Biography of Captains Levi Hotchkiss and Horatio Nelson Gray
Captain Horatio Nelson Gray (1829-1882), born in North Yarmouth, Maine, was a first mate by 1850, and a blue-water shipmaster until retiring in the early 1860’s to command a steamer on the Yangtze River in China. He returned to the U.S. later in the 1870’s and served briefly as a surveyor of the Port of Baltimore before his death. Captain Levi Hotchkiss of Gloucester was master of the ships HARVARD, SHOOTING STAR, JOHN LUND, and GRACE DARLING. Emma Hotchkiss Gray (ca 1841-1899), daughter of Captain Levi Hotchkiss, met Captain Gray at sea while sailing in her father’s ship HARVARD. They married six years later, in 1861. She accompanied Captain Gray to China and lived abroad his steamer on the Yangtze River.
Restrictions
Restrictions on Access
Available for use in the Manuscripts Division
Restrictions on Use
Various copying restriction apply. Guidelines are available from the Manuscripts Division.
Index Terms
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the G. W. Blunt White Library. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
Persons:
Gray, Emma Hotchkiss–ca. 1841-1899
Hotchkiss, Levi
Corporate Bodies (Including Vessels):
Charlotte Reed (Ship)
Cossack (Bark)
Crisis (Ship)
Fire Queen (Steamboat)
Grace Darling (Ship)
Harvard (Ship)
John and Albert (Ship)
John Lund (Ship)
Medford (Ship)
Pennmaqnon (Brig)
Shooting Star (Ship)
Sophia Walker (Ship)
Places:
Baltimore (Md.)
China–Description and travel
Gloucester (Mass.)
India–Description and travel
South America–Description and travel.
Yangtze River (China)–Description and travel
Yarmouth (Me.)
Subjects:
Seafaring life
Shipping
Voyages and travels
Document Types:
Diaries
Letterpress copies
Journals (accounts)
Logs (records)
Occupations:
Shipmasters
Shipmasters’ spouses
Administrative Information
Coll. 89, Manuscripts Collection, G. W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc.
Detailed Description of the Collection
The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.
| Volumes; 1850-1882 | |||||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
| 1 | Journal, kept by Horatio Nelson Gray, First officer, on board the Ship CHARLOTTE REED of Bath, Me., Silas Weeks, master, for coastwise, West Indies, and trans-Atlantic trading voyages; 1850 Apr 18 – 1851 Mar 16 | ||||||||||||
| Journal, kept by Horatio Nelson Gray. Gray served on board the Ship CRISIS from Oct. 3, 1851 – Feb. 5, 1853, first in the capacity of first mate and later as master. From June 5, 1853 – April 6, 1854 Gray served as master on the Brig PENNMAQNON, and from April 29, 1854 – Jan. 2, 1855 as master of the Ship SOPHIA WALKER; 1851 Oct 3 – 1855 Jan 2 | |||||||||||||
| Journal, kept by Horatio Nelson Gray. Gray commanded the Ship SOPHIA WALKER from Jan. 3 – April 5, 1885, for a South American and coastwise trading passage; the Ship MEDFORD from May 2, 1855 – July 21, 1858, for South American, Oriental, and coastwise trading voyages; and the Ship JOHN AND ALBERT from Dec. 11, 1858-Jan. 8, 1859, for a coastwise trading passage; 1855 Jan 3 – 1859 Jan 8 | |||||||||||||
| Journal kept by Emma Hotchkiss. Emma, the daughter of Captain Levi J. Hotchkiss, sailed aboard the Ship Harvard of Boston, Mass. on a South American trading voyage. The latter portion of the journal, kept from 1858-1862, is verse; 1854 Jul 6 – 1855 May 6 | |||||||||||||
| Letterpress copybook of Levi J. Hotchkiss. Containing approximately 285 pages of letters written to managing owners or shipping agents, and detailing transactions mostly with Samuel G. Reed & Co., of New York, and Baker & Morrill of Boston; 1858-1862 | |||||||||||||
| Box | Folder | ||||||||||||
| 2 | Journal, , kept by Emma Hotchkiss. Emma, the daughter of Captain Levi J. Hotchkiss sailed on board the Ship Harvard of Boston, Mass, on an Oriental to European trading voyage; 1856 Feb 6 – Dec 18 | ||||||||||||
| Journal, kept by Horatio Nelson Gray, master, on board the Bark COSSACK for a South American and Oriental trading voyage; 1859 Jan 29 – 1861 Oct 22 | |||||||||||||
| Journal kept by Horatio Nelson Gray, master, on board the Bark COSSACK for a South American and Oriental trading voyage; 1861 Nov 28 – 1863 April 14 | |||||||||||||
| Journal kept by Levi J. Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss commanded the Ship SHOOTING STAR from Dec. 16, 1859 – Feb. 27, 1861 for a coastwise, South American and trans-Atlantic trading voyage; and the Ship JOHN LAND of Boston, Mass. from May 24, 1861-Sept. 13, 1862, for an Oriental and trans-Atlantic trading voyage; 1859 Dec 16 – 1862 Sep 13 | |||||||||||||
| Journal kept by Levi J. Hotchkiss. Hotchkiss commanded the Ship JOHN LAND from October 13, 1862 – March 24, 1864, on a trans-Atlantic and Oriental trading voyage; and the Ship GRACE DARLING from May 31, 1864-April 12, 1865, for a coastwise trading voyage; 1862 Oct 13 – 1865 Apr 12 | |||||||||||||
| Diary kept by Emma P. (Hotchkiss) Gray on board the steamer FIREQUEEN. Her husband, Horatio Nelson Gray, commanded the freight and passenger service steamer on the Yangtze River, China; 1868 Jan 1 – Dec 31 | |||||||||||||
| Diary kept by Emma P. (Hotchkiss) Gray on board the steamer FIREQUEEN. Her husband, Horatio Nelson Gray, commanded the freight and passenger service steamer on the Yangtze River, China; 1869 Jan 1 – Dec 31 | |||||||||||||
| Letterpress copybook of Horatio Nelson Gray. Volume contains 236 pages of letters mostly pertaining ship brokerage data which apparently Gray was engaged in as a business enterprise; 1880-1882 | |||||||||||||