Whaling master active 1831–1845.
Port of command: New London, Connecticut.
Christopher Allyn was born on 7 February 1793, probably in Gales Ferry, Connecticut, the son of Alexander Allyn and Sarah Latham Allyn. He grew up in a house at the head of the lower wharf on the Thames River in Gales Ferry. He had three siblings: Sarah Allyn Brown, Latham Allyn, and Lyman Allyn.
New London Crew Lists describe him as 5 feet 8 inches tall, with light complexion and light hair.
He married Maria Stoddard in Groton on 19 November 1820. They had three children: Maria Allyn Larrabee (1827–1898), Flora Lyman Allyn (1835–1927), and Noyes Billings Allyn (1835–1927).
Christopher Allyn died on 10 January 1871 in Gales Ferry. His wife Maria died in 1878. Probate papers for Christopher’s estate valued his assets at $33,800.
Family and Property
The year 1820 marked several important events in Allyn’s life. In that year he married Maria Stoddard, acquired the sloop THAMES, and purchased the 1803 Allyn-Williams house on Hurlbutt Road in Gales Ferry. Located uphill from the upper wharf, the house became the family homestead. Now a private residence, it is listed as a Historic District property on the National Register of Historic Places.
He was at sea intermittently for the next two decades, making five voyages as a whaling master between 1831 and 1843.
Family tradition holds that while Christopher was away at sea, Maria kept a man’s hat and coat hanging by the door to suggest the presence of a man in the house.
In 1821 Christopher and Norman Brown, who had married his sister Sarah and served as the local postmaster, purchased site number one at the lower wharf in Gales Ferry, where a shop, store, and post office stood.
Christopher later left his half interest in the lower wharf and the homestead to his son Noyes, who lived in the house for the remainder of his life.
Members of the Allyn family are buried in the family plot at the cemetery on Hurlbutt Road, including Christopher and Maria, his parents, his daughter Flora and her husband, his son Capt. Latham, his brother Noyes and his wife, and his brother Lyman.
Family Maritime Connections
Both of Christopher’s brothers were mariners. Latham Allyn’s gravestone records that he “died on board the Sloop CHERUB in Charleston, S.C.” at age twenty-seven.
Lyman Allyn (AM0121) was also a whaling master but should not be confused with another whaling captain named Lyman Allyn whose daughter later founded the Lyman Allyn Art Museum. The two men were born within three weeks of one another, and the other Lyman died four and a half years after Christopher’s brother.
Whaling Command
FLORA (AS1369) — ship, 338 tons, built 1811
New London → South Atlantic
1831 – 21 February 1832
A letter of instructions from N. & W. W. Billings dated 10 April 1831 at the beginning of the voyage is preserved in Mystic Seaport Museum Manuscript 233, Box 12/21.
Voyage identifier: AV04960
FLORA (AS1369)
New London → South Atlantic
1832 – 1833
A letter of instructions from N. & W. W. Billings dated 1 May 1832 at the beginning of this voyage is preserved in Mystic Seaport Museum Manuscript 233, Box 12/21.
Voyage identifier: AV04961
PHOENIX (AS2188) — ship, 404 tons, built Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1811
New London → Pacific
24 March 1834 – 18 May 1837
Agents: N. & W. W. Billings
Voyage identifier: AV11620
JULIUS CAESAR (AS1737) — ship, 347 tons, built 1812
New London → South Atlantic
1839 – 1840
Voyage identifier: AV07948
FLORA (AS1369)
New London → Indian Ocean
30 March 1843 – 1845
Dennis Wood Abstract 1-181 records the vessel returning to New York on 28 January 1845.
Voyage identifier: AV04970
Other Maritime Activity
Records in the Bill Library in Ledyard indicate that Allyn owned the sloop THAMES from 1820 to 1821 and served as master of the schooner ANN HOWARD from 1840 to 1842. He is also recorded as master of the sloop OLIVE BRANCH and the ship SUPERIOR in 1838.
The Connecticut Ship Database lists a vessel named ANN HOWARD, although several vessels carried the names OLIVE BRANCH and SUPERIOR, and the records do not clearly link them to Allyn.
The Old Sailor’s Story by Gurdon L. Allyn records that in 1819 Gurdon shipped as mate on two voyages aboard the sloop THAMES under Christopher Allyn as master.
Sources
- American Offshore Whaling Voyages Database (AOWV): AM0119, AS1369, AS2188, AS1737
- Mystic Seaport Museum Manuscript Collection 233 (Records of N. & W.W. Billings)
- Dennis Wood Logbook Abstract 1-181
- Gurdon L. Allyn, The Old Sailor’s Story
- Books on the history of Gales Ferry, Bill Library, Ledyard, Connecticut
- Gravestones at Gales Ferry Cemetery
George Shaw, 2019