Sep 30, 2010 - Sale 2223

Sale 2223 - Lot 218

Price Realized: $ 20,400
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 4,000 - $ 6,000
"THE MOST ACCURSED, TEDIOUS, TORMENTING SUSPENCE THAT EVER I EXPERIENCED" (WHALING.) Haynes, William C. Pair of manuscript journals by the captain of the whaling bark Iris. 24 inked, stamped, or pencilled whale drawings, some with red highlights. 104, 115 journal pages plus memoranda. 2 volumes. Folio, 12 x 8 inches, original 1/4 and 1/2 calf, moderate wear, Volume II coming loose in binding and covers laminated; moderate intermittent dampstaining, a few leaves excised, otherwise clean and legible. Vp, July 1844 to May 1848
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Additional Details

William Cook Haynes or Haines (1817-1886) of Bridgehampton, Long Island took command of the whaling bark Iris sailing out of New London, CT on 17 July 1844. It was apparently the young man's first and only attempt as captain. He took the Iris directly into the Pacific whale grounds and spent the next three years there, drifting between the coasts of Kamchatka, the American northwest, Japan, Australia, and South America as the weather and the whaling dictated.
Haynes and his crew had trouble finding whales, and had greater trouble landing the ones they did find. The crew did not bring their first whale aboard until five months into the voyage, and even managed to lose the head of that one during the cutting. Haynes's increasingly bleak mood is clear from his journal entries: "I am almost discouraged and worn out with anxiety and fear of being late to the N.W. coast" (9 April 1845); "Employed at repairing or trying to repair a stoven boat and no one knowing how to do it" (23 July 1845); "Fogy, fogy, fogy the whole day, and here we lie in the most accursed, tedious, tormenting suspence that ever I experienced, not having seen a right whale in more than a fortnight" (1 August 1845). His despair peaked on 3 February 1846: "Thus ends another of the most tedious days of my life, my verry soul ease is chafed thread bare, my ambition is mortally wounded, and if this accursed voyage does not blunt my energies so as to make me unfit for any other business I shall be glad."
For two stretches in 1845 comprising more than a month, the journal is kept in another hand, suggesting that Haynes's physical or mental health may have reached its breaking point. Haynes also stopped keeping his journal from 23 May to 14 October 1846, apparently being in port in Sydney, Australia for major repairs during that time. The Iris also made an emergency stop at Pitcairn Island on 7 November 1847 "to get something for the scurvy which is getting bad among the men, several being already down with it, and others not much better," later noting that he "received a visit from the natives," "landed with a boat for vegetables," and spent a day recruiting for seamen. Other notable ports of call include Hawaii, where two crew members ran off (9 October 1845), and sleepy pre-Gold Rush San Francisco, where they were unable to find supplies (10 and 16 September 1847). On the blank pages following each volume are various memoranda from the voyage--poetry, drafts of letters, