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Historic Tails

Animals in History

The USS Kearsarge Launched at Portsmouth to Slay the Alabama

In 1862, the Confederate Naval vessel CSS Alabama was the scourge of the seas. Just over a year into the Civil War the Confederacy had bought the ship in England. And the Union Navy had dispatched its own warship, the USS Kearsarge, to stop it.

Built in secrecy to avoid falling afoul of the British government’s official stance of neutrality, the Alabama was launched without cannon. Because the British couldn’t sell her as an armed vessel, the Confederacy to arm her. As soon as the ship entered international waters, the Confederate Navy outfitted her with eight cannon. Then it set her loose on a mission to capture as many merchant ships headed for America’s northern states as possible.

The Alabama may have exceeded the Confederates’ wildest expectations. Under the command of Capt. Raphael Semmes, she burned 65 ships, though never harmed their crew or passengers.

Under both power and sail, the ship could make 13 knots. Its captain and crew quickly made their impact on the war. Within a month of her commissioning, Alabama was cruising the shipping lanes east of the Azores, capturing and burning every American merchant vessel she encountered. Commissioned in July of 1862, she had destroyed 21 ships before the end of the year.

The Union Navy had taken notice of the Alabama. She had easily sunk a Union sidewheeler the USS Hatteras in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The Battle of Kearsarge vs. Alabama by Edouard Manet, Philadelphia Museum of Art

The USS Kearsarge Receives her Orders

The Navy had constructed the USS Kearsarge at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in 1861 and sent her to sea in search of Confederate raiders.

New Hampshire newspaper publisher Henry McFarland claimed he had suggested naming the vessel for New Hampshire’s Mount Kearsarge to his friend, an assistant secretary of the Navy who summered in the Granite State. The assistant secretary would later say his own wife suggested the name.

USS Kearsarge

Either way, the USS Kearsage had been launched in 1862 and soon it was given a new mission: Capture or sink the Alabama. Capt. John Winslow, a Mayflower descendant, and a crew of sailors, many from New England, tackled their mission with gusto. From November 1862 to March 1863 the Kearsarge underwent some special modifications at ports in Spain.

The Kearsarge carried seven guns and under power and sail she could manage 11 knots. Though she might not seem quite a match for the Alabama, the Union Navy had taken notice of the awesome power of the Alabama. Steps were taken to strengthen Kearsarge. Along her sides, strategically placed to protect her engines, the Spanish shipyard installed three layers of chain armoring. And to disguise the battle armor, they constructed false wooden sides that sat atop the armor, painted black to match the hull.

The Kearsarge Hunts Alabama

For months, the Kearsarge scoured the Atlantic in search of the Alabama. But the elusive Alabama sailed the waters of South America and across to Africa, leaving a trail of devastation in her wake. By June of 1863, when the Alabama pulled into the French port of Cherbourg for much needed refitting, she had captured and destroyed 65 ships. She had boarded more than 450 ships and taken 2,000 prisoners over a period of 560 days.

When the officers of the Kearsarge learned the Alabama was in Cherbourg, they made their way to the port at best speed, arriving just three days after the Alabama. At the mouth of the port, the Kearsarge’s pursuit stopped abruptly. France was neutral in the war, and an attack on a ship in port would have been an unprovoked act of war.

CSS Alabama

The Kearsarge requested support from other Union naval vessels in blockading the Alabama in port. The commander of the Alabama made a snap decision. He would not be hemmed into the port while the Union Navy gathered strength. He quickly outfitted the Alabama to go to sea with the intention of engaging the Kearsarge.

Kearsarge at the Battle of Cherbourg

On June 19, the Alabama left port. The Kearsarge raced ahead of it to reach international waters to avoid a naval battle in French waters. Safely out to sea, the two vessels began to circle, each trying to gain an advantage.

From a range of 1,000 feet, the Alabama fired first. The Kearsarge waited until the ships got closer. On shore, spectators watched as the two ships fired hundreds of cannon shots at each other. The Alabama fired more than 370 shots at the Kearsarge, but the Kearsarge’s makeshift armor held. Though her hull bent under the barrage, it did not break.

The gun that sunk the Alabama

The Kearsarge fired far fewer shots, but her shots were accurate. When the smoke began to clear, the Alabama was sinking. The Kearsarge had blasted holes through the ship below the waterline, dooming the mighty Alabama.

