Keywords and abbreviations in the notes correspond to those given before bibliographic entries here. Beyond the George Comstock “Narrative” printed in full for the first time in this book (Appendix B), the primary works on the Globe are L&H, Comstock T, and Paulding. Among secondary works on the Globe, the most studied are those by Edouard Stackpole below; these include his introduction to the Corinth Books edition of L&H.
REPOSITORIES
| MVH | Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society |
| NA | National Archives |
| NHA | Nantucket Historical Association |
BIBLIOGRAPHY
| Abo | Takaji Abo, Byron W. Bender, Alfred Capelle, and Tony DeBrum, Marshallese-English Dictionary (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1976). |
| Amory | Thomas Coffin Amory, The Life of Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin, Baronet (Boston: Cupples, Upham & Co., 1886). |
| Anbinder | Tyler Anbinder, Five Points (New York: Free Press, 2001). |
| Anderson | Charles Roberts Anderson, Melville in the South Seas (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939; New York: Dover, 1966). |
| Banks | Charles Edward Banks, The History of Martha’s Vineyard, Dukes County, Massachusetts, Vol. 3 (Edgartown, Mass.: Dukes County Historical Society, 1966). |
| Barbour | Hugh Barbour, ed., Quaker Crosscurrents: Three Hundred Years of Friends in the New York Monthly Meetings (Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1995). |
| Beachcomb | Beachcombers, Traders & Castaways in Micronesia. Web site, accessed January 31, 2002. www.micsem.org/pubs/ publications/histwork/bcomber/marshalls.htm |
| Beaglehole | J. C. Beaglehole, The Exploration of the Pacific (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1966). |
| Beegel | Susan Beegel, “ ‘Mutiny and Atrocious Butchery’: The Globe Mutiny as a Source for Pym,” in Richard Kopley, ed., Poe’s Pym: Critical Explorations (Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, 1992), 7–19, 277–80. |
| Bellwood M | Peter Bellwood, Man’s Conquest of the Pacific: The Prehistory of Southeast Asia and Oceania (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979). |
| Bellwood P | ———, The Polynesians: Prehistory of an Island People (London: Thames and Hudson, 1978). |
| Bingham | Hiram Bingham, A Residence of Twenty-One Years in the Sandwich Islands (Rutland, Vt.: Charles E. Tuttle, 1981). |
| Blackman | William Fremont Blackman, The Making of Hawaii: A Study in Social Evolution (New York: Macmillan, 1899). |
| Booker | Margaret Moore Booker, The Admiral’s Academy (Nantucket, Mass.: Mill Hill Press, 1998). |
| Browning | Mary A. Browning, “Traders in the Marshalls,” Micronesian Reporter 20 (1972), 32–38. |
| Burrows | Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace, Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999). |
| Bwebwenatoon | Jane Downing, Dirk H. R. Spennemann, and Margaret Bennett, Bwebwenatoon Etto: A Collection of Marshallese Legends and Traditions (Majuro: Republic of the Marshall Islands Ministry of Internal Affairs Historic Preservation Office, 1992). |
| Chamisso | Adelbert von Chamisso, A Voyage Around the World with the Romanzov Exploring Expedition in the Years 1815–1818 in the Brig Rurik, Captain Otto von Kotzebue. Trans. and ed. Henry Kratz (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986). |
| Comstock C | Cyrus B. Comstock, ed., A Comstock Genealogy: Descendants of William Comstock of New London, Conn. Who Died After 1662 (New York: Knickerbocker Press, 1907). |
| Comstock G | George Comstock, “Narrative of the mutiny capture and transactions on board of the Ship Globe of Nantucket after Sailing from Edgartown,” unpublished manuscript, NHA, Collection 15, folder 71. Transcript: Appendix B of the present book. |
| Comstock J | John Adams Comstock, A History and Genealogy of the Comstock Family in America (Los Angeles: Privately printed by Commonwealth Press, 1949). |
| Comstock N | William Comstock, Mysteries of New York (Boston: At the Yankee Office, 1845). |
| Comstock T | ———, The Life of Samuel Comstock, the Terrible Whaleman (Boston: James Fisher; New York: Turner and Fisher, 1840). |
| Comstock V | ———, A Voyage to the Pacific, Descriptive of the Customs, Usages, and Sufferings on Board of Nantucket Whale-Ships (Boston: Oliver L. Perkins, 1838). |
| Comstock W | ———, Betsey Jane Ward [pseud.], Betsey Jane Ward, (Better-Half to Artemus) Hur Book of Goaks with a Hull Akkownt of the Coartship and Maridge to A4said Artemus, and Mister Ward’s Cutting-Up with the Mormon Fare Secks (New York: James O’Kane, 1866). |
| Cromwell | Otelia Cromwell, Lucretia Mott (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1958). |
| D&D | Louis B. Davidson and Eddie Doherty, Captain Marooner. Introd. William McFee (New York: Crowell, 1952). |
| Davis | Charles H. Davis [Jr.], Life of Charles Henry Davis, Rear Admiral, 1807–1877 (New York: Houghton, Mifflin, 1899). |
| Daws | Gavan Daws, Shoal of Time: A History of the Hawaiian Islands (New York: Macmillan, 1968). |
| Dening | Greg Dening, Islands and Beaches: Discourse on a Silent Land, Marquesas 1774–1880 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1980). |
| Deposition(s) | Depositions before U.S. Consul Michael Hogan, Valparaíso (June 9, 15, 30, 1824) in NA, Record Group 59, M146, roll 1. |
| Dillon | Peter Dillon, Narrative and Successful Result of a Voyage in the South Seas: Performed by Order of the Government of British India, to Ascertain the Actual Fate of La Pérouse’s Expedition. 2 vols. (London: Hurst, Chance, 1829). |
| Ellis | Edward Robb Ellis, The Epic of New York City (New York: Coward-McCann, 1966). |
| Ennaanin | Dirk H. R. Spennemann, Ennaanin Etto: A Collection of Essays on the Marshallese Past (Majuro: Republic of the Marshall Islands Ministry of Internal Affairs Historic Preservation Office, 1993). |
| Erdland | August Erdland, The Marshall Islanders: Life and Customs, Thought and Religion of a South Seas People (New Haven, Conn.: Human Relations Area Files, 1970). |
| Fairburn | William Armstrong Fairburn, Merchant Sail. 6 vols. (Center Lovell, Maine: Fairburn Marine Educational Foundation, 1945–1955; repr. Gloucester, Mass.: Ten Pound Island Book Co., 1992). |
| Finney | Ben R. Finney, Voyage of Rediscovery: A Cultural Odyssey through Polynesia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994). |
| Frazer | James George Frazer, The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead (London: Dawsons, 1968). |
| Gast | Ross H. Gast, Contentious Consul: A Biography of John Coffin Jones (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1976). |
| Gilbert | Thomas Gilbert, Voyage from New South Wales to Canton in the Year 1788 (London: Debrett, 1789; repr. Ridgewood, N.J.: Gregg Press, 1968). |
