WHERE IS WILLIAM
I began this site by using the Charles Phelps log entry concerning William H Smith as an example of overlooked, misinterpreted, or purposely omitted for someone’s sensibility references to Homosexuality on whaling ships so people are left to assume there must have been such activity without actual proof.
The full entry referred to is:
Monday Jan the 30
"This day begins with light baffling wind steering NE by East 2 AM wind hauled to ENE heading N at 8 AM wind NNW & clowday at 9am lowered for a Right Whale did not strike 6PM seased Wm H Smith up to the main rigging the Captain gave him 39 lashes for indeavoring to poisen the officers by putting callomil & julep & other stuff in bread He said Wm H Smith indeavored to get the cook to poisen men Forward he also threatened to kill Washington Fletcher & Clark Orlin with a dirk & carving knife and any other that molested him he also tried to hire a Portuguese to commit sodomy for these crimes he received the above named lashes with a 6 tailed cat put him in irons put him between deck took in sail head W”.
The following day, the log notes that Smith is still chained up.
“Tuesday Jan 31
Commences with strong wind from NNW & thick rainy weather4 at 4 AM set 2 reefed topsails steering NEbyE at 10 AM heavy squal of wind & rain took in fore & mizentopsails parted the foot rope to the foresail unbent it & bent a new one at ½ past 11 moderate weather made sail steering NE at noon saw a Right Whale going quick to winward did not lower at 1/2 past 2 pm lowered for a whale with 3 boats did not strike at ½ past 3 PM made Knight Island bearing NNW distance 15 miles latter part light winds from WSW at 8 took in sail heading S Wm H Smith in irons so ends no obs
Remembering that he had been found guilty of having attempted and threatened murder, the idea of having someone like that wandering the ship when he recovered from the flogging was unacceptable and keeping the man chained up for the remainder of the voyage, a practical impossibility, led the captain to a simple solution.
“Friday, Feb the 3
These twenty four hours begins with brisk wind from the Soutward at 4 AM made ails stood in for the land at 8 AM hove back off Port Otagos Set William H Smith on shour a boat came along side & we bought some fish Calm pleasant weather at 5 PM light wind from NNW
Steering E so ends”.
Even though he was left in New Zealand, I was curious if William H Smith had found his way home.
Having transcribed a number of whale ship crew lists from the early 19th Century to be included on the www.whalinghistory.org searchable database, and, therefore knowing it would be helpful, I entered the name of William H Smith on that site and came upon the following on the crew list of the Charles Phelps:
William H. Smith Utica, NY USA 21 5’9” Colored Black Mulatto.
This brought me to the previously posted crew list where this information was also contained.
Although the federal government had been collecting the census as required in the Constitution, the state of New York began requiring a state census in 1825. In both cases, only the head of the household was listed until New York changed that for the 1855 census with the federal government doing the same in 1880.
This meant that until 1855, William H. Smith, born in 1821, would not appear on the census documents of either entity prior to his voyage.
In 1855 there were 11 William Smiths on the Utica, Oneida, New York census. There were two William Bs with, among the rest, only one William H whose year of birth would have made him 21 years old in 1842 when the Charles Phelps sailed. He is also the only one of them born within the proper range to allow a reasonable approximate date as many were born years before and some too long after to put them in an acceptable range.
What we learn of this William was that he was, at this time, a 34 year old male born in 1821, and his relationship to the head of household was “laborer”.
As far as the Head of Household we learn he was William Peckham, a 39 year old male whose household as listed on the census form included along with his wife and 7 children, his mother-in-law and a William H. Smith, born in 1821, a laborer.
By the 1865 census there were 21 William Smiths but none born in 1821 and, although Mr. Peckham may have increased his household by one additional child and two relatives who had moved in since the last census, William H. Smith is no longer in the household.
I tried the U.S. census for the years from 1840 until the century changed, but have not found any comfortable matches to see where William H. Smith had ended his days.
I have to be honest in admitting that I was hoping that, with the close age difference between Smith and Peckham and what we know of Smith’s past, this might have been a situation of a hidden relationship, something that can be imagined but for which presently there is no proof beyond my personal wish one way or another.
As it seems presently, he very well may have made his way home, perhaps learning from past mistakes or being on a ship, or a number of them against which he had few if an beefs, either by choice or chance, or committing a further series of offenses he had him put on shore a few times, signing on as a deckhand to get closer to and then finally home.
The potential reason for his falling off the radar could be the topic of someone’s research to establish if he had died, moved on, was incarcerated, or is even the same man