The Alabama surrendered. Capt. Semmes dumped his sword into the ocean rather than face the indignity of surrendering it — an act considered dishonorable by some. One man was killed on the Kearsarge and two were injured. On the Confederate side, 19 men died. Some 70 men surrendered to the Kearsarge. Semmes managed to flee aboard on a passing British vessel and escape to England with about 40 of his men.

The crew of the Kearsarge were hailed as heroes back in New York. For their actions in the Battle of Cherbourg, 17 sailors received the medal of valor. The ship, meanwhile, would continue in service in various capacities up until 1894.

The Kearsarge commander, John Winslow, was promoted to commodore and then rear admiral, commanding the Pacific Squadron until his retirement in 1872. He died in Boston shortly thereafter.

Aftermath and Repercussions

The Alabama’s captain, Raphael Semmes, went on to teach Moral Philosophy at the Louisiana State Seminary, later Louisiana State University. He died in 1877 from complications of food poisoning after earing contaminated shrimp. The city of Semmes, Ala., was named after him.

Cartoon showing the US bullying Britain into paying the Alabama Claim

Britain had angered the United States by letting one of its shipyards build the Alabama. That led to a long legal challenge initially led led by American Minister Charles Francis Adams, the son and grandson of presidents. Known as the Alabama Claims, the U.S. demanded payment of damages for the destruction wrought by the Alabama and several other British-built Confederate raiders. In 1872, Britain settled with a payment of $15.5 million.

In 1984, a French Navy mine hunter discovered the wreck of the Alabama off Cherbourg. The archaeological investigation recovered several cannon. In 2002, a diving expedition recovered the ship’s bell along with cannon, tableware and ornamental commodes.

In Stamford, Conn., a cannon from the USS Kearsarge stood in West Park from 1901 until 1942. It was then hauled away as scrap during World War II.

Thanks to: Kearsarge Mountain and the Corvette Named for It by Henry MacFarland.

Images: The gun that sank the Alabama By Internet Archive Book Images – https://www.flickr.com/photos/internetarchivebookimages/14576197040/Source book page: https://archive.org/stream/photographichist06mill/photographichist06mill#page/n308/mode/1up, No restrictions, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=43879541. Battle of Kearsarge and Alabama By Édouard Manet – 1. From en.wiki2. The Philadelphia Museum of Art, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1757414. Painting of Alabama By Rear Admiral J. W. Schmidt [1] – From the US Navy's Naval Historical Center. Originally from en.wikipedia; description page is (was) here;uploaded onto en.wiki 03:11, 14 November 2004 by McMullen 740×571 (59,800 bytes; Painting of CSS Alabama), Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1338854,

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Peleg Nye, The Jonah of Cape Cod

Peleg Nye in 1864 had the bad luck to encounter a whale that decided to have him as a snack. As the first mate of the whaling schooner George W. Lewis, he commanded one of the whaleboats that pursued a mammoth sperm whale off the Cape de Verde islands. The encounter came close to killing him.

Peleg Nye

Much like fracking today, the whale industry in the 1800s drew countless men to the business because of the wealth that could be acquired selling whale oil. The price at one time exceeded $1.75 per gallon, and the rarer varieties used in perfumes commanded even greater prices.

Men overlooked the obvious dangers of the trade to chase their fortunes, and many died in the process.

Nye’s run-in occurred in March of 1863. While much of the nation focused on the ongoing battles of the Civil War, Nye served as first mate aboard the George W. Lewis. The Lewis by then had acquired little whale oil after a nine-month voyage.

Nye had risen to first mate after a setback to his career. Born in Sandwich, Mass., he went to sea at 17. By his 34th year, he captained the whaling schooner Belle Isle. But on April 11, 1851, the schooner collided with a steamship six miles off Cape Ann. The tragedy cost four lives and Nye’s career.

Or so it seemed. By 1863, Peleg Nye was first mate of the George W. Lewis under the command of Hiram Holmes. Holmes, fortunately for posterity, recorded what happened that day in his logbook.

On Nov. 16, 1864, the Lewis got underway at 8 a.m. off the Isle of Sal. At 2 p.m., a lookout spotted a large sperm whale. “John Dyer raised a large lone sperm whale bound towards Bonivista,” wrote Holmes. The crew, no doubt, felt excitement at the prospect of a chase and a large yield of oil.

