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| Field name | Value |
|---|---|
| Title | Samuel Adams Journal |
| Reference | MS Vault 1, box 1, folder 6 |
| Library | California Historical Society |
| Collection | Samuel Adams Journal and Papers, 1849-1901 |
| Date | May 1849 - Mar 1850 |
| Author / Creator | Adams, Samuel |
| Description | A two-volume, bound journal by Adams, describing his voyage from New York to San Francisco via Cape Horn aboard the ship Mazeppa, and his first months in San Francisco. The journal includes a contract between Adams and two men for whom he planned to sell merchandise, Charles Rowland and John O Whitehouse; a passenger roster; a list of longitudes and latitudes travelled; descriptions of daily life aboard the ship, including duties of the sailors and captain; and a detailed account of Adams' business and domestic life (3 December 1849 - 18 March 1850). Some sections are addressed to the children and in them he describes details of life at sea – what the sailors ate, where they slept, and how they were disciplined; how to reckon the speed of the ship in knots, and the responsibilities of the captain. |
| Document Type | Correspondence, Journal, Manuscript |
| Theme(s) | Travel and Tourism; Trade and Commerce; The Natural World |
| Keywords | voyage, diary, merchandise, merchant, trade, commerce, passengers, sea, ship, vessel, seafaring, sailor, captain, crew, longitude, latitude, business, finance, contract, drugs, storm, gold, family, pioneer, forty-niner, disease, officer, nature, ocean, religion, slaves, whaling, poetry, weather, food, nautical, fire, mining |
| Countries | USA; Brazil; Chile |
| Places | Cape Horn; California; Winthrop; Maine |
| Ports | New York, USA; San Francisco, USA; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Valparaiso, Chile |
| Ships | Mazeppa |
| Additional Information |
Samuel Adams managed a drugstore for the firm of Rowland and Whitehouse of Brooklyn, New York, but when it and the house he had been preparing for his family burned, he agreed to act as a commercial factor in order to support his family. He left New York on 27 January 1849 aboard the bark Mazeppa with a cargo of merchandise which he had been commissioned to sell for Rowland and Whitehouse. The voyage of the Mazeppa was plagued by storms, lengthy repairs to the ship after it was forced to return to Rio de Janeiro, and long delays in navigating around Cape Horn. Adams helped to pass the time by writing a journal for his wife and children living in Winthrop, Maine. He arrived in California on 3 December 1849 after a ten-month voyage at sea. Please note that some of the metadata for this document has been drawn from the California Historical Society's North Baker Research Library catalogue. |
| Copyright | California Historical Society |
