The Republican journal., 1909-11-25
Ships of Old Salem.
Some Romantic and Thrilling Adventures
of Long Ago.

of Long Ago.
The Ships and Sailors of Old Salem. The Rec
ord of Brilliant Era of American Achievement.
By Ralph d. Paine. Illustrated New York: The
Outing Publishing Co.
The ships and sailors of old Salem be-
long to such long-past age, and con-
ditions now are so different, that it seems
hardly possible that they ever existed
for the great fleets of graceful ships and
the Young American sailors of century
ago seem as improbable now as any of
the weirdest of fairy tales. Mr.. Paine
has written lively account of these
vanished fleets that no longer plough the
seas; he has delved among the dusty log
books in the vast collection in the Essex
Institute, the Peabody Museum and else
where, and his work has been abundantly
successful, for his volume is not only ex-
ceedingly interesting and instructive, but
it is very important contribution to the
history of the country and to one of the
most interesting phases of that history.
He begins at the beginning and proceeds
along the various stages of Salem's life
until the town became the greatest ship
ping port in the world, and then on to the
decline Of the American merchant ma
rine He writes of the business side and of
the romantic and adventurous sides of the
life of the people who built, and the peo-
pie who sailed, the ships that made Salem
famous, and in no life is there greater
opportunity for interesting and exciting
experiences. Many of these old stories
are reproduced directly from the accounts
of the sailors who were part OF them
and the sailor has no superior as racon-
teur-and many of the stories never be-
fore have been given to the public, al
though Salem has figured prominently In
many entertaining volumes. The brave.
young sailors who kept these logs of
ships on the seven seas had nimble wit
and facile art, for they wrote not only
the systematic statements of everyday
proceedings, but they added also many
little stories of their own. Some of them
INDUCED even in poetry, and others in
drawing, and many log-book was I'M
earthed with excellent pictures of ships
and scenes in many lands. Some Of the
clever drawings serve to supply lllustra-
tons for the volume, and there are many
others from old paintings of ships and
people that add much to the rare value
of the volume. In addition to these old
log-books, Mr.. Paine found many long
and forgotten letters describing the
VOYAGES and many odd corners of the
world of which little then was known.
Salem was once the most important
port of maritime enterprise in America.
Her ships had "sailed where no other
ships dared to go, they had anchored
where no one else dreamed Of looking
for trade" and had fought pirates and
privateers of many races in all parts OF
the world. The adventures have been
described frequently, but never so we'll
or so completely as in this volume, for,
as Mr.. Paine says, 1.-THE material Tor the
plot of modern novel of adventure may
be found condensed into three-line en-
try of many an ancient log-book. =. =. There
is no other collection Of Americana which
can so vividly recall vanished epoch and
make it live again as these hundreds upon
hundreds of ancient log-books. There
is an interesting financial side, too, to
these adventures, for from the begin
ming of the nineteenth century until Sa-
LENS ships vanished from the ocean-a
period of about seventy years more
than twenty million dollars were paid
into the custom house as duties on for
elgn cargoes.
These bold sailors, however, did not
devote their logs wholly to serious
things, and bits of poetry are by no
means rare in them. One ambitious poet
writes some sad verses which relate that
In Gosport of Late there Damsell did Dwell
for Wit and for Beuty Did she Nancy Exsell
A Young man he Corted hir to be his Dear
And By his Trade was Ship Carpentir
The verses continue for fifty lines
showing the progress of the courtship
and telling how the swain, one day, led
the ''beuty' out in the forest for a walk,
and the poet concludes:
She says c') My Dear William, you led me
On Purpose my innocent Life to Be Tray (O.
(Hey ("J Those are true Words and none can
you save ('D
For all this hole mite | have been digging your
A Spade Standing By ard Grave there she
tshe) (.) o, Must this Grave Be Bride Bed
to Ne (').
Sailors in those days did not acquire all
their wealth by peaceful mercantile pur-
suits, for priyateering was profitable as
well as exciting, and these privateers-
men We're as ready for fight, if neces-
sary, as We're those who so promptly
volunteered for the Continental service
when Paul Jones fitted out the Ranger,
and when John Hancock, president of
the Continental Congress-, issued the
famous ''broadside" offering Great En-
enlargement for Seamen" who would
Join the Ranger, zone of the best cruz
ers in America One of the most
famous of the Salem privateersmen was
Jonathan Haraden, and it is thrilling
story Of his experiences that Mr.. Paine
unearths among the musty old logs.
Captain Luther Little's deeds were also
as daring and thrilling as any of the
most fanciful hero of fiction. Some aw-
full experiences in English prisons are
set forth in pathetic terms, reproduced
from old letters by men who suffered for
their daring deeds. One of the most in
teresting of these is the journal of Will
liam Russell, one of whose associates in
Mill Prison was Lieutenant Joshua Bar
ney, for whom torpedo boat in the navy
is named. Barney made sensational
escape and later led in one of the most
famous battles of the Revolution.
1t was after this that Salem reached
her zenith as trading port and the vast
profit of some of the voyages may be
better understood when we read that the
schooner Rajah, after eighteen months
away from her home port, returned with
a cargo of pepper, the first from Su-
matra, which returned a profit of zoo
per cent-a comfortable fortune at that
i III. IL