The
Mother Named Her Landlord, - She Knew No One Else Able To Do Much
For Them.
It was the name of a physician of wealth and high
social position, well known in the city as the owner of many small
tenements, and of whom hard things had been said as to his strictness
in collecting what he thought his dues.
Be that as it may, my memory
associates him only with ready and active beneficence. His name has
since been known the civilized world over, from his having been the
victim of one of the most painful tragedies in the records of the
criminal law. I tried the experiment of calling upon him; and,
having drawn him away from the cheerful fire, sofa, and curtains
of a luxurious parlor, I told him the simple tale of woe, of one
of his tenants, unknown to him even by name. He did not hesitate;
and I well remember how, in that biting, eager air, at a late hour,
he drew his cloak about his thin and bent form, and walked off
with me across the Common, and to the South End, nearly two miles
of an exposed walk, to the scene of misery. He gave his full
share, and more, of kindness and material aid; and, as George's
mother told me, on my return, had with medical aid and stores,
and a clergyman, made the boy's end as comfortable and hopeful
as possible.
The Alert made two more voyages to the coast of California,
successful, and without a mishap, as usual, and was sold by
Messrs. Bryant and Sturgis, in 1843, to Mr. Thomas W. Williams,
a merchant of New London, Connecticut, who employed her in the
whale-trade in the Pacific. She was as lucky and prosperous
there as in the merchant service. When I was at the Sandwich
Islands in 1860, a man was introduced to me as having commanded
the Alert on two cruises, and his friends told me that he was as
proud of it as if he had commanded a frigate.
I am permitted to publish the following letter from the owner of
the Alert, giving her later record and her historic end, - captured
and burned by the rebel Alabama: -
New London, March 17, 1868.
Richard H. Dana, Esq.:
Dear Sir, - I am happy to acknowledge the receipt of your favor of
the 14th inst., and to answer your inquiries about the good ship
Alert. I bought her of Messrs. Bryant and Sturgis in the year
1843, for my firm of Williams and Haven, for a whaler, in which
business she was successful until captured by the rebel steamer
Alabama, September, 1862, making a period of more than nineteen
years, during which she took and delivered at New London upwards
of twenty-five thousand barrels of whale and sperm oil. She sailed
last from this port, August 30, 1862, for Hurd's Island (the newly
discovered land south of Kerguelen's), commanded by Edwin Church,
and was captured and burned on the 9th of September following,
only ten days out, near or close to the Azores, with thirty
barrels of sperm oil on board, and while her boats were off
in pursuit of whales.
The Alert was a favorite ship with all owners, officers, and men who
had anything to do with her; and I may add almost all who heard her
name asked if that was the ship the man went in who wrote the book
called "Two Years before the Mast"; and thus we feel, with you,
no doubt, a sort of sympathy at her loss, and that, too, in such
a manner, and by wicked acts of our own countrymen.
My partner, Mr. Haven, sends me a note from the office this P. M.,
saying that he had just found the last log-book, and would send up
this evening a copy of the last entry on it; and if there should
be anything of importance I will enclose it to you, and if you
have any further inquiries to put, I will, with great pleasure,
endeavor to answer them.
Remaining very respectfully and truly yours,
THOMAS W. WILLIAMS.
P. S. - Since writing the above I have received the extract from
the log-book, and enclose the same.
THE LAST ENTRY IN THE LOG-BOOK OF THE ALERT.
"September 9, 1862.
"Shortly after the ship came to the wind, with the main yard
aback, we went alongside and were hoisted up, when we found we
were prisoners of war, and our ship a prize to the Confederate
steamer Alabama. We were then ordered to give up all nautical
instruments and letters appertaining to any of us. Afterwards
we were offered the privilege, as they called it, of joining
the steamer or signing a parole of honor not to serve in the
army or navy of the United States. Thank God no one accepted
the former of these offers. We were all then ordered to get
our things ready in haste, to go on shore, - the ship running
off shore all the time. We were allowed four boats to go on
shore in, and when we had got what things we could take in them,
were ordered to get into the boats and pull for the shore, - the
nearest land being about fourteen miles off, - which we reached
in safety, and, shortly after, saw the ship in flames.
"So end all our bright prospects, blasted by a gang of miscreants,
who certainly can have no regard for humanity so long as they continue
to foster their so-called peculiar institution, which is now destroying
our country."
I love to think that our noble ship, with her long record of
good service and uniform success, attractive and beloved in her
life, should have passed, at her death, into the lofty regions of
international jurisprudence and debate, forming a part of the body
of the "Alabama Claims"; that, like a true ship, committed to her
element once for all at her launching, she perished at sea, and,
without an extreme use of language, we may say, a victim in the
cause of her country.
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