, theorized that a northern passage between the oceans that was free of ice must exist to enable the whales to surface and breathe. This became a popular idea that inspired many explorers to seek a reliably navigable sea route. However, despite modern advancements, arctic exploration was still extremely dangerous, and many of those explorers died in their search.

 

In 1855, Lieutenant Maury published his Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic, which showed sailors how to use the ocean's currents and winds to their advantage and drastically reduced the length of ocean voyages; his Sailing Directions and Physical Geography of the Seas and Its Meteorology remain a standard. navigational aid Maury's uniform system of recording synoptic oceanographic data was adopted by navies and merchant marines around the world and was used to develop charts for all the major trade routes.

 

Maury became known as the "Pathfinder of the Seas" and "Father of Modern Oceanography and Naval Meteorology" and later, "Scientist of the Seas," due to the publication of his extensive works in his books, especially The Physical Geography of the Sea (1855), the first extensive and comprehensive book on oceanography to be published. Maury made many important new contributions to charting winds and ocean currents, including ocean lanes for passing ships at sea.

 

One newspaper, wrote of the publication of Maury's work:  "To such a complete system has Lieut. Maury brought the science of navigation, especially as regards the trip between New York and California, that the passages of clipper ships between those points may be reduced almost to the bearings of yacht races : the stakes, the reputation of the ships for speed ; the Atlantic and Pacific the noble arena for the competitors, and the distance nearly that of the earth's circumference."

 

Wind and Current Chart Of The North Atlantic (1855) - 
This chart was used by both the Panther & Goddess to race from Boston to San Francisco.

The approx. route taken by the Goddess (red) and Panther (blue) in their race around the horn.
The Panther was blown considerably off course to the east of the Falklands.

The Strait of Le Maire - The Goddess beat the panther to this point by about ten days,
due to a strong gale known as a "Pampero",  that blew the Panther eastward.
 

With the independence of Chile in 1810, Valparaíso soon became the most important harbour town on the Pacific coast. This meant commercial transactions with Europe as well as with the United States, ending Chile's dependence on Spain. Around 1839-40, Valparaíso was granted independent administrative status as an Intendencia, and in 1842 it became the capital of the Province of Valparaíso, with fiscal warehouses and the Stock Exchange. At this time, the town attracted great numbers of immigrants from England, France, Germany, and the United States, contributing to the development of shipping and commerce. This influence can still be appreciated on the streets at the foot of hills in Arsenal (now Bustamante), La Planchada (now Serrano), La Aduana (now Prat) and Del Cabo (now Esmeralda). The city acquired a cosmopolitan image. In the 1840s and 1850s, more warehouses were built between the present Aduana Square and the Duprat fortress. In 1852, a railway was built to the inner cities of the region and to the capital, Santiago.

The Port of Valparaiso Chile, circa 1857.

In the second half of the 19th century, the position of Valparaíso was further strengthened as the main harbour and commercial centre of the country, and its activities included mining activities with Tarapaca and Antofagasta. The main economic resource gradually shifted from wheat to saltpetre. Following this development, the town was articulated into areas characterized by their principal activities, such as commerce, harbour, industry, and business. The streets of Planchada and Aduana were the main areas for diplomatic missions, banks, and international agencies. Between 1847 and 1870, Valparaíso attained its characteristic identity as a commercial and financial centre. The town expanded, and the chain of hills was connected by the Cintura highway some 100 m above the sea, based on the project by Fermin Vivaceta in 1872.

The Panther, undaunted by heavy storms, the recent financial panic, or the rebellion in India, sailed for Valparaiso with a variety of goods early in January 1958, her cargo list  included a wide assortment of merchandise:

50 bbls smoked salmon
250 boxes Candles
86 rolls Matting
313 Pkgs Firecrackers
12 cs Mdse
200 pkgs mess beef
3 do sugar
73 cks Tallow
1,990 bags California Beans

The total value of her cargo to be sold at Valparaiso, was valued, in 1858, at $16,892.97. She made an uneventful but quick  & successful run of 38 days from San Francisco to Valparaiso. The Panther made a return trip from Valparasio, in a good time of fifty days. She delivered a full cargo of 1800 bbls of Chilean Flour, 450 tons of Chilean Coal and 182 ceroons of Chilean Peaches. In addition,  Captain Gannett was able to capture a stowaway, named Robinette, who made it appear that he had drowned by suicide, but actually attempted to board the Panther by way of secreting himself away on another ship, the Mercedes until it made port in Valparaiso where he had endeavoured to make a getaway. 

Reported Important Arrest. — We have learned that it was reported by the Captain of the ship Panther, arrived a few days since from Valparaiso, that the Captain of the Chilean ship Mercedes, and also the supercargo, had been arrested at Valparaiso, charged with defrauding the consignees. It will be remembered that the Mercedes sailed from Canton for Valparaiso, loaded with a valuable cargo, consigned respectively to Messrs. Alsop, Huth Gruning, Agaeio, and Hulin &. Vicuna. Alsop was interested to the amount of $100,000, Huth Griming to $80,000, and the others $15,000. The supercargo, a young man well known in Valparaiso, is said to have confided the purchase of the cargo to two Chinese in Canton. After being out some time the cargo was discovered to be on fire, and on being extinguished, it was found that the various burnt packages did not contain silks, as had been supposed, but India sacks. This discovery appears to have acted with most distressing effect on the supercargo, and aroused the fears of the Captain that he would destroy himself. A strict watch was consequently maintained on his actions, and one day the Captain declares that he surprised him on the point of blowing out his brains. The supercargo promised to refrain from any more attempts of the like nature, and was permitted to go at large. The voyage progressed finely until within a short distance of the Chilean coast, when it was suddenly discovered on the night of the 9th of April that the supercargo was missing, being supposed to have jumped overboard. It now turns out, however, that he had been concealed by the Captain, and was discovered and arrested while endeavoring to get away on board the ship Panther. The Captain was also arrested, charged with being accessory to the fraud, which is alleged to have been perpetrated by the supercargo and not by the Canton merchants. — Herald, June 11th.

The Panther then was consigned to the Glidden & Williams Line, and left San Francisco on July 5th for Calcutta. On this trip, Capt. Gannett took under his wing a young lad of 17, named Edward H. Burr. Capt. Gannett was considered one of the " best commanders of his time". She left Sand Heads, Calcutta Mar. 28, 1859 and was 99 days to New York; being 12 days north of Bermuda. In 1860 she then sailed from San Francisco to Callao and was 92 days to New York, via Hampton Roads. She then crossed to Liverpool and went out to Calcutta and Bombay. After several voyages, the young Mr. Burr was made first officer of the Panther.  Soon after the Calcutta voyages with Capt. Gannett,  he made his first voyage as master on the clipper ship Orion, from Liverpool to Boston. 

Capt. Gannett continued to be in touch with his uncle, the Rev. Ezra Gannett, and appeared to be knowledgeable and sympathetic to the spread of the Unitarian doctorines.

Charles Dall (1816-1886), a well known missionary in India,
and Unitarian minister in the United States and Canada,
sailed 142 days from Calcutta to Boston onboard the Panther.

While in Calcutta, Capt. Gannett was approached by Charles Dall, a Unitarian missionary and a well-known Unitarian minister to the poor in the United States and an early Unitarian minister in Canada. He influenced and worked with the leaders of the liberal Hindu Brahmo Samaj movement and, controversially, joined the Brahmos himself. Working as an educator as well as a missionary, he helped foster the emergence of a class of liberal Hindus who were as well-acquainted with Shakespeare and Milton as with their own traditional religious literature. His Unitarianism proved to be a safe and useful way for the young Bengali elite to step outside their own traditional patterns in order to critique Indian society and politics and to propose needed reforms. Although like most other missionaries of his time he made few converts to Christianity, his work did much to promote inter-faith dialogue and to prepare the way for modern India.

"This day was the day of Lord Channing's [William Ellery Channing] departure from India; and I went down to the river-side to see him off.  The display was good, yet by no means so good as I anticipated. On the music-ground, I met Capt. Gannett, of the Panther who said that Dr. Gannett was more interested than at first in my work, and sent some books to me, or at least intended to send what he, the captain, whould have brought me, but that he was not expecting to sail directly to Calcutta. "  -Tues. Feb 18, 1862

"Dear Friend And Brother --- On the day after tomoroow, I embark for America. Since I was driven back from my door, by the almost wreck of the Great Eastern to England and to Calcutta, I have been hoping and praying for a speedy return; and a favoring Providence has brought the permission sooner than I expected. A fortnight ago, I mentioned the subject to one of our old firends, a near relative of Dr. E.S.Gannett: I mean Capt. J.P. Gannett, of the ship Panther (one of the finest vessels now in the river). He would charge me only the cost of living; half the usual charge of a passage ship from Calcutta to Boston; in fact, only the first-cabin fare from London to Boston by steam. This was pleasant, to begin with. " - Tues, April 8 1862

Dall eventually decides to take passage to Boston aboard the Panther and briefly reports the 142 day passage from Calcutta in the journal:

"On the evening before the first day of September instant, I came from a voyage of a hundred and forty-two days on board the good ship Panther, greatly indebted to Capt. Gannett for making so long a journey a very pleasant one. Nearly five months of quiet study were thus secured; and besides a daily stint of Bengalee, I was enable to prepare a course of seven or eight lectures on the new phases of human life and character which one meets with in Asia. Seven years of this strange contact have been grated me, and some thousands of miles of land-journeying in the east and south and north-west provinces of India, besides my passing through the midst of the Indian Rebellion of 1857. The mere rehearsal of conversations, such as have been granted me with the Rajah of Burdwan, the Rajah of Kapoorthala, the Rajah Radhakanta and other leaders in Asiatic wealth, influence, and enlightenment, should interest our friends hereabout, and all students of human nature, if ti were only to unbend and rest the mind for a single hour, once or twice a week, in the midst of the agonizing and racking suspense between battle and battle of the present war. I am ready, if any wish to hear:  though some say that the present anxiety precludes, even for the young, all possibility of hearing thse stores more true, and as such, more interesting -- certainly more instructive , -- than those of the "Arabian Nights." After seven years of exile at the antipodes, isolated and alone it should seem that a stay as many months, in pure cool air, on the part of your missionary, was highly advisebale. But I am now in health; and life is too short to spend many of its hours where little or nothing can be done. So I am ready now, if duty calls, to regirdle the earth, and restrace our last five months over the sea; during which our ship travelled, as bestormed and becalmed among counter-currents of air and water, a good twenty-five thousand miles."

