Hen Frigates WIVES OF MERCHANT CAPTAINS UNDER SAIL

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Hen Frigates WIVES OF MERCHANT CAPTAINS UNDER SAIL Hen Frigates

Passion and Peril,
Nineteenth-Century Women at Sea

by Joan Druett

Excerpt from Chapter One, "The Honeymooners"

"...A much less seasoned bride was twenty-year-old Alice Howland of New Bedford, who married Captain Joseph C. Delano on December 21, 1826, and went to sea with him on the Black Ball packet Columbia in January 1827. In contrast to Georgia's hasty and almost impromptu ceremony, Alice's wedding must have been a glittering affair, for Alice was the daughter and granddaughter of shipowners. And, by the standards of the time, Captain Joseph Delano was quite a social catch, for this was at the peak of "packet fever."

Captain Joseph Clement and Alice Howland Delano

Compared to the humble, sturdy craft that carried common goods to wherever there might be a market, the packets (called thus because of the canvas or leather "packets" of mail they carried) were the "queens" of the fleets that crowded the major ports, sailing to stated destinations at stated times, carrying passengers and expensive cargoes as well as that all-important mail. The ships were designed for speed, as well as for the strength that was necessary for breasting rugged Atlantic seas, and their captains were strong, spirited, ambitious men, especially chosen for the challenge of sailing their ships to a timetable--quite a proposition in a sail-driven ship, at the mercy of the winds.

Up until January 5, 1818, when the packet James Munroe left the port of New York exactly as advertised despite a lashing snowstorm, ships had been unfettered by schedules, sailing only when the weather was cooperative. Unless passengers bought their tickets at the last moment, when the ships were on the verge of departure, they were given only a vague idea of when they would be expected to take over their berths. It was a case of waiting around in some hotel until the ship's agent sent a message to say that the vessel was ready. The birth of "square-riggers on schedule" was heralded in 1816, when four New York merchants, led by the Quaker Jeremiah Thompson, pooled their resources and four of their ships, and founded the Black Ball Line, promising to the public that those ships would sail to a timetable.

"LINE OF AMERICAN PACKETS BETWEEN NEW YORK AND LIVERPOOL," read a headline in the New York papers.
In order to furnish frequent and regular conveyance for GOODS and PASSENGERS, the subscribers have undertaken to establish a line of vessels between NEW YORK and LIVERPOOL, on a certain day of every month of the year. One shall sail from New York on the fifth and one from Liverpool on the first of every month. These ships have all been built in New York of the very best materials. They are remarkably fast sailers and their accommodations for passengers are uncommonly extensive and comfortable.

And, what's more, speed was guaranteed. The James Munroe made the crossing to Liverpool in twenty-eight days, a time that was soon bettered by her sister ships. The packets sailed in fair weather or foul, with or without a full cargo, and every trip was an attempt to break a record. Between five and six weeks had been the usual time to cross the Atlantic. The packets now did the easterly trip in seventeen or eighteen days and made the difficult westerly passage in three weeks.

Legends grew of ships carrying sail until the canvas ripped to flying ribbons, of waves foaming hungrily over the leeward rail as the steeply heeled ships raced ever onward, day after day and night after night. Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote of a terrifying passage where the captain put up his cot in a locker on the quarterdeck, to make certain that the nervous first officer wouldn't order the crew to take in sail while he was asleep. The ships were manned by so-called packet rats--for the most part Liverpool Irishmen, who were magnificent seamen but among the wildest afloat. Any sign of weakness betrayed by the captain led to trouble--sometimes even murder--and so the commanders were a tough and virile breed of men, romantic enough to be beloved by the public. Traveling by packet became all the rage, and of all the packet companies the first--the Black Ball Line--was the most famous. The flamboyantly reckless captains of these ships were equally well-known, their names spoken in the same breath as the names of the legendary vessels they commanded. They were the social lions of the day, discussed in parlors and papers with the same feverish attention that film stars inspire now.

