Read Online China Jewel by Thomas Hollyday - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Thomas Hollyday
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lobby downstairs, the museum walls had been decorated with a special exhibit of maritime items. They displayed clipper ship memorabilia from Baltimore’s heyday of shipbuilding and trade. Some of the pieces advertised fast passage to the California Gold Rush. Others were worn newspaper notices of shipments leaving for Europe and China. Two small oils in gilded frames were hanging as treasures in the middle of the wall.
“We set up this display last month to honor the building of the Peregrine. The television stations filmed it and interviewed us.”
“I watched you.”
“Many of these ships traded products from Baltimore. It is part of the city’s heritage too. We collected items to show the activity in ships and maritime trade.”
When she reached the painting on the left, she turned to Cutter and said. “We have this oil on loan from a New York City collection.”
The picture showed two primitive images of brigs, their sails set out to run before the wind. “That’s the Lady Baltimore from here and the Siren from New York racing south along the coast of Brazil. These ships were built locally about the time of the original Peregrine. Few paintings of the era and none of the ships themselves exist, so I particularly wanted this picture here.”
Cutter remembered how similar the present day start out in the Atlantic had looked to this painting. They too had run before the wind with their sails spreading large blooms of white.
She explained how the brigs like the Peregrine would trade down to Valparaiso, Chile or Callao, Peru, and then pick up cargoes for Canton. They’d also go to Batavia for opium from Turkey, then sail on to China for tea.
“What about the slave ships?”
She pointed to the other painting. “This is from our own collection. It’s a portrait of a US Navy brig in an encounter with a slaver stopped off Africa. The US and Britain were fighting the international slave trade by this time.”
Cutter noticed how the slave ship had its sails in tatters. Life boats were being rowed to the Navy ship.
“That’s the capture of the Black Joke, launched in Baltimore several years before and sold to slave merchants in Cuba. She had three hundred slaves aboard, including children, when stopped.”
He observed, “It’s as if Baltimore showed two faces with these boats, one good and one evil.”
She said, in a serious tone, “Like most of us, Jim. No one is perfectly good or evil. That’s why I put those paintings side by side.”
No one else was in the room. “More?” she asked, winking over her shoulder, her hand reaching back for his. Cutter nodded. She led him to another section of the museum. “It’s our newspaper room,” she smiled. “I want to look at some of the Baltimore press. Sometimes we can find notices of a ship’s departure and arrival which will help on identifying cargoes and owners.”
At another microfiche reader they began going through issues of the Baltimore shipping reports. Each issue printed tiny listings of vessels coming and going from the port as well as cargoes and origin or destination.
For an hour they went through the newsprint. Near the date when the ship was registered in New York, they found the first notation. “The brig Peregrine, owned by Williams Tea of New York left for China with cotton goods from our Maryland factory.”
She said, “That confirms she was owned by Williams and sailing under the Peregrine name. A large cotton cloth factory existed near Baltimore.”
Katy wanted to verify the sinking. “We have only a little chance that it would be reported in a Baltimore newspaper when it happened in New Jersey.”
Nothing was in the paper of September 1840. She opened another fiche. “I like to check for several months afterwards. Newspapers in those days were often days and weeks behind on news. Wait, Jim. Here it is.”
“October 10 1840. The loss off New Jersey of the Brig Peregrine, built in River Sunday, in the recent terrible storm
“We set up this display last month to honor the building of the Peregrine. The television stations filmed it and interviewed us.”
“I watched you.”
“Many of these ships traded products from Baltimore. It is part of the city’s heritage too. We collected items to show the activity in ships and maritime trade.”
When she reached the painting on the left, she turned to Cutter and said. “We have this oil on loan from a New York City collection.”
The picture showed two primitive images of brigs, their sails set out to run before the wind. “That’s the Lady Baltimore from here and the Siren from New York racing south along the coast of Brazil. These ships were built locally about the time of the original Peregrine. Few paintings of the era and none of the ships themselves exist, so I particularly wanted this picture here.”
Cutter remembered how similar the present day start out in the Atlantic had looked to this painting. They too had run before the wind with their sails spreading large blooms of white.
She explained how the brigs like the Peregrine would trade down to Valparaiso, Chile or Callao, Peru, and then pick up cargoes for Canton. They’d also go to Batavia for opium from Turkey, then sail on to China for tea.
“What about the slave ships?”
She pointed to the other painting. “This is from our own collection. It’s a portrait of a US Navy brig in an encounter with a slaver stopped off Africa. The US and Britain were fighting the international slave trade by this time.”
Cutter noticed how the slave ship had its sails in tatters. Life boats were being rowed to the Navy ship.
“That’s the capture of the Black Joke, launched in Baltimore several years before and sold to slave merchants in Cuba. She had three hundred slaves aboard, including children, when stopped.”
He observed, “It’s as if Baltimore showed two faces with these boats, one good and one evil.”
She said, in a serious tone, “Like most of us, Jim. No one is perfectly good or evil. That’s why I put those paintings side by side.”
No one else was in the room. “More?” she asked, winking over her shoulder, her hand reaching back for his. Cutter nodded. She led him to another section of the museum. “It’s our newspaper room,” she smiled. “I want to look at some of the Baltimore press. Sometimes we can find notices of a ship’s departure and arrival which will help on identifying cargoes and owners.”
At another microfiche reader they began going through issues of the Baltimore shipping reports. Each issue printed tiny listings of vessels coming and going from the port as well as cargoes and origin or destination.
For an hour they went through the newsprint. Near the date when the ship was registered in New York, they found the first notation. “The brig Peregrine, owned by Williams Tea of New York left for China with cotton goods from our Maryland factory.”
She said, “That confirms she was owned by Williams and sailing under the Peregrine name. A large cotton cloth factory existed near Baltimore.”
Katy wanted to verify the sinking. “We have only a little chance that it would be reported in a Baltimore newspaper when it happened in New Jersey.”
Nothing was in the paper of September 1840. She opened another fiche. “I like to check for several months afterwards. Newspapers in those days were often days and weeks behind on news. Wait, Jim. Here it is.”
“October 10 1840. The loss off New Jersey of the Brig Peregrine, built in River Sunday, in the recent terrible storm
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