She arrived back in Boston, on Aug.31, 1862 from Calcutta. The Panther had light head winds and calms in the Bay of Bengal with no trades winds in the Indian Ocean and then experienced a long succession of westerly gales from Madagascar until west of the cape. 

This was to prove Captain Gannett's last sailing of the Panther, and she was then sold to Randolph M. Cooley, and became part of the Merchant Express Line of Clippers. 

The Merchants Line, Randolph Cooley and Captain Sylvester B. Lothrop

Randolph M. Cooley & Co. was a wall street merchant house & shipping company, who acquired and operated  many of the top rated clipper ships. In 1863, they boasted as having only "A-1" rated clipper ships in their Merchants' Express Line of Clippers, and the most vessels travelling between New York and San Francisco. 

The crest of the 71st -
Randolph M. Cooley is listed as a field officer, 1st Lt. in Nov, 1861
 

 

The History Of The Tontine Building: The Birthplace Of the New York Stock Exchange

 

The 2nd Tontine Building circa. 1860-1905.
The location of the offices of Randolph M. Cooley, 88 Water St.
 

 

The Tontine building has a very unique and interesting history. Situated on the north-west corner of Wall Street and Water Street, it was built by a group of stockbrokers to serve as a meeting place for trade and correspondence and was the main place of business for Randolph M. Cooley. The May 17, 1792, creation of the Buttonwood Agreement, which bound its signatories to trade only with each other, effectively gave rise to a new organisation of tradespeople. The growth of the Tontine's trade proceedings had effected the creation of the New York Stock and Exchange Board (NYSEB) and necessitated a larger venue. The NYSEB is recognised as the precursor to the present-day New York Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the world.

 

In its prime, the Tontine was among New York City's busiest centres for the buying and selling of stocks and other wares, for business dealings and discussion, and for political transaction. Having had a dual function as a combination club and a meeting room, the coffee house played host to auctions, banquets, and balls, among others. After hours, gambling and securities dealings were had – undertakings that were then deemed less than honest.The coffee house also provided a place for the registration of ship cargo and the trading of slaves. The Tontine was noted as classless; individuals from all social strata met there and collectively engaged in the many civil and economic affairs. John Lambert, an English traveller, wrote in 1807.

 

The building which stood at the time that the Panther sailed the seas (1855-1870) was the second erected, at the north-west corner of Wall and Water streets, and was commenced in 1792 by an association of New York merchants, and completed in 1795. Its origins began across Water street where a new Coffee House, was built in 1773.

 

The original proprietor was Madam Ferrara, who formerly kept what was known originally as the Merchants' Coffee House. It was very popular and often mentioned in the papers of that date, for nearly a year, after which it was seldom spoken of.

 

The Merchants' Coffee House had been such a great success, at the death of Mr. Bradford, the proprietor, in 1786, there was talk of building a new and large tavern, but it was not 

until 1790 that any definite plan was determined upon. The original edifice stood on the northwest corner of Wall and Water streets in New York. It was commenced in or about 1792, by an association of merchants, and completed in or about 1795 for the purpose of providing suitable accommodation for the common convenience, and center for the daily business, and intercourse of the mercantile community.

 

By the constitution, 203 shares were subscribed for $200 a share. (Originally there were 137 males and 66 females, 203;  3 females and 3 males were duplicated, so that really only 197 names were mentioned.) Each share entitled the holder to name a life of each sex. Each nominee had his or her age and parentage stated by the nominee. During such nominee's life, the subscriber received his equal proportion of the net income of the establishment.  It was slightly unusual in that the young lives nominated were also the tontine's shareholders and would receive the rents and any other income generated by the property. Upon the death of the nominee, the subscriber's interest ceased, and his interest became merged in the owners of the surviving nominees.

 

The nominee himself did not necessarily have an interest in the association; for each subscriber, in naming a person, generally a child, looked to such as had a premise of length of days.

"The plan of this Association originated from the scheme of Lorenzi Tonti, a Neapolitan, who introduced it into France in 1653, under Louis XIV., and hence the word Tontine came to designate a loan advanced by a number of associated capitalists for life annuities, with benefit of survivorship. There is, however, a distinction between the present plan and the scheme of Tonti. His  intent was the establishment of a company who should each contribute a like amount of capital, to be loaned to a responsible party, at a certain rate of interest,  which was to be divided between the members of the same age; but where there was a diversity of age, according to the fixed ratio, the elder received more and the younger less. As the members died off, the survivors absorbed their respective interests, and when the last surviving members died, the borrower took the whole capital."

In this case, the original shares were assignable and held as personal estate, and the whole property was vested in five trustees, who were to be continued in trust, or by succession, until the number of nominees was reduced to seven, when the holders of these shares, contingent upon these surviving nominees, became entitled to a conveyance in fee of the whole premises to be equally divided between them. 

 

The Association, in their preamble, named the building the "Tontine Coffee House", and it was thereby directed to be kept and used as a coffee house. But with the opening 

of the Exchange a little further up Wall street, the interests of the shareholders demanded a change in this special appropriation, they applied to the Court of Chancery for permission to let the premises for general purposes, and by its decree in 1834 the above restrictions were removed. In 1843, the legislature altered the title to "Tontine Building."  On the 4th of June, 1861, it had existed sixty-seven years.

 

It seemed that all manner of meetings of citizens were held in the Tontine Coffee house. All the famous charities of the city were born there. So were banks and corporations. A grievance was remedied by a meeting at the old Tontine Coffee house, and it decided everything. It was a hotel, too. It was rumoured that George Frederick Cook, a famous actor at the time, known widely for his erratic habits,  and who was largely responsible for initiating the romantic style in acting that was later made famous by Edmund Kean, died there in 1812. He was considered an eminent tragedian whose delineation of the tragic muse in his day was without competition, surrounded by many of his contemporaries, patrons of the house, who continued with him in the last act in the drama of his eventful life. Hither men from every section of the country were attracted by his reputation and they regarded a visit to the Tontine in those days as essential to the comforts and agreeability of a temporary sojourn to the city of New York.

 

The spirit of the age was also seen in the breathing of the "iron horse" and in the growing movements and wonder of the working press. In this building night and day, George F. Nesbitt & Co. from their extensive steam printing and stationery establishment, supplied the wants of the vast commercial community with promptitude and dispatch, and added to the renoun of this relic of a past age by their well appointed and efficient and thoroughly established printing house, which transmited through the commercial houses of this city and elsewhere, information connected with the trade, the resources, the supplies and the wants of the habitable globe.

 

The Merchants' Exchange was kept in this grand building in the large room, until 1825. It was only thirty feet square. 

 

In 1855, the Tontine trust made a new proposition. They agreed to put up a new building, which should revert to the seven left, provided they,the builders, had the rent of it for the balance of the time. For this they agreed to pay the Tontine trustees the sum of $20,000 per annum. The new building, it was agreed, should not cost less than $40,000. However, slightly overbudget, it was completed in the 1860's it is described as replacing the old Tontine at the time:

"In its place arisen the magnificent building, a drawing which adorns our columns. It is a noble looking edifice, faced with French granite with a soft agreeable hue, and will, when entirely completed, cost over $60,000. It has  a frontage on Wall street of 68 feet, and is five stories high; the ground floor is designed for banking corporation ; the upper floors are approached by a handsome iron  stair-case, and are most conveniently arranged for offices. Altogether the new Tontine Building is an ornament to the locality. Much has been said by the press, the great efforts have been made by the speculators from interested motives to spread business over a greater area, but it can never be accomplished, only so far as necessity forces it, street by street, as one after another enters the mercantile commercial arena."

The Tontine Building was not only used as an inn, but also as a merchants' exchange, and was the first office building known to the city. It was here that a naval duel between Citizen Bompard, a French naval officer commanding the warship U Ambuscade, and Captain Courtney, of His Majesty's frigate Boston, was arranged. This remarkable contest took place near Long Branch. The English commander was killed and all the officers, excepting the sailing master,were wounded. The total losses were: Boston, 12 killed and 24 wounded ; U Ambuscade, 7 killed and 10 wounded. The frigates were very evenly matched, each carried 32 guns. The fight lasted for several hours. The Boston was badly whipped and obliged to run away. "Some enterprising mariners actually advertised that they would take passengers down to Sandy Hook to see the fight" (American Daily Advertiser, Aug. 1, 1793) . 

 

In 1870 a suit in partition was begun and it was not until 1880 when the referee's report entered, that the building was sold at public auction to Peter J. O'Donohue for 

$138,550. In 1905 he sold it to Tontine Company, who erected the present (the third) building, which became the property of John B. and Charles A. O'Donohue, coffee merchants. 

 

The Rise of the Clipper Ship Advertising Card

 

Clipper ship trade cards are cards that were issued by dispatch lines to advertise specific voyages of clipper ships from one port (usually New York or Boston) to another (usually San Francisco). They were distributed primarily during the late 1850s and early 1860s.

 

During the pre-Gold Rush era, clipper ship sailings were advertised primarily by brief, unadorned announcements in newspapers. Once gold fever struck, posters and broadsides were the printed media most often used. While George Nesbitt & Co. of New York was printing at least a few clipper ship cards (albeit simple, drab ones) as early as 1849, the heyday of the clipper ship card was still some years away.

 

Ironically, this heyday for clipper cards did not correspond with the peak times of the industry they promoted. Many people quite naturally associate clipper ship cards with the frenzy of the California gold rush, but in fact most clipper ship cards were produced during the decline, not ascent, of the clipper ship industry. The depression of the mid-1850s, which culminated in the Panic of 1857, obviously hurt business. By the late 1850s, when clipper card production began in earnest, the clipper ship was facing a growing challenge from the steamer. And in the early 1860s, the period of heaviest clipper ship card distribution, shipping trade was disrupted by the American Civil War, with any California-bound clipper the potential prey of Confederate raiders.