According to the journal nineteen-year-old Alice Howland Delano kept on that wedding trip, however, she felt a trifle doubtful about the "social catch" she had married. "Last eve heard a dissertation on the qualities necessary for a married lady," she noted on the first Sunday of the passage, "but did not profit much thereby." Rereading Byron's "Prisoner of Chillon" suited her mood much better, she said. "Only five hours' sleep last night," she wrote, and worried that she was turning into an owl.

Like Captain Banning Blanchard eighty years later, Captain Joseph Delano had put his wife to work. Alice's job did not involve lessons in navigation, however, having much more to do with the parlor than the sea. The packet ship commanders not only had to drive the ship like the very devil, but were expected to charm gentlemen, tycoons, dowagers, and debutantes in the after cabin as well--and so, for a man like Captain Joseph Delano, a personable, fashionable wife could prove very useful.

Thus Alice found herself playing hostess to the cabin passengers, each of whom had paid about two hundred dollars for a berth in a stateroom (the shipboard name for a bedroom), inclusive of food and wine. There were hazards aplenty. On the first reasonable day she and Miss B.--"two of the most courageous ladies ever known"-- led the way for a promenade on deck, "but alas although protected by our squires we fell." Miss B. and Mr. Lowe tumbled over the hen coop while Alice herself skidded under it, in what must have been a spectacular flying of skirts.

Mr. Lowe, who had "delicate health--poor appetite--can only eat one chicken for dinner," needed a great deal of soothing attention, while all the time Alice fended off the amorous advances of a lovelorn German, Mr. Shettler. Poor man, he "wanted a wife so much," and yet there were two single ladies on board. "I have not been able to decide as yet whether he is a fool or insane," mused Alice.

The accommodations, as can be expected from the cost of passage, were good. There were eight staterooms on either side of the main cabin, each with two berths, one above the other. Oddly, there was no ladder leading to the upper bunk, where it seems that Alice slept, for she wrote that she was "in nightly expectation of breaking my neck or one of my precious legs." Otherwise, each stateroom was supplied with a chest with two drawers and two shelves--which also served as a washstand, for it held a pitcher and washbasin--along with a looking glass and that "unmentionable" item, a commode.

The main cabin was furnished with "a table thirty feet long with seats on either side," all firmly screwed to the floor. Overhead was a skylight, from which hung an ornate glass lantern, a barometer, and two "casters"--or racks "well furnished" with decanters, bottles, and glasses. A sofa was set at the sternward end of the cabin, right under the companionway stairs, "so that one has to be very cautious how they hold their head." Otherwise, the passengers could sit in the roundhouse on the afterdeck--"but I do not know why it is called so, it is square."

The major part of the day was spent at the table, eating and drinking being the most time-consuming occupation on board. As Alice noted, it was fortunate that she had a "famous appetite," for the menu was remarkably lavish. Breakfast was at nine, and consisted of tea, coffee, bread, broiled fish, and meat. Then at noon the table was set for "tiffin," a buffet of cold beef, ship's biscuit, oysters, and cheese, all of which was washed down with copious drafts of porter. According to Alice this drink, a dark- brown bitter beer, was "a fine thing on board ship," and certainly large amounts of it were drunk by both sexes.

At four in the afternoon, when the passengers surely had not had enough time to get hungry again, the table was laid for dinner. This came in a succession of four courses. Soup arrived first, then roast meat and boiled fowl, followed by puddings, tarts, fritters, and finally apples, nuts, and raisins, all accompanied with appropriate wines. This repast could scarcely have been digested before a "tea" of fresh bread, butter, cheese, cold meat, and cake was served at half past six. "Now, I suppose all reasonable people will think we have eat & drank enough for one day," wrote Alice.

But no, at ten we call for our punch, biscuit, cheese and often meat. I think we are much like the old woman and what do you think She lived upon nothing but victuals and drink Victuals and drink were the chief of her diet And yet the old woman could never be quiet. Times were merry enough when the whiskey punch went round, for Miss B. might sing a few songs, and Mr. L. might favor them all with a tune on the flute. But passengers were a difficult lot to entertain, on the whole. "I know not a more idle set," wrote Alice. "Half the time is passed in lolling on the sofa, reading a little, looking on the chart, playing cards, &c. All of it amounts to a figure nine with a tail cut off," she decided--which of course added up to a big fat zero..."