Journal of Oliver E Hurd on the Boston barque HIRAM EMERY
Author
Oliver E Hurd
Date1884-1885
Object number00008287
NameDiary
MediumInk on paper, boards
DimensionsOverall: 210 x 177 x 13 mm, 0.45 kg
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection
Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
Collections
DescriptionA diary kept by seaman Oliver E Hurd of a voyage on the barque HIRAM EMERY from Boston, Massachusetts to Australia and the East Indies 1884 -1885.
The front cover bears the handwritten title reading 'Journal kept, on the boston barque HIRAM EMERY, from Boston to Australia, the East Indies, and home, by O.E. Hurd extra-ordinary seaman'. The first entry is dated Sunday 11 May 1884 and the last entry is dated Tuesday 14 April 1885.HistoryThe HIRAM EMERY was a 799 ton merchant vessel built in the shipyard of Captain Nathaniel Lord Thompson at Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1877. It sailed from Boston on 11 May 1884 and in August was approaching Australia.
Hurd writes on 7 August: "Sydney is a great place, I understand, for fights on shipboard resulting from men trying to run away and today I was set to work cleaning handcuffs and making them ready in case of emergency." On the 18th, the vessel arrived in Sydney. Hurd offers a few notes on the beauty of the port and notes that two men tried to jump ship, and regrets not having kept up his journal while in Sydney.
On 22 September the HIRAM EMERY cleared Newcastle, New South Wales, for China, arriving there on the 8th November and Hurd remarks on the unloading of coal by Chinese wharf workers. He writes that the sailor’s boarding house in Hong Kong was kept by a sailor from Baltimore. From Hong Kong they went to Manila, and thence home to Boston.
The details of this journal are unusual, and range from an admission of striking the mate with a piece of wood (he was provoked), to his falling overboard while painting (he caught the end of the spanker sheet and was hauled back aboard). He notes not only the shipboard duties, but leisure activities as well, noting at one point that the carpenter cut the spine out of a shark for "a cane". Although written four years after the events, it was clearly written from the original journal.
SignificanceThis is an ususual journal, giving a great deal of detail of life on board a merchant vessel, including job details, personality conflicts, and the like.
Oliver E Hurd
1884-1885