 

Randolph M. Cooley & Co. had an advantage with offices in the same building as the massive steam powered printing firm of  Geroge F. Nesbitt and Co. By 1862, most clipper cards were printed in full color, on coated stock, and represent some of the finest early American color advertising artwork.

 

A
A clipper advertising card for the Panther circa 1863-1866

 

A clipper advertising card for the Panther circa 1863-1866
 

 

Captain Sylvester B. Lothrop 

 

At the end of 1862, Sylvester B. Lothrop/Lathrop took over as Master of the Panther. Captain Sylvester Lothrop/Lathrop, was born in 1822 in Barnstable, MA and was the son of John Lothrop and Maria Baxter. He was of proud lineage and had a long line of honorable sea-faring captains in his family. He was related to the first Mayflower pilgrims, and was also a direct descendant of Rev. John Lothrop, a religious pioneer and founder of a prominent and wealthy American family. 

 

American Patriach Rev. John Lothrop (1584-1653)

 

Rev. John Lothrop is best known as the the spiritual leader of one of the first Congregational churches in England. Lothrop gained prominence in 1624, when he was called to replace Reverend Henry Jacob as the pastor of the First Independent Church in London, a congregation of sixty members which met in secret at Southwark. Many Congregational churches claim their descent from a family of Protestant demominations formed on a theory of union published by the theologian Robert Brownein 1592. These arose from the Nonconformist religious movement during the Puritan reformation of the Church of England. In Great Britain, the early congregationalists were called separatists or independents to distinguish them from the similarly Calvanistic Presbytarians. Today, some congregationalists in Britain still call themselves Independents.

 

Congregationalism, is a system of church governance in which every local church congregation is independent, ecclesiastically sovereign, or "autonomous". Among those major Protestant Christian traditions that employ congregationalism are those Congregational Churches known by the "Congregationalist" name that descended from the Anglo-American Puritan movement of the 17th century, the Baptist churches, and most of the groups brought about by the Anabaptist movement in Germany that immigrated to the U.S. in the late 18th century.

 

At the time, England was under the authority of the Anglican Church, which was based on a hierarchical system of Bishops, with the King having the final authority. The legislation of Henry VIII had effectively established the independence from Rome of the Church of England, but did not alter its constitutional or pastoral structures. Royal supremacy was exercised through the extant legal structures of the church, whose leaders were bishops.

 

Although Lothrop was ordained in the Church of England and appointed curate of a local parish in Egerton, Kent. In 1623 he renounced his orders and joined the cause of the Independents and to preach ideals inconsistant with the Anglican Church without permission of Bishop of London, William Laud  was considered an act of heresy and treason against the state.

 

Following the group's discovery on 22 April 1632 by officers of the king, forty-two of Lothropp's Independents were arrested. Only eighteen escaped capture. He and his congregation were prosecuted for forming an unlawful conventicle, which was definded as a "meeting to hear unlicensed preaching" and convicted of heresy. The court record goes on with an opening address by The Archbishop of Canterbury:

“You show yourselves to be unthankful to God, to the King and to the Church of England, that when, God be praised, through his Majesties care and ours that you have preaching in every church, and men have liberty to join in prayer and participation in the sacraments and have catechizing to enlighten you, you in an unthankful manner cast off all this yoke, and in private unlawfully assemble yourselves together making rents and divisions in the church‐‐‐.You are desperately heritical.” 

He and members of his congregation were sent to the Clink and Newgate prison. Some languished there and died. While Lothropp was in prison, his wife Hannah House became ill and died. His six surviving children were according to family accounts were left to fend for themselves begging for bread on the streets of London. Friends being unable to care for his children brought them to the Bishop who was in charge of Lothropp and after about a year, all were released on bail except Lothropp, who was deemed too dangerous to be set at liberty. The Bishop ultimately released him on bond in May 1634 with the understanding that he would immediately remove himself  to the New World. Since he did not immediately leave for the New World, a court order was subsequently put out for him. 

 

Lothrop was told that he would be pardoned upon acceptance of terms to leave England permanently with his family along with as many of his congregation members as he could take who would not accept the authority of the Church of England. Lathrop accepted the terms of the offer and left for Plymouth, Massachusetts. With his family, and approx. 30 of his congregational members,  he sailed on the Griffin and arrived in Boston on 18 September 1634. The record found on page 71 of Governor Winthrop's Journal, quotes John Lothropp, a freeman, rejoicing in finding a "church without a bishop," . . . "and a state without a king." John Lothrop married Anna Hammond (?) (1616–1687) shortly after his arrival. In The history of Cape Cod: the annals of Barnstable county, including the district of Mashpee ... (1883), Lothrop is described as:

"...of a meek and quiet spirit." He brought four sons with him from England, viz., Thomas, who settled in Barnstable, Samuel, who settled at Norwich, Joseph, who was in Barnstable, and Benjamin, of Charlestown. He had also sons born here, viz., Barnabas and John, who remained in Barnstable. From Thomas, the eldest, it is said, those of the name of Lothrop in Plymouth County trace their descent; from Samuel, the second son, the numerous families in Connecticut, New York, and Vermont, are derived, some of whom write their names Lathrop. Those in Essex County are supposed to bb descendants of Benjamin. The posterity of Joseph, Barnabas, and John has been numerous in Barnstable County. Rev. Dr. Lothrop, of Boston, published a memoir of his ancestor, in the Massachusetts Historical Collections. The name is variously written in the old records."

 

The congregation first settled in Scituate, then, in 1639, after gaining a grant, settled at Barnstable, Mass. They constructed their first meeting house in 1646 on Coggins Pond, about a mile west of the present church. Rev. Lothrop and his congregation thrived in Barnstable. The following passage describes the grant and the original members of his congregation  who had travelled with him from England:

"Two persons only are named in the grant, Mr. Joseph Hull and Thomas Dimoc, 'who, with their associates,' were 'to erect a plantation or town at or about a place called by the Indians Mattacheese;' but many persons of character and note were embraced under the term 'associates,' among whom were the distinguished pastor, Rev. John Lothrop; also, Anthony Annable, Henry Cobb, Thomas Cudworth, Samuel Fuller, George Lewis, Barnard Lumbard, Samuel Hinckley, William Crocker, William Parker, Henry Bourne, and others.

Rev. John Lothrop's congregation became well-known throughout New England, and because of his reputation,  Isaac Robinson, son of the leader of the Mayflower Pilgrims, left Plymouth to join with him as soon as he reached America. His contemporaries regarded him as one of the most important ministers to have come to America.  Many historians consider his church in London to be the first true Congregational Church in the world, and the daughter churches, the First Parish of Scituate and the West Barnstable Parish Church, to be the oldest continuous Congregational Churches.

 

By the early 1700’s the town had grown sufficiently large to support two parishes. Members in the East Precinct erected a building on the present site on Cobb’s Hill, and another building was constructed in the west end of Barnstable. In 1717, the congregation split into two churches. 

 

In the early 19th century there was considerable theological debate in the “churches of the standing order” in New England. Many churches actually split over this debate, the traditionalists becoming Congregationalists and the liberals becoming Unitarians. Already recently divided along geographic lines, the church in Barnstable did not undergo this split.

 

The church in the West Parish followed the line of tradition and is today a Congregational church. The church in the East Parish, leaned toward the liberal side of the debate and later became identified as a Unitarian church.

 

In 1836 the original Cobb’s Hill meeting house was removed and a new, larger one was constructed. It was destroyed by fire in 1905. The present edifice was dedicated in 1907. It was designed by Guy Lowell, the architect of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. The Parish Hall was constructed in 1960. It is now named Warren Hall in honor of the Rev. Kenneth R. Warren, who served the church from 1953 to 1991. A further addition to the west end of the building was built in 1979.

 

Capt. Sylvester B. Lothrop was a unitarian, and married Sarah Simmons. He went to sea in 1850, and worked as a sailor. In 1860 he gained his captain's papers. He had a small estate that is described in The Barnstable Patriot, in 1893:

The estate of Capt. Sylvester Lothrop, consisting of a small dwelling house and about three acres of land, was sold by Auctioneer T.F. Drew on Saturday to Capt. Benj. D. Baxter for $575. The captain will move the house up onto Cedar street to let.

He had three children, Harold (b. 1853), Sylvester Jr. (b.1862), and Lulu (b.1864). Lulu eventually went to live with her uncle Levi Simmons, and his family according to the 1880 Census. Levi Simmons was one-time master of the famous clipper Red Jacket. Unfortunately, Capt. Lothrop's son,  Sylvester Jr. was killed in a tragic railroad accident at the age of 27. 

On 10 May, 1863 Sylvester Lothrop reached San Francisco on his first voyage from New York in the Panther. He was a total of 140 days from New York and met in company on March 25th, in latitude 35° south, longitude 81° west, with the famous Grace Darling from Liverpool. In fine clipper tradition, they agreed to race, and the Panther, considered by most to be the faster ship, took a more westerly course and was beaten into San Francisco by one day.

Her cargo manifest shows a wide variety of cargo from New York, particularly noteworthy are the individual components to manufacture glass lamps, including: glass, plaster, cement, marble dust, pipes, and pipe staves, tin, and the plank wheels to serve as bases. At the time, a change by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue Services was made to the taxes on manufacturing lamps and inkwells. It was announced, "It has also been decided that the process of uniting the parts of a glass lamp at the foot and the burner, by the use of plaster of Paris, cement or other analogous means is not regarded as a manufacture. The decision will apply to glass ink stands with metallic tops, united by the same or similar means." The merchants in San Francisco  and shippers in New York were quick to take advantage of the new tax rule, sending the components to San Francisco for manufacture.

The Panther's cargo list arriving in San Francisco, 10 May 1863:

OUR NEW YORK COMMERCIAL LETTER.

