Ole Virginia Bound

By Paul W Simpson

The story of Virginian shipbuilders Page & Allen. They were the only builders of  clipper ships the in the South, and were responsible for such vessel as the famous Neptune's Car, Gosport, Currituck, Albion, James Guthrie and John A Parks. The book follows the story of the Gosport, a medium clipper and sister of the more famous Swordfish. The ship's history is tracked from the United States to the the Far East where she ended her days burnt to the waterline anchored off Batavia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul W Simpson
• Release date: Sep 2, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393685326

Book preview

Dedication.

To Fon. My guiding star on a dark and troubled sea.

Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.

Herman Melville

Western Ocean Packet

The French Connection

Hurricanes & Shipwrecks

Resurrected

Born Again in Bremen

Bound for South America

Guano Wars

A Long Way Home

Gosport’s Ghost

Coolies, Coal and Rice

A Dark and Dirty Trade

Bibiography

News Papers

Web Sites

Index

Western Ocean Packet

‘Saturday, April 15th 1854.’

Curlicues of blue-white smoke wafted skywards as the crowd of dignitaries gathered beneath the marquee set up to shelter them from the blazing sun of a crisp spring morning.  The shipyard of Amos Allen and William Page was festooned with bunting as the crowd gathered to witness the launch of the newest clipper to come off the stocks of the busy little yard. The smell of sawdust and tobacco smoke mixed with the burbling murmur of the inhabitants of Gosport, Virginia as a hush fell over the gathering. Stepping up to a makeshift dais covered in ribbons of red, white and blue came the vessels principal owner, shipping magnate William Spence of Baltimore.

After a long drawn out speech in which Spence thanked the shipbuilders Page and Allen, his fellow owners John E Doyle, George Reid, William Camps, and his business partner Andrew Reid (brother of George Reid) William Spence announced that the new clipper, destined for the European migrant and cotton trades was to be named ‘Gosport’ in honour of her home port. To resounding cheers from the yard’s workers and almost the entire population of the small town, the yard foreman signalled for the blocks to be knocked away allowing the Gosport to slip noisily into the Elizabeth River.

With her successful launch, the party retired to the spacious moulding loft for a light déjeûner as the rest of the yard’s workers, family members and other town inhabitants retired to the grassed areas at the edge of the yard to partake of what amounted to a public holiday for all involved. The village of Gosport was made up of about sixty houses, with some six hundred inhabitants mostly of Irish stock who either worked in the Page & Allen shipyard or in the industries that supported their shipbuilding activities and those of the Gosport Navy Yard next door. The shipyard of Page & Allen maintained a river frontage of almost 500 feet.  It was bounded on one side by Water Street to the outer wall of the Norfolk Navy Yards 1st Street Gate.  Once home to the old Scottish firm of Robert Souttar & Sons merchants engaged in the West Indian sugar and slave trades the yard now made use of the facilities which had been greatly expanded upon Page & Allen had made good use of local craftsmen to complete work on three slipways, a timber wharf, saw pit, mould loft, machine shops, timber mill, steam box, steam engine and boiler and an extensive black-smithy, rope winding shed and accommodation for the yards employees and their families.

A wharf at the front of the yard had been built many years before and had been badly decayed was now fully repaired with fresh yellow pine and elm piles.  However, almost the entire surface of the yard was covered in several inches of decaying wood shavings giving the entire establishment a rather unhealthy odour. The small dock situated in the heart of the yard was also filled with the shipbuilding detritus fouling the waters along the entire yards riverfront.

Dominating one end of the yard was an old brick warehouse, three stories high was used as a workshop and stables for the yards draft horses the upper level containing tack, harness, fodder and stores. Right in the rear of the workshop was an old dock that had been once used by lighters and barges to load and discharge river cargoes, now however it was a putrid, refuse-filled morass. Its fetid odours filling the air along with the soots of burnt wood and coal from the nearby smithy. Along the Water Street, boundary Page & Allen maintained four large double story houses, three of which were used as boarding houses, the last  as an office from which Page & Allen conducted their business. There was still another dock on the premises, at the foot of Randolph Street, in much the same state as the other two. There were about 100 men emp0loyed directly by the yard, most of whom had followed Amos and William from Maine with the promise of work and heavily subsidised housing.

