Morning journal and courier., 1880-01-26
Captain Dunham of Nantucket.

Nantucket FIShcrmam, Wrecker and
 Y@chtsmAme
 Some account of the eventful life of Capt.
 w. O. Durham, of Nantucket, now in the
 employ of one of New Haven's firms, may be of interest to our readers. Capt. W. o. Dun
 ham, of Nantucket, is now engaged with Will liam A. Miner, the wholesale dealer in salt
 fish, of this city, as travelling salesman. He
 has had an experience of forty years in the fishing business-was brought up 8 fisherman.
 His father was fisherman before him. There
 were ten boys in the family, and two
 girls. Eight are now living. One brother
 died in 1862. He was at the time in the South
 Sea Islands, the mate of whale ship. Capt.
 D.'s father is living his mother is dead. She
 lived to be "A. His father is in his 84th year,
 now living at Nantucket and in the fishing
 business. Capt. Durham commenced fishing with his father at the age of nine years, of Nantucket, and followed it up to the age of twenty-nine as steady employment. He made twelve voyages in mackerel fishing from Cape Cod, and seven voyages to Georges Banks, after cod and hslibut. In 1859 he went to Boston and took employment with Jones, Robbins & Co., on Pearl street, in the shoe business was with them five months He then went into the fish business, retail, on Boston Neck, and carried it on until the war broke out; then sold his placs of business and went into the Boston Custom House in the capacity of a bargeman. Gave that up after nine months service, and went to Mar tha's Vineyard and fioated the ship Grotto for the Equitable Safety Insurance Company j; their agent succeeded in floating her after s2 days work, and returned to Boston. He then went into the regular service this was in '61. Was appointed, upon letter
 of recommendation to Governor Andrews, an
 assistant provost marshal under Blake, and
 continued in that capacity until the war end ed. In 1866 he went to Portland, Me, as private detective. After the great fire there,
 under recommendation of J. W. Lincoln,
 Jr., then Mayor of Boston, he gave weeks service to the Portland authorities; then went to work in making contracts to clear up the ruins and debris. The first work was for such men as the Hon. A. W. H. Olapp, James Todd, Hon. William Pitt Fessenden and others of the first men. Left there in the spring of '67 and then went back to his old vocation, fishing from Gloucester, continuing there up tofzsg On the 9th of November, the night of the big fire, he was in Boston, and gave sixty hours service in work on the fire as volunteer. The horses. as may be remembered, had the epizootic. He opened the first safe after the fire. It was for Sherman, the shovel man. He opened IF safes during that week and cleaned up the first cellar. It was for E. H. Sampson, leather, pasteboard and shoe findings David Shows was next. He then proceeded to work for others and then returned to Nantucket Feb ruary 25, 1872, and went to work again at his vocation of fishing, ceiling and wrecking. The following spring he went over the road in the familiar business of sailing yachts for pleas ure parties, and has followed yachting, fish ing and carrying parties up to the present
 date. Last winter he travelled for A. P. Smith & Co.,, of New Bedford, Mass. He has car ried in the yachting trips s. G. Huggins, of this city, and great many well-known New York people. Edward Douglass, the noted pump man of Middletown, son of Benjamin Douglass, has been one of his patrons. For twenty nine years past Captain Durham has done wrecking service on the shores of Nan tucket. One instance was that of the bark British Queen, of Dublin, which stranded in '51 with 256 Irish emigrants on board. The captain and others rescued every soul except two, one of whom was drowned in the hold, the other crushed in the caboose. The mer- cury at that time was three degrees below zero. Capt. Dunham had his hair frozen to his coat collar with the spray flying, and was the man who dealt out water to every person on the ship. Some of the emigrants located on Nantucket and are there now. Captain D.'s brother, Alexander B. Dunham, two years older than he is, also well known upon the island, is an experienced boatman, wreck CT and pilot. The captain was a pilot from '54 up to '59. He married in '51 his wife now lies at homo an invalid. Alexander won two medals for saving lives, etc. Upon one occasion he went of on some boards, carrying line in his teeth, to awrecked vessel, (which was laden with yellow pine); then hauled larger line with it, and then a larger, and res- cued the whole crew. The scene of the dis aster was on the surf side of Nantucket, and there was great joy at the rescue as may be imagined. Alexander came ashore on the hawser. The whole family of MT. Dunham's boys have been brought up as wreckers, for vessels stranded upon the beach, and are well known to the general public and the in- surance offices.
 In the great August gale of '6s the Mary Eva, of Wellfeet, went down in the night, and this was toilsome time and time of peril well remembered by wreckers and people. On Nantucket shore very dangerous gales oc- cur, especially in the winter. In 1852 Capt. Durham tells us the ship Chenanga was stranded on "Tom Never's" Head, Nantucket, loaded with l, 300 bales of Sea Island cotton The agent of the ship was P. Fl. Folger 6 well known man. The cargo was given out on shares. The wreckers made 8 large sum. The ship John Perkins was stranded She 1nadaA with DnoniIIo nd iuairo 8 total loss. She went to pieces. Capt. Dunham tells us that March goth last from the lookout there were seen 14 vessels stranded around the island. The Emma G. Edwards. of Ambey, N. J., was one of them Thomas H. Sandsbury and crew distinguish ed themselves much this season. There is one Government life station at Surf Side, the south side of the island. It is stated that two stations more are to be placed for the benefit of mariners. The first light built in the United States, according to Nantucket was at Brant Point in the seven- teenth century.
 On the 18th of August last out on North east Point, at Tuckernuck, of Slough buoy, there was some lively blueishing. Seven teen were caught on that fishing trip. Capt. D. tells us his yacht caught the gale. It was 8 memorable blow. They succeeded after four and a half hours in beating in and reached land at half past eight o'clock in the evening, landing on the very Brant Point above spoken of. In memory of that dashine trip MT. Edward Douglass, the pump manu- facturer, presented the captain with fine double barrel breach loader of Webber make English. Forty brass shells and 25O cart [ dges accompanied the gift. The guests in this gale were T. T. Haydock, the car riage manufacturer, and two children; R. S. Brown, of internal revenue, of Washington, D. O.. Charles Stevens and wife, of New York, and MT. Moves and MT. Macy of Kansas. The party caught B large bluefsb.
 Last summer Captain Durham hooked 15 sharks and brought in of them, and caught from four to six on each of several other trips the season. On the 9th of July last Fred A. Terrill, MT. White and J. Alex ander, the noted Eureka wringing machine man, of Boston-an Boston men-and Mr. Bacon captured eighty large bluefsh half way between Brant Point and Great Point Light. On Nantucket bar, half way, the party captured 428 pounds of bluefsh. They were under two-reef sail. It was the greatest catch of the season with one exception, when 92 large fish were taken. Nantucket is we'll known as good summer resort. Captain Dunham is getting up party of New Haven gentlemen to go shooting. Himself and Jo- seph Fisher one morning in GA killed IA shoal ducks and brant; and three men on n-s--