| Hale | Horatio Emmons Hale, Ethnography and Philology. In series: United States Exploring Expedition During the Years 1838–1842, under the Command of Charles Wilkes, U.S.N., Vol. 6 (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1846; repr. Ridgewood, N.J.: Gregg Press, 1968). |
| Hawthorne | Nathaniel Hawthorne, The American Notebooks. Ed. Claude M. Simpson (Columbus: Ohio State University Press, 1972). |
| Haynes | Douglas Haynes and William L. Wuerch, Micronesian Religion and Lore: A Guide to Sources, 1526–1990 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995). |
| Heflin | Wilson Heflin, “Herman Melville’s Whaling Years,” dissertation, Vanderbilt University, 1952. |
| Hezel Fi | Francis X. Hezel, SJ, The First Taint of Civilization: A History of the Caroline and Marshall Islands in Pre-Colonial Days, 1521–1885 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1983). |
| Hezel Fo | ———, Foreign Ships in Micronesia: A Compendium of Ship Contacts with the Caroline and Marshall Islands 1521–1885 (Saipan, Mariana Islands: Trust Territory Historic Preservation Office and the U.S. Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service, 1979). |
| Hoyt | Edwin Palmer Hoyt, Mutiny on the Globe (New York: Random House, 1975). |
| Inquirer | Nantucket Inquirer. |
| Kidder M | Signed account by Stephen Kidder in Journal of Obed Macy, NHA, Collection 96, Journal 4, 34–40. |
| Klain | Zora Klain, Educational Activities of New England Quakers (Philadelphia: Westbrook Publishing, 1928). |
| Kotzebue V | Otto von Kotzebue, A Voyage of Discovery, in the South Sea and to Bering’s Straits in Search of a North East Passage Undertaken in the Years 1815–1818. 3 vols. (London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821). |
| Kotzebue N | ———, A New Voyage Round the World in the Years 1823, 24, 25, and 26 (London: H. Colburn & R. Bentley, 1830). |
| Kuykendall | Ralph S. Kuykendall, The Hawaiian Kingdom. 3 vols. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1938–67). |
| Kuyk-Day | Ralph S. Kuykendall and A. Grove Day, Hawaii: A History (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1961). |
| Lamb | Martha J. Lamb and Mrs. Burton Harrison, History of the City of New York: Its Origin, Rise, and Progress. 3 vols. (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1877). |
| Langdon | Robert Langdon, A Gazeteer of Obsolete/Alternative Names of the Pacific Islands with Their Current Equivalents and A Gazeteer of Current Names of the Pacific Islands with Their Obsolete/Alternative Names (Canberra: Pacific Manuscripts Bureau, 1976; detached from Pambu 42 [Jan. Mar. 1976]). |
| Langsdorff | George H. von Langsdorff, Voyages and Travels in Various Parts of the World during the years 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806 and 1807. 2 vols. (London: Henry Colburn, 1813–14). |
| Lankevich | George J. Lankevich, American Metropolis: A History of New York City (New York: New York University Press, 1998). |
| L&H | William Lay and Cyrus M. Hussey, A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket (New London: Publ. by authors, 1828); repr. A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board the Whaleship Globe. Ed. E. Stackpole (New York: Corinth Books, 1963). References in this book are to the Corinth House edition. |
| Leach | Robert J. Leach, Quaker Nantucket (Nantucket, Mass.: Mill Hill Press, 1997). |
| Lewis | David Lewis, We, the Navigators: The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1994). |
| Log | Log of the US Schooner Dolphin (1824–27), Vol. 1. NA, Record Group 24. |
| Long | David F. Long, “Mad Jack”: The Biography of Captain John Percival, U.S.N., 1779–1862 (Westport, Conn.: Green-wood Press, 1993). |
| Longworth | David Longworth et al., Longworth’s American Almanack, New York Register, and City Directory: for the . . . Year of American Independence (New York; Publ. by David Longworth, 1797–1843). |
| Loomis | Albertine Loomis, Grapes of Canaan: Hawaii 1820 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1951; Woodbridge, Conn.: Ox Bow Press, 1998). |
| MVV | Vital Records of Edgartown, Massachusetts, to the Year 1850 (Boston: New England Historic Genealogy Society, 1906). |
| Macy | Silvanus J. Macy, Bibliography of the Macy Family 1635–1868 (Albany, N.Y.: Joel Munsell, 1868). |
| Maloney | Linda [McKee] Maloney, The Captain from Connecticut (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1986). |
| Maloney U | Linda M. Maloney, “The U.S. Navy’s Pacific Squadron, 1824–1827,” in Robert William Love, Jr., ed., Changing Interpretations and New Sources in Naval History (New York: Garland, 1980), 180–91. |
| Maria | Journal of 1822 voyage of the Maria kept by George Washington Gardner, Jr., NHA, Collection 335, folder 956. |
| McKee | Linda McKee, “ ‘Mad Jack’ and the Missionaries,” American Heritage, 22 (April 1971), 30–37, 85–87. |
| Meade | Rebecca Paulding Meade, The Life of Hiram Paulding, Rear-Admiral, U.S.N. (New York: Baker and Taylor, 1910). Dictionary of American Biography. |
| Melville | Herman Melville, Redburn: His First Voyage (Evanston and Chicago: Northwestern University Press and the Newberry Library, 1969). |
| Mercein | William A. Mercein, Mercein’s City Directory, New-York Register, and Almanac, for the Forty-Fifth Year of American Independence (New York: W. A. Mercein, 1820). |
| Mitchill | Samuel L. Mitchill, The Picture of New-York, or, The Traveller’s Guide Through the Commercial Metropolis of the United States (New York: I. Riley, 1807). |
| Monaghan L | Charles Monaghan, “Lindley Murray, American,” in Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade, ed., Two Hundred Years of Lindley Murray (Münster: Nodus Publikationen, 1996), 27–43. |
| Monaghan M | Charles Monaghan, “The Murrays of Murray Hill: A New York Quaker Family Before, During and After the Revolution,” Quaker History 87, 1 (1998), 35–56. |
| Morrell | Benjamin Morrell, Jr., A Narrative of Four Voyages, to the South Sea, North and South Pacific Ocean, Chinese Sea, Ethiopic and Southern Atlantic Ocean, Indian and Antarctic Ocean (New York: J. & J. Harper, 1832). |
| Olson | James S. Olson, ed., Historical Dictionary of the Spanish Empire, 1402–1975 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1992). |
| Paulding | Hiram Paulding, Journal of a Cruise of the United States Schooner Dolphin Among the Islands of the Pacific Ocean and a Visit to the Mulgrave Islands, In Pursuit of the Mutineers of the Whale Ship Globe. Introd. A. Grove Day (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1970). |
| Phillip | Arthur Phillip, The Voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay with Contributions by Other Officers of the First Fleet and Observations on Affairs of the Time by Lord Auckland. Introd. James J. Auchmuty (London: Angus and Robertson, 1970). |
| Philbrick | Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea (New York: Viking, 2000). |