(From the Resident Correspondent of the Alta California.)

New York, Nov.3 1864.

 

EDITORS Alta:— The sluggish condition of general trade for many weeks past is beggining to give place to a quicker movement, stimulated by the advance in the premium on gold. The volume of business, however, is still below the average of former seasons, and no general revival is looked for until after the Presidential election. There has been a gradual stiffening of prices for all kinds of merchandise, though the markets are greatly unsettled. The rise, however, may be partly considered as a merely temporary incident of the gold speculation. A reation in the premium would in consequence give a downward turn in commercial values. On the whole, however, a much more cheerful feeling prevails in commercial circles, and the recent panic has about subsided.

 

There is no material change to notice in the Dry Goods trade. The advance in Cotton has imparted a little more bouyancy and firmness in prices, without much activity. The auction sales continue to be the feature of the times. At most of the sales prices have been satisfactory and higher rates have been readily obtained for all descriptions of marketable goods. This had been an exciting day in Wall street, and speculation has been rampant, both in the gold room and on the Stock Exchange. Gold advanced from 230, the opening price to 244 within half an hour, and then receded to 2.5 ^3/4 during the next fifteen minutes. The prospects now are that a steady rise will take place. 

 

The Money market is easy for call loans at seven per cent, under an active demand from the Stock Exchange. Commercial paper is not favored. The rates for first class are from nine to twelve per cent. Stocks are more feverish than gold. It would be impossible to give a quotation, the range being all the way from twenty to thirty per cent. in twenty-four hours. There is nothing doing in them for permanent investment -- only for speculative purposes.

 

The Freight market to European ports continues stagnant; quotations are entirely nominal. American tonnage is gradually being withdrawn from the usual competition with foreign flags. 

 

To California, Freights are improving, with an advance in rates to 70@75c per foot for measurement and 1@1^1/4c per lb for weight. Coleman & Co, have laid on the Favorita and Victorine, both A1 vessels They are filling up moderately well. The Panther and Reynard, in Comstock's line, are doing a good business. The former succeeding the Susan Howland, which cleared on the 28th Oct. for your port. Cooley has up the Fearless and Panther and Sutton & Co. the Hornet. The Sea Serpent, in the same line cleared yesterday. At Boston engagements are reported dull, and slack in offerings.

 

Auction sales proved a great way to sell cargo
to keep Panther profitable. (Daily Alta, 1865)

By the end of 1865, bulk freight had been more profitable than individual manufactured goods being shipped to San Francisco. Despite the risk, many carriers including the Panther had found that bringing bulk freight into port and then "auctioning" it dockside could fetch better freight prices and increased profits rather than product being directly imported by an agent. The United States economy began to rebound, as the civil war was drawing to an end. Guanao proved to a be a boom in the Pacific, a mini-gold rush - and several clipper ships, including the Panther sailed for recently discovered sources.

As described by the New York Times, 1865, "The ships Fair Wind and Panther had sailed for Baker's Island previous to the 12th of September, and the Odd Fellow was then there loading with guano." The Panther, along with Fair Wind  then pointed her bow for Baker Island, in the South Central Pacific for a load of Guano, which was considered at the time to be the next "gold rush". A bulk, but highly valuable cargo.

Bagged Guano Waiting On Trolly To Be Loaded Onto Clipper Ships Such As The Panther

Short History Of Guano

Guano has been harvested and used for centuries.  In fact, the word “guano” comes from the Quichua language of the Inca Empire.  It commonly is found in islands in the Caribbean, and some isolated island atolls in the South Pacific.  The conditions in the islands near present-day Peru were also perfect for forming large deposits of guano.  A large sea bird population meant there was plenty of excrement settling on the ground.

Fish-eating sea birds, most notably the white-breasted cormorant, have been depositing their seafood-based droppings off the coast of Peru for thousands of years. The guano of Peru is most notable due to the limited precipitation in the region. Guano is dropped and dries quickly, preserving the chemicals that make it useful for fertilizer. Is moist environments, the nitrates evaporate, making other deposits less rich than those of Peru .  For the Incans, Peruvian guano was a highly prized fertilizer.  Disturbing sea birds (and thereby disrupting the process of making guano) was punishable by death. Also, many small isolated and unhabitable islands atolls, in the south and central pacific are also great sources of Guano deposits.

When the Spanish first arrived in the Inca Empire in the 1500’s, they were aware that people used guano as fertilizer for their crops.  As the Perrysburg Journal noted in 1855, “the Spaniards obtained this knowledge from them [the Inca], but were too indolent to apply it in practical life.” Europeans and North Americans remained unfamiliar with the benefits of guano until the nineteenth century. From 1799 to 1804, Prussian explorer Alexander von Humboldt traveled around Latin America.  In 1802, while in Peru, he investigated the fertilizing properties of guano. After hearing how effective it was, guano soon became highly prized on the world market.  In the 1840s, guano was highly prized as an agricultural fertilizer. Over the next two years, 182 tons were shipped to England.  Just twenty years later, in 1862, that amount had risen to 435,000 tons.

By the 1850’s, news of this revolutionary fertilizer being imported by the British had reached the United States.  Americans wanted a piece of the lucrative industry.  One writer said, “The commercial enterprise of our country is seeking out and bringing the treasures of the waters to our farms and orchards, in the form of guano…Treasures, indeed—rich in the one needful thing, without which our labor would be in vain, our fertile soils a barren waste.”

In his 1850 State of the Union address, President Millard Fillmore said this resource had “become so desirable an article to the agricultural interest of the United States that it is the duty of the Government to employ all the means properly in its power for the purpose of causing that article to be imported into the country at a reasonable price.”

The primary source for guano at the time were the Chincha Islands off of the Peruvian Coast. The guano mining operations of Peru kept the country from becoming bankrupt although American, British, and European farmers resented paying the high costs of Peruvian bird droppings.

Baker Island: An American Guano Gold Mine

Baker Island was reportedly first sighted by Captain Elisha Folger, of Nuntucket, who visited it in the whaler Equator in 1818, who gave it the Name New Nuntucket. It was visted again in 1825 by Captain Starbuck in the ship Lopez, and in December, 1828, Daniel Mckenzie visited it in the American whaler Minerva Smyth.  However, it was in 1832  and again in 1839 that a Captain Baker, after whom the island is now named, also came to the island aboard the whaler Gideon Howard to bury a seaman, plant an American flag and claim possession of the island. 

As he was burying the seaman, Captain Baker made an accidental discovery of a large and rich Guano deposit, which he reported once arriving back in the United States. In June, 1855, the Farmer's Club, had urged by resolution the government to take possession of certain guano islands to which no other nations had claim:

Whereas, On the 22d of June, 1855, this body passed the following resolutions:

Resolved, That is the duty of the American government to assert its sovereognty over any and all barren and unihabitable gunao islands of the ocean, which have been, or hereafter may be, dsicovered by the citizens of the United States, and which are situated so far from any contenent that, according to the law which governs nations, no other power can rightffully exercise jurisdiction over them, and to gurantee the right of property therein to the discoverer, his successor or assigns.

Revolved, That the foregoing resolutions be printed in the form of a circular, signed by the President and Secretary and transmitted to the count and State agricultural societies of the several States, to the President of the United States, and heads of departments at Washington. 

Shortly after, The American Guano Company was formed, trusting solely in the representations of Captain Michael Baker, who had accidently discovered an immense deposit of this fertilizer upon islands in the Pacfic.

Nothwithstanding this, another expedition was sent out by the American Guano company, the bonds of $100,000 required by the United States government was given. Upon arrival,  bouys were laid, timber was rafted ashore to build houses and also to boat the cargo off the island.Two cargos were sent to New York.

 

During the financial depression of 1854-55,  government funds evaporated and further operations of the company were put on hold due to lack of funding.

 

However, Wm. H. Webb, a private investor, stepped forward out of the blue and furnished a ship which he sent out with a commander that he completely trusted in order to determine the feasibility of the Gunao operation. When Webb's commander reach the islands, he determined that Jarvis Island had a "boundless amount", which he estimated at  5,000,000 tons  of high-grade guano and entirely accesible, and and Baker Island having no less a deposit. He reported that, “excepting this one, no Guano Island hitherto discovered possesses the natural advantages of a good harbor, safe anchorage, and convenience to load a large number of ships at once.”  

 

Within Sixty days, Webb bought up some $18,000 shares in the American Guano company being hawked on the street for $5-$10 a share and owned about 1/5 of the company.

 

At about the same time, D.P.G. Judd arrived in Brooklyn with a cargo of Guano from Baker Island, and sold it a $38/ ton and realized a profit of $18,000.

 

Webb instanced experiments to show that the guano from Baker & Jarvis Islands was no way inferior to the best Peruvian article, in hopes of increasing its value. “From the past and present demand for Peruvian guano, now selling at fifty-five dollars per ton,” the company estimated that their profits would be $2,400,000 per annum. The American Guano Company urged The United States Congress to adopt the resolutions that had been passed earlier by the New York Farmers' Club. 

 

Congress took action and on August 18, 1856 the Guano Island Act was passed. It empowered American citizens to take possession of any island or rock or key with guano deposits not under the control of a foreign government. The full act also allowed the President to utilize the military to protect the interests of the discoverer.

Guano Island Act of 1856 -

 

Whenever any citizen of the United States discovers a deposit of guano on any island, rock, key, not within the lawful jurisdiction of any other government, and not occupied by the citizens of any other government, and takes peaceable possession thereof, and occupies the same, such island, rock, or key may, at the discretion of the President, be considered as appertaining to the United States.

The discoverer shall, as soon as practicable, give notice verified by affidavit, to the Department of State, of such discovery, occupation, and possession, describing the island, rock, or key, and the latitude and longitude thereof, as near as may be, and showing that such possession was taken in the name of the United States; and shall furnish satisfactory evidence to the State Department that such island, rock, or key was not, at the time of the discovery thereof, or of the taking possession and occupation thereof by the claimants, in the possession or occupation of any other government or of the citizens of any other government, before the same shall be considered as appertaining to the United States.

