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 NEW BEDFORD WHALING LETTER- 1846-Ship Old
Chilo. Stampless cover
from New Bedford, Massachusetts that is marked “12” and “Single Paid.”
Remarkable piece of Americana exhibiting the great camaraderie that one American
sailor felt towards his fellow crewmen who had endured many hardships alongside
him on a whaling trip. Choice 4-page 7 ¾” x 9 ¾” autographed letter signed
by Edward G. Lindsay, a member of the whaling vessel Old Chilo’s crew. Dated
at New Bedford, October 11, 1846, to a fellow former member of the whaling crew,
Andrew W. Conant at [Han]son(?), Mass. Lindsay is upset that his friend has been
home for 14 months without letting him know about it. (Jb. 494), $325.
“I trust that we shall
neither of us remain mute such a length of time again . . . I feel a particular
regard for several of the Old Chilo’s crew, yourself among the foremost. . . .
I recollect that your suffering + mine own were much alike, caused by the same
tyrant + recompensed in the same way that we lived and endured together for 42
long months and after all this why should we not have more regard for one
another than for a casual acquaintance. Even ‘Most Splendid’ who I always in
common with the rest of the crew disliked on board. I now forgive the scurvy
trick he played me, and indeed confessed the favor upon him in expectation of
it. Cole as you suspect went out in the Almira of Edgarton [Edgartown]. . . .
the only way by which I ascertained where he is was by happening to see some
letters from his friend in Boston left at the Exchange News Room in that place
to be forwarded to him.” Lindsay refers to “Chip Allen(as the Kanachais
called him)”, possibly referring to one of the Aleutian Islands off Alaska and
Eskimos. Mentions that he is off as cook on a schooner bound for Norfolk. States
that this Chip was “tending bar in some groggery in Boston,” last summer.
“Brown” who “says the story of his going to sea again is all humbug. He
has no notion of any such thing.” Mentions “Bragg” who “had settled the
matter with Delano + if he has not, he probably never will. He is one of the
kind that forget if they do not forgive.” Conant had been out in a Brig and
Lindsay wonders out loud, “how you liked the merchant service. I suppose not
better than whaling, or you would have gone again perhaps.” Lindsay asks
Conant about “our Cook Nelson Martin” and remarks, “Whiting told me before
he sai[led] that he saw him on board of a Brig in Newport harbor, that Nelson
hailed him to come alongside + take him out (Whiting was in a boat) which he
did. Nelson told him that he belonged to the Brig but that she was a miserable,
leaky old craft + he was determined to run away from her + not go aboard again.
. . . If he likes aquidente as well as he used to, he is probably a case by this
time.” “By the way, I don’t know as ever you knew + if you did not it will
a satisfaction to you to know that our poor old Gumbo got home before we did. He
came home in the Cambria at this port. He is now working on a farm within a
dozen miles of this place. I saw [him] during the past summer, something which I
never expected to do again, when we left him on James Island,” one of the
Galapagos Islands. “How are Politics in your parts? They rage here.”
At the
time, hostilities with Mexico continued even as California was falling into
American control and Manifest Destiny played out. Worthy of a great load more
research than I offer here! Several burn holes affecting words, but words that
can be easily completed or surmised. Remarkably, the wax seal is intact except
for the head of the animal thereon (a cow?).
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BUTCHERS
JANITOR
CARPENTERS. 
NEWSBOY
GROUP OF MAIDS OR DOMESTICS
CARPENTER.
TELEPHONE LINEMAN
POSTMAN
EXPRESS WAGON.
HORSE DRAWN FEED WAGON.
BAKERY
WAGON
HORSE DRAWN WAGON
TINTYPE
NEW BEDFORD WHALING LETTER- 1846
1816 WHALING DOCUMENT