| Pigafetta | Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan’s Voyage: A Narrative Account of the First Circumnavigation. 2 vols. Trans. and ed. R. A. Skelton (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1969). |
| Pratt | Fletcher Pratt, The Navy, a History (Garden City, New York: Garden City Publishing, 1941). |
| Reynolds | Report of J. N. Reynolds of Facts Obtained at Nantucket of South Seas and Pacific Ocean, NA, Record Group 45. |
| Reynolds L | Larry Reynolds, James Kirke Paulding (Boston: Twayne, 1984). |
| Sharp A | Andrew Sharp, Ancient Voyagers in Polynesia (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1964). |
| Sharp D | ———, The Discovery of the Pacific Islands (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1985). |
| Stackpole L | Edouard Stackpole, “Introduction,” in William Lay and Cyrus M. Hussey, A Narrative of the Mutiny on Board the Whaleship Globe (New York: Corinth Books, 1963), v–xxvi. |
| Stackpole M | ———, Mutiny at Midnight: The Adventures of Cyrus Hussey of Nantucket Aboard the Whaleship Globe in the South Pacific from 1822 to 1826 (New York: William Morrow, 1939). |
| Stackpole S | ———, The Sea-Hunters (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1972) |
| Stackpole W | ———, The Mutiny on the Whaleship Globe: A True Story of the Sea (n.p., 1981). |
| Starbuck | Alexander Starbuck, History of the American Whale Fishery From Its Earliest Inception to the Year 1876. 2 vols. (Privately issued by the author, 1878; repr. New York: Argosy Antiquarian Ltd., 1964). |
| Still | Bayrd Still, Mirror for Gotham: New York as Seen by Contemporaries from Dutch Days to the Present (New York: New York University Press, 1956; Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1980). |
| Tabrah | Ruth Tabrah, Hawaii: A Bicentennial History (New York: W. W. Norton, 1980). |
| Tobin | Jack Tobin, Stories from the Marshall Islands (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2001). |
| Trayser | Donald G. Trayser, Barnstable: Three Centuries of a Cape Cod Town (Hyannis: F. B. and F. P. Goss, 1939). |
| Webb | Nancy and Jean Francis Webb, The Hawaiian Islands: From Monarchy to Democracy (New York: Viking Press, 1958). |
| Westcott | Allan Westcott, “Captain ‘Mad Jack’ Percival,” United States Naval Institute Proceedings 61, 3 (March 1935), 313–19. |
NOTE ON THE SPELLING OF MARSHALLESE WORDS
The spelling of Marshallese common nouns used in this book follows that in Abo. So does the spelling of place names except where widespread usage favors another form, most notably Lukunor instead of Lukwon-wod. Many Marshallese place names on maps are from the islands’ Japanese period (1914–1943), when Jelbon was Chirubon and Malka was Madekai. Other variant forms are noted in the text or notes as they occur. Mili has appeared over the years in variant spellings, including, today, the scholarly precise form Mile, which is occasionally seen but which has been judged not to have acceded yet to popular acceptance.
NOTES
Introduction
xviNako and the afterlife: Tobin, 195, note 1. Nadikdik, or Knox, is the spur of islands southeast of the main Mili Atoll; Nako is its almost southernmost island.
Chapter One: Brothers
3The Comstock family moved to New York in 1811; it is a good guess that they moved May 1, which was the moving day in New York, since it was the day leases expired. The children’s precise ages at the time of the move would depend on the day of the move.
4Early Nantucket whaling: Starbuck, 12–36.
5Ship records: Starbuck, vol. 1, passim.
6Wearing green leaves: Anderson, 73; Langsdorff, I, 92–95.
7Samuel’s early life: Unless otherwise attributed, details and anecdotes are from Comstock T.
11Comstock genealogy: Treated in Appendix D.
12Quaker Monthly Meeting school: Klain, 122, on Nathan. Klain, 10, quotes a letter c. 1780 of Moses Brown, a campaigner for setting up a Nantucket Quaker school: “I have never had an idea that Friends especially here in New England have a desire or appreciation for high learning; for, indeed we are an illiterate set of people compared with others. Very few, I think only five or six in our Yearly Meeting are acquainted with any tongue but their own, and many cannot write even their names.”
13Great Mary ancestor of Samuel: Mary Coffin Starbuck was mother of Jethro Starbuck, who was father of Mary Starbuck, who was mother of E. Mitchell, who was mother of Elizabeth Emmett, who was mother of Samuel.
Quaker dominance: Leach, 97.
15Barker: Appleton’s Cyclopedia of American Biography (New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1888), I, 165. Nantucket genealogist Dwight Beman has traced the relationship of Barker and the Comstocks: Elizabeth Emmett’s maternal grandmother, Hepzibah Barnard, was a first cousin of Sarah Folger, Jacob Barker’s mother.
16Lambert: Still, 74–75.
Beaver: Fairburn, I, 504–505.
17Nine Partners: Barbour, 150–51
Curriculum; Lucretia Mott: Cromwell, 15–21.
18The city: The main sources for the description of the city are Burrows, Ellis, Lamb, Lankevich, and Still.
19Five Points: Anbinder, 13–20 and passim.
20Greenwich Village: The Comstocks’ move during the epidemic is referred to in Comstock T, 65.
Addresses: Longworth; Mercein.
Whale products: New York City Mercantile and Manufacturers’ Business Directory for the Year Ending May 1, 1857 (New York: West, Lee, and Bartlett, 1857), 220–21.
26Liverpool: Still, 63–64.
Melville: Melville, 186, 191.
27Josiah Macy: Macy, 171–85.
28Morrell: Morrell, xix.
29Beaver: Fairburn, IV, 2161–62.
30George: Log in New Bedford Historical Society, International Marine Archives, and microfilm in NHA. On a couple of occasions as the George worked its way along the Chilean coast, it gammed the whaleship Essex, out on its last voyage before its final and celebrated one in the course of which it became the first ship sunk by a whale. On board the Essex were George Pollard Jr. and Owen Chase, who were to be captain and first mate on the ship’s fatal voyage and whose three-month survival at sea was recounted first by Chase in his Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. The recorded gams between the George and the Essex took place weeks before Samuel Comstock joined the George, so he would not have had a chance to see the two soon-to-be-famous mariners.
32Brown and Murray: Barbour, 150, 154, 162; Monaghan M 35–56.
Chapter Two: Port Life and a Sinking Star
37Cotton and Lincoln: Had they been senseless enough to join Samuel in his scheme against the mate, they probably would have aborted rewarding careers: John Cotton went on to become captain of the Nantucket whaler Loper in 1830, and John Lincoln became captain of the Japan in 1829. An honor came Lincoln’s way while he was still first mate of the Japan in 1827, when his captain named an island after him—Lincoln Island is today Onotoa in the Gilberts. There is obvious irony in this in view of Samuel Comstock’s longing to have an island of his own. On Lincoln: Stackpole S, 344–45, but noting that Lincoln Island is Onotoa, not the nearby Tamana.
