SPECIFICATIONS:
Medium. Tonnage, 1,119. Length, 194 feet; breadth, 35
feet, depth, 23 feet. Owner, W. Jones & Co. of Portsmouth,
N.H.
PROBABLY
NO SAILING SHIP built on the Piscataqua is more familiar
to local people than the medium size clipper, the Emily
Farnum, because of the fine model of her that has been
on display in Portsmouth Savings Bank for many years.
She was named for a sister of the principal owner, William
Jones. In addition to W. Jones & Company, which had five-eighths,
Richard Jenness had one-quarter; and her master, Captain
William Parker, one-eighth. She was launched July 1, 1854,
and was the last clipper built on the Piscataqua in that
year. She was described as "a fine freighting ship of
about 1200 tons." 40. Her
first voyage put her into the guano trade, which had become,
as noted earlier, an occupation for clippers. Her cruise
to the Chincha Islands was uneventful and she returned
to Philadelphia in June, 1855. Loading at New York for
San Francisco, she sailed on October 11, 1855, and arrived
"previous to April 5," 41
which would maker her passage in excess of 160 days. She
went on to Calcutta, and for a while was in the East Indies
trade. However, the Emily Farnum found a place for herself
in the history books on October 3, 1862.
On that day she attained a distinction not granted to
many vessels: the Emily Farnum was captured and released
by the Confederate raider, the Alabama. Not that the raider's
captain, Raphael Semmes, wanted to be charitable Ç far
from it. Emily Farnum had sailed from New York on September
21, 1862, under Captain Nathan Parker Simes. She was carrying
an assorted cargo to Liverpool. The morning of October
3, latitude 400 north, longitude, 500 30' west, roughly
300 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Captain Simes saw
a vessel bearing down on him. When the stranger saw the
American colors, she fired a warning shot, and ordered
the Emily Farnum to heave to. With no chance of escaping
the guns on the intercepting vessel, now flying the stars
and bars, Captain Simes did as he was told. The Confederate
captain sent over an officer with a boatload of armed
sailors. The officer declared the Emily Farnum a prize
of the warship Alabama, and ordered Simes to lower the
American flag, which Simes refused to do, so the Alabama's
officer did it.
While
this was going on, the Alabama went after another ship
which had the misfortune of coming up over the horizon.
She was the Brilliant, a transatlantic packet, and she
also hove to. Captain Simes was ordered to take the Emily
Farnum's papers and go on board the Alabama. Captain Simes's
private journal was later made available to William H.Y.
Hackett, a Portsmouth lawyer who participated in the settling
of the claims against the Alabama, long after the Civil
War. Hackett said that Simes found a large number of prisoners,
in irons, on the Alabama's deck
......The
Captain [Simes] was told to stand between to guns, and
after long waiting on the deck, was ordered down to the
cabin where he saw the captain of the Alabama, who was
enjoying his cigar and wine, but unmindful of the forms
of hospitality to his visitor. He took Captain Simes'
papers, and asked many questions about the ship, her cargo,
owners, &c., and her value, where the cargo was owned,
&c. Among the papers attached to a bill of lading was
a certificate of the British consul in New York, showing
that the goods on board were the property of John B. Spence,
of Liverpool. When this was shown to Semmes, he declared
it be "bogus," and that it was "prepared by the owners
for the purpose of saving their vessel."42
No
matter Semmes's protestations of the validity of the certificate,
there's little doubt that that piece of paper helped in
saving her from destruction. Nevertheless, Semmes continued
his cat-and-mouse game with Captain Simes for a while
longer. He boasted of his captures; that he had burned
eleven whalers off the Western Islands, and had put 190
prisoners on shore in that vicinity. He continued to question
his prisoner about the movements of the opposing armies;
how many vessels were being added to the U.S. Navy, and
so on. Semmes let Simes know that he already had fifty-four
prisoners on the Alabama, and had plenty more manacles
for the Emily Farnum's crew when the men came on board.
Finally
Semmes tired of the game, and got down to business. After
a conference with his clerk about the British consul's
certificate, Semmes apparently decided that it would be
impolitic to destroy British-owned property, so he asked
Captain Simes if he would take all the prisoners then
on the Alabama, plus the crew of the Brilliant, which
vessel he planned to burn, and deliver them in Liverpool.
Semmes spared no words in making it plain that he would
rather have burned the Emily Farnum, but the logistics
created by the prisoners, plus the technical questions
raised by the consul's certificate, were inducing him
to make the offer. It was quickly accepted by Captain
Simes, who, after signing his parole, was allowed to return
to his ship. The next day seventy-eight men were transferred
to the Emily Farnum, being the captains, officers and
crews of three vessels taken by the Alabama. As the Emily
Farnum's crew, with plenty of assistance, shook out her
sails and got under way for Liverpool, a pall of smoke
from the burning Brilliant blackened the horizon.
The Emily Farnum fared much better than two other Portsmouth-built
vessels captured and burned by Confederate raiders. The
stories of the Express and the Shooting Star will be told
later. The third vessel destroyed was the Rockingham,
but she was not a clipper and her tale will have to wait
for another volume.
The
Emily Farnum went about her business for her Portsmouth
owners until 1872 when she was sold for $30,000 and was
rerigged as a bark. 43 The
object behind rerigging was simple: it reduced the number
hands needed to operate the vessel, and less overhead
meant more profit from freights. In November, 1875, the
Emily Farnum cleared San Francisco, heading for Departure
Bay, Washington Territory. She ran into a gale the fifteenth,
"which lasted 24 hours." The account continued:
......On
the 18th the wind increased, accompanied by squalls and
snow, and land was reported dead ahead. An attempt was
at once made to stay the ship, which failed, and she was
hauled to the wind, but, in endeavoring to weather Destruction
Island, a heavy sea drove the vessel on the rocks, and
at 12:30 she struck heavily
......An
effort was made to launch the boats, but they were destroyed
by the force of the waves...At 2:00 A.M. the vessel parted
with the top part of her house, to which 14 men clung,
lodging on the rocks, where they remained until morning.
Thomas McGill swam from the rock to the main part of the
island with a line, and a small raft was made and attached,
by the means of which they reached shore two at a time.
Before the raft, two of the men swam to the island, and
John Hoaglin, a native of Sweden, and the Chinese were
drowned in attempting the same feat. The survivors remained
on the island for several days, living on flour and cabbage,
until they were taken to the mainland by Indians.
44
A
chronometer reading, made prior to the wreck, showed the
Emily Farnum as being thirty-five miles offshore, such
was the limited reliability of navigational instruments
at the time. In a letter from Port Townsend, Washington
Territory, written in 1888, it was said: Search is being
made for the wreck of the bark Emily Farnum, which was
lost 15 years ago. The vessel was laden with railroad
iron for the Northern Pacific Railroad." To this was added
the comment that neither the Emily Farnum "or her cargo
of iron could be good for much after 15 years submersion
in salt water."45
40. Rockingham Messenger.
41. Chronicle, May 1, 1856
43. Chronicle, Sept. 27, 1872
44. Marine History of Pacific Northwest, p. 229.
45. Chronicle, Oct. 4, 1888.
Brighton,
Ray, Clippers of the Port of Portsmouth and the men
who built them, Portsmouth Marine Society, Publication
Five, 1985
Destruction
Island