And be it further enacted, that nothing in this act contained shall be construed obligatory on the United States to retain possession of the islands, rocks, or keys, as aforesaid, after the guano shall have been removed from the same.

Additionally, while the act allowed the President to annex a guano island or rock or key, it did not require that the United States retain possession of a guano-filled locale. This was a difference in law as typically annexations require a treaty to give up possession of a territory - thus the Guano Island Act set out to differentiate guano islands from other annexed territories.

 

On 1 May 1857 the American Guano Company shipped to Boston the first batch of Baker-Jarvis guano along with samples from Howland, just north of Baker Island. “The supply of guano upon these islands is reported as being almost inexhaustible, and of a quality not inferior to that of the Chinchas,” the Boston Daily Advertiser proudly proclaimed.

 

A Baltimore newspaper called the island "a new El Dorado" due to the value of guano as agricultural resource and the lower cost with which guano could be had by American farmers. The U.S.S. St. Marys (Commander Charles H. Davis) landed, surveyed the island, and took official possession in the name of the United States, in August 1857. They reported that ten whalers had touched at the island between June 21 and August 16, 1857. So frequently did whalers visit Baker during one period that it became the custom to leave messages and letters there, in a covered box, to be picked up and delivered, as an ad-hoc postal station.

 

The U.S. Pacific Squadron under Commander Mervine, attracted criticism for its continuing opposition to to acquisition of the island, and his previous reports that the Guano could not be harvested. “Commander Mervine, it will be remembered,” the Daily National Intelligencer informed its readers, "pronounced as worthless whatever guano might be found on Baker Island in

consequence of its being saturated by heavy rains.” However, worse was in store for Mervine. In April 1858 the Daily Mercury publicly rebuked him for “his superficial examination and unfounded report” on the islands that “retarded the progress of a great enterprise, and affected two or three years’ crops in our country.”

 

In February 1858 fourteen shipmasters took pains to rebute the squadron's findings, advising the secretary of the navy himself that the Jarvis-Baker region was "seldom if ever visited by gales" and that neither landing nor loading on the islands presented undue difficulty. They also reminded him that Baker Island was particularly important, apart from its guano treasures, since it was the traditional post office depot for American whalers. The shipmasters flatly rejected the navy verdict as in direct conflict with their own experience. For the hardened mariners, anchoring outside island reefs and landing by tender were routine operations, and the obtaining of a cargo of guano presented not half the diffculty they had “often experienced in taking an old and ugly whale.”

J.D. Hagues, chemist with the American Guano Co., in a lengthy report on the phosphate content, declared Baker's guano deposits the finest he had seen. The islands were worked continuously by the American Guano Co. from 1859 to 1878, with many thousands of tons of guano having been dug, carted across to the landing on tram cars, and loaded with great difficulty through the pounding surf onto schooners and clipper ships, which were moored precariously to buoys on the lee side. It is difficult to attempt to detail the activities, adventures and hardships of this period; or to tell of the many shipwrecks, although a fairly complete history has been pieced together from scattered accounts.

In November 1858 the importance of the island guano to the American economy was accorded official recognition with the award of six thousand dollars, “a present from Uncle Sam,” to both Captain Michael Baker, discoverer of the island bearing his name, and the estate of the late Captain Thomas D. Lucas, discoverer of Jarvis.

 

Sea Fowl Guano Advertisements circa. 1875

American Guano Company Advertisement c.1860-1880

 

Gloucester Guano Advertisnent (U.K.) 1860
 

 

In 1866-1867 the Panther made a round voyage between New York and the East Indies. Captain Lathrop, made one more trip, which was the fastest New York-San Francisco run for the Panther in just 116 days. 

 

During the 1850's and up into the late 1860's ocean traffic was primarly a one-way affair. Most of the cargoes of general merchandise and passengers were transported from the East Coast to the West Coast of the United States on sailing vessels, many of which were the famous California clippers. Much of the time, these ships returned to the East in ballast, since the bulk of the freight was moving west. Clippers were large and expensive ships to operate, so they did not often bother to go from port to port to collect miscellaneous cargoes such as hides, this was often left to much smaller, less expensive ships.

 

The Civil War had drastically affected shipping and  at the close of the war, many older clippers and sailing vessels were being offered for sale in favour of new steam powered technology. However, the end of the war did more to provide a surplus of sailing vessels, it convinced western shippers and businessmen that they did not need to be dependant on the eastern shipowners for tonnage for their trade. 

 

Moreover, the exhorbitant prices for wheat and grain during the Gold Rush had encouraged farmers to grow their own grain crops. By 1865, this had developed into a lucrative export from San Francisco. The clipper ship owners, delighted with a return cargo from California, fostered the notion that the speed of the clipper was neccessary for delivering grain.  One natural consequence to this was the annual race between clipper ships by admiring the fastest sailing ships that delivered wheat to Austraila and England. Most of the clipper ships had been hastily constructed during the boom days of the California Gold Rush, and in their eagernees to set records on the severe Cape Horn passage, the ships racing to cross each others' wakes were met with peril.  Captain's in their zeal to be the fastest ship would often have out every inch of canvass possible, the over-canvassed ships in foul weather with inexperienced crews often ran afoul of trouble. 

 

Being met with trouble, and battling the seas under extreme sail was often glorified, yet the experienced sea captain and crew with any whiff of salt knew better. There are many folklore sayings discouraging an over-canvassed ship, praising the bravery and wisdom of a true sailor, such as, "Any fool can set a sail, but it takes a sailor to take it down".

 

 

 

Pope & Talbot: The New Owners

 

Pope & Talbot's major founders came from families of sea captains, merchants, sawmill operators, and ship owners on the Machias River in coastal Maine.   In the seventeenth century the first Peter Talbot and Ralph Pope arrived in the mainland colonies from England. Colonel Frederick Pope and Captain Peter Talbot, and  their grandsons, commanded troops at the Battle of Lexington and fought throughout the American Revolution.

 

In Machias, Maine, the Popes became good family friends and joined with Talbots, and their neighboring Keller, Foster, and Chaloner families, in businesses, marriage, and town affairs.

 

The news of the San Francisco gold rush in 1849 had reached the eastern shores in Maine, Intrigued and excited by the business prospects in the fledgling California city,  Andrew Pope and Frederic Talbot. who were lifelong friends left New York on October 16, 1849, in company of Captain J.P. Keller, also of East Machias and a family friend on the steamship Ohio. 

 

After a hair raising voyage, and adventure, they finally  arrived in San Diego on 28th November, 1849 where they made their way to San Francisco. In the early days on the California gold-rush, San Francisco was nearly a ghost town with a population of only about 6,000 people. Most of the people arriving were merley passing through and spent whatever money they had for supplies and miner's tool and rushed off to the gold mines. By the fall, many of the miners returned to the town for the winter, and late in 1849, the population  of San Francisco had reached approximately 20,000. it was a town filled with shacks and tents that had sprung up overnight to accomodate the horders, htoels and boardinghouses which were filled to overflowing.

 

Somewhere in that great mass of men milling on the beach in San Francisco  looking for they encountered Captain Lafayette Balch of Lubec, Maine, the uncle of J.W. Balch who was later to serve as the Panther's captain. They men knew him well for he was related to the Talbots by marriage and had often stopped at East Machias in vessels carrying lumber. Captain Lafayette Balch, offered them residence in a little house he owned located at the corner of California and Dupont (now Grant) streets. 

 

Since Balch was returning to sea, they could use his little cottage for the time being.  By their Eastern standards, the little house of Captain Balch's was a mere shanty, it stood on a small lot as described by Talbot, in "a barren waste of scrub oaks, chaperall and desolation". In size it was twelve by eighteen feet in dimensions and a sory and a half high, and had enough buit-in bunks to accomodate their griup. Balch charged them a rent of $200 per month, which may seem high for those times, but was very reasonable compared to the rates of a hotel. It worked out that the cost of living at the cottage was about $16.50 per week per man. 

 

In San Francisco, in comparison to the cost of rent,  Captain Keller had kept some notes of the prices of goods : Wood for heating and cooking cost $2.00 for "as much as a man could carry in his arms, no more", beef "not overstocked with fat" cost 25 cents a pound, potatoes 28 cents, a squash of "fair size" $3.50, molasses was 75 cents a bottle, butter ranged from $1.00-$1.50 per pound, milk sold for $4.00-$7.00 per gallon, eggs from $1.00 to $4.00 per dozen. A dinner in a better restaurant would cost anywhere from $3.00 to $10.00.

 

A.J. Pope and Frederick Talbot had the forsight to realize a city was developing and they had come to California, not to mine for gold in the foothills of the Sierras, but to help build and profit from city development. In true Pope and Talbot fashion, they prepared to go into business. They first bought an old longboat for $500, then upgraded to an old scow thirty feet long and twelve feet wide, by December they built a new scow and another small yawl. Finally, in mid January they purchased a small 17 1/2 ton sloop, the Bostonian. Captain Keller was placed in charge, and she carried freight to Stockton.

 

From the profits from shipping cargoes, they then entered the lumber business. Pope and Talbot quickly realized that the lumber shipments from New England were not enough to meet the growing demand for building materials in the West. The pair decided to return to East Machias, Maine where they would enlist the help of family and friends in their business affair. 

 

After hearing about the dense forests in the Oregon Territory, William & Frederic Talbot , Andrew Pope, along with partners Josiah Keller, and Charles Foster, formed the Puget Mill Company to harvest the much-needed lumber for the expanding West. 

 

In July 1853, Captain William C. Talbot, who was Frederic's brother,  established a steam sawmill as the Puget Mill Co. at Port Gamble. Ten men, mostly from Talbot's hometown of East Machias, Maine, constructed a bunkhouse, a cookhouse, and a store before starting work on the mill. The site is on a sand spit the local Native Americans call Teekalet, meaning "brightness of the noonday sun."  The settlers call the mill Teekalet until they change the name to Port Gamble in 1868. The mill  operated continuously for 142 years, from 1853 to 1995. 

