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Maritime English
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Anonymous Journal of the Clipper Ship Stag Hound

  • US TxAM-C 1598
  • Collection
  • 1851

This journal was written by an unknown person on board the clipper ship, Stag Hound with entries dating from January 31 - May 21, 1851, during which the Stag Hound traveled from New York to San Francisco under the command of Captain Josiah Richardson.

Five days out from New York she lost several of her masts, and the crew spent the next several days making repairs. On March 1 they picked up the captain and crew, nine in number, of the Russian brig Sylphide bound from Rio de Janeiro to Helsingfors, Finland. The rescued men landed at Valparaiso when the Stag Hound stopped there for four days to obtain fresh provisions, especially water. While in Valparaiso, many of the crew deserted and had to be replaced.

According to The S. F. Daily Alta Californian from May 26, 1851, the following seven individuals were passengers on board the ship upon its arrival in the harbor: A. F. Macy, Harriet Macy, J. P. Otis, H. R. Helper, J. E. Manning, W. Helman, and W. Mason.

The passenger's experience of frustration usually associated with entering San Francisco on a sailing vessel is apparent in the last few entries. In view of the fact the journalist mentions the name of four of the passengers, A. F. Macy, Harriet Macy, J. P. Ottis, and H. R. Helper, the journalist must be one of the other three, J. E. Manning, W. Helman, or W. Mason. From some of the entries while in Valparaiso, it seems conclusive that the author was from Boston.

The author devoted a considerable amount of space to weather and on each day recorded the latitude and longitude, possibly copied from the ship's logbook kept by the first mate. They gave very little attention to the actual life of the passengers. There are brief references to reading, worship services on Sunday, and a couple of jokes and games. There are also a few references to difficulties in eating during bad weather, but not a thing was written about what they ate. It is mentioned that their cabin got wet a few times, however, there is no mention of what the accommodations were like. Nor was anything written of the fact that there was one female among six male passengers.

B. H. Amstead Collection

  • US TxAM-C 1596
  • Collection
  • 1945-1957

This collection contains materials related to the U.S.S. Amphion such as memorandums, Plans of the Day, and invitations to the commissioning. Also included are 45 slides with views of multiple ships, planes, and other images. Ships included are USS Kearsarge (CVA-33), USS Essex (CVA-9), USS Hancock (CVA-19), USS Cavalier (APA-37), USS Hassayampa (AO-145), USS Kidd (DD-661), USS Bradford (DD-545), USS Uhlmann (DD-687), and USS Agerholm (DD-826) among a few others.

G. A. Ames Diary

  • TxAM-CRS 828
  • Collection
  • 1850-1873

The diary starts with an account of a voyage from Southampton to Barbados on the auxiliary sailing ship "Severn."  The bulk of the diary details the author's life in the new West Indies, the purpose of his visit being a bit obscure, but apparently involved with the building of machinery on the sugar plantations.  The diary makes fascinating reading with great detail about the way of life of the English settlers in mid-19th century West Indie, with much on the social side, including accounts of yachting trips, etc.  The final fifty or so pages include accounts of a voyage to and tour in India and European travels.  The diary concludes with a 20 page log of the voyage of the yacht "Urania," from Cowes to the Mediterranean and back from January through July 1872.

United States Navy Training Journal of Charles Webster

  • US TxAM-C 1597
  • Collection
  • 1894-1896

This collection contains the US Navy training journal of Charles Webster, 1894-1896, compiled under the guidance of Captain Merrill Miller. The Journal is 222 pages and illustrated with numerous sketches, drawings, and clipped prints.

Willmund Reaux Glaeser Diary

  • US TxAM-C 114
  • Collection
  • 1919-1920

This collection contains a diary (December 9, 1919 - November 25, 1920), signed by hand in ink on recto of the first leaf "Willmund Reaux Glaeser", held on top and bound with three-hole-punched loose-leaf ring binder memo book, with imitation brown leather covers, measuring about 14 x 9 cm. Filler paper (120 leaves) is narrow-ruled in blue, with most entries closely handwritten in ink, a very few in pencil, on both sides of the leaves, with only 21 leaves left completely blank. Some leaves preceding the diary entries are filled with names and addresses of friends and family, lists of traveler's cheques and numbers, as well as other miscellaneous lists. Unused index divider sheets labeled A-Z are included in a group at the back of the main body of diary entries. Diary entries begin on leaves just after the group of index dividers, continue for only two leaves, then begin again starting from the other end of the diary. Typed transcript on 39 pages of 8.5 x 11-inch white bond paper is undated, untitled and the author is unknown.

Entries in the diary are fairly evenly divided between Glaeser's service on the tramp steamer Sag Harbor, and on the New York-based excursion ships, the S.S. Chester W. Chapin and S.S. Richard Peck.

As a wireless operator aboard the "tramp freighter" S.S. Sag Harbor, Glaeser sailed the coast of South America to the port of Antofagasta, Chile, to take on a cargo of "nitrates and saltpetes." Glaeser describes hordes of migrating birds, ducks, whales, sea lion, sharks, and pelicans. With great gusto Glaeser includes much detail on life aboard ship, including a crew of mixed nationalities, contending with furious storms at sea and drunken brawls ashore, often ending in arrests and wounds. One steward, in particular, addicted to both "booze and cocaine," proves especially disturbing, since ships stores of food are being sold off to fund the man's habit. The S.S. Sag Harbor puts into port at Malon, Panama, then Balboa and Panama City, passing through the canal on January 22, 1920, with orders to proceed to Baltimore. Storms are reported disabling and sinking several ships off the coast of Georgia (January 30, 1920 - February 3, 1920), but the S.S. Sag Harbor reaches Baltimore safely on February 9, 1920, proceeding on to Washington, DC. With a new captain and much better steward, hence better meals, the S.S. Sag Harbor takes on a cargo of coal bound for Havana, Cuba, where a long longshoreman's strike holds up both delivery of cargo and taking on new cargo, from early February to mid-March 1920. Finally free to take their new cargo of phosphates to Wilmington, NC the S.S. Sag Harbor continues on its journey, finally arriving on May 8, 1920, in New York City.

In New York City, Glaeser stays at the YMCA intermittently as he is transferred May 28, 1920, to the S.S. Chester W. Chapin, an excursion steamer based in New London, Conn., and later (June 5, 1920) to another excursion boat, the S.S. Richard Peck. While in New York, Glaeser has quite a social life, visiting restaurants, theatres, and the shore on dates, but also looking for an office job. He buys stock in the Century Adding Machine Co. and is offered a job starting a sales agency for the company in Texas, but Glaeser declines that offer, later taking a position as an accountant with the A. H. Bull Steamship Co. in New York.

Glaeser includes vivid descriptions of life in the ports of Havana, Cuba, Miami, and Tampa Bay, FL, Charleston, SC, Wilmington, NC, as well as the cities of Baltimore and New York in 1920. He is attuned to the unrest of longshoremen in Cuba, observes the unsteady nature of trading on the stock exchange, and aware that, although life on a tramp steamer is romantic to a young man fresh out of the Army in World War I, it is eventually not that attractive a life considering the storms, brawls, and other natural vicissitudes of peacetime seafaring life. Glaeser's sense of adventure and humor are both keen, so he manages to infuse the diary with both in equal measure.

Glaeser, Willmund, 1897-1966