38Easter Island: The Inquirer (April 18, 1822) reports the welcome that the Foster received on Easter Island; it may have made the place especially plausible to Samuel as a site for his planned kingdom: “The Ship Foster, Capt. Chase, sailed from Esther [sic] Island 10th of January.—While there, he was treated with great civility by the Natives, who were 3 or 6000 in number.—They were divided into two parties, which were frequently at war with each other, and when this happened they generally massacred all the prisoners.—They furnished him with potatoes, fruit &c. the produce of the Island, for whatever he was disposed to give them.—He presented them with some seeds of different kinds, and taught them, as far as possible, the use of them, at which they appeared to express a sense of gratitude.”
44Foster spoke the Globe: 1820–1822 log of the Globe, NHA, Collection 220, log 273. The two ships at that moment were considerably northwest of Henderson Island, where the survivors of the whaleship Essex, sunk by a whale, had arrived by chance after a month in their open boats. The ships were in no position to know of the men on the island, but there is a chance that the Globe had one tenuous tie to the Essex. The Globe’s log for September 12, 1821, when it was 37°58' N/173°30' W, records: “Saw a large spar 60—or 70 feet long 4 feet square and banded together and some copper on it. we took it along side but it was too heavy for us to hoist in we let it go and steard to the westward.” In the ten months since the whale attack, the winds and currents could have carried what would have been the only structural relic of the Essex to the point northwest of Hawaii where the Globe tried hauling the huge spar in.
44Struck a whale: That is, Samuel’s boat could have—and, by all odds, must have—struck a whale; he doubtless would have claimed it had in any event.
46Burrows: Sometimes, as in William Comstock’s Terrible Whaleman, spelled Burroughs. See Pratt, 173.
“Patriot frigate”: I am grateful to Robert Scheina, Industrial College of the Armed Forces, for information on the sale of American warships to the navies of the new South American nations.
47William at sea: William does not mention the name of his ship, but there is reason to believe it was the newly built Maria, the captain of which was George Washington Gardner, former captain of the Globe. The Maria was brought down from Higganum, Connecticut, where it was built, some time in the late summer or early fall of 1822 (Maria, 1–2). William says (Comstock T, 61), “The time soon arrived for me to go to Nantucket, as the ship in which I was about to embark for the Pacific Ocean, had reached that place.” The phrase suggests delivery of the ship rather than return from a voyage. The abstract card for Seaman’s Protection Papers in NA lists a William Comstock, age eighteen, port of Nantucket, and is dated July 18, 1822. Referring to the way he learned that Samuel had gone out in a whaler, William writes (Comstock T, 63), “When I was told in the Pacific by Captain George Washington Gardner that he had sailed in the ship Globe, I was struck with amazement.” The obvious inference is that Captain Gardner was his captain and that he was therefore on the Maria. The Maria sailed March 17, 1822, and the Globe a month later. There would have been opportunities in gams or in Hawaii for Captain Gardner to have picked up news about his old ship, the Globe, including names of the crew. It seems, though, that both ships were in Hawaii in the winter months; it would seem natural that the two brothers would have met there, and that William would have noted that. The Maria was in the Line Islands, not too far from the Globe at the time of the mutiny.
Chapter Three: I Have the Bloody Hand
49Globe: From the register of the Globe in NHA, Collection 67: “. . . the said Ship or Vessel was built at Scituate in the State aforesaid, . . . as appears by the certificate of [ ] Foster of said Scituate—master carpenter under whose superintendence said vessel was built. And Charles Russell appointed to measure said vessel having certified that the said Ship or Vessel has two decks and three masts and that her length is [ninety] four feet her breadth [twenty-six] feet nine inches her depth thirteen feet four and a half inches and that she measures two hundred ninety three & 42/95 tons that she is Ship rigged has a squared stern no galleries and no figurehead.” (Brackets enclose partly obscured words.)
Globe’s dates and oil records: Starbuck.
Maria: Account of George Washington Gardner, Jr., in NHA, Collection 335, folder 956.
51Martha’s Vineyard genealogy: MVV, Banks, and records on file at MVH. Both the captain and First Mate Beetle were newlyweds. Worth had married Hannah Mayhew in July, and Beetle had married Eliza Pease in September. The two couples would have a home life only until December. In a little over a year both wives were to be widowed; Hannah Worth’s widowhood would end, after five years, in a leviratical marriage when Captain Worth’s brother John became her second husband.
Primary sources: The firsthand accounts of the mutiny are Comstock G, L&H, Kidder M, Deposition, and statements made to Lieutenant John Percival by William Lay and Cyrus M. Hussey, December 5 and 7, respectively, 1825. The depositions were given before Consul Hogan on June 9, 1824 (Stephen Kidder and George Comstock), June 15 (Peter C. Kidder and Gilbert Smith), and June 30 (Anthony Hanson and Joseph Thomas).
52Globe sails: On December 15 the Globe had finished loading supplies and sailed, but almost at once had to turn back with a damaged crossjack yard, the lowest yard on the mizzenmast. The repair took only four days, and the Globe moved for one night to Holmes Hole (today Vineyard Haven) and sailed again on December 20.
52Cold water: William Comstock is the source of the anecdote about Samuel throwing cold water on anyone asleep on watch. If William was serving on the Maria (as suggested in chapter 2 note to page 48), he may have transplanted something that he observed on his own ship to Samuel’s: The boatsteerers would “go forward and throw a bucket of water on to a man or boy asleep on the windlass as a warning to keep awake on their watch on deck” (Maria, 3).
53“Differing with Comstock”: S. Kidder, Deposition.
Cook drunk: G. Comstock, Deposition.
Route of the Globe: Comstock G.
54Off Hawaii: William describes an overnight amour of Samuel’s with a native woman smuggled aboard in defiance of the captain’s orders (but with the captain’s tolerance once he discovered that Comstock was the offender). The needle of plausibility moves to the minus end of William’s dial with this episode, in which “Lady Comstock,” in reward for her visit, comes on deck in the morning with rose blankets and a Scotch cap, transported, of course, in Samuel’s commodious chest for just such an occasion.
Iron: Hezel Fi, 39. Browning, 32, speculates that the first iron may have come to islanders in the form of spikes in driftwood timbers from wrecked Spanish ships.
55Ships encountered: Comstock G. Other ships met put the Globe in Oahu in May 1823, barrels unknown (reported by the Iris, in Inquirer, February 16, 1824); off Japan June 1823, 250 barrels (reported by the George Porter, in Inquirer, August 30, 1824); and in Oahu in October, 600 barrels (reported by the Ganges, in Inquirer, April 5, 1824). The barrels on board in Oahu in May may have been “unknown” because Captain Worth did not want to report having only seventy-five.
56Lumbert: Letter printed courtesy of the Martha’s Vineyard Historical Society.
57Payne and Humphreys: Spellings of the names vary; the forms adopted here are those used in most sources.
58Places of origin of recruits: Most accounts follow George Comstock in giving Sag Harbor as for Payne, but Gilbert Smith (Deposition) gives Rhode Island. Smith and Stephen Kidder give Philadelphia for Humphreys, but Thomas (Deposition) gives New Jersey. Smith gives Barnstable for Hanson, but Hanson himself (Deposition) gives Falmouth.
58Thomas: Thomas was shipped as steward but replaced by Humphreys (Thomas, Deposition). In their depositions Stephen Kidder, Peter C. Kidder, and George Comstock express their suspicions of Thomas.
