Captain Fessenden Chase Papers, 1864-1902 | Maine Maritime Museum Manuscript Collection Online Catalog

The Captain Fessenden Chase papers consist of assorted correspondence and account papers ranging between the dates 1864 and 1902. Correspondence is primarily about the ships Success, Pleiades and General Butler and date between 1864 and 1881 which spans Captain Fessenden’s career on these three vessels as shipmaster. Collection contents include bills of sale, power of attorney document, insurance papers, incoming and outgoing correspondence (some outgoing are handwritten copies on very thin moisture-sensitive tissue paper), small account book, bills, receipts, invoices and account summaries, an article of agreement, a portage bill, account of wages and a ship captain’s abstract log from Liverpool to Philadelphia.

            Personal papers include two letters and a receipt of payment. The personal letters are: 1) regarding a sister (not identified) who is ill (letter not dated); and 2) from a friend and/or seaman who is writing “a few lines in a hurry by Capt. Irvine’s ship “Prince Charlie,”—name of sender is difficult to read (Sept. 3, 1866). The receipt is payment for 30 days labor to Osborne H. Trask dated Dec. 9, 1899, long after Capt. Fessenden retired. Miscellaneous ephemeral items are envelopes addressed to Capt. Fessenden Chase that I was unable to match with letters.

            Other vessel papers include a dividend receipt dated July 1, 1876 in account with the bark Edwin Reed, an account summary for the three-mast schooner Normandy in account with Samuel R. Percy dated January 14, 1902 and a bill of sale to Fessenden Chase from his sister, Mary Ryan, for 2/64 interest of the three-mast schooner  S. P. Hitchcock dated December 6,1868.    

            Bills of sale and power of attorney documents indicate ownership or joint ownership of vessels and amounts paid for them. Correspondence is between Captain Chase and J. P. Morse, shipbuilder and owner of the ship General Butler and [George] Adams &  [James] Hitchcock, part owners ship Pleiades. The other correspondences are from brokers and shipping firms giving us a picture of the shipping business during the last half of the nineteenth century.

            The manifests, memorandum of cargo, account summaries, charter party, small account book and a ship’s abstract logbook show the vessels traveled into Atlantic and Pacific ports. Arrivals and destinations include Philadelphia, Savannah, New Orleans, Australia, London, Liverpool, Callao, Guanape, Cardiff, Chincha Islands, Rotterdam, Rio de Janeiro and New York. In particular, Capt. Fessenden Chase’s abstract log notes his voyage on the ship Pleiades from Liverpool to Philadelphia between June and August 1879. There is also a small memorandum booklet for the ship Pleiades but there are only a few notations in the back page and back cover of the booklet (transcription below):

<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"> <tbody> <tr> <td style="width:319px;height:26px;"> <p align="center" style="margin-left:.5in;"> Reverse side of last page

</td> <td style="width:319px;height:26px;"> <p align="center"> Inside back cover

</td> </tr> <tr> <td style="width:319px;height:83px;">             Spanker                                               

                 aft Leach    35 feet

            foot                 28   “

            Head                25   “

<p style="margin-left:.5in;"> Hoist               20   “

</td> <td style="width:319px;height:83px;"> Main Top M Staysail

<p style="margin-left:.5in;">         foot —31 feet

<p style="margin-left:.5in;"> aft Leach—45   “

       Hoist   ———58 

</td> </tr> </tbody></table>

Overall, the papers record domestic and foreign trade, sea routes, nineteenth century ports, shipping