Beaver at the Equator
A Sailing ship in a bottle, from early 1900’s
The Steamer Beaver, and its accompanying ship the Columbia, sailed over the Equator for the second time on this journey: this time from the south to the northern hemisphere. It was during the late southern summertime of 1836, when both ships reached for the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii]. We ended the last part of our journey west with the Steamer Beaver, with the words:
December 30 [1835]. Fresh trade East with rain. Longitude 92 degrees, 8′ [West].
This log entry was written on what was almost the last day of 1835, and the ship’s location is north of 30 degrees latitude and in the Trade Winds, and five or six degrees south of the Tropic of Capricorn. As the ship is sailing north and west, the Beaver is approaching the Equator, but she is not there yet.
The log of their journey continues once they celebrate the New Year. But, my question is: how did they celebrate the New Year? Thomas Lowe, who sailed to the northwest coast in 1842-3 in the HBC ship Vancouver, says this:
31, Friday. This is Hogmanay. Everything going on as usual. The wind is still a “teether.”
January 1842. 1, Saturday. This is New Year’s day and a Holiday to the crew. By the English, this day is not much Kept, but as this can scarcely be called an English ship, the Officers and all the Passengers being Scotch, although the crew are composed principally of Englishmen and Foreigners, we hold it as a holiday. The men take very little time to enjoy themselves, as they generally find enough to do in mending their old clothes or making new ones for themselves. Made no progress today.
Well, that is interesting. What happened aboard any of these ships would depend on whether the captain and officers were Scottish or English. As we know, the officers aboard the Beaver (the ship whose story we are really following), were — well, we don’t really know. I have no information on where Captain David Home was born. I know nothing of his First Mate, W.C. Hamilton, but the Second Mate, Charles Dodd, was born in Nottingham, England. I suspect (but do not know) that there was no Scottish celebration, but an English one, if any. But let’s see what the Log of the Beaver says:
Friday, January 1, 1836. Moderate trade [winds] E by S, squally, with rain. Columbia W by N.
The Columbia is ahead of the Beaver? Apparently so, if she is north of the Beaver‘s position. The Captain and crew of the Beaver might have celebrated the New Year (while the Columbia did not). However, I think she did not: especially if it was squally out there. Perhaps she simply did not sail as well in the squalls as the Columbia did. The Log of the Beaver continues:
January 3. Moderate S.E. trade throughout. Columbia E.S.E. Longitude, 100 degrees, 43′ [West]. Latitude, 14 degrees, 21′ [South, as you will see below].
January 6. Steady trade and clear throughout, E.S.E. Columbia N.E. Longitude, 105 degrees, 43′ [West]. Latitude, 11 degrees, 13′ [South].
January 12. Moderate trades E. Longitude, 120 degrees, 29′ [West]. Latitude, S[outh] 3 degrees, 04′.
January 13. Fresh trade — squally, E. Columbia E.S.E. Longitude, 123 degrees [West]. Latitude, S[outh] 1 degree, 17′.
January 14. Fresh trade E.S.E. Carpenter making a rudder for the whale boat. Longitude, 125 degrees, 21′ [West]. Latitude, N[orth] 0 degrees, 15′.
The Beaver has sailed over the Equator! The two ships are now in the North Pacific Ocean (with no mention of the Doldrums, unfortunately). From now on all Latitude measurements will be North Latitudes. The journal continues, as the Beaver leaves the Equator behind her, and she and the Columbia sail west and north toward the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii:
January 16. Moderate S.E. breeze. Altered course to close with the Columbia. Longitude, 128 degrees, 39′ [West]. Latitude, 3 degrees, 21′ [North].
January 20. Light N.W. Breeze. Columbia W. Longitude, 134 degrees, 34′ [West]. Latitude, 10 degrees, 13′ [North].
January 22. Fresh N.W. trades with rain. Columbia N by W. Longitude, 139 degrees, 55′ [West]. Latitude, 12 degrees, 56′ [North].
January 25. Light E.N.E breeze with mist. Hove to for the Columbia [the ship, not the final destination].
January 26. Light breeze with rain E.N.E. Longitude, 145 degrees, 50′ [West]. Latitude, 15 degrees, 39′ [North].
January 27. Light, variable breeze E. Captain Home went on board Columbia.
January 28. Moderate E.S.E. breeze. Latitude by Polar star at 2 am, 16 degrees, 58′ N.
January 30. S.E. breeze at noon: taken aback with a squall from N & E. Longitude, 151 degrees [West]. Latitude, 18 degrees, 52′ [North].
“Taken aback,” in the context of a mariner’s log, has a different meaning than we land-lubbers would understand it to mean. To us it means “surprised and confused.” To a sailor it means that a ship under sail (or motor) has the wind on the bow, or forward side, blowing strongly enough so as to prevent forward motion. So, here, a squall from the North and east temporarily prevented the two ships from sailing in the direction they wanted to go.
You have noticed, I hope, that the numbers for Latitude (that is, north and south movement) are getting smaller the closer the Beaver approaches the Equator, and larger as she sails away from it. Also notice that Longitude measurements (east and west movement) are getting larger as the two ships sail north-west toward Hawaii. They are sailing toward the line that everyone now knows as the International Date Line, which lies directly opposite to the Prime Meridian that runs through Greenwich, England. The two ships will not reach that line, however, but they will reach the Sandwich Islands, which lies just ahead of them! At this point, the Beaver is well north of the Equator!
February 1. Hove to for the Columbia. Made the island of Owyhee, bearing W by S, at noon, 30 miles distant. [I wonder why he used Miles in this log entry, and Leagues in the following? Can it be a transcription error?]