59Hogan: Letter, August 11, 1824, in NA, Record Group 59, M146, roll 1.
60Comstock to Lay: Comstock T, 76.
Thomas: In his deposition Thomas reports Comstock’s words on an earlier mutiny attempt. Thomas says that he was whipped three or four days before the mutiny, which is at odds with all other accounts.
63Rowland Coffin: Suspicions about Rowland Coffin were voiced by Peter C. Kidder, George Comstock, and Gilbert Smith in their depositions. Smith said, “Rowland Coffin knew of it, because he told me about two Days after the Murders that if Comstock had come into the forecastle [ ] to talk about it he would let [ ] know of it. Said Coffin continued to be very much with the Murderers after it had happened, and carried to them all the information that passed forward.” Coffin was later (see chapter 6) vigorously defended by his uncle Gorham Coffin.
“ ‘How many that watch . . .’ ”: Recorded by George Comstock; repeated in various phrasings in other accounts.
66“I suppose you think . . .”: Comstock T, 95.
Columbus Worth: Smith, Deposition.
67Attack on the captain: Comstock T, 82.
68Had George seen Smith?: A possible discrepancy in succession of events. George said that he lied to his brother about not knowing where Smith was, for he had seen him. The suggestion is that Smith had come upon George at the helm the first time he came on deck, although he does not mention encountering George until the second time he came up.
Where Smith bunked: Smith (Deposition) says that he lived aft before the mutiny and in the forecastle after it; “aft” may mean that he originally lived in steerage (like Hanson, the cook)—it obviously does not mean he lived in the cabin.
68Grievance against Beetle: Smith, Deposition.
75New officers: Stephen Kidder, Smith, and Thomas give Humphreys as second mate and purser (Depositions). Smith (Deposition) gives George as steward (as does George himself [Deposition]).
76Signing laws and color of the seals: Smith, Deposition.
77Date of Humphreys’s hanging: Hanson says Humphreys was seized one day after the mutiny, and Thomas says two days (Depositions); Kidder M says four or five days.
Comstock investigation: Kidder M, 34.
“Would choose such judges”: Smith, Deposition.
Shook hands: George Comstock, Deposition.
Number of jurors: The Smith and Stephen Kidder statements are from Depositions. Kidder M gives the number four but does not name them. L&H and Comstock T give two, almost certainly because the writers misread the 4 in George’s “Narrative” for a 2—which indeed it does resemble. The Lay account reconstructed by Paulding (144) gives two jurors, Rowland Coffin and Payne, but several details in this nine-page summary of the mutiny story are imprecise.
78Humphreys’s execution: The fullest firsthand account is in Kidder M.
Sandglass:The choice of 14 seconds was not a caprice; the glass was part of the equipment used in taking log and line measurements. The normal sandglass for the purpose would be the 28-second size, which would be used to time the release of line in the water to determine how far the ship had traveled in 28 seconds, thus permitting a calculation of the ship’s speed. A 14-second glass would simply be inverted once to equal the 28-second variety.
Hung fifteen minutes: Kidder M.
79Body dragged: Comstock T, 92.
P. Kidder: Deposition.
80Gear thrown overboard: Kidder M; Thomas and Smith Depositions.
Black paint: Kidder M, 35; Comstock V, 59–62. William includes in The Terrible Whaleman at this point a clownish episode in which Comstock forces two angry crewmen to fight a duel with guns that he has loaded, unknown to them, with blanks. Written for comic effect, the account is hard to credit, but it avoids jarring against its tragic setting only because it would fit, in other contexts, the whims of Samuel.
80Naval exercises: Comstock G.
81Hanson: Deposition.
“Adrift”: Hanson, Deposition.
Sailed west: The fact that the ship crossed today’s international date line February 5, 1824, does not affect the dating in any records dealing with the Globe, for in the early nineteenth century, travelers from west and from east stayed with their home calendars no matter where they were, even though the principle behind the date line was well known. Sometimes in places like the Philippines, where east and west met, the one-day discrepancy would be noted.
82Numerous sperm whales: Kidder M.
Marshall’s Island: Gilbert, 32: “The southernmost island of the chain, I left first for Captain Marshall to name, which he thought proper to name Gilbert’s Island; the middle, I named Marshall’s Island.” See chapter 4 for the role of Marshall and Gilbert.
83Northern reaches of the Gilberts: George’s precise record of latitude and longitude at this point contradicts the statement attributed to Lay by Paulding (143) that the ship sailed directly from Tabiteuea (“Drummond Island”) to Mili; George has it moving farther north in the Gilberts before heading for Mili.
84Men and women: S. Kidder, Deposition
85Point of anchorage: Comstock G.
Chapter Four: No Lasting City
89Rolla: Hezel Fo, 115.
90Awashonks: Heflin, 210–18.
Island discovery: Sharp D, Hezel Fi, Beaglehole. One of the best indications of what an American whaleman in 1824 would know and not know about the ocean is the “Report of J. N. Reynolds of Facts Obtained at Nantucket of South Seas and Pacific Ocean,” which was written four years after the Globe mutiny from interviews with Nantucket captains who had precise details to recount about a surprising number of islands and nothing to say about hundreds of yet unexplored ones.
90Spanish and Portuguese: Hezel Fi, 14–17. Alonso de Salazar was the first European in the Marshalls when, in 1526, his Santa Maria de la Victoria sighted what was probably Taongi. In 1529 Saavedra stopped at islands whose descriptions suggest Eniwetok or Bikini, and in the next forty years islands that were—or probably were—Wotje, Kwajelein, Ujelang, Lib, Mejit, Likiep, Ailuk, Jemo, and Wotho were sighted or visited by Spanish ships sailing in the northern part of the Marshalls.
Naming Mulgrave Islands: Phillip, 171, 364–65.
91“First Fleet”: Phillip, Gilbert.
“Outer Passage”: Hezel Fi, 65, 82.
First settlement of islands: Bellwood M and P.
92Encountering Milians: Gilbert, 35–39. One native is described in Phillip (171), but not in the ampler and more authoritative Gilbert account, as wearing a cross; the cross is not evidence of earlier contact between the Milians and Europeans. It could have come from one of the early Spanish contacts with northern Micronesia two centuries before and made its way through many hands to Mili at the southern tip of the Ratak chain.
93Typhoons: Ennaanin, 173–80.
Mili place names: Rupekoj, Bokbar, and Bokdikdik appear on maps made during the Japanese era as Rubegeshi, Bukubaru, and Bokurigirikki. Even today Bokdikdik is considered an extension of Mili Mili and from references in the Globe sources, appears to have been regarded as, in effect, part of Mili Mili. Mili Mili’s name is formed on the model of New York, New York. All the islands in the atoll could append Mili to their names, but normally this would be done to distinguish, as in the case of Mili, a village from the atoll of the same name or to distinguish a village on the atoll from a village of the same name on another atoll—if there were a Naalo on Jaluit, one could speak of Naalo Mili and Naalo Jaluit. The triangular village of Mili Mili is the widest point in the atoll; it is sizable enough to have held a three-runway landing field, which the Japanese carved out of taro patches. Today only vestiges of the airfield remain.
