January 31, 2018 During a visit to Nassau in the Bahamas in 1944, Cora Mallory Munson spent time with former King Edward VIII, the Duke of Windsor and his wife, the former Wallis Simpson. Some mementos from the trip are in the manuscript collection of the G.W. Blunt White Library.
The manuscripts collection in the G.W Blunt White Library is full of surprises. You never know what you will find while looking for something completely different.
The following pieces from the collection should be of some interest to those of you who are Netflix fanatics and currently enjoying the second season of The Crown
The cards and photo were sent separately to Mrs. Munson by Edward, the Duke of Windsor and his wife, Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor. At the time the cards were sent to Cora, Edward was in his last months as Governor of the Bahamas, resigning in March, 1945 with his last official day being April 30, coincidentally the day that Hitler committed suicide. The optics of this was certainly unusual as Edward had been labelled a Nazi sympathizer.
One of two cards sent to Cora Mallory Munson at Christmas, 1944 by Edward and Wallis. Edward’s refusal to leave Wallis led to his abdication in 1936, turning the crown over to his brother who became George VI, the father of Elizabeth. In 1941 Edward became the governor of the Bahamas. In 1944 the pair made a trip to the States, including Newport, Rhode Island. Wallis had surgery in New York in August to remove some cancerous tumors, but obviously by the time the Christmas notes were sent, she was feeling much better. She went on to live another 42 years.
Note from Wallis to Cora thanking her for a gift and mentioning a get together. Unfortunately, we do not have further documentation concerning the circumstances around reason for the note and cards to Cora, but she was obviously well acquainted. Her note is signed “Wallis Windsor.”
Note from Edward to Cora. Wallis and Edward coming ashore. While there is nothing written on or with the photograph, the context of the notes along with the image of the harbor suggests that this picture was taken in Nassau.
There are many such surprises hidden in our collections and it is always a pleasure to unexpectedly happen upon one.
December 29, 2017 In October of 1859 Captain James Hamilton took over command of the CHARLES W. MORGAN for a voyage to the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans. Along the way the MORGAN made stops in Chile, Hawaii and Japan among other places. The MORGAN left New Bedford a few weeks before John Brown’s famous raid on Harper’s … Continue reading "New MORGAN-related Acquisition"
In October of 1859 Captain James Hamilton took over command of the CHARLES W. MORGAN for a voyage to the Pacific and the Arctic Oceans. Along the way the MORGAN made stops in Chile, Hawaii and Japan among other places. The MORGAN left New Bedford a few weeks before John Brown’s famous raid on Harper’s Ferry and returned home, surprisingly safely, during the midst of the Civil War in 1863, nearly four years after departing. When she left, James Buchanan was president. When she returned, Abraham Lincoln was dealing with the recent defeat of Union forces at Chancellorsville where total casualties for both sides totaled more than 30,000 men.
Prices had escalated during the war and the MORGAN’s return grossed over $165,000, making it the MORGAN’s most successful voyage of her career. The MORGAN, however, did have a few casualties of her own during the voyage. A journal kept on board by Hamilton notes that seaman Francis Lacock drowned after being dragged out of a whaleboat, the second mate had a finger amputated by the captain after a whale gun exploded, and a boatsteerer, M.A. Brady, fell from the mast top and broke his jaw in multiple places.
The image here represents one of the ship’s papers for the 1859-63 voyage. The G.W. Blunt White Library also holds Hamilton’s journal of the voyage. This paper, a four-language sea letter (17″ by 22″) was recently purchased at auction and carries the signatures of President Buchanan, Secretary of State Lewis Cass and Deputy Director of Customs, James Taylor, listed as the Notary Public. The seal of the United States can be clearly seen in the detail image.
(click image to enlarge) American Maritime Documents:
“The term ‘Sea Letter’ has been used to describe any document issued by a government or monarch to one of its merchant fleet, which established proof of nationality and guaranteed protection for the vessel and her owners. However, it is the Sea Letter used by the United States after 1789 that is of particular interest here.