The Chase

The seamen lowered two whaleboats into the water, Holmes in charge of one and Nye the other. The whale surfaced near Nye’s boat. Wrote Holmes, “The whale immediately began sounding, and ran out about 100 fathoms of line from the three hundred they had in the two tubs. Then Nye went forward and they began to take in the slack…Mr. Nye shot him.”

Nye would have used a whaling gun, which shot a lance that carried a bomb. When the lance hit the whale, the bomb would have exploded.

Nye shot him again, which seemed to have finished him off. The whale rose and lay on his side. Peleg Nye decided to finish him off. He ordered the men to row close to the whale, and then he shoved a hand lance into him. The whale thrashed and hit the whaleboat with his lower jaw. That knocked Nye overboard, into the whale’s open jaws.

The whale clamped his jaws shut onto Peleg Nye’s legs just below the knees and carried him well below the surface. Fortunately for Nye, his legs fit between the spaces that separated the whale’s teeth.

Nye recalled holding his breath and pressing against the whale’s mouth. He finally took a breath and water filled his lungs. Then he passed out.

Recovery

“He was down under water so long that when he came up he was most gone,” wrote Holmes in his logbook. “[H]e never spoke for half an hour, one of the bones was fractured to his leg both badly bruised he was nearly full of water took him on board[. I] doctored him as well as I could.”

Holmes managed to revive Nye while ordering the crew to bring the whale alongside the Lewis by dark. Nye later said that whatever Holmes did to bring him back to life, he wished he hadn’t because he suffered so much. He did, however, get better slowly.

Nye returned to whaling after his adventure as a captain of the Montezuma. He and his wife built a house in Hyannis Port, and by 62 he had retired. Nye died at the age of 79. His obituary noted “he was much esteemed as a citizen for his quiet and kind disposition.”

Edmund Gardner

The story of Edmund Gardner is similar. A Quaker, he lived in Nantucket in the days before vacationing Wall Street financiers overran the island. In 1816, he toppled in to the ocean and a whale grabbed hold of him.

Gardner was rescued, but the incident left him the worse for wear . He went through the rest of his life with a stump for a left hand that appeared crippled, but retained some uses.

Captain Edmund Gardner of Nantucket and New Bedford, His Journal and His Family, described his hand. “[T]he stump, or what was visible below the coat-sleeve, look(ed) like a twisted rope’s end, but still retaining clutch enough to carry the chowder-spoon to his mouth…Four of the whale’s teeth were driven into him! one entering his skull, a second breaking his collar bone, a third breaking his arm, and the fourth crushing his hand — the remainder of his body being simply squeezed into a jelly. The healing of the wound in the head left a cavity like the inside of an egg-shell.”

A Third Victim

On June 11, 2021, a 56-year-old lobster diver named Michael Packard said he dove about 45 feet down the waters off Provincetown. All of a sudden, he felt a bump and “everything went dark,” he told WBZ-TV. He thought a shark had attacked him, but realized he didn’t feel any teeth. He also didn’t feel any pain.

Packard realized, “oh my God, I’m in a whale’s mouth … and he’s trying to swallow me,” he told the television station after leaving Cape Cod Hospital. He thought he would die. But after 30 seconds, the whale spat him out, and his crewmate hauled him into the surface boat.

His legs, like Peleg Nye’s, were just badly bruised.

With thanks to Peleg Nye, The Jonah of Cape Cod by Nils Bockman. This story was updated in 2022.

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The Valedictorians: Robert Frost and Elinor White, His Reluctant Wife

Robert Frost and Elinor White married in December of 1895 in Lawrence, Mass., after one of them finally stopped foot-dragging.

The two were high school sweethearts at their hometown high, Lawrence High School.

Robert Frost

Robert, the celebrated poet best known for his poems of rural New England life, and Elinor Miriam White were co-valedictorians in their graduating class in 1892. They both delivered speeches at commencement exercises. Elinor’s was entitled Conversation as a Force in Life, which her husband’s biographer Jay Parini noted was “an intriguing subject, given her attachment to a man who prized conversation – his own, in particular – over almost anything.”