 

The founding of the Port Gamble mill:
 

Port Gamble Mill circa 1861

In July, 1853, the schooner Julius Pringle dropped anchor in Port Discovery Bay, Puget Sound. She was commanded by Capt. W. C. Talbot, who was at the head of an expedition which had come to Puget Sound in the interest of the firm W. C. Talbot & Co., to select a mill site, build a mill for the manufacturing of lumber and engage in the merchandise and lumber business. The firm was composed of W. C. Talbot and A. J. Pope of San Francisco, California, and J. P. Keller and Charles Foster of East Machias, Maine.

 

The cargo of the Pringle consisted of lumber, tools, supplies and merchandise necessary for a beginning of the proposed venture.

 

After a hasty examination of Port Discovery Bay, it was decided to take possession of the place, and enough lumber to build a shanty was landed. After this, it was thought best to make up an exploring party to go further up the Sound in search of a more favorable location. A party was made up and started out in a sailboat and canoe under the direction of Captain Talbot.
 

They followed the western shore of the Sound, touching at Port Townsend, and next at Port Ludlow, where they found what has always been known as the best mill-site on Puget Sound. But this place was already occupied by W. P. Sayward and J. R. Thorndike, who were hard at work building a mill. Next, the party sailed up Hood Canal as far as Hazel Point, but no suitable place having been found, it was thought best to cross the canal and follow the other shore back until they reached Port Gamble, where they found a large "spit" suitable for a mill-site, backed up by a large bay, deep water, and plenty of most excellent timber handy to the water's edge. Some considerable time was spent here, cruising timber and sounding out the channel in and out of the Bay.
 

The party seems to have been pleased with the place, but hesitated to make a final decision, partly on account of a scarcity of fresh water for the boilers. It was finally decided to go further up  the Sound in a small canoe, thinking they might find a still more favorable place.

 

The next place they visited, Port Madison, presented a snug little harbor and location for a mill-site. But the bay was small, and depth of water and timber around the bay were not in favor of a location there. From Port Madison, the canoe returned to Port Gamble, and it was decided to send out a sailboat proceeding farther South until it had sailed around Vashon Island (opposite Tacoma) and no more suitable place than Gamble having presented itself, they sailed for Gamble, via Seattle.

 

Seattle, at this time, boasted of a sawmill, a few houses, and many tents. After the return to Port Gamble a few days more were spent in cruising and making soundings, after which, they again started out, this time to return to Port Discovery, intending to locate there. On arrival at Discovery, they found settlers, who upon hearing that a mill was to be built there, began to come in and locate around the bay, and before discharging the schooner's cargo,  Captain Talbot thought best to look at the timber that grew around the bay. It did not compare favorably with that at Gamble, which influenced him to weigh anchor and sail back to Port Gamble.

 

Arriving at Port Gamble, they immediately set to work discharging cargo and building a shanty, for loding house, a cookhouse and a store. These buildings were rough structures and construced of eastern lumber from the cargo and cedar splits. The schooner after being discharged went to Seattle and took a cargo of lumber and piles to San Francisco. 

 

They then started in laying the foundation and to build the mill. The timber for this purpose was hewn at the head of the bay on land which was owned by W.S. Jameson. The full crew left behing by the Pringle was ten men. 

 

On Sept. 5th, 1853, the schooner L. P. Foster, under command of Capt. J. P. Keller, one of the partners, arrived, 154 days from Boston, Mass. The Foster was about 176 tons burden and loaded decks to the waer with engine, boilers, merchanidse supplies and mill machinery and finindings. Capt. Keller's wife and daughter were with him, and were the first white women to land at the place. The Foster bound in met the Pringle bound out, at Port Townsend, and thus learned the location of the mill-site. After considerable hard work the heavy cargo was unloaded and landed, the schooner taken to the head of the bay, and the crew went into the woods, cut a full load of piles, loaded the schooner, and she sailed for San Francisco under the command of Captain Talbot. Captain Keller remained at Port Gamble as resident owner. 

 

On October 6, 1853, Keller filed a Donation Land Claim for three sections of land including the Point Julia area, the current town of Port Gamble, and the spit at Teekalet Bluff (on the Northwest side of Port Gamble).

 

Keller had at least two obstacles to starting his mill at an otherwise ideal location. First, S'Klallam occupants lived at the site and their title had not been transferred to the federal government. Port Gamble S'Klallam elder Sammy Charles (born 1869) described what happened then:

 

"Boston [white people] are located just about on the edge of what was once the Nooksclime's [SíKlallam] grounds.... It just happened that the Nooksclime were camped and fishing on the Gamble spit when the Bostons came. There was talk, talk, talk. The Bostons said that they wanted to put a sawmill there, and would the Indians please move to the other side. There were inducements. There would be lumber, free lumber, and all that the Nooksclime needed to build big houses. They could have the trimmings for firewood, fine firewood, and all they wanted. The clincher was the Christmas treat. The Nooksclime didn't know what Christmas was, but it sounded good. (Seattle P.I. 1947)"

 

Not everybody was happy to see a large mill built in Port Gamble, and the aboriginal population was divided about it's existance and having to move their settlement across the bay,  Martha John, who was born in 1891, also spoke of the move:

 

 "The Klallams used to live in Port Gamble, where the general store is now, and all around where the Cemetery is located. The Mill people came along and sent the Indian over across the Bay, on the Spit. They promised to always have jobs for the men and also gave them enough lumber to build a small house for each family. Every winter the spit would be flooded. A lot of the people died."

 

In the end, a settlement was reached, The Point No Point Treaty was signed by representatives of the S'Klallam, Skokomish,and Chemakum tribes on January 26, 1855. Issac Stevens signed the treaty on behalf of the United States.The S'Klallam, Skokomish, and Chemakum ceeded or surrendered approximately 750,000 acres of land to the federal government under the treaty, but reserved their aboriginal right to fish, hunt, and gather. The federal government promised the services of a physician, blacksmith,carpenter, and farmer to teach necessary skills, and  a school was also to be provided.

 

Pope and Talbot Shipping
 

As Pope and Talbot expanded their business efforts and profited from their successful mill the began to look towards other endeavours. With the growth of the city of San Francisco, more and more general cargo carriers entered the East-West cost trade.

 

With industrialization, and the upcoming used of steam power, San Francsisco began importing coal from Pugent Sound, Nanaimo on Vancouevr Island and from Newcastle. As well, trade had increased with the Orient, especially Hong Kong, and Canton (china) and began to take on proportions that showed promise. The profits for vessels, and shipping companies in providing the growing city with the necessary commodies were enourmous.

 

Pope and Talbot with their keen business acument saw no reason why Eastern ship ownders should glean all fo these profits, and began a "general" shippng company of their own. Pope and Tlabot were alert followers of rapid trade developments in San Francisco, and both men knew a great deal about intercoastal trade.  During the years that Pope and Talbot had been in California, they had development Eastern connections, and had previously dealt with scores of cargoes that had been consigned to them. They were well aware of the risks, but at the time charter rates were very high, and they were equipped to deal with the challenges of running a shipping business. .

 

In expanding their shipping operation, Pope and Talbot had planned to almagamate their fleet, and intended to use their ships both for general cargo and for shipping lumber out of Port Gamble. By integrating the shipping, they could minimize the risk of the costs associated by maintaining such a large fleet, and depending on lumber prices, could shift vessels in or out of the lumber trade as required.

 

In early 1867, they bought a series of vessels in quick sucession: the Anglo Saxon, Buena Vista, David Hoadley, Elizabeth Kimball, Guiding Star, Atlanta and finally the Panther. 

 

The Panther was the largest vessel in their fleet, and was the queen of the line. The Talbots planned to use her not only for carrying lumber from Port Gamble, to ports like San Francisco and New York, but also to carry general merchandise in the rising trade with Hong Kong and Canton (China).

They hired A.k. Kilton, who was a hard driving commander with tough cruel "bucko" mates as captain of the  bark Buena Vista in 1867. He became commander of the Panther in 1869 when the Panther began carrying lumber, merchandise and passengers for Pope and Talbot from Puget Sound to San Francisco and then Austraila and returned with Coal.

A Pope & Talbot advertisement offering first class cabins and steerage accomodations
aboard the Panther from San Francisco to Melbourne

She sailed along the Australian coastline from New Castle,  N.S.W to Melbourne and then Sidney. She also in the early 1870's plied the waters between San Francisco, Vancouver and Honolulu. In 1870, she made notably fast round voyages between San Francisco and Hong Kong, being 44 days going over, and the same length of time on the return; both good runs.  

A newspaper advertisement from the Daily Alta,14 Sept. 1870

Shanghaiing, Crimps and Bully Mates

The introduction of steamship, meant the decline of clippers. Although clippers could be much faster than early steamships, they depended on the vagaries of the wind, while steamers could keep to a schedule. When fully rigged and riding a tradewind, the clipper  had peak average speeds over 16 knots (30 km/h). The fastest speed recorded by a clipper was Soverign of the Seas, that was reported to hit a top speed of 22 nots (41 km/h) when running down to Austrailia in 1854. 

Furthermore, besides the steamship, the steam clipper was developed around this time, and had auxiliary steam engines which could be used in the absence of wind. The final blow was the Suez Canal,opened in 1869, which provided a great shortcut for steamships between Europe and Asia, but due to its depth was difficult for sailing ships to use.

While steamships had the advantage of being able to sail to a set schedule, and did not rely the wind, they had the disadvantage of requiring a large amount of the cargo space to be used for fuel:

"there is a limit to the use of steam, and it is reached when the distance to be travelled makes the cost of coal and the space it occupies greater than the value of the cargo will warrant. Until some new motive power replaces steam, or steam is replaced by the use of petroleum or other concentrated fuel, the clipper still has an occupation, and the hearts of all old-time skippers will be gladdened by the sight of her white wings upon the seas.”  — Chadwick, F.E., Ocean steamships (1891) New York: C. Scribner's Sons, p. 225-226

At this point, clippers like the Panther began to carry more bulk cargoes which were impractical for steamships, and steam clippers. Yet, the clipper ships still required a large crew to manage the multitude of sails. The ease of steam operation, and shorter and safer voyages through the Suez Canal, meant a large loss of the clipper ship workforce, as veteran sailors moved on to the newer ships.

