SHIPPING NEWS
From
Pamela Wood Waugh email 11 Jan 2006:
The one
about Jared Belding, Captain of the Sloop Charming – Ruth was dated 6 Aug 1773
from the Connecticut Journal (like father, like son) recording that
he made harbour at New Haven on August 5, 1773 from Falmouth (probably
Massachusetts, not England).
The one
about Capt Belding in the Schooner Greyhound on a 19 day run from New Haven to Saint
John was also CT Journal, dated 16 Apr 1788, following the custom of the day
being to reprint shipping news from other newspapers to give merchants, traders
and mariners a better sense of who was doing business where up and down the
coast of North America. In this case the Saint John Gazette and Weekly Advertiser
of the Thursday after March 7th, 1788 was the newspaper being copied in the CT
Journal. It "has" to be our Daniel since there were no other adult
Belding mariners in New Brunswick at that time. The only other Beldings were the
family of Jasper Belding (fourth or fifth cousins) from Stamford, Ct and they were
farmers in eastern Kings County out by Sussex.
Taking 19
days to do about 500 miles from New Haven to St John works out to about 26
miles a day. That is really slow progress for a sloop that could manage 160
miles a day under optimum conditions of wind, wave and current. But it was
February and early March. That time of year is so cold that they may only have
sailed in the day and made a port or anchorage each night. That would allow
them to stay at a warm inn ashore or
have an enclosed fire for heat on the boat in a sheltered area. Burning a fire
at night at sea is an extremely risky proposition in addition to which the
night time winds and waves of that time of year are very strong and would make
a sloop a lively, bouncing, jolting, windy and punishingly cold and dark ride.
If they had sailed 24/7, they must have been bucking northerly winds on the
nose all the way forcing them to tack long distances to one side or the other
of the rumb line (the shortest distance between two points) sailing about 160
miles a day back and forth to make 26 miles of progress. That would be hard on
the rigging, the ship and the men. In addition, if they had sailed 24/7, it’s
more likely they would have made 50 – 70 miles progress a day inasmuch as these
folk were skilled enough to minimize leeway and eke out the miles despite all
the tacking to and fro. Note from the report that the Schooner Charming Sally
made the 400 mile run from Boston to St John about the same time in 7 days or a
little under 60 miles a day but that might have been necessary since they were
carrying :”fresh provisions”.. They likely sailed 24/7 but the Schooner
Greyhound probably sailed only during the day and stopped at night because its
cargo may not have been so ‘time sensitive’- perishable.
In this
time before telegraph, telephone, radio and TV, you can see the news going up
and down the coast passed by mail, fisherman, ministers, travelers and salesmen
at the rate of about 600 miles a month so ordinary folk got the news that way
if they didn’t have access to the ships and newspapers for news.
Tuesday,
January 31, 2006
Harry
MacDonald
2
Jackstraw Lane
Gananoque,
ON
K7G 2V4
613 382
8607
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