US Navy Warship Log 1836-1840
This is a naval log by Joseph Wilson, the purser for the USS North Carolina, from 1836 to 1840. The North Carolina was a ship of the line and flagship of the Pacific Squadron, with 74 cannons and over 820 seamen aboard when she was at sea. There were only two areas where a ship of her vast size could be deployed - in the Mediterranean and on the western coast of South America, where the ports could accommodate ships of great draft, and the ship was under the command of Henry E. Ballard, Commodore of the fleet while it was in the Pacific. In the early days of the Republic, a display of naval might brought a nation prestige and enhanced its commerce, and with a war raging between Chile and Peru - the War of the Confederation - and with relations between the United States and Mexico strained at the time, the North Carolina protected American commerce in the eastern Pacific until early 1839.
The log was written by Joseph Wilson, a purser from North Andover, Mass., who served in the navy for 27 years, and at the end of the log, he wanted to return home and be stationed on land because his eyesight was failing, but the Navy didn’t respond to his requests and he ended up being stationed on the USS Preble, which was going to sea again and couldn’t meet his needs.
The first entry was made on September 10, 1836, at the US Naval Yard in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Wilson received orders to proceed to Norfolk, Virginia and board the North Carolina, he arrived in Norfolk on the 6th and deposited $60,000 in navy money at the branch bank of Virginia, which was a hefty sum for those days, and the book is 298 pages long, with entries that covered everything from supplies and stores that needed to be ordered to dealing with courts martial and deserters to paying judges advocates to oversea the trials, and paying the officers and men on board the North Carolina, and he had to order goods and supplies for the whole fleet. Goods included beef, pork, beans, whiskey, rum, vegetables, chloride of lime, bread, salt, flour, slop clothing for the men to wear on deck while they serviced and repaired the ship, frocks and trousers (“trowsers”) for the crew, blankets, shoes, flannel jackets, canvas for hammocks and the sails, pine tar to coat the rudder and caulk the planks on the sides of the sides of the ship, sheets of copper to repair the rudder, hospital stores and ordnance in case the ship had to fight at sea, and the ship was bigger than you’d imagine - whiskey and rum were ordered 1000 barrels at a time, sometimes the barrels would leak and had to be reordered, bread came in moldy or contaminated at times and couldn’t be salvaged, so more bread had to be ordered, and Wilson was concerned that wooden barrels weren’t up to the job, so he requested wrought-iron barrels to hold the rum and whiskey, and could you imagine how big the ship was to store that all below deck and do that constantly over a four year period?
The North Carolina finally left Norfolk on December 14, 1836, stayed in Hampton Roads, Virginia until January 9, 1837, then headed to South America. The ship reached Rio de Janeiro on March 5 - and remember there was no Panama Canal then for them to take a shortcut to the Pacific, so the fleet had to go round Cape Horn at the tip of South America to reach their final destination - and the North Carolina reached Valparaiso, Chile on May 17, 1837 and Callao, Peru, two weeks later.
The highlight of the adventure was when a castle in Callao which held stores for the fleet was besieged by Peruvians in November 1838, and it was touch and go for a while till the store ship California arrived and made it possible for the fleet to survive. But stores were not so readily available anymore, and short supplies meant prices for goods were exorbitant, so Wilson had to negotiate with the Peruvian government to get stores and supples back.
Wilson requisitioned food and supplies and had to document everything he did, which is part of the log, and he had extensive contact with banks in Lima, Peru, to secure credit and monies for the ships and crew - he had to pay all the men while they were at sea, including the Marine Guard and officers on the ship, and all the different classes of seamen - landsmen, carpenters, gunners, midshipmen, apprentices, assistant surgeons, etc. - and he drew credit from a merchant’s bank in England which had ties to the slave trade, and he had contact with foreign consuls and members of the U.S. government to be sure he was in compliance with all laws and regulations related to ship life and payment to the crew. All this was part of Wilson’s job as purser, and he was devoted to doing things right.
The other highlight was at the end of the log, where Wilson wanted to return home because of bad eyesight. He’d spent a long time in the navy, and he requested to return home to North Andover, but was ordered to Portsmouth and assigned to the USS Preble, a much smaller ship than the North Carolina. The Preble carried only 16 guns and about 150 men, so quarters were a lot smaller than what he was used to, and the ward room and state room didn’t have enough space for him to spread out his vouchers and invoices and letters of advice from the Treasury Department, and the room they gave him didn’t have good light for him to work by - he was tired of working by candlelight because it did serious injury to his eyes - his eyesight was failing, and you could tell that by his handwriting towards the end of the log - and we didn’t find out he served in the navy for 27 years till the end of the log, and the Navy treated him poorly in these finals days - they stuck him on a ship that couldn’t accommodate his needs and didn’t respond to his request for a land job, and this was no way to treat a man who had devoted long years of his life to the navy and the ships and men on board - it doesn’t speak highly of the navy at the end of his career. His last entry was July 30, 1840, and at the end he was left to hang out and dry on his own - not a great way to end a career of 27 years in the navy, with much of it on board a ship-of-the line and the Commodore’s flagship for the Pacific Squadron.
There are several rosters in the log if you’re interested in finding relatives who might have been aboard the North Carolina at the time, and other ships in the squadron are mentioned in the book, such as the Enterprise, the Lexington, the Boxer, as well as the the Gilfin, the Dorothea, and the Falmouth, so a lot of history here.
The North Carolina left South America on March 31, 1839 and finally reached New York on June 27, North Andover on July 17, and Portsmouth on April 14, 1840.
The log measures 10 5/8 x 8 3/8 inches wide and has four raised bands and a maroon and gilt label on the spine, and it’s in very good condition, with a tight binding and rather clean pages, loss to the maroon label on the front cover and light wear on the spine, the covers, and at the tips, mild stains at the top of pages 161 - 168, faint brown spots here and there, and no tears or repairs to the log. A great book for naval historians - it will keep you occupied for days.
All items are sold AS IS. Lot and condition details are for descriptive purposes only. Sarasota Estate Auction is not responsible for errors and/or omissions of condition. The absence of a condition report does not imply that the lot is perfect or free from wear, flaws, or characteristics of age. Please bid according to your own expertise, or request any additional information and/or photographs you deem necessary.