In order to stay competitive, the clipper ship owners and captain needed to find labour at a low-cost. They obtained labor by taking advantage of an existing federal legislation enacted in 1790, that stated once a sailor signed on board a vessel for a voyage, it was illegal for him to leave the ship before the voyage's end, the penalty was imprisonment. Under this guise, men were kidknapped, and taken aboard ship, and either forced to sign papers, or forging a signature.

A "crimp" was a boarding master who used trickery, intimidation, or violence to put a sailor on a ship. Boarding masters were paid "by the body," and thus had a strong incentive to place as many seamen on ships as possible.This pay was called "blood money," and was just one of the revenue streams available in West Coast towns and cities. This practice of kidknapping a sailor or forcing him to sign aboard a shipw as known as "Shanghaiing", most likely named after the Clipper ships destination.

Boarding house proprietors were masters of persuasion and, as further inducement, they were accustomed to advance reluctant seaman as much as three months pay when they signed ships' articles. Once he had scrawled his name or mark on the articles, in port it was almost futile to resist. Those who refused to sign articles to board the outward-bounder, were often knocked out by bruisers who were employed as boarding house "runners" and hoisted aboard waiting ships, like barrels of salt horse. In return, the boarding house master or "crimp" was reimbursed for the room and board and advance pay of his erstwhile guests, the money being deducted from the crew's wages. In addition, cash bonuses were often awared crimps for each body deliviered aboard.

Sailors' boarding houses flourished in most of the Pacfic Coast seaports, but one particularly notorious center was Port Townsend. It became a salty seaport in epic tradition, its waterfront lined with sailors' boarding houses, saloons, and brothels. Crimping was big business before Sailors' unions, and when manpower was at a premuim, knock-out drops and trap-doors in saloon floors were the tools of the crimps trade.

The respectable citizens of Port Townsend, and many of the shipmasters, lived high on a bluff above the waterfront, where their ornate Victoran houses still stand today. There were chruches, ans schools, and a sperate business disctrict were the "towns" people coudl go shopping without being bothered by the goings-on under the bluff.

However, the Townsend-Under-the-Bluff was quite a different place. It was seldom quiet there, and never respectavle, in that narrow slice of town at sea level between the square riggers in the bay, and the quiet homes on the hill. It was like a modern day, sin-city, open for business twenty-fours hours a day, seven days a week. The men on the street were mostly sailors, loggers, and blue uniformed artillery men from nearyy forts. Port Townsend historian James G. McCurdy described it like this:

"In the early days the worst of these resorts were locaed on the beach beyond Point Hudson and were known as "mad houses" or "gin mills." There, sailors from vessels lying in harbor, soliders from Fort Townsend, Natives, and renegades of all nationalities gathered... and drank, danced and gambled the night away. On quiet evenings the shouts of the revelers, mingling with the discordanty music originating from sour-toned pianos and wheezy accordions could be heard throughout the residential district"

But the most dangerous of all were the waterfront saloons. There was a saloon for every 75 men, women and children of Port Townsend, and almost all of them were within a bottle toss of the harbour. Some of them, had back rooms supported on pilings which were driven in the bay bottom. For it was in the saloons that crews were prepared for shipment to waiting windjammers. The process was simple and routine: simply give the suspecting a drink "on-the-house" with knock out drops rendering them unconscious, drop them through a trap door into a waiting rowboat, and then row out to the waiting ship. When the victim regained consciousness, he found himself in the clutches of a brutal first mate, often who would pride themselves of killing at least one man on a voyage.

A victim of the crimps, an incapacitated sailor
is hoisted aboard a clipper.

Another port city infamous for "crimps" was Portland, Oregon. In the late 1800s, Portland was known as one of the most "dangerous ports in the world" because of the "Shanghaiing Trade" that existed there. Portland, Oregon, the Victorian-refined "City of Roses" along the Willamette River, earned the reputation of being the "Shanghai Capital of the World" because of this uncontrolled shanghaiing of unsuspecting men. Ship captains paid bartenders to drug single intoxicated men that hung out in the waterfront area in order to lure them into the dark tunnels.  Thousands of them found themselves in the clutches of shanghaiers and crimps that either forcibly grabbed them off the streets, or slipped "knockout drops" in their saloon, pool hall, and gambling parlor drinks. They were hauled out of opium dens and houses of prostitution, or cleverly dropped through "deadfalls". 

In Portland, it was easy to find a good time with Speakeasies, brothels and drug dens. One notorious establishment was Erickson's Saloon, which seemed innocent enough, with its inexpensive drinks, great food and entertainment, but a victim could find that suddenly a trap door (deadfall) would drop open and a would-be victim would plummet into a dark underground tunnel where they would be shanghaiied.  

Fame spread world-wide as sailors carried word about Erickson’s 16-ounce nickel beer, hard drinks that were just 2 for a quarter, a free meal of gargantuan proportions (as long as you kept drinking), the size of its 684 ft. bar and of the delightful lady performers at the Cabaret Grill.  Loggers, farm hands & other robust working men came to Erickson’s with some spending their stakes in an all-night revery, in good cheer, buying drinks all around, but most were not so fortunate.

A trapdoor staircase and a makeshift holding cell as they exist today , once used by crimps in Portland, Ore.

Miss Jane Kelton

Miss Kelton, the popular leading lady of the Del S. Lawrence Company, now playing at C.A. Alisky's "Theatre Beautiful," is a native California girl, born in Oakland, and has been since childhood prominently connected with the drama. For many years this charming little lady has held a leading position in various stock organizations in the United States and Canada, as well as Australia, and her serious efforts have been appreciated by the many thousands who have watched with growing interest this "Child of the West." Californians are always proud of the honorable achievements of their people and Sacramento theatre-goers have certainly evinced their appreciation of Miss Kelton's splendid success. Her pluck and determination to play, regardless of the accident which lately befell her, proves the courage and determination of our "native born."

Spokane Chronicle - Jan. 26, 1912

Bark John Howe, Kelton, Cardenas, April 20, with sugar, &c., to H.D. Brookman & Co. Has experienced very severe gales from E. to NE. 29th April, off Cape Lookout, experienced a severe hurricane and lost part of deck load; was obliged to such before it, under bare poles, for ten hours. May 5. lat. 34° 15, lat. 72° 45', spoke bark jubilee, of and for Portland, from Matanzas, 12 days out. Same day, lat. 34° 26', lon. 72° 57', signalized a ketch, showing a red signal, white ball in the centre.

        -New York Times, Marine Intelligence, May 11, 1860   

List of Crew and Passengers of the Barque John Howe, A.K. Kilton master, Sydney, N.S.W.  July, 1862

  

Auction Advertisement for the Panther
The Ballarat Star Weds. May 26, 1869

Advertisement in
The Argus, Weds. July 7th, 1869

By Telegram we have already learnt that the captain of the American ship Panther stabbed four men who had assaulted him. The Newcastle corrspondent of the S.M. Herald gives the following account of the affair: ---" On Tuesday night, shortly before 12 O'clock, a serious fracas took place on board the American ship Panther, then lying alongside the wharf, during which three of the seamen belonging to that vessel and one from the Pampiero, were dangerously wounded. It appears the man had been creating a disturbance in the city, and, it is said, they afterwards proceeded to the Panther, and demanded money from the captain. He refused to give it to them, when four men, named James H. McCourtenay, J. Wilson, David Clark, and John Clark rushed upon him, pressed him into the cabin, and endeavoured to enforce their demand. He says, that, in self-defence, he drew his dagger --- a weapon with a blade six inches long -- and managed to beat them off until the arrival of senior-sergeant Conway and a body of water police. When that officer went on board, Captain Kilton was standing on the quarter-deck, with his apparel in a very disordered state, and blood was trickling down his face as if he had been roughly handled. He had the dagger, covered with blood, in his hand, and this he handed to sergeant Conway, remarking, "That's what I did it with." The police next proceeded to the forecastle, where they found Daniel Clark lying on his back in a bunk, bleeding profusely from a wound in the left breast; and another man, named James Hugh McCourtenay, the seaman belonging to the ship Pampiero, who, it appears, had taken part in the melee. This man complained very much of his back, and could scarcely move. A subsequent examination showed that the veins leading from the spine had been cut and after his removal to the hospital he was seized with paralysis in the right side. Dr. Degrier was at once called in, and under his treatment the wounded man is now progressing favorably. Dr. Peel attended the others on board ship, and this morning I found that they were in no danger, the stabs, altough deep being only flesh wounds. After seeing the men properly attended to, the police took the captain into custody on the charge of unlawfully cutting and wounding, and conveyed him to the lock-up, where he remained until the following day, when he was brought before the Bench, and remanded until Friday, in order to enable the wounded men to attend as witnesses. Bail was allowed in £80, and two sureties of £40 each. It would seem that sergeant Conway was in search of the four seamen, who had been conducting themselves in a very disorderly way on shore, and when he found them only one was in a fit state to be taken to the lock-up. The captain was under the influence of liqour, although he seemed to be perfectly cognisant of everything that transpired, and the seamen were intoxicated when the affray took place.

- The Brisbane Courier, 31 August 1869

 

Sacramento Daily Union, Volume 44, Number 6771, 14 December 1872 
Captain Kilton was arrested for murderous assault and maltreatment of sailors on the Panther  on December 13th, 1872

Captain Kelton had more than one run in with the U.S. Comminsioner for 
brutality to seaman. He was arraigned previously on 08/28/1867

Kelton was fined $5 dollars and found guilty of striking a seaman on the Buena Vista

James Casey, second officer of the Panther, accused with maltreatment of a seaman, George Quackenbush, was examined before one of the United States Commissioners this afternoon and held to answer. He became very violent and broke the doors and bars of the cell where he was confined, and not until he was bucked and gagged could the man be subdued. 

