Nov 18, 2008 - Sale 2163

Sale 2163 - Lot 179

Price Realized: $ 337
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
"I COULD NOT HAVE WISHED YOUR COMPANY THIS NIGHT" (MASSACHUSETTS.) Willcutt, Joseph. Logbook as captain of 5 ships in the trans-Atlantic trade. Autograph Manuscript Signed. Small 4to, 1/2 calf, worn; hinges split, one page cut out, rear free endpaper nearly so, generally sound and legible. Vp, 1835-39

Additional Details

Joseph Willcutt (1798-1841) of Cohasset, MA spent most of his life at sea, gaining captaincy of his first ship in 1831. By his own count, he crossed the Atlantic more than eighty times. This journal describes four round-trip voyages to Liverpool, a trip from Havana to Hamburg, and shorter coastal voyages. Some of the entries go beyond the routine: "This day the steward fell from the house and broke his right arm and wounded his head badly" (13 March 1836). A severe storm prompted a more personal entry addressed to his wife Myra: "Midnight the gale still continues with a terable fury, seems the elements are contending for the mastery . . . I could not have wished your company this night Mrs. M.B.W. notwithstanding at other times it would have been so agreeable" (15 March 1836). Also includes a summary of Willcutt's 84 career Atlantic passages, a crew list, detailed ship measurements, and a series of several original poems.