94Building pigpen: Gorham Coffin to Daniel Webster (December 22, 1824) in NHA, Collection 74, folder 11.
95Burn ship: Kidder M, 36.
97Sword: Kidder M, 37.
98Map:In NHA Collection 15, folder 71.
102Anchor: Around 1992 an anchor was found at a point off the coast a bit north of Mili Mili, and speculation arose that it was the Globe’s anchor. Ramsey Reimers, whose firm, Robert Reimers Enterprises, was conducting diving site surveys in the area, reports that the anchor was described as having a line attached. Since the Globe’s cables were apparently hemp, not chain, it is unlikely that the undecayed cable would still be intact. On the Globe’s cable see Worth Papers, NHA, Collection 129, Book 8, pages 2–3.
Chapter Five: Etto Amro Pad Ioon Aneo
110Ludjuan: Lieutenant Paulding in his Journal (149) quotes Lay as saying, “I was taken to live with the old man who had saved [my life]. He was so very poor that I scarcely ever got enough to eat of the coarsest native food. . . . At last, the high chief took compassion upon me, and made me live with him; after which I always had plenty to eat, and was at liberty to work or not, as I pleased.” This is one of several points of disagreement between L&H and Paulding; the authority of L&H in this matter is considerably greater, and Ludjuan is treated as Lay’s master throughout. It is possible that Lay’s relationship with particular natives was more complex than any account shows. The assignment of Hussey to Lugoma has been challenged by Dadashi Lometo, currently the senator from Mili in the Nitijela, the Marshallese parliament, and assistant to the president of the Marshall Islands. Lometo, who traces his lineage from Longerene, who figures in the “war” at Naalo reported in L&H, explains that a family tradition holds that Hussey was a ward of Longerene, not Lugoma. The claim cannot be dismissed out of hand. Considering the range of various spellings of Marshallese names by European and American visitors, it is not far-fetched to imagine that the two names are the same. Even the association of Longerene with Naalo in the war account in L&H is not decisive. Erwin Bollong, who is the present-day iroojlaplap of Mili Atoll, said in an interview on July 21, 2001, that Longerene lived in Arbar and Lukunor. If he did live in Lukunor, which is treated as Lugoma’s island in L&H, there is additional reason to speculate that Longerene and Lugoma are the same person. The problem that remains is that L&H, in one of the two chapters attributed to Hussey, treats Longerene as a different person newly introduced into the narrative at the point of the Naalo war. Paulding’s testimony on the subject is unequivocal; after referring to Lugoma, he says, that was the name of Huzzy’s chief.” The decision to treat Lugoma as Hussey’s master is made with these considerations in mind.
117Cooking: Pit cooking is common in the Pacific; for a description of the technique on Hawaii, see Paulding, 208–209.
118Lukunor: Properly, Lukwon-wod, but the Anglicized form is used here because of its common use by many Marshallese.
Jelbon: On some charts and records Chirubon; Lay called it Dillybun and Hussey Dilabu.
Jekaka and bob: In L&H and elsewhere: cha-ka-ka and bup.
119Canoes: This information is mainly from Alson Kelen, director of Waan Aelon in Majel (Canoes of the Marshall Islands), an organization in Majuro devoted to building classic Marshallese canoes and teaching the craft.
121Micronesian religion: Haynes is an ideal introduction to the subject.
Hale: Hale (87–90) and Frazer (83) cite Lay and Paulding. Drawing on Chamisso, Frazer presents a comparable picture of the island’s worship: “The inhabitants of Radack adore an invisible God, in heaven, and offer him a simple tribute of fruits, without temples and without priests. In their language Iageach signifies god: the name of the god is Anis. When war or any other important affair is to be undertaken, solemn offerings are made, always in the open air. One of the assembly, not the chief, consecrates the fruits to the god, by holding them up, and invocation; the form is Gieien Anis mne jeo, the assembled people repeat the last word. There are, on several islands, holy trees, coco-palms, into the crown of which Anis descends. Round the foot of such a tree four beams are laid in a square. There does not appear to be any prohibition to enter the space enclosed, and the fruits of the tree are eaten by the people.”
121Generic divinity: Frazer (83) agrees with Erdland: “[T]he word anij applies to evil spectres or phantoms which do harm to man, or at all events inspire him with terror; in a wider sense the word designates all terrible beings, such as sea monsters and poisonous fish.” But for less threatening beings, see Frazer, 93, on minor spirits and myths. Tobin is a most ample and readable introduction to the subject. The island pantheon would not be complete without the noniep—the friendly, almost neighborly little beings, somewhat comparable to the Hawaiian menehune. Tobin collects Marshallese legends and tales, many of them suggestive of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and some of them recounting the interplay of humans and spirits. See also Bwebwenatoon.
123Riab: Reab in L&H.
125Fish poisoning: Ciguatera fish poisoning is caused by a toxin from a dinoflagellate plankton eaten by reef fish or fish that eat reef fish. A given fish may be toxic at one time but not at another or in one area but not in another, depending on consumption of the plankton. Symptoms appear within hours after the fish is eaten, and are varied, but vomiting and diarrhea are common. Scombroid poisoning (from fish like tuna, bonito, mackerel, albacore, and others) results from a combining of marine bacteria with chemicals in spoiled fish. The symptoms include headache, dizziness, abdominal distress, difficulty swallowing, and sometimes swelling. The duration of the disorder is usually measurable in hours. Causes other than fish poisoning (such as malnutrition and kidney disorders) can be considered; contact dermatitis in particular can produce facial swelling as extreme as that described by Lay and Hussey, but usually does not extend to the extremities. I’m grateful to Dr. Scott Norton for this information.
126High chief: Chamisso (152), speaking of a predecessor of Labuliet, Lathethe, defines his territory as taking in the southern part of the Ratak chain, namely Majuro, Arno, and Mili; that would have been Labuliet’s realm as well.
128Coquille: Hezel Fo, 116. In 1824 an American whaleship, the Boston, Captain George Joy, visited Ebon, southwest of Mili, and another, the Maro, Captain Richard Macy, visited Ujae considerably west of Mili. There is no indication that either was the ship seen off Mili. The Lay (L&H, 57–58) and Hussey (L&H, 93) accounts of the sighting of the ship are not in complete agreement.
133Etiquette: In 1999 the author attended a garden party on Majuro Atoll at which about eighty people assembled in the fashion Lay described, enjoyed a lavish meal, and at the end carried off, one and all, Styrofoam boxes containing all they had been served but had not consumed. It went without saying that it would have been grossly impolite not to carry off the uneaten food.
Murder: Paulding (172) relates that Lay witnessed an execution of a man charged with some offense; he defied his killers and fought and cursed them to the last.
Chapter Six: The News
136Route of the Globe: Dillon, vol. 2, 104–106.
112 days: If one counts both the day of departure and of arrival; Smith’s count in his deposition is imprecise.
Chilean ship: Smith, Deposition.