Capt. John W. Balch of the Panther,
at the time of her sinking. Circa 1874

The "Old " Balch House - Circa. 1929
Boston Public Library - Abdalian, Leon H., 1884-1967 Photographer

This vessel was in a severe engagement with a British Ship and brig, which they captured off Halifax. The fierceness of the battle so excited the champlain that he seized a musket and fought with such ardor that his exploits earned him the sobriquet of  "The Fighting Parson"

Captain J.W. Balch
as a Master in the U.S. Navy

Steamship Florida - Captain JW Balch served as master in 1861 

The Great Naval Expedition.
Published: New York Times, October 26, 1861

We publish this morning, from our correspondents, a very full account of the great Naval Expedition, which has at last left Annapolis, and is on its way to some part of the Southern coast. Its destination remains, as yet, a profound secret, and probably will so remain until it is revealed by the blow which it proposes to strike. There are in the expedition thirty-one large transport vessels, conveying over 12,000 troops, with all their arms, provisions, &c., -- sixteen steam gunboats, with eight or ten other vessels of war, carrying in all about 400 guns. It is in every respect a most powerful and admirably organized expedition, and but for accidents which cannot be foreseen, it will unquestionably render very essential service to the Union cause. It is under the command of able and experienced officers, and the troops embarked are among the best in the volunteer army.

One feature of this expedition is that about a thousand negroes accompany it, being mainly those who have come into Fortress Monroe from the neighboring districts of Virginia. They are to be employed mainly in throwing up intrenchments. This is the first instance, we believe, in which this class of people have formed any part of an operative force; they will, without doubt, be found highly serviceable.

To obviate criticism, we may state here that this publication of the departure and composition of the expedition is made with the knowledge and assent of the proper authorities. That any injury can result from it, it is simply absurd to suppose. It will reach its destination, wherever that may be, long in advance of this intelligence -- and even if it did not, there is nothing in regard to its character and strength which it would do the enemy the slightest good to know. If they knew the point at which it is directed the case would be different -- but as long as this has been kept an absolute secret, and they are left solely to their conjectures, they will find it difficult to make adequate preparations to meet it.

The Port Royal Flotilla - The Florida is the second ship from the left.

She met her end bound for Bermuda, running out of Wilmington, N.C., under Captain Reid, 25 September 1864, with 600 bales of cotton, passengers and special cargo, including $50,000 in Government gold. She was h t eight times, six below the waterline, by the 100-pounder and 30-pounder rifles of much slower USS Howquah, assisted by Niphon and Governor Buckingham; sinking, with one of her wheels damaged, Lynx had to be beached about six miles below Fort Fisher. The Confederates all escaped, along with the gold, although Federal sharpshooters got near enough to wound one crew member. The ship's remains were set afire.

Ironically, an intelligence report to Secretary Welles, about 1 September 1864, had warned that, "the swift steamers Lynx and Badger were being fitted out at Wilmington to make a dash at our blockaders ... their machinery protected by compressed cotton ... each vessel having about 200 men, will sally forth early in September, and, by boarding, attempt the capture of one or more of our vessels. If precautions are not taken this plan will certainly succeed."

It was a false alarm, although Lt. J. W. Balch, Howquah's captain, in this instance made one of the rare charges that a blockade runner had fired back at him—but only two shots and they could have been cross-fire from the fort.

By 1871, Balch is listed in the San Francisco directory as living aboard the David Hoadley at the Pope and Talbot Pier 12, Steuart St. By the end of 1873, Balch had moved his family aboard the Panther and was making regular trips from Nanaimo to San Francsico with full cargoes of coal. 

Nanaimo Coal

For 108 years coal was the dominant industry in Nanaimo, and the driving force behind its expansion. The arrival of steamships on the West Coast in 1836 created the initial demand for coal. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) sent prospectors to Fort Rupert in 1849, but they were not successful in finding a viable coal seam.

Snuneymuxw chief Chewichikan also known as "Coal Tyee" (center) and his family c.1860.

Nanaimo Harbour and coal docks circa 1868

By 1859, 25,000 tons of coal had been shipped from Nanaimo, mostly to San Francisco. In 1862 the HBC sold its coal interests to an English Company known as the Vancouver Coal Mining and Land Company (VCML). Output was 100 tons a day by 1863 and double that by 1866. By 1874, annual production was 80,000 tons and it was 10 times that by 1884.

 

Three major coal seams were discovered in Nanaimo: the Wellington, Newcastle, and Douglas. The Douglas seam runs from the north part of Newcastle Island to south of the Nanaimo River. Several mines were built to tap into this seam in the vicinity of the estuary and river.

 

The mines in Wellington were owned by Robert Dunsmuir. Initially his company was Dunsmuir, Diggle and Co but after he bought out his partners he carried on as R. Dunsmuir and Sons. The family company was sold by son James Dunsmuir in 1910 to Canadian Collieries (Dunsmuir) Ltd (CCD). The VCML mines were mainly under Nanaimo and the harbour. The East Wellington colliery was owned by R.D. Chandler of San Francisco. Peak production of the Nanaimo coal fields was 1,400,000 tons in 1922. 

 

Dunsmir coal wharf at Nanaimo circa 1874

For a time, the vessel was lengthened and ran as a passenger boat on the Sacramento under the name of Defender. During this time, Goliah was engaged in fierce competition with the New World, another steamer brought around from the East Coast in defiance of creditors. The New World had also raced against the previous captain of the Panther, J.P. Gannett, who at the time was in command of the Confidence. At one point, in 1855, this competition was so fierce that it produced gunfire between the passengers and crews of the two steamboats when Goliah aka Defender, or so it is alleged, attempted to ram and sink the New World. Most eye-witness account claim that the New World was zig zagging to avoid being passed, and previously had collided with the Confidence in similar fashion.

 

The captain of the Defender was arrested and charged with attempting to kill, but was later relased, and he in turn filed charges against the captain of the New World.  Goliah was soon bought off by the California Steam Navigation Company, which was building a monopoly on Sacramento river shipping, and as a result was then placed on the ocean routes.

 

Goliah was again shortened and in 1864 she re-entered the towing field. The Goliah ran for many years as a towboat in San Francisco harbor, finally passing into the hands of the Wrights, a family of ship and riverboat captains. The Wrights again lengthened Goliah and placed the vessel on the route from San Francisco to Humboldt County.  After being successively shortened and lengthed like an Irishman's knife that had been given a new handle and several new blades, there was little of the original material left.

 

In 1871, Goliah was bought by Pope & Talbot, and her name was changed from Defender back to Goliah, who also happened to be the name of one the Skagit chiefs. The mighty side-wheeler arrived at Port Gamble on 22 March 1871, in charge of Capt. William Hayden, who ran the vessel for a while and was succeeded by Captain Noyes and Capt. J. A. McCoy, who in turn gave way to Capt. S. D. Libby, who remained in command for  the next twelve years.

 

Steam tug Goliah w/ clipper, unknown date, but before 1899. 
University of Washington Libraries. 
http://digitalcollections.lib.washington.edu/cdm/ref/collection/transportation/id/319

 

 

The Goliah was readily recognizable by its large size and sidewheels. From the time the vessel arrived on Puget Sound until 1876, when the tug Tacoma appeared, Goliah towed more than half of the vessels that entered the Strait of Juan de Fuca bound for Nanaimo, and nearly all of those bound for the American side.

 

Clipper under tow near Strait Of Juan De Fuca

A steam tug approaches a bark for a tow  showing the relative size between the ships.

"I'll tow you in for $300" shouted Captain Libby of the Goliah.

"I'll make it $200,"  Captain Chris Williams of the Tacoma retorted.

"Call it $100,"  yelled Libby.

"Fifty dollars will pay the job," echoed Williams.

"I'll tow you in for nothing, and buy you a new hat in the bargain," bellowed Libby. And Libby was good as his word.

8 1/2 p.m. We are off Turn Point again, blowing harder than ever, and tide running ebb. Signalled the ship to get her fore and aft canvass [set]; but they have not done it. The steamer is becoming unmanageable; no sail on the ship, and we are drifting on Pender island; can do nothing with the steamer; the hawser is in the starboard chock; cannot get her head to the wind.
 

At 8 1/2 p.m. the Panther and Goliah were
off Turn Point at the North End of Stuart Island drifting toward South Pender

11:15 O'Clock - She is dragging the steamer astern so fast that the engine will not past centers. We have made every effort to save the ship but to no avail; the hawser has to be cut to save the steamer!! The hawser is cut! In less than a minute they flashed a bright light, and she struck broadside on; the sea was making a clean sweep over her from stem to stern. We can render no assistance, as long as the sea is running as it is. The steamer has washed every moveable object on her decks overboard; and stove in the windows in the forward house; have got to get her before the wind or she will founder; shiped a sea that buried her fore and aft. She is around at last. The wind and sea if anything, have increased. We can still see the ships light, but that is all.

Even at the best times, a clipper can hardly be seen at
the end of a tow over the ocean rollers

1 O'Clock A.M. - Set in snowing; can see nothing; wind moderating.

1 1/2 O'Clock - Head to the sea again, making good weather of it, can see nothing; snow falling thick and fast.

3 AM - Stopped snowing; wind moderating can see the ships lights; fearful sea and cannot do anything for them;will make the attempt at daylight or sooner if possible. 

4 AM - Have just seen her light flash; it only lasted for a minute and was gone;wind gradually moderating, and sea smoothing; but can see nothing of her or any living soul or any sign of life.

4 1/2 O'Clock - We are yet cruising by the the place she struck but cannot see anything of her, nor any sign of life.

7 O'clock - Daylight - We are at the place she struck,but cannot find the least trace of her crew.

She passed ths ship Panther lying on her beam ends about 120 fathoms from Point Narrow Island, in 6 fathoms at low water. Her sails and running gear were sent ashore except the braces. They can save all the spars and standing rigging except the lower rigging which cannot be got at, the lee rail being underwater at low tide.

 

The wreck of the Panther  was auctioned off with all of her cargo.
Despite numerous attempts to raise her, she was eventually abandoned with a full cargo of coal.