FOLLOWING THE SEA By BENJAMIN DOANE Captain Benjamin Doane (1823-1916) co-published by NIMBUS PUBLISHING LIMITED and THE NOVA SCOTIA MUSEUM Halifax, Nova Scotia 1987 ©Crown copyright, The Province of Nova Scotia, 1987 Second printing, with revisions, 1988 The Department of Education Nova Scotia Museum All rights reserved. Co-published by Nimbus Publishing Limited and the Nova Scotia Museum as part of the Education Resource Services Program of the Department of Education, Province of Nova Scotia. Minister: The Hon. Ronald C. Giffin Deputy Minister: Blenis J. Nicholson A product of the Nova Scotia Government Co-publishing Program. Printed in Nova Scotia, Canada Design: GDA, Halifax, N.S. Typesetting, Printing and Binding: McCurdy Printing & Typesetting Limited Halifax, N.S. Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Doane, Benjamin, b. 1823 Following the sea Co-published by the Nova Scotia Museum. ISBN 0-920852-88-2 hardcover ISBN 0-920852-90-4 paperback 1. Whaling - Maritime Provinces. 2. Seafaring life - Maritime Provinces. 3. Voyages and travels. I. Nova Scotia Museum. II. Title. G545.D62 1987 910.4'5 C87-093946-7 DEDICATION To the memory of three generations of Benjamin Doanes, whose book this is. Three generations of the Doane family: Captain Benjamin Doane (1823-1916), the narrator of the book; his son, Benjamin Hervey Doane (1863-1947) who wrote the manuscript; and his grandson, Benjamin Davis Doane (1902-1986) CONTENTS PREFACE INTRODUCTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS CHAPTER I Beginnings Plainfield, N. J., September 15, 1897 CHAPTER II Childhood 1823 to 1837 CHAPTER III Coasting Fall 1837 to Christmas 1840 CHAPTER IV First Voyage to Sea Spring 1841 to June 20th, 1842 CHAPTER V A Whaling Trip June 21st to October 2nd, 1842 CHAPTER VI The Brisk and the Reindeer October 3rd, 1842 to August 1843 CHAPTER VII The Thomas Edwards August 1843 to December 1844 CHAPTER VIII Preparatory to a Long Voyage January 6th to July 12th, 1845 CHAPTER IX The Cruise of the Athol The Western Islands July 12th to September 7th, 1845 CHAPTER X The Whaleship and Her Appointments CHAPTER XI Abrolhos September 8th to December 4th, 1845 CHAPTER XII River Platte to Cape Horn and Chiloe December 5th, 1845 to March 17th, 1846 CHAPTER XIII San Carlos to Callao March 17th to mid-May, 1846 CHAPTER XIV First Cruise Offshore Mid-May to September 5th, 1846 CHAPTER XV Tumbez and Payta September 5th to 28th, 1846 CHAPTER XVI The Second Cruise Offshore to Honolulu September 28th, 1846 to early April, 1847 CHAPTER XVII Japan Sea Early April to early July, 1847 CHAPTER XVIII Sea of Okhotsk and Offshore of Japan Early July to October 3rd, 1847 CHAPTER XIX "Every Prospect Pleases and Only Man is Vile" October 4th to December 8th, 1847 CHAPTER XX Athol, Farewell December 10th, 1847 to March 20th, 1848 CHAPTER XXI A Voyage on a "Limey" March 21st to July 24th, 1848 CHAPTER XXII A Voyage with Six Legs July 25th to December 24th, 1848 CHAPTER XXIII A Cargo of Cotton December 25th, 1848 to June 27th, 1849 CHAPTER XXIV Sailor Home From the Sea June 28th to October 12th, 1849 AFTERWORD EPILOGUE GLOSSARY PREFACE BY 1897, Benjamin Doane had retired as a sea captain, and experiences such as those he had known as a young sailor were already slipping from public memory. His recital of his early experiences at sea and his son Benjamin Hervey Doane's recording of them were partly an attempt to keep the spirit of those days alive. Four successive generations of Benjamin Doanes were involved in this book: The first Benjamin (who had no middle name and has been known in the family as Captain Benjamin), Benjamin Hervey, Benjamin Davis, and Benjamin Knowles, my father. Several times over the years Benjamin Hervey refined the manuscript. It was also read by Captain Ben's grand-nephew, Captain Arthur N. McGray, who affirmed the accuracy of its nautical details. His only criticism was the absence of "sailors' language": "Why was he so afraid to use the word 'damn'?" A longhand draft was typewritten by Mignon Enbree, the fiancée of Robert V. Doane of Plainfield, New Jersey, another grandson of Captain Benjamin. Two drafts were donated to the Cape Sable Historical Society in Barrington, Nova Scotia, and others were retained by various members of the family. Benjamin Hervey never managed to find a publisher for his father's memoir. Captain Benjamin's grandson, Benjamin Davis Doane, when a boy, lived with the old sea captain in Plainfield and not only looked up to him with respect and admiration but, in his own words, "worshipped him." In his adult years the grandson revised the manuscript to make it more appealing to publishers and even converted some of the material into short stories. His sister Alice Mary Doane Leach (folklorist Maria Leach) desired as much as her brother to see the work in print but they had no more success than