Manuscript Notes on a Voyage to New Orleans on the Ship Charles

Octavo. Unprinted wrappers. 32 manuscript pages. Bound in old tan wrappers. Text easily legible. Near fine, housed in a slightly worn, older cloth chemise and slipcase with a morocco spine label gilt (not shown in illustration). A literate and richly descriptive account of a journey to New Orleans, including the navigation of the Mississippi Delta. The ship Charles, out of Danvers, Massachusetts, departed Salem on 22 December 1823 with a crew of 20 and 9 passengers. The author, one of the passengers, writes in a colorful, almost novelistic manner. After a very graphic description of leaving Salem, they entered the Gulf Stream, encountering a harsh gale over Christmas that drove the ship 600 miles off course. They sprung a leak, and all manned the pumps, and later thought they were being pursued by pirates in the vicinity of Hole in the Wall in the Bahamas; the vessel in question turned out to be a British naval vessel. The narrator recounts several encounters with merchant and naval vessels, passing north of Cuba, spotting the Morro Castle, sailing into the trades in convoy, arriving at Belize, awaiting a fair wind to New Orleans along with a score of other vessels. After a week, the breeze is in their favor and they start the 120 mile journey to New Orleans. This portion of the journey takes up about a third of the diary and goes into great detail about life ashore: sightings of Indians in the woods, observations of rice plantations, slaves, overseers: "large droves of slaves at work planting sugar cane, etc. and their overseers standing by." The narrator recounts minutiae of shipboard life: what the crew are paid, how the pilot's rate was calculated, etc. They pass the battleground, spotting Jackson's house, and General Peckenham's headquarters, and finally arrive at the city, hidden behind a levee and the account comes to its conclusion. A richly detailed account of approximately 10,000 easily readable words.

[BTC #299237]