With the yard and much of the town closed for the afternoon to celebrate the latest launch the Gosport was quietly shifted across to the heavy lift sheers located in the navy yard next door to await the stepping in of her masts. Page & Allen had been given permission by the Navy Yard’s commandant, Captain Samuel Breeze to hire the sheers for the stepping in of the Gosport’s masts and for the sending up of yards and thence the rigging of the clipper. It was a good arrangement with financial benefits for all concerned. The 200-ton topsail schooner, launched earlier in the year had undergone the same process. In appreciation of the goodwill shown by the navy, Captain Breeze, his subordinates and visiting naval officers were regular guests at the frequent soirées held by Amos and William at their palatial residence.  

Lithoprint of Gosport and the yard of Page & Allen, circa 1856.

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The dejuneur hosted in the moulding loft by Amos and William was a grand affair with catering supplied by the best restauranteurs of Portsmouth. Their guests of honour were William Wallace Spence and his partner Andrew Reid. Spence was a Scottish born Baltimore Financier who along with Reid had established the firm of Spence & Reid after his brother John F. Spence had moved to California in 1849. Together the men had established themselves as reputable shipowners, consigning agents, and import/export merchants with offices at Pratt Street’s Old Bowley’s Wharf in Baltimore. The other guests and shareholders in the Gosport were Andrew Reid’s, brother, George, and William Spence, who together ran a shipping management, marine insurance and consignee’s agency for Spence & Reid under the name of Reid & Souttar in Norfolk, Virginia.

There was a close business relationship between Page & Allen and William Spence. It was he who had arranged for the purchase of the land for the yard from Robert Souttar & Sons, whilst George Reid was a director on the board of the Bank of Virginia, the institution that along with Spence & Reid had provided financial backing for the shipbuilding venture. All these men gave speeches extolling their hopes for the ship and thanking the builders for their fine efforts. The last person to present a toast and make a speech was the Gosport’s new Captain and part owner, New Yorker, 30-year-old William Strickland.

Born in Connecticut to a seafaring family William Strickland had gone to sea as a cabin boy, working his way up through the hawse pipe before finally gaining his first command at 24, the Brazilian brig Fere Fogo. In time he had come to the attention of Rufus K. Page, a mercurial and innovative shipbuilder and owner from Hallowell, Maine and was given command of the packet ship Devonshire running migrants from Liverpool to New York. Then in 1852, Rufus Page showed his complete faith in Strickland by handing over command of the company flagship, the clipper ‘Rufus K Page’. The ship was a regular on the Liverpool to New Orleans run and thus it came as no surprise that when Amos Allen approached his father Rufus for who he thought would be the perfect candidate to become master of the Gosport, William Strickland’s name was at the top of a very short list.

After travelling to meet with Captain Strickland at his home in New York Amos Allen had managed to persuade the master mariner to leave the Rufus K Page by offering him a 1/8th share in the vessel along with a share in any profits garnered by the successful delivery on migrants to the Port of New Orleans. With the deal struck the newly married William Strickland arrived in Norfolk aboard the steamer Roanoke from New York on May 21st 1854. His early arrival gave William time to inspect his new command and order any changes he thought necessary to make the vessel his own.  It was fair to say that Captain Strickland had high hopes for the Gosport.

The Gosport itself came with an impeccable pedigree. Her builders were men who had learnt their trade under master shipwrights. Amos Allen had completed his apprenticeship under the tutelage of Isaac Webb, a partner in the New York shipbuilding firm of Webb & Allen.  William Page, on the other hand, hailed from Hallowell, Maine and learned his trade at the yard of his father Rufus Page but had struck out on his own with his friend and partner Amos.  The ambitious pair continued to maintain strong ties to their roots and the people that had mentored them. Key amongst those important to Amos Allen was William H Webb, the son of his father John Allen’s former business partner Isaac Webb. Whilst William was reaching dizzying heights of success with his ship designs up in New York, Amos was happy to utilise aspects of Webb’s designs into his own vessels. The launch and subsequent success of the clipper Swordfish prompted Amos Allen to ask to design a ship of his own upon the same lines and rigging plan as that of the Webb clipper. Thus was born the Gosport.