Elinor White Says ‘Wait’

Upon graduating, the two secretly pledged to marry one another. Robert, 18, wanted to marry immediately. Elinor, two years older, said they should wait. She particularly wanted to complete her studies, and her father planned to send her to the Unitarian college St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y.

Robert, meanwhile, had his hopes of attending Harvard dashed because his grandparents viewed it as a frivolous place. Too much free-thinking and free-drinking, they said.

Elinor White

So Robert proceeded to college at Dartmouth while Elinor went to St. Lawrence. He seemed to hope the separation would make Elinor’s heart grow fonder of him, but she seemed to enjoy her freedom (more than he liked).

While Robert quickly dropped out of Dartmouth and returned to Lawrence, Elinor continued studying at St. Lawrence. During the summers he carried on his courtship with her in person and via the mails. She refused to change her plans, however.

While she was away, Robert Frost dutifully helped her family, in particular helping to look after Elinor’s sister, who was prone to panic attacks.

During the summers, he spent as much time as he could courting Elinor and attempting to make love to her. He even wrote a poem about his efforts, The Subverted Flower. Elinor forbade him from publishing it while she was alive.

In 1895, with Robert having already sold his first poem, Elinor stopped dragging her feet and the two married. The marriage produced six children, four of whom died before Robert did in 1963. Elinor, who was an inspiration to Robert, suffered bouts of depression and died in 1938 following a battle with breast cancer and heart disease.

This story about Elinor White and Robert Frost was updated in 2023.

Images: Elinor White, St. Lawrence University Special Collections, Fair Use.

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How the Massachusetts Rough “Ridders” Saved the White House

The year 1902 was just underway. Locked in winter’s icy grip, the nation was still mourning the death of President William McKinley, assassinated just three months earlier. That a man who could have heroically survived the carnage of Antietam as a mere boy soldier would be cut down by a single lunatic’s bullet boggled the nation’s collective mind.

1902 Press Account of the Rough Ridders

The Klondike Gold Rush was ending, and a nervous country turned its focus eastward to Washington for signs of how economic prosperity would be maintained. A young and untested Teddy Roosevelt was in the White House, tasked with taming the financiers that had twice wrecked the American economy in the recent past (and would soon do so again). The nation watched and prayed that he would be up to the challenges he faced.
What they found was a man up against seemingly insurmountable enemies. Congress, long wedded to the financiers and corporations, resisted change in the face of the need to reform. And making matters worse, if that were possible, the White House itself was in a shambles, badly in need of restoration and plagued with rats, or so the press reported.

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Where would salvation come from? Just when it seemed despair would engulf the nation, from the small city of Beverly, Mass., like the Rough Riders of old, came the saviors of the day: The Six Massachusetts Cats Who Saved the White House (and quite possibly the world).
It was the former mayor’s idea. Perry Collier heard of the rat trouble and reached out to his friends. He was presented with 100 potential recruits to lead the charge and from this group he selected the six ablest fighters. Renamed for past mayors of the city, John I., Freeborn, Captain, Perry, Bennie and Sammie were dispatched to Washington to rid the White House of rats.

“Massachusetts cats are unequalled as rodent hunters,” he informed the president, “and, provided they are not overfed, will clean the rats out of the White House in short order.”

Others suggested (laughingly) the use of dogs to combat the scourge. But the White House simply downplayed the urgency of the need until the Massachusetts cats, nicknamed the “ridders” arrived.
Little of their brave exploits were recorded, but they without doubt completed their mission with no difficulty. The new president was free to take on Congress.

– This has been a History Cat News Network Update.

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Lobsters and Cats and Ladies

Interspecies Struggles at the Dawn of the Progressive Era

Today we know the lobster as a table food, and the cat as by far America’s most beloved pet.

This hierarchy was not preordained, however. For example, you are undoubtedly familiar with the one-time rivalry between dogs and cats for the affections of the American public. It was only recently that the cat eclipsed the dog as America’s most popular pet.

In earlier times, however, the competition for primacy among species was much broader. All manner of deviant affections are recorded in the pages of history. Undoubtedly you have heard of “bird-lovers.” You may even have one such tucked in your family tree. The field of genetics will no doubt soon erase these poor unfortunates altogether from the family of man.

Less familiar, however, is the struggle between the cat and the American lobster (Homarus americanus) to determine “who will serve and who will eat.”