The 1822 edition of The Merchants and Shipmaster’s Assistant described the Sea Letter as a document which ‘specifies the nature of the cargo and the place of destination,’ and says that is was only required for vessels bound to the Southern Hemisphere… In 1859 the document was defined as part of the ship’s papers when bound on a foreign voyage, ‘…it is written in four languages, the French, Spanish, English, and Dutch, and is only necessary for vessels bound round Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope.’
The statement within the document conveys in part that the vessel described is owned entirely by American citizens, and requests that all ‘Prudent Lords, Kings, Republics, Princes, Dukes, Earls, Barons, Lord, Burgomasters, Schepens, Consullors…’ etc., treat the vessel and her crew with fairness and respect. The signatures of the President of the United Stated, the Secretary of State, and the customs collector appear, usually in the middle portion of the document. Sea Letters are mentioned in the formative maritime legislation forged by the new Federal governments. Like passports, they provided additional evidence of ownership an nationality, but the criteria by which a shipmaster utilized one document over the other is not completely clear. It was explained at the time that both documents were ‘rendered necessary of expedient by reason of treaties with foreign powers,’ a statement which suggests that certain nations required a particular document because of existing agreements with the United States.
In any case the Sea Letter was valid for only a single voyage, and a bond does not seem to have been required. Neither was it to be returned to the collector when the voyage was completed. Indications are that, as the years progressed, Sea Letters were being used more often by whaling ships than by merchant vessels, perhaps because American whalers fished in areas where this document was preferred as proof of national origin.”
Mystic Seaport continues to collect such documents through purchase and gift on a regular basis. This particular paper was a nice find for the collection and we look forward to making additional discoveries in the future.
November 27, 2017 Captain James Smith left whaling to become a packet captain and a foil for Mark Twain.
The painting seen below depicts Captain James F. Smith of New London, one of five brothers who were whaling captains out of that port. All had successful careers and their combined return on all their voyages grossed over 1.2 million dollars. Quite an accomplishment for the mid-19th century.
Captain James F. Smith. Mystic Seaport Accession Number 1939.1295 To get ahead and succeed in such a business obviously took a bit of spunk and our man James seems to certainly have had a surfeit of it. The whaleships he commanded, beginning in 1824, were the COMMODORE PERRY, the PHOENIX, the BINGHAM, the COLUMBIA and the HIBERNIA. According to former Mystic Seaport Curator Edouard Stackpole, Smith had quite a reputation as a rough and tumble captain with one story having him “beating the tar” out of a rival British whaling master while ashore in some foreign port.
After leaving whaling, Smith sailed packets for some years between San Francisco and Hawaii. It was on a trip to Hawaii as a passenger that Smith achieved the dubious honor of becoming a character in not one, but two different stories written by Mark Twain. It seems that on the passage to Hawaii on board the ship AJAX in 1866 Twain met Smith (alias “Captain Cuttle” per Twain) who was accompanied by two New London whaling captains, Asa Fish (“Captain Fitch”) and W.H. Phillips (“Captain Phelps”). In a spate of writing that launched his career, Twain wrote a series of letters from Hawaii for the Sacramento Union in 1866. In them he writes about all three captains and their boisterous card games where they engaged in nautical repartee and drank copious amounts of whiskey (nineteen gallons according to Twain). Smith also appears as the “Old Admiral” in Twain’s Roughing It . The introduction of Smith in the book is as follows: “And then there was “the old Admiral” – a retired whaleman. He was a roaring, terrific combination of wind and lightning and thunder, and earnest, whole-hearted profanity. But nevertheless he was tender-hearted as a girl. He was a raving, deafening, devastating typhoon, laying waste the cowering seas, but with an unvexed refuge in the center where all comers were safe at rest.”
It is difficult to imagine that the serene person in the painting with one of his whaleships in the background could be a “roaring, terrific combination of wind and lightning and thunder,” but then again, looks can be deceiving.
