Ruth
Captain T. Skelings
From Portland, Maine
Passage:
From the diary of Nelson W Chisholm of Portaupique,
Nova Scotia:. He left Nova Scotia in November, 1847 and worked for a
short time in Portland, Maine, before departing for California. He traveled
on the brig Ruth. The following is a verbatim transcription
of the entire entry for the day they set sail. As you can see, he was
flexible with his spelling and might spell a name or word in several
different ways.
He mentioned more complete versions of several names later in his description of the voyage:
Dr. Young
D W Fessender
Thactor Trew
Charles Staples
Daniel Stevens
William Been
A. L. Fox
Ethen Sawyer
They rounded Cape Horn on December 4, 1849. On February 13, 1850, they took on a pilot and waited for the tide. At 8:00 PM they entered San Francisco Harbor. On Tuesday, February 19, 1850, they ended their voyage in Sacramento. On February 28, they sold the remainder of their cargo at public auction.
Portland Sept. the 18 1849
A JOURNAL OF THE VOYAGE OF THE PORTLAND CALIFORNIA MINING AND TRADING COMPANY.
Tues. September the 18 - 1849
Set sail at the end of long wharf in Portland with a gasing crowd to behold us start on our voyage to California for to seeke our fortunes and among the gasing croud could be seen th tear fall from the eyes of many but while reflecting the thought struck me that their was non to shed a teere for me for i was from home all ready whitch maid me som what sober at that time but theanticipation of what I was going for cheered me up. it was fifteen minutesbefore twelve when we cast off from the warf and some of our friends accompanied us out of the harbour whitch when we parted with them we gave three cherrs and parted we had had a sermon from a minister and good warning for to be cautious and as we passed along through among the fishermen had musick and dancing and with a light and plesant wind from the N West to glide us on our passage. And at 3 oclock the wind increased carrying us at the rate of ten knots an hour. We ran along at that rate untill eleven oclock at night and then a squall struck whitch carried away our four top Galemas and main top mast and flying gibboom w3hich was poor luck for the first night out.
He mentioned more complete versions of several names later in his description of the voyage:
Dr. Young
D W Fessender
Thactor Trew
Charles Staples
Daniel Stevens
William Been
A. L. Fox
Ethen Sawyer
They rounded Cape Horn on December 4, 1849. On February 13, 1850, they took on a pilot and waited for the tide. At 8:00 PM they entered San Francisco Harbor. On Tuesday, February 19, 1850, they ended their voyage in Sacramento. On February 28, they sold the remainder of their cargo at public auction.
Cargo: Not listed.
Passengers:
The foling persons names comprising this company whitch are herein Anext.
Mr. Jabes Stevens Captain
T. Skelings first mate
R. Brown 2 mait
C Staples Seaman
A L Fox do
E. Scagel do
Fr Sherman
To Bogs
H Stevens
F A Russle
R Alot
Carpentender ????
E hails (hark?) Stewart
D Stevens
H Dun
M Nutting
S S Riney
D fesfender
T Henard
E True
T True
E Pike
S Whittier
W Bailey
S Hoit
S Ban
S Ficket
Wm Wiswell tailer
H Guile
W Been (Beer?)
S L Cork
E Lawyer
S F young dentist
G Boyd
G Drew
G Stevens the 3 and
N W Chisholm
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