February 2. Lost sight of the Columbia. Longitude, 154 degrees, 48′ [West]. Latitude, 20 degrees, 43′ [North].
February 3. Variable breeze, E.S.E. Made Island of Mocoa, S by W 4 leagues. Columbia sighted E.N.E.
A league is a measure of distance, about three and a half miles when at sea. On land it is three French miles (a French mile being a little longer than an English mile.) It is a measurement of distance often used in the fur trade, and as the voyageurs who used the distance were descended from French mariners, I would suggest that the two distances are exactly the same. A league is a league is a league, whether on land or sea.
February 4. Sighted Woahoo Island. At 2.30 pm Mr. Reynolds came on board to pilot us in. At 3 pm came to anchor in 4 fathoms of water in Honolulu harbour.
The Latitude and Longitude of the Sandwich Islands, or Hawaii, is 19.8987 degrees North Latitude, and 155.6659 degrees West Longitude. The Beaver is well north of the Equator, and getting further away every day!
Their stay at Honolulu was eventful. On February 7 the sailors enjoyed fine weather, and Captain David Home attended divine services on shore with the ship’s company. It was not until February 14 that their troubles began. “Fine weather,” the Beaver‘s log read. “William Wilson went on shore without leave and against positive orders not to go,” Captain Homes’s First Mate wrote. We talked about this man, Wilson, in the first post in this series, and for those of us who are busy with fur trade history, it answered a question some of us had: what was the mutiny on the Beaver at Fort Simpson all about? At that place, Wilson instigated a mutiny against the then-Captain (who I think is Captain William Henry McNeill). However, the chief factor at Fort Simpson, John Work, was having none of his nonsense. He called Wilson a “great forecastle lawyer,” and put him in irons.
In other words, William Wilson was a trouble-maker, even at the Sandwich Islands! It does, however, seem a little over the top to be calling His Majesty’s Consul on board to deal with this small-time trouble-maker. But it appears that Captain Home did exactly that! At this time sea captains still lashed misbehaving sailors when they deemed it necessary, and similar lashings with cat-of-nine-tails were even known to have occurred on the wharves in front of Fort Victoria, under James Douglas’s command. But that’s another story. To complete this story, I will tell you that on February 17, the log entry read:
The mate made the following entry: “At 11 am Captain Charlton, His Majesty’s Consul, came on board and reprimanded William Wilson, seaman, for leaving the ship on Sunday last against orders, also for his insolence to me on the passage and general bad conduct. Captain Home wrote over this, ‘Not correct,” and as a footnote added: ‘In reference to the log of the 17, Captain Charlton came on board the Beaver at my request to take William Wilson out of the vessel for punishment for having left the vessel without leave, but William Wilson showing great contrition for his offence, and the rest of the people begging that he be not punished, and that they would be answerable for his conduct in the future, I reprimanded him and sent him to his duty.’
The issue was settled as far as Captain Home was concerned, and the work of the seamen went on. We can guess that the Beaver‘s time near the Equator did not have a good effect on the water the boilers carried. The Beaver‘s log reads:
February 19. Let the old stock of water out of the boilers, it being very bad. Took on board 1,000 gallons of water.
February 24. Crew employed preparing for sea.
February 25. At 4 pm weighed anchor and made sail. At 5 pm came to anchor in Honolulu roads in 18 fathoms water. Received on board 4 Sandwich Islanders to work their passage to the Columbia [the district, not the HBC ship].
February 26. Mr. [Charles] Dodd, 2nd officer, exchanged with Mr. Prattent of the Columbia, by permission of Captain Home and Captain Darby. At 11 am weighed anchor.
Mr. George Prattent had sailed to Hawaii as 2nd mate aboard the Columbia. He transferred to the Beaver, and Charles Dodd, who was second mate aboard the Beaver, went to the Columbia. Mention is made of this incident in the 2nd post in this series, when I say “the Columbia was captained by a man named William Darby, who on this journey would later be accused of being a drunkard and a thief by his second officer.” Darby’s second officer was George Prattent, and this is what Bruce Watson, author of Lives Lived West of the Divide, has to say of him:
…During the voyage, Prattent had a dispute with Captain Darby and as a result, on February 26, 1836, in the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii], Prattent transferred to the Beaver, while the Beaver‘s officer came on board the Columbia. When he arrived on the coast, Mr. Prattent charged Darby with not only being drunk, but also illegally obtaining furs and trading these furs as well as other HBC goods in the Sandwich Islands. Darby, in turn, charged Prattent with (a) being drunk on duty; (b) leaving his watch in charge of inexperienced crew members and (c) being on shore in Oahu and neglecting his duty on board. Prattent denied the charges and called for a court of enquiry, which took place on May 3, 1836, at Fort Vancouver, the event being presided over by five HBC officers. After interviewing several crew members, the court was able to only prove the charge of his leaving his watch. Prattent begged McLoughlin to be allowed to continue as six months at Fort George was punishment enough. Nonetheless, Prattent and Darby both sailed on the Columbia back to England (1836-1837) and on November 15, 1837, both Darby and Prattent were dismissed from the service of the HBC.
Six months at Fort George [Astoria]? He would be confined there until the Columbia was ready to sail for England, of course. But his jailer would have been my great-great grandfather, James Birnie, who had just returned from Fort Simpson! It would be a pretty easy-going confinement.
To return to the beginning of this story of the Beaver‘s journey to the west, go here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/steamship-beaver/
When the next blogpost is published, it will appear here: https://nancymargueriteanderson.com/beaver-columbia-river/
Copyright, Nancy Marguerite Anderson, 2024. All rights reserved.