2006-06
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 5/31/2006
A fine group of 4 documents all pertaining to the case of the Whaling whip Sharon , severely damaged at sea while on a whaling voyage. The first document is a 1 page quarto A.L.S. , Talcahuano, March 31, 1877, from Li Barber King, the Master or Captain of the vessel, reporting to the ship’s principal owner’s Mr.’s Gibbs and Jenney, of the ship being damaged and the progress of the repairs, in part:”…We arrived here on the 12th after a very rough passage all safe, but the ship very much damaged from a gail we had on the 7th of December. We lost 4 boats, the bulwarks rail…a suit of sails and everything much damaged. We had very bad weather from the 1st to the 18th of December, when we got the Trades [ Trade Winds]and had fine weather. We were all employed in all the good weather we had in repairing the ship, so we did not have much occasion to look for whales. The weather round the Horn was very bad and a number of vessels that were off there at the same time was much damaged . On arriving here I entered a protest and held a survey on the ship and have been repairing her. I think we shall get away on the first of April and shall get into the Ochotsk sea as soon as possible…” Next is a19 pp. legal folio Noted Protest requested by the Captain. . In anticipation that the ships owners and the insurance companies might try to affix the blame for the wreck on the Captain and Crew, the U.S. consulate for Chile ordered a more detailed examination of the events leading to the ship’s damages, that the ship’s log be temporarily confiscated and brought into evidence, and that testimony under oath be taken of the ship’s first mate, Ships Carpenter, and two other members of the ships crew as well. The testimony of the ship’s crew substantiated the entries in the ship’s log, which describe how on the 30th of November the vessel encountered a gale with both heavy winds and extremely heavy seas. While running before the wind in an attempt to escape the storm a large wave broke over the ship’s stern, causing the ship to begin leaking, tearing her sails to shreds and carrying away much of the rigging as well. On the next day as the storm continued the ship again encountered heavy seas, which carried away much of the ship that was still above the deck, including the skylight, pilot house, ship’s cabin and the steering wheel, as well as much of the remaining rigging. The vessel also took on large amounts of water from the storms waves, causing much damage to materials stored inside of the ship. While in this condition the ship, apparently unable to completely escape the storm, continued to encounter foul weather for many days there after as she tried to make her way to port. After all the evidence had been presented, the Council ordered that repairs be undertaken to make the ship seaworthy, with the costs to be distributed among the owners and their insurance companies according to their proportion of ownership of the ship. The third document is dated May 11, 1859, and is a brief summary fo all aspects of the case of the ship Sharon. After a one page summary of the testimony concerning th misfortunes of the Sharon at Sea, the second and third pages give itemized costs for all of the repairs done to the ship, listing the salaries of the surveyors and ship repairmen, the costs of the materials used to effect repairs, the costs of new sails & rigging, etc. The fourth document may be the most interesting of them all. It appears that the owners of the Sharon are incredibly desperate to get rid of her captain, and the extremes they are ready to undertake to acomplish this are revealed in this 2pp. 4to letter which is a retained copy of th original. In the letter, the owners of the Sharon empower their atorney, Henry Swift,"...to proceed forthwith to the west Coast of America in search our said ship Sharon ...to take immediate and exclusive possession of our said ship when found, to remove L.B. King, at present supposed to be in command of said ship...". In addition, the lawyer is empowered to replace as many of the crew as he feels necessary, to perform all necesary repairs to the vessel to get her in proper condition. This being accomplished, the lawyer is to take the vessel back to sea on a whaling voyage, with the Lawyer acting as Master of the Ship instead of the Captain! One can see the Lawyer roaming the earth in search of a single whaling ship, but in the unlikely event that the ship was found, say in Bora-bora, how will the crew be replaced and what will become of the now stranded crew members? Lastly, what qualifies a lawyer to run a whaling vessel? Clearly this letter raises more questions than answers, though we will never know the outcome. except for some clean fold splits, all documents are in very good condition
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