The essential difference between the Swordfish and the Gosport was their intended uses. The Webb clipper was built specifically for the Californian gold rush and China tea trades. Whereas the Gosport whilst built from the same line plan was fitted out to carry passengers in her expanded cabin and tween deck space. Thus when she came down the slipway the Gosport looked almost identical to the Swordfish from below, but once upon deck, the differences became obvious. The Gosport displaced 86673/95th tons (Old Measurement) 1076 tons (New Measurement) against the Swordfish’s 1036 tons (NM). The clippers internal fit-out as a people carrier added 40 tons to her weight. Her dimensions were; length 170 feet (169 feet – Swordfish), beam 33 feet 1 ½ inches (36 feet 6 inches – Swordfish), and depth of hold 16 feet ¾ inches (20 feet – Swordfish).

The ship was broader in the mid-section than an extreme clipper but still had the distinctive concave bow and fine run aft.  The Gosport was built with a full poop fitted out with staterooms either side of an expansive and ornately decorated saloon. The latest labour saving devices imported from the shipyards of Scotland were fitted, including two capstans, a patent windlass, bracing winch and a small condenser to augment the water carried in her tanks. A deckhouse abaft the foremast contained quarters for one watch, the galley, carpenters workshop and quarters for the sailmaker, carpenter and cook. The rest of the crew were accommodated below the monkey fo’c’sle forward. Captain Strickland was there to oversee the final fit-out and rigging of the Gosport and he was very specific about the setup of the masts and yards.

It took the better part of a month for the riggers employed by Page & Allen to complete the stepping in of the masts and the setting up of the yards and rigging of the Gosport. Working alongside Amos Allen and the navy yard’s chief rigger Captain Strickland was more than satisfied when the clipper was hauled out from the Norfolk Naval Yards to the wharf of Page & Allen for final inspection and ballasting prior to the commencement of her maiden voyage.  With her standing and running rigging setup completed the Gosport crossed skysails on all three masts with single topgallants and topsails. The ship underwent a full survey by the Navy surveyor James Jarvis who was happy to fix his signature to the seaworthiness certificates that would allow Spence & Reid to send their latest vessel to sea. Yet it was not until June 1st 1854 that the Gosport was considered ready to put to sea.

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Line plans of the Gosport taken from the plans of the Swordfish drawn up by William H Webb in 1851.

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Sail plan of the Gosport taken from the plans of the Swordfish drawn up by William H Webb in 1851.

Even as the riggers were hard at work upon completing the Gosport shipwrights next door at Page & Allen’s yard were busy adding the frames to another vessel, sister-ship to the Gosport. The James Guthrie, an 830-ton clipper was being built upon the same mould as the Gosport but was somewhat deeper in draft being built to carry timber rather than passengers for the France to Mobile, Alabama run. The vessel was named after the sitting U.S. Senator James Guthrie, from Kentucky who was currently serving as Secretary of the Treasury in the administration of President Franklin Pierce. The clipper was being built for the shipping and mercantile banking firm of A. L. Dennis & Bros’ of New York. The firm had deep connections to the South and also the shipbuilding form of William H Webb and it was through these twin auspices that Page & Allen had bid for and won the contract to build the James Guthrie.

Whilst the final fit-out and supplying of the Gosport was taking place, her owners Spence & Reid were busy organising a charter that would see the ship sail from Norfolk to Liverpool via Quebec. The vessel needed to be was to be surveyed in Quebec by Lloyd’s of London agents for insurance purposes. Then once in Liverpool, she was to be dry-docked and copper sheathing applied to her freshly painted timbers. It was standard practice to send timber laden ships from northeast Canada to Liverpool for survey and coppering. Almost every shipbuilder in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec swore by the routine and upon William page’s advice, Spence & Reid saw no reason not to follow suit.

Captain Strickland was having his own troubles sourcing a crew of reliable officers and sailors for his crew. Having a well-earned reputation as a bit of a hard-nut William was finding it difficult to entice enough seasoned shellbacks to sign on at $12 a month for the run to Liverpool. Instead, he had the local crimps and boarding house runners scour the bars, tavern brothels and boarding houses of Portsmouth, Norfolk and beyond for a half decent crew. He had no trouble finding officers, idlers and apprentices whilst the ships cook and steward were the same African American former slaves he had taken with him from his days aboard the Rufus K Page. Once in Liverpool Strickland knew he would have to contend with the foul Liverpool packet rats and their rough and brutal ways that were too much a part of life at sea on the Western Ocean packet ships. In the end, the crew that signed articles during the last week of May 1854 were a mixed lot of portside sweepings, veteran sailors, a few whalers and riverboat men, and a goodly number of ex-slaves.

