Capt John Drew, Marine Writer
Here's one for the Massachusetts branch of the mob to look into. Reading an article on Joshua Slocum (Sailing Alone Around the World) in the latest WoodenBoat magazine (No. 192 - September/October 2006).
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"Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a ship" is how Joshua Slocum immortalized Capt. Ebenezer Pierce's offer to make him a gift of SPRAY. Originally from Hallowell, Maine, Pierce had not only achieved great success as a whaling skipper, but he had also patented a a popular and deadly whale "darting gun" before retiring to Fairhaven where he owned several properties. When he wrote Sailing Alone, Slocum gave the impression that his pivotal meeting with Eben Pierce was a chance encounter that occurred on a "midwinter day of 1892". While this version may have pleased Slocum's sense for the serendipitous, the actual event may have been more mundane. What's more, Slocum got the year wrong.
We know these things, in part, because of Grace M. Parker, a 22 year-old reporter who interviewed Slocum for the New Bedford Republican Standard. Parker revealed that Slocum was a "firm friend of the marine writer, Capt. John Drew ... with whose uncle, a retired Fairhaven whaler, Captain Slocum took up his residence and went to work in a shipbuilding yard." Parker's article was published on December 3, 1891. Whether Slocum's move to Fairhaven was somehow connected to Drew, was to take work in the New Bedford shipyard, or was in response to Pierce's offer of a boat, it is difficult to say.
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So do we have a John Drew whose uncle was Ebenezer Pierce in our mob?
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"Come to Fairhaven and I'll give you a ship" is how Joshua Slocum immortalized Capt. Ebenezer Pierce's offer to make him a gift of SPRAY. Originally from Hallowell, Maine, Pierce had not only achieved great success as a whaling skipper, but he had also patented a a popular and deadly whale "darting gun" before retiring to Fairhaven where he owned several properties. When he wrote Sailing Alone, Slocum gave the impression that his pivotal meeting with Eben Pierce was a chance encounter that occurred on a "midwinter day of 1892". While this version may have pleased Slocum's sense for the serendipitous, the actual event may have been more mundane. What's more, Slocum got the year wrong.
We know these things, in part, because of Grace M. Parker, a 22 year-old reporter who interviewed Slocum for the New Bedford Republican Standard. Parker revealed that Slocum was a "firm friend of the marine writer, Capt. John Drew ... with whose uncle, a retired Fairhaven whaler, Captain Slocum took up his residence and went to work in a shipbuilding yard." Parker's article was published on December 3, 1891. Whether Slocum's move to Fairhaven was somehow connected to Drew, was to take work in the New Bedford shipyard, or was in response to Pierce's offer of a boat, it is difficult to say.
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So do we have a John Drew whose uncle was Ebenezer Pierce in our mob?
posted by Geoff_D @ 1:44 pm
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