THE ADDED CREW

     Because of Trade Winds and ocean currents, regardless where a whaling voyage was to end up for the bulk of the voyage, the ship did well to hunt whales as these influences on the ship brought it to its first stop along the way, the Western Islands, which we know today as the Azores. Once there, a ship could continue its North Atlantic hunt, shoot over toward South America and on to the Pacific using the currents and winds to do so, or travel toward Cabo Verde and then around the Horn of Africa.

     Some ships would arrive with barrels of oil collected along the way as they encountered whales and leave some of it at the company warehouse to make room for more barrels later, or selling some of what had been collected in oil and whale bone to cover accrued expenses without waiting for money to be wired since that system had yet to be invented, thus prolonging a trip that ended when the hold was full. Most used the opportunity to resupply the ships of stores and equipment while taking the opportunity to inspect the ship before continuing on. 

     It was also the first time the crew stepped foot on dry land, and for those who realized on the voyage so far their choice was a bad one, it was an opportunity to run away. This, along with some crews leaving port light and needing to increase numbers, and some crew dying from whatever cause gave the opportunity for the locals to go whaling hoping to eventually return after making the necessary connections among a variety of ships to find one going home, or simply stay where the ship called home. 

    When the Charles Phelps reached the Azores it needed some crew and five men were added to the crew list

 Added at this time were:

(As best as I could make out from the handwriting and, as always, am open to correction.)

     The crew list paper bearing these names bears the attestation, “I hereby verify that the above named persons were shipped at the Western Islands & acknowledge before me this 15 day of April 1843” signed by the ship company agent.

     Interestingly, below this is the name Harry Barker, Green Hand, which implies he had signed on along the voyage, but, perhaps because of his name and what it could imply, his place of origin was not as essential as those obviously foreign. (Again, supposition open to correction).

Either way, as with the names on the original crew list, these would have had to pass by the official in the port as they disembarked just as they others had.

     One of them played a role in why the log of the Charles Phelps caught my interest