137Arrival in Valparaíso: Smith, Deposition; Dillon, vol. 2, 104–106.
Hull and Pacific squadron: Maloney, 364–96.
Globe leaves Valparaíso August 15, 1824: El Correo de Arauco (Viernes 27 de Agosto de 1824), No. 27. Relacion de los buques que han entrado y salido de la bahia de Valparaiso en el presente mes de Agosto. Salidas: Dia 15. La fragata ballenera Globo Norteamericana, con destino a aquellos Estados: su cargamento aceite de ballena [(Friday, August 27, 1824). No. 27. Notice of boats entering and leaving Valparaíso harbor in the present month of August. Departed on the 15th the North American whaleship Globe, headed for the States with a cargo of whale oil].
140Joseph Thomas: Miscellaneous Records of United States Circuit Court, “Prisoners in Boston Jail . . . May June 1825”; United States Circuit Court Docket, vol. 5 (May 1822–October 1833), “Examinations on Criminal Complaints, December 1824”; Inquirer (November 22 and 29, December 13, 1824; May 30, 1825).
141Gorham Coffin to J. Q. Adams: NHA, Collection 15, folder 71.
George Comstock statement: Transcribed in letter to Adams.
Coffin to Southard and Hull: NHA, Collection 15, folder 71.
142Coffin to Daniel Webster: NHA, Collection 74, folder 11.
143Petition: NHA, Collection 15, folder 71.
Order to send vessel: Maloney, 397.
Southard orders: Maloney, 372.
Dolphin: Maloney, 397.
Hull orders to Percival: Report: the Committee on Naval Affairs, to whom was referred the petition of John Percival. . . . 22nd Congress, 2nd Session. To accompany bill HR 731 (February 9, 1833), 3–5.
145Foote: NA, Area files, M625, roll 282, item 008.
John Percival: Authoritative treatment in forthcoming biography by James H. Ellis. Maloney passim, Dictionary of American Biography, Long, Trayser, Westcott.
Isaac Coffin: Amory, Booker.
146Wise: Tales for the Marines (Boston: Phillips, Sampson & Co.; New York, J. C. Derby, 1855). Ellis, in the forthcoming biography, suggests as other uses of Percival: Melville’s “Mad Jack” in White-Jacket, James Michener’s Captain Hoxworth in Hawaii, and Edwin L. Sabin’s “Mad Jack Percy” in Pirate Waters.
146Hawthorne: Hawthorne, 71–72.
147Paulding: Meade, Dictionary of American Biography.
149James Kirke Paulding: Reynolds.
Seals: Paulding, 14–15.
149Marquesas: Paulding, 29–71; for twentieth-century treatment illuminating Paulding, see Dening.
150Smaller islands: Paulding, 72–103.
Difficult currents: Paulding, 106–107.
Chapter Seven: Dolphin
152Easternmost of the Mulgraves: Jelbon would be farthest to the east of all islands except those in the Knox spur to the southeast, but the Knox group is often treated as a unit by itself, not a part of Mili, and the references in Paulding to islands to the south being visible from the masthead (made when on the point of leaving Jelbon) would have been references to the Knox islands, indicating that the ship was north of them, not anchored at one of them.
Chronology: Paulding’s account of the days at Mili, especially his account of the rescue, is the most detailed and most logical in dating. Except as noted, it is followed in this chapter. Some confusion attends the records of events between November 22 and 24. November 22 was the day that the Dolphin left Jelbon, arrived at Lukunor, and began exploring the island. Lay indicates that November 23 was the day that news of the ship was brought to Mili Mili, prompting Luttuon’s mobilization. If the details, in Paulding, of the solitary spy sent by Luttuon and the four canoes found on the beach at Lukunor were moved from November 22 to 23, they would integrate better with the overall narrative, for they would have been related to Luttuon’s arrival at Lukunor. According to Lay, Luttuon and his warriors left Mili Mili the same day they were informed of the ship, November 23, and arrived at their destination (Lukunor) at night. There would have been no time to send out a spy or undertake any of the things assigned to their first day on Lukunor; these are more natural for November 24, when action on the island was at its peak—the native fleet was on hand, relics of the Globe were found on the canoes, Lay was secreted in the hut and, at day’s end, was taken with Luttuon’s canoes to Tokewa. The main preoccupation of the Dolphin people from November 24 to 26 was following the progress of Lieutenant Homer’s land party. Minor discrepancies, like the finding of Rowland Coffin’s mitten on the twenty-fifth according to Paulding and on the twenty-seventh according to the Dolphin’s log, probably result simply from the authors’ writing final drafts from notes. Paulding’s chronology of the days around the rescue is followed in this chapter, with one exception, the statement (118) that the land party arrived at Mili Mili the day after the surgeon’s funeral; the surgeon’s funeral (according to Paulding and the ship’s log) was November 28. The land party would have had to arrive the day of the funeral, that is, the twenty-eighth, for they discovered the rubble of the Globe camp that day and encamped for the night in a deserted hut before sending two messengers the next day (the twenty-ninth) to the ship for help. The author of the L&H narrative presents, mainly in Lay’s segment, an impossible chronology: both Lay and Hussey rescued on November 29 and received on board the Dolphin the same day. There is a discrepancy in the Dolphin log’s recording of the arrival of the launch carrying Lay and Hussey at the ship on November 30; this is irreconcilable with the log’s record of the sending out of the launch on November 29—the launch found Lay and Hussey the next day, the thirtieth, and stopped overnight before returning to the ship with them December 1. The log is correct in entering the discovery of the skeleton assumed to be Comstock’s under November 29.
156Lukunor: The island is a bit shorter east-west than Paulding indicates.
Hussey’s address: The evidence for Lukunor’s being Hussey’s residence is an accumulation of geographic references in L&H, including such statements as the one describing Lukunor (“Luj-no-ne-wort”) as “the place where Hussey lived” (L&H, 52).
158L&H indicates that Lay had a glimpse of the ship before being confined.
160Enajet: Popular form, more precisely Anejet.
162Surgeon’s plaque: Davis (37) reports that the USS Narragansett visited Mili in 1872 and found the surgeon’s grave respected and still under taboo.
163Five days’ provisions: The log (November 29) says five days’ provisions for ten men.
167Straws: Paulding (174) describes the ritual and says it was practiced before Lay was allowed to act out his plan to warn the rescuers.
168Rescue: L&H differs from Paulding on a number of points: L&H (1) describes Lay going down to the beach with one hundred of the smartest natives, whom he had instructed not to give a hostile appearance, (2) has Paulding utter the cliché “I’ll be among you,” (3) has Lay running to Paulding, (4) describes the boat as holding thirteen men and two officers, and (5) says that Paulding aimed his pistol at the old man.
Boldest act: Davis, 31–32. Midshipman Davis had been, a week before, disciplined for loafing on watch (Log, November 21).
170Hussey’s island: Accounts are somewhat vague on Hussey’s location the day of the rescue, but the evidence in L&H (65, 102–103) and Paulding (132) suggests strongly that Hussey was kept at Lukunor when Lay was taken away in Luttuon’s fleet.