For some context on relative status of lobsters and cats, consider that historians have suggested the use of the term “lobsterbacks” in reference to British soldiers was, in fact, an early cat-inspired bit of propaganda. We can neither confirm to refute this assertion, but it is noteworthy in analyzing the struggle.

Another similar reference, common today, is employed when someone has been disfigured by sunburn, we say they are “red as a lobster.”

These expressions clearly display the disdain we have for today’s lobster.

While it’s not precisely known when the lobster was relegated to its current status, a little research can document elements of the earlier struggles between cat and lobster. On May 1, 1889, the Vermont Watchman carried the story from Stonington, Conn., Lobster, Cat and Lady, which through its unintentional editorial bias shows the growing American affection for cats.

Lobster on cat violence. (photo illustration)

The story describes the violent conflict between a six-pound lobster and a “sleek, handsome Maltese family cat” that took place on the back step of a house. Readers will want to review the article for themselves. However, the salient points are these: Using deceit and trickery the lobster engages the cat in a furious struggle. Upon discovering the fight, the lady of the house puts a stop to it.

While the news account portrays the lobster as having the upper hand in its struggle with the cat, it illustrates how the bond between cat and human – an alliance that continues to this day – could not be broken by sheer superiority of strength.

In the end, we are left to assume that lobster was boiled alive. Presumably his last thoughts were engaged in pondering the paradox of how he could be physically stronger, yet still lose this struggle. The point undoubtedly still rankles in the crustacean community.

– This has been an update from the History Cat News Network.

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The Cat Who Ran the NH Summer Camp

On this date in 1935, Nellie T. Hendrick was preparing to step down from the post she held for 20 years as dean of the Northern New England School of Religious Education. Mrs. Hendrick, originally from Keene, N.H., and a long-time resident of Nashua, N.H., is credited with founding and running the summer school/camp. But what of the cat that really pulled the strings of the operation?

For 20 years the school was fueled by donations, personally rounded up by Hendrick, and modest tuition fees paid by campers. In 1924, the fee was $13, for which attendees received opportunities for recreation and the chance to listen to informative lectures. Mrs. Hendrick is credited with creating a tantalizing mix of scholarship and recreation.

The 1924 program, for instance, pulled in attendees by promising: “hikes, tennis, ball games, swimming contests and other water sports made possible by the nearness of the famous Oyster River. Mr. Gilmore will also direct the stunts on Saturday afternoon when the classes vie with each other in producing mirth provoking feats. Picnics and a breakfast in the beautiful College woods add to the week’s enjoyment.”

Nellie T. Hendrick, Dean of Northern New England School of Religious Education

Lest anyone be concerned that the event was purely hedonistic, a new pageant “The Birth of the Bible” was also to be presented, and evening lectures in psychology were also promised. Dr. William Byron Forbash of New York, noted author of The Boy Problem, attended and offered lectures for parents and teachers on ‘Understanding Our Boys’ and another on ‘The New Girl Problem.’

It’s easy to see why this program became so popular, and why in 1935 Mrs. Hendrick received plaudits for her work. Governor Henry Styles Bridges even attended her final program to offer his personal congratulations and best wishes.

But it was an open secret among campers that there was a feline power behind the throne, which explained why Mrs. Hendrick found herself unable to continue directing the school as its dean. The intrepid reporters of the Nashua Telegraph reported the death of Assistant Dean Astor on August 26, 1935.

“The untimely death of her cat Vanderbilt Astor while she was at the school bothered Mrs. Astor a good deal more than talking of the honors bestowed upon her during the closing days of school,” the paper reported.

And she broke down and offered this startling revelation to the reporter: “Mrs. Hendrick recalled that she could not sit down at her typewriter in the study but what the cat would run to the room and start pawing over the typewritten letters as if subjecting all to its approval before they were mailed out. ‘Practically every letter I mailed out was first mussed up by Vanderbilt Astor,’ she said.”

Further details of Vanderbilt Astor’s contribution to the school are lost in the fog of history. Astor left no account of his own involvement in the school. Perhaps he wanted to remain anonymous for reasons of his own choosing. Or, perhaps he was unable to type. Now you know the full story of the cat who ran the summer camp.

–This has been an update from the History Cat Network.