The Gosport was cleared out from her Elizabeth River berth on June 3rd 1854 with almost 900 tons of West Virginia coal in her lower hold as ballast. The sale of the coal would help to offset pilotage and harbour fees that Captain Strickland would incur whilst navigating the treacherous waters of the St Lawrence River. The Virginia pilot was welcomed aboard on the 5th as a navy steamer was chartered to tow the clipper out to the Hampton Roads where the ship would await a fair wind and tide for departure from B.  June 6th dawned hot and sultry as the paddle-tug took up the tow hawser. Captain Strickland ordered the crew aloft to loose topsails and a headsail to assist the steamer as the twin craft moved slowly off down river. The Gosport was towed out into the stream dropping anchor that evening in a crowded Hampton Roads, less than half a mile of Newport News.

In the busy waterway, it was important that the pilot received clearance from the Maryland Pilots before heading out through the narrow channel between Willoughby Bank and Thimble Shoal. Many a foolish or impatient ships master had come to grief within the treacherous waterway eschewing the services of a pilot. Winds were light from the south and conditions hazy as the tug and her charge wove their way out past Willoughby spit on the morning of June 8th. Steering a course southeast by east the pilot directed the two ships down the Thimble Shoal Channel and outwards to the pilot station off Cape Henry. The tow was let go off Lynnhaven as with a strengthening southerly breeze the Gosport romped on out into the North Atlantic. The pilot schooner was met several miles due east of Cape Henry as William ordered the mainyards backed.

Once the pilot schooner had departed with their guide the crew were again sent aloft to loose all sails including stunsails, watersails and a ringtail as the clipper rolled on northeast with a freshening quirting breeze. The seas were smooth and the southerlies light and fickle as Captain Strickland set a course well out to the eastward looking for the Gulf Stream that would push his ship north along the Carolina Coast. The light airs made for slow progress as the crew sweltered in the humid conditions. The Gosport proved her worth though, ghosting along when many other heavier vessels lay adrift in the on mirror smooth seas.

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A week out the winds shifted to the north, northwest all but stopping the Gosport’s northerly progress. Captain Strickland was forced to stand in towards the land looking for coastal breezes. The weather continued fine and hot for the next few days until a south-westerly change brought with it freshening winds and showers. The Gosport raced on up the coast passing east of New York ten days after leaving Hampton Roads, the distance normally covered by a steamer in just over two days.  The winds picked up markedly as the pressure dropped sharply. William ordered sail shortened down to reefed fore and mainsails as a series of violent gales swept up the coast, the children of a failed hurricane. The Gosport thrived in such conditions as she ploughed her way through the seas. Like her elder sister the Swordfish, the Gosport tended to dive through the waves rather than ride over them causing any caught on deck unawares to end up in the scuppers or over the side.

The gales passed as quickly as they arrived pushing the Gosport up past Boston and onto the waters off Boston where the winds swung back around to the west-northwest. With the wind came the humid and hazy conditions. Smoke from raging forest fires wafted out from the land bringing the smells of burnt oak, ash and pine across the waters.  The clipper ghosted her way on up the coast of Maine towards the rugged shores of Nova Scotia. The north-westerlies continued bringing gusty winds and squalls. Captain Strickland decided to stand out to sea and approach Cape Breton Island from the east. The winds finally backed around to the southwest on July 5th allowing the Gosport to slip past Scatarie Island and run off to the northeast, rounding Breton Island’s North Cape the following day.

The ship sailed on towards the mouth of the St Lawrence River, as Captain Strickland looked to sail north of the shoals and islands of Iles de la Madeleine. After keeping the lead going as the ship sailed slowly up the Laurentian Channel, the Gosport rounded the Gaspe Peninsula with Anticosti Island shrouded in low cloud and fog to the north. The further inland the clipper ventured the more crowded the seaway became. There were dozens of ships, barques, steamers, schooners, brigs, smacks, cutters and canoes headed up and down the north and south channels. The Gosport was hove to off the Baie Trinite with the company ensign atop the foremast hoping to attract a river pilot for the run up to Quebec City.

