New England dealers will probably recall the Christmas shows Marvin Getman used to promote at the Shriner’s Temple in Wilmington, MA. All those old guys with funny hats, and the big stuffed camel up on the balcony at the end of the hall. What was interesting about those shows, while they lasted, was that the combined antique dealers, who took up about 4/5ths of the floor space, with a little bookseller ghetto down in the far corner. To everyone’s surprise that arrangement worked out pretty well. The antique people attracted customers who wouldn’t have come if it were just a book fair. And they occasionally bought a book or two.
Well, it seems Richard Mori and Richard Thorner put their heads together and came up with an idea that saved the venerable Concord Book Fair, which had been on life support for the past couple of years. About 2/3 of the venue on Loudon Rd. was taken up by dealers in antiques, the far row being filled, almost, with book dealers. And it worked out pretty well. Just as in Wilmington, the antique dealers attracted a good crowd, which made for a livelier afternoon than usual. I even sold a book to a civilian. A boy’s book about ships with one of those elaborately decorated Victorian era covers. $50!
As usual, though, buying was more fun. I bought 3 very interesting items and the usual pot of chowder. Here’s one of the good ones.
Manuscript. Journal of Charles Moore Onboard the Emigrant Ship “Constitution,” Southampton, England to Sydney, Australia. February 17 – May 25, 1855. Manuscript entries filling 28 pages of blank paper, sewn into a book approximately 20 x 25 cm. About 10,000 words.
This is a remarkable document, written over a period of 3 months, aboard the British immigrant vessel “Constitution,” a full rigged ship of 992 tons, commanded by a Captain Trader. She carried a crew of about 40 men, and was one of a remarkable total of more than 50 emigrant ships that sailed from England to Australia in 1855, spurred on by the Australian Gold Rush that had begun in 1851. “Constitution” carried more than 350 passengers – 66 single men, 30 single women, 111 children, and 75 married couples. Among the latter were a young couple, Charles Moore, age 28 and listed as a “plasterer,” and his wife Louisa, age 26. She was the sister of a Mr. Ives in England, to whom this letter was written. A family genealogist has determined that Ives later moved to Ogdensburg, NY, and became a druggist there.
Charles Moore may have been a laborer, but he was well-educated, observant, good with grammar and spelling and, thank heaven, possessed of a steady, legible hand. He gives us every detail of life aboard such a vessel – what they did nearly every hour, what and how they ate, where they slept (they had their own cabin which Moore pronounced “not very comfortable.”) Indeed, we get a sense of claustrophobia from Moore’s reports. Steerage, and every space below decks became infernally hot as they sailed southward. The first days of the voyage were abnormally rough, everyone was seasick, and the smell down below was intolerable. “There was 38 messes of 8 in a mess, and each mess numbered; ours was number 5. Soon after breakfast the bell rang for provisions… It is rare fun to see us run when our numbers are called; and if we miss we lose our grub. The provisions are preserved meat, Pork, Beef Biscuits, Bread, Tea Coffee, Sugar, Pepper, Raisins, Suet, Eggs, and preserved Milk for children; but they (the children) are a deal of trouble aboard ship. I don’t believe anyone can tell what emigration is but those that have experienced it.”
He reports on small details of daily life, such as the labor of doing the wash with nothing but cold salt water, or the difficulties and politics of life in such cramped and difficult quarters – “A deuce of a row with the women about the tin hatt (bed pan) – one party uses it and another obliged to empty it.” Tough conditions, but bearable until the real trouble began. “Friday the 2nd (March)… Louisa still very sick & weak. Whatever she took was up again directly… Another Child died which belonged to the same woman that had lost the first… Another child died at 9 at night and buried at 10. The Captain was the minister and when he used to come to the part of committing the body to the deep , they are thrown overboard like a log of wood.” Shortly after this, Charles himself became very ill… “many thought I was going fast.” Gradually his condition improved and, on the 13th, “obliged to leave the Hospital (sick bay) to let a man come in with the small pox; it broke out on a little boy, about a week after we started… a child was buried a 10 at night on Wednesday, the 14th, twelve months old, which made six up to this time… A fine stout man went into the Hospital the day after I came out – a carpenter – it turned out to be the small pox; he died that afternoon.” So, Charles Moore was writing from a death ship, and he and his wife spent much of the rest of the trip in their berth, too sick to move. “Thursday the 3rd (May)… The small-pox very prevalent indeed four single men in the hospital very bad with it.” When they reached Sydney, they were kept in quarantine for nearly two months, during which time small pox continued to do its work. In the final tally 24 people died. Miraculously, there were 12 births, one of whom was a girl who Captain Trader named “Constitution.”
The letter, in book form, is in very good condition. It is accompanied by 8 pages of notes on legal-sized paper, including genealogical information on Mr. Ives. $1750
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