HIDDEN CONNECTIONS

     Although you may be dealing with one document, the names of people, places, and things, especially ship things, you encounter in one manuscript may be one step away from an interesting story which, because it is an entry in a log book limited to the company business, is included as a a routine detail, like passing another ship, with the details covered by the various logs of the ships involved who go on to their own stories. 

   They were cousins with roots on Cape Cod. Both were whaling captains on a routine whaling voyage in the Pacific’s northern waters. On one occasion they passed by each other and “spake”. Nothing major to note in the logs, just the business information that was exchanged with nothing to indicate anything else. These were two New Englanders with Cape Cod blood, so getting to the point was how it was. You can exchange pleasantries later if you run into each other again, but this was business.

     On May, 27, 1865, the Arnolda log contained a typical entry,

“May the 26/7

Spoke the Barque Mercury eft[?] tooken nothing this season

spoke the Junes[?] Murry[?] New Bedford 2 right

whales one sperm whale captain grey dyed

two months before mrs grey and her two children

were on board saw 7 or 8 other ships

the Latter part wind strong and cold

wether the rigging all isee  Lat a bout 60.00”

    Although there might be a story with the Greys, their existence was all that needed mentioning, so someone can go find the story. 

     All else was ship facts.

     On the following day there was another routine entry in the same vein.

“28 day of May

spoke the Mercury[?] and the Milo

nothing this season the Latter part

rain and snow Laying a round the isee 

the 2 ships in sight  So Ends”.

     The Milo records the meeting in its log.

“Saturday, May 28, 1865, 

begins with strong breeze from NE heading on opposite tacks 

by the wind under double reefs. 7 sails in sight middle working up 

to the 7 sails in latter laying aback on opposite tacks gaming ship 

Arnolda and B Mercury of NB.”

     Less reserved than his cousin, we learn from the captain of the Milo that there was a face to face meeting.

     The ships parted ways with the Arnolda continuing with whaling while the Milo entered history.

      To most this was a simple meeting routinely mentioned in the Log involving a number of ships with nothing remarkable about any person or ship involved. Weeks later, although not passing the Milo, but getting a bit of news about it from another passing ship, The log of the Arnold stated,

“Friday August 12, 1865

commences with strong winds from the NNE to North heading NW 

in company with the Mount Wallinston. At 2 am raised 2 Barques 

standing to the ENE at 3 wore ship to the ENE saw the Mount Walliston Spoke the Stephany of N Bedford At 8 am we spoke her. She told us the news of the Shanador [sic] lieving a month before. Latter part fresh gales took in jib and courses. So Ends.”

     Isolated, these entries would seem to stand alone with nothing more to them unless a person was aware that  the captains were related and may pursue that route, that it was 1865 so there had been the Civil War going on at the time, and that the Shenandoah was roaming the Pacific, destroying the oil meant for New Bedford and Northern use.

     To ascertain the bit of news received, as details beyond receiving it were not relevant to the purpose of the Arnolda log but would be included in the log of the Milo as it was directly related, it would require consulting the Milo log to find,

     “Friday June 23 1865, 

begins with light breeze. Raised a sail heading right for us, spoke us, and ordered all hands on board their vessel which proved to be the privateer Shenandoah confederate cruiser finally boarded the Milo and put on board the crews from the B Euphrate’s, Wm. Thompson, B Swift’s, Sophia Thornton and B Abigail the former burnt in sight of Cape Thaddeus. The latter part employed in sitting out provisions from ship Sophia Thornton, went through, set fire to the ship, and put sail for San Francisco, the pirates staying with us til 7 ½ oclk when she raised sails and started in pursuit of several ships in sight which will probably fall to the Shenandoah.”

     The Milo had been captured by the Confederate ship Shenandoah, was bonded for $46,000, and released with the large number of prisoners that the Confederate ship had collected off the whaling vessels it captured and burned.The Milo sailed into the nearest port, discharged its collection of “prisoners”, and business being business, sailed back out for whales.

      While the Milo log contained many important details, with the usual Yankee stoicism and realization that things happen and there is nothing you can do beyond hearing about it, the captain of the Arnolda left it up to us to make the connections between him and the captain of the Milo, and, although what news he received was about his cousin, his log book would have left us uninformed about the Milo even as he had a vested interested in the event and the people involved.

      He and his cousin had just gammed a few weeks before these events.

      Each name mentioned, each ship named, each out of routine mention could, as in this case, make connections that existed unseen until something caught the transcriber’s eye.

     It would be interesting to learn if, after both captains returned to New Bedford, they ever sat down over a brandy and talked about it.

     While to some it might appear that there is nothing to see here, to someone else, as it had been with me, may see in logs something is missing and will follow the leads to answer the question.

      It is in this way we may find more of us.