Isaac

1867 · réf. 461426 — 1867. Unbound. Near Fine. A collection of 11 long letters written by a young paymaster's clerk and officer in the U.S. Navy in which he gives detailed accounts of voyages to Central America China and South Africa in 1867-68. Also included is a gripping account of a terrific storm while crossing the Atlantic and of a dramatic rescue of sailors cast off their capsized ship off the coast of France. All 11 letters are densely written in Merrill's neat small hand and are addressed to his parents at Bangor Maine. One letter has three or four small tears with partial loss to three or four words else near fine overall. Also included are six of the original mailing envelopes and four cabinet card portraits of Merrill: one of Merrill in uniform taken by "Pun-Lun" at Hong Kong and three duplicate portraits taken at Bangor Maine. Here is an excerpt from Merrill's first seven-page letter written on board the storeship Brig Executive in January 1867 in which he describes his first voyage from Bangor to Cette France: ". Wednesday night - a gale commenced - and it was a screamer . day and night did every soul labor for dear life . we felt that our doom - by sinking - was sure . Buzzell and Chase and I worked with the rest - and by our aid the exhausted men were enabled to get a little sleep - until the forecastle was flooded and the galley stove in . we lived on raw meat for three days . Such mountainous waves! . they were as high as the upper-topsail yard - and often higher still - and when they would board us - and sweep over the decks - we all clinging to the main rigging . it seemed to us . that we should drown before it all passed over us . so long were we in the wave . During the whole gale . we sped onward in our course ." They ran into another terrific storm off the coast of France near Montpelier where they encountered several ships in peril and participated along with soldiers on the shore in a dramatic rescue of two sailors and a pilot from their capsized boat one of whom later died. They went on to Paris and London where Merrill wrote his next two letters and returned home from Liverpool at the end of January. Merrill next writes at length about his voyage on board two Steamships Henry Chauncey and Sacramento and the storeship USS Supply. Setting off in November he sailed first to Aspinwall Colón on the Atlantic coast of Panama went across the isthmus by rail road to the City of Panama and then on to Acapulco and San Francisco. In two letters from November he gives descriptive accounts of Aspinwall including several disparaging remarks about the crowds of "natives and negroes along the plaza . the street was thronged with dusky vendors of fruit claret cakes &c. jabbering the virtues of their merchandise in the most conglomerate mixture of English Spanish and Samboish ." He also describes the structure of the "many isolated negro huts" along the 48-mile railroad trip to Panama City where they transfer their baggage etc. onto the Sacramento: "The sea has been as smooth as a pan of milk ever since we left Panama . Among the more noted of our passengers is Gen. Beuham of So. Carolina late of C.S. Army . Bishop Williams of the Episcopal Mission in China . and other missionaries of China . Spanish gentlemen and their families merchants of China & Japan . This morning early a poor fellow died in the Steerage of Panama fever. Another one is sick and will not live till evening . The sharks have followed our ship all the time from Panama . the surgeon said privately that there are other cases also ." In a letter from December Merrill gives a long description of Acapulco: its harbor streets and street vendors the military fort and evidence of the French bombardment etc. In San Francisco his time in the city itself which he loves is curtailed by preparations on board Supply for the voyage to Japan and China. In a long six-page letter from February 1868 he describes various excursions in Canton and Hong Kong: "All of us officers went to Canton . and saw all the Elephants including the Temple of 500 Gods . Hong Kong has all the business that was formerly done in Canton . In some places where we went - but few Europeans had ever been and we were curious objects of interest to the population . One walled town we entered - contrary to the permission of the natives and there we met a 'Sing-Song' procession - marching about in fantastic costumes celebrating the advent of the Chinese New Year - and when they saw us you may believe there was a scattering and scampering! They perhaps thought that the 'Fan-Kwei' foreign devils as they call foreigners had come to kill and destroy . At one town which I entered alone the natives were much pleased to see a Fan-Kwei and they pressed me to take oranges paper cigarettes &c. ad libitum . We saw the forts ruins of at the Bocca Tigris and the Barrier Forts near Canton which were reduced by . the American & English fleet in the China Squabble of 1858-9 . Last Tuesday W. & Thursday were the Annual Races here in Hong Kong. All the fashionable of the Colony were there . We were invited to the whole course 3 days and had quarters in the booths of Russell & Co. and Oliphant & Co. . People and costumes of all nations mingled to make a dashing looking concourse ." He concludes the letter with news about the Satsuma Samurai Rebellion of 1868: "You will probably hear about the outbreak and warfare in Japan . the Hartford and Aroostook are preparing to go there . the Prince of Satsuma . has landed ten thousand men below Osaka under the nose of one of the Tycoon's frigates without molestation and marched them inland toward . the City of the Mikado or Spiritual ruler and had conflict with the Jap. national troops . the life of Sir Harry Parkes . has been attempted and one or two of our U.S. sailors . killed and it is reported that the Tycoon has taken refuge on the U.S.S. Iroquois ." On the voyage back from China Merrill writes one letter in March from Java and two letters in April from South Africa in which he gives descriptions of Good Hope Cape Agulhas whaling grounds at Algoa Bay and of his excursion to Cape Town. He concludes his account of the voyage with a final letter written at Charlestown Massachusetts. A remarkable and historically important cache of letters all rich in content and deserving of further research. A list of the letters with a few quoted extracts is available. unknown books