Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1928-10-10
BY Consolidated Press.

BY Consolidated Press.
NANTUCKET ISLAND, Mass, Octo-
Der 1o-A movement to place three tab
lets on the outer wall Of the Pacific
Club, to commemorate both the Boston
| Tea Party and the first ship that flew
the American flag in the port of London.
has been started here by Capt. Whitford
| Joy. He says he is tired Of hearing
Summer people ask the meaning of the
names Beaver, Bedford, Dartmouth"
placed over the club entrance.
The off islanders don't seem to realize
| that if it hadn't been for Nantucket,
there might not have been an American
| revolution.
Capt. Joy is the last Of the Nam
| tucket "deep-Water" sailing masters,
| that hardy type whose deeds and whose
towering. square rugged ships were
known from Greenland to the Anti
podeS. The ancient Pacific Club was
| founded by men like him, who had
sailed around the Horn, and had taken
with them to the utmost corner of the
seven seas the bright fame of American
| seamanship And now new gener-
alton, including many of the native
! Nantucketers, don't know the mean
| ing of those three names above the
door of the club.
Ships at Tea Party.
"And that's too bad" Capt Joy OBJ
served today in the mild voice which
you do not associate with the rip-roar-
| ing era of sail, because if it hadn't
been for those two Nantucket ships. the
Beaver and Dartmouth, there wouldn't
have been any Boston Tea Party"
His Sea-blue eyes twinkled as he con-
tinued: They contributed the tea.
| Sailing from Nantucket to London with
whale oil and SO on, they were char
| tered in London by an English f1rm
| to bring back tea to Boston. 1t wasn't,
| you understand, that the Nantucketers
we're against the coloniStS; they only
brought the cargo. 1 shouldn't be sur
priSed If they enjoyed the resulting
fracas as much as any one. Nantucket
ers used to like fracaS." His smile
grew reminiscent. Amy way, the party
which they precipitated was prelim-
mary SkirmiSh, the first sea battle, you
might say, of the American Revolution.
Then the Bedford" he nodded
toward an engraving. she was a fine
old ship. Built at New Bedford some
time before ITO, but Nantucket-owned;
Rotch, the same man that owned the
Beaver and Dartmouth, also owned the
Bedford. His offices were right here in
this building. The Bedford sailed from
Nantucket for London in 1888, and an
English newspaper printed the fact that
| she arrived on February Is, the first
ship to enter London with the Is rebel
stripes She returned to Nantucket and
was entered at the customshouSe here
also in this building-in May, 1888. She
deserves tablet all her own.
mo Sailors Any More"
| Jr;,
when people ask what those three names
mean They mean so much more, in so
many ways than any one who never
shipped in the days of sail can realize.
| There aren't any sailors any more.
There are just paint-Washers and me-
chanics. When anything goes wrong
they send out an SOS and sit down to
wait until somebody comes to flx 1t.
When anything went wrong in sailing
days, we fixed it ourselves.
when I was second mate OF the
Triumphant, New York to Frisco, we lost
the whole of our mast and sails in a
blow off the West Coast of South Amer
lea, not far above the Horn. The decks
were awash with cold sea water, but we
get makeshift mast up and then lost
our rudder Along came the Undaunted
and her captain asked ours If he wanted
some help. No. says the captain.
Don't need any help"
so we got rudder on and sailed her
round the Horn to the Falkland Islands
to get her properly jury rugged round
ed the Horn again and went up to
Frisco, all by our own efforts. Point is
We wouldn't have sent an S o S even
though we'd owned a wireless. Matter
Of pride"
Capt. Joy, who worked up from deck
boy-at the age of II, in 1S78--to mas.
ter, sailed In 13 ships to all known parts