174Hitera: A curious word: it is similar in sound and apparently in usage to eidara: “The men, at first only a few, came hesitantly toward us with green branches. We also broke green branches. The peaceful greeting ‘Eidara,’ already often heard, was called out to us, and we returned it in the same way” (Chamisso, 134). A glossary in Kotzebue V (vol. 2, 419) translates eidara as “good.” Neither hitera nor eidara is in use in modern Marshallese. Alfred Capelle and Byron Bender, editors of Marshallese English Dictionary (Abo), suggest the present equivalent is the word for friend, jera or the honorific l’ojera.
176Percival’s address: Paulding account supplemented by L&H ampler version.
179Old man: The setting would make it sound as if Percival’s traumatic judgment was delivered at the final summit meeting with Luttuon and the other chiefs (because both Lay and Hussey were present to translate), but if that was the occasion, the ship would already have left Mili before the old man’s death, and no one would have heard of it.
180Not in accord: Paulding describes sailing with Hussey for Lukunor on December 4 and arriving December 6, staying overnight at Lugoma’s, and returning with Hussey on December 7 to Mili Mili. The next morning, December 8, Paulding reports, Lugoma arrived for a last visit and was taken on board the schooner, and in the afternoon Luttuon was given a formal visit to the schooner. That completed, the ship got under way, leaving Mili. L&H have Hussey still in Mili Mili on December 6, serving as the captain’s translator, and date the departure from Mili on December 7, not 8. The log shows the departure date as December 8 (the proof being that the ship loaded casks of water from the island that day before sailing).
185Jemmaan: Paulding spells it “Tamon.”
187Later ships: Twenty years after the Globe arrived at Mili, the “French whaleship Angelina of Havre, Capt Edouard Hyenne, put in at Mili on Dec 12 [1844]. Three canoes came out and the natives presented gifts to officers and crew. Convinced that the islanders were friendly, the captain and mate went ashore with two boat crews, but these men were never seen again and were presumed to have been massacred. After laying off for eight days while its boats coasted the island in search of the missing men, Angelina returned to Honolulu” (Hezel Fo, 119).
Bully Hayes: Hayes’s ships, Leonora, which he was captain of, and Neva, which he owned, made a number of trading stops at Mili in 1871 (Hezel Fo, 129).
Movie: Nate and Hayes (1983).
Beachcombers, traders, and castaways: Beachcomb.
Afterword: The Shadow of the Globe
189Details of the voyage from Mili to Hawaii are from Paulding, except where as noted, from the Dolphin log or other sources.
University of love: Leonard Mason, at the time an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Hawaii, visited Arno in the summer of 1950 on a research project concerning the economic and social situation on that atoll. He was accompanied by a graduate student from Hawaii. He was told about the unique institution by two women on one of the islands at the east end of Arno Atoll, and promised not to reveal any details of the meeting. “It was quite an experience,” Mason said fifty-one years later, “but I have kept the secret as requested.”
191Forge: Chamisso, 141.
Labuliet: Chamisso, 152.
195Cook and general Hawaiian history: A good introductory history is Tabrah. The classic is Kuykendall. Also Kuyk-Day, Daws, Webb, and Loomis.
Equator and Balaena: Starbuck, I, 225; Blackman, 188.
Missionaries: Bingham, 283–304.
196Whalers: U.S. Consular Despatches, Honolulu, cited in Gast, 96.
Bingham and Lay and Hussey: Hale, 87, 431–34.
197Conflict with missionaries: McKee offers the most thorough treatment not written by a participant in the events.
Loomis: Elisha Loomis Journal in collection of Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society Library, entry for February 21, 1826. By permission of the Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society Library (HMCSL).
200Loomis: Elisha Loomis Journal, entry for April 8, 1826. By permission of HMCSL.
201Chamberlain: Levi Chamberlain Journal in collection of Hawaiian Mission Children’s Society Library, entry for February 28, 1826. By permission of HMCSL.
Commercial interests: Gast, 77–94.
203Francis Macy: NHA, Collection 74, folder 11.
204Hull to Southard: NA, Record Group 45; NHA, Collection 74, folder 11.
Lay to Hussey: NHA, Collection 74, folder 10.
205Hull to Hussey: New-York Historical Society, Hull Collection, reel 1.
206George working for his father: Business correspondence 1828–29 signed per George Comstock, NHA, Collection 334.
207Lay to Hussey: NHA, Collection 74, folder 10.
208Margaret: NHA, Collection 74, folder 10.
Hussey’s death: Sanford notation in first edition of L&H in NHA. Inquirer, May 9, 1829.
209Gilbert Smith: Banks, #228; Vineyard Gazette (June 5, 1966).
Percival: Long; forthcoming James Ellis biography; Dictionary of American Biography.
209Paulding: Meade. Dictionary of American Biography.
Globe: William H. Macy, Letter to the Editor, Inquirer, September 27, 1890.
210On William and son Augustus: Albert Johannsen, The House of Beadle and Adams, vol. 2 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1950–62). 62–64.
“Obscure writer”; attribution of Betsey Jane Ward: Don C. Seitz, Artemus Ward: A Biography and Bibliography (New York: Harper, 1919), 338.
William as a Melville source: F. DeWolfe Miller, “Another Chapter in the History of the Great White Whale,” in Henry Murray and Howard Vincent, eds., Melville and Hawthorne in the Berkshires (Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1968), 109–17; Joel Myerson, “Comstock’s White Whale and Moby-Dick,” American Transcendental Quarterly 29 (1976), 8–27; Robert R. Craven, “ ‘Roger Starbuck’ (Augustus Comstock) and Moby-Dick,” Melville Society Extracts (November 1981), 1–5, and “Two New Sightings of the White Whale,” Melville Society Extracts 63 (September 1985), 12–16.
William in The Boston Pearl and Literary Gazette: The series of eight articles ran weekly from July 18 to September 5, 1835; the first two were titled “The Art of Whaling,” the others were titled “Whaling in the Pacific.”
William Comstock’s minor and attributed writing: William is certainly the author of Mysteries of New York (1845). Lyle Wright in American Fiction 1851–75 names William as author of “The Village Slander,” a short moralistic sketch in the collection Tales and Takings (New York: Carlton and Porter, 1856). A drama, The Intolerants, is attributed to William by Frank Pierce Hill in American Plays; the play was published in 1827, when William was twenty-three. Its sophisticated treatment of ecclesiastical history and the Fathers of the church is a bit hard but not impossible to reconcile with the youth of the supposed author. Two temperance pieces, Rum and The Drunkard, may also be by William Comstock.
211William on authorship of L&H: In In the Heart of the Sea, Nathaniel Philbrick treats a well-educated Nantucketer, William Coffin, Jr., as a likely collaborator in the writing of Owen Chase’s Narrative of the . . . Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex and adds, “Years later, he would ghostwrite Obed Macy’s much praised history of Nantucket; there is also evidence that he helped write an account of the notorious Globe mutiny” (203). It is notably curious that William Comstock in his preface to The Terrible Whaleman, attributes the poem “The Young Mutineer” to a “Captain Coffin”—even though Glover was widely recognized as the poem’s author.