their father in finding a publisher. Eventually, copies of the family treasure were set aside or put into the attic for safe-keeping. For years I heard the odd mention of the old "manuscript-in-the-attic" in our Nova Scotia home, to which Benjamin Davis's son Benjamin Knowles had returned from the United States to live. It was the same house in Barrington in which Benjamin Doane had courted Maria Knowles, his wife-to-be. An inherited interest in family history led me to investigate the attic where, eventually, I happened upon the manuscript. I was so impressed and excited by the story that I showed it to Alan Wilson, Professor of History and Canadian Studies at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, and to William M. Murphy, Professor of English at Union College in Schenectady, New York (whose wife Harriet is a great-. granddaughter of Captain Benjamin). Their enthusiasm proved to be as great as mine, and, happily, the Nova Scotia Museum shared our view. I am grateful for the help and support of the many other people who have made this publication possible: My father, Benjamin K. Doane; Neal W. Allen, Jr., past Executive Director of the Maine Historical Society; Gerald E. Morris, Director of Publications at the Mystic Seaport Museum in Mystic, Connecticut; Candace Stevenson, Fred Scott and John Hennigar-Shuh from the Nova Scotia Museum; Marven Moore, from the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, and Mignon and Barbara Doane of Westfield, New Jersey. My grandfather Benjamin Davis Doane was the greatest help of all, and I am happy that he knew that the manuscript of the grandfather to whom he was so devoted was about to be published. We all regret that his death in January 1986 has made it impossible for him to see the realization of his life-long dream. HEATHER M. DOANE ATKINSON Cape Sable Island June 30, 1987 INTRODUCTION RARELY does one encounter a manuscript as extraordinary as Benjamin Doane's Following the Sea. It combines a vividly-written and gripping adventure story with a tested historical authenticity, and provides a unique insight into mid-nineteenth century life in the forecastles of vessels from the Maritime Provinces. Benjamin Doane's career was both typical and extraordinary. For young men growing up in the coastal communities of Nova Scotia, going to sea was often an economic necessity which was made more attractive by the lure of adventure. Doane embarked on his career by first sailing in small schooners on coasting voyages. Later he signed on larger vessels which made traditional trading voyages to the West Indies and the United Kingdom. His graduation to deep-water sailing vessels led to his rise from deckhand to second mate, mate and ultimately master. In this respect his life mirrors those of many other Nova Scotian mariners. The unusual aspect of Doane's career, and a highlight of his memoirs, was his voyage on the whaling ship Athol in 1845-48. Whaling, though not prosecuted to the same extent in the Maritime Provinces as it was in New England, was an important fishery, particularly in the 1830s and 1840s. Saint John, New Brunswick, was one of the principal centres of involvement, with a fleet of at least nine whaling ships. All of these were owned by the Mechanic's Whale Fishing Company or by Charles Cole Stewart, who owned and outfitted the Athol. In 1850 declining whale stocks and diminishing profits forced the Mechanic's Whale Fishing Company to cease operation and at about the same time Charles C. Stewart gradually began divesting himself of his whaling interests, including the Athol. During his time at sea, Doane kept a journal. Many years later his son, Benjamin Hervey Doane, persuaded his father to recount his experiences. Using his journal to prompt his memory, the elder Doane dictated to his son, who was proficient in shorthand. Benjamin Hervey read it back to his father, who made corrections or added to his accounts as his memory was refreshed by retelling them. Throughout this process Doane's journal provided the hard facts, names, dates and positions at sea which are the historical backbone of the story, and which are corroborated by independent sources, including the logs of other ships. As editors, we found that the author's literate and vivid style made major alterations unnecessary. In the main, we confined ourselves to correcting occasional misspellings and typographical errors, striving for consistency in nautical terminology, and sometimes streamlining punctuation. A few passages which were not first-person narrative, but digressions on matters having no bearing on Doane's adventures, or which were hearsay accounts of the experiences of others, were deleted. Doane also had a tendency to quote sometimes lengthy poems or song lyrics, with a disclaimer that his memory of them might not be perfect; we deleted all but a few of these.