No trading vessel could proceed up the lower St Lawrence River without a Trinity House pilot aboard. A steam cutter soon put out from the shore bringing with it a dashingly dressed Canuck river pilot. Alighting easily from the cutter the pilot spoke to Captain Strickland in heavily accented English. The two men haggled the fees down to the princely sum £150 for the guidance to the Port du Quebec basin where the Gosport would be moored. The Gosport was made to anchor in the bay until the following morning when the tides would be right and the full two day run, upriver could begin.

With winds from the northwest and the current setting at 2 knots to the southeast pilot kept the Gosport running along the northern shore and for the next two harrowing days William Strickland never left the deck, preferring to sleep in a deck chair upon the poop. He did not relax until his ship was brought to her berth in the Quebec basin on July 10th, 33 days from the Hampton Roads. The coal aboard the clipper was discharged within a week of the ship being tied up alongside Brehaut’s Wharf. From there the clipper was shifted across to the ballast ground to take on shale and pebbles enough to stiffen her prior to taking on a load of timber over at the timber loading basin where she would take on a cargo of boards and deals for London.

For William Strickland, Quebec City was an interesting town. When he had first sailed here as a boy it had been very much a stronghold of colonial French culture. However now almost half the people he met were from Britain, especially those in positions of authority. Timber was the chief export and almost every vessel that arrived in port from Europe with merchandise, raw materials or migrants left with a cargo of finished timber boards, deals and batons outward bound for a myriad of ports. The Gosport was just one of the hundreds of vessels to take on timber yet before this could happen the Gosport had to undergo a complete survey by a Lloyd’s surveyor. The process was expensive, but without it, the ship could never be insured, merchants would be loath to risk their goods upon her and government regulations would forbid any migrants from travelling upon her.

With her hold cleaned and emptied the Gosport was hauled across to the dry-dock for inspection and survey by Thomas Menzies, Lloyds of Quebec chief surveyor and Trinity House Master. Mr Menzies and his assistants spent the better part of a day casting practised eyes over the clipper and upon receipt of their rather exorbitant fees were happy to class the Gosport 1½A1, the top rating for a ship of her class. Captain Strickland would have liked to have her rated for longer at A1 but the softwoods from which she was constructed did just not hold up without regular inspection and maintenance. So at least for the next 18 months the ship would be eligible for the lowest insurance rates whilst being permitted to carry the passengers for which she was expressly built. 

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Loading a ship with timber boards, deals and battens through a port cut into the bow, Quebec City timber basin. Circa mid-18th century.

Musée McCord Museum Collection.

With the survey complete Strickland had the Gosport moved across to the timber basin to begin loading. Once bow on to the shore the ship’s carpenter cut two square loading ports into the hull so that the timber could be loaded into her hold. The stevedores were almost all Canuck with their lyrical French floating out across the cove as they sang their shanties and loading songs. The loading gang worked with rhythmical swiftness above and below deck to fill the Gosport’s capacious hold.  The deck of the clipper was soon filled with carefully laid stacks of pine and rock maple boards. The crew were set to work rigging up safety lines, thick iron and timber stanchions that would prevent the timber and hopefully the crew from being swept overboard in rough weather. Timber was an awkward cargo that had seen many a ship capsized in a blow, yet the cargo was in high demand back in Britain, her forests having been all but decimated during the Napoleonic wars.

Loading was completed by August 10th the deck completed covered from the break of the poop to the windlass forward.  If the pumps were needed then the crew were in for trouble, the whole assembly covered by battens and deals. Captain Strickland had run out most of his crew leaving just the idlers, officers and apprentices aboard during the month-long layover. The replacement crew were signed on at £3- a month the crimps taking their share of blood money. Once aboard the men and boys, mostly packet rats and riverboatmen were introduced to the less than tender mercies of the first mate and his recipe of belaying-pin soup. The Gosport was cleared out on the 12th and set forth downstream the following day under tow of a Laurentian paddle-steamer and the guidance of a Trinity pilot.

It was a two day run down to Trinity Cove where the pilot and tug were farewelled. With light north-easterlies blowing out across the Gulf of St Lawrence the Gosport made quick work of the narrow and crowded waterway. It was but a short three-day sail to the distance to Saint Paul Island, from there the clipper rounded Red Rock Point.   The comforting presence of Cap Blanc light announced the clipper’s entrance to the North Atlantic. A squally sou’wester greeted the ship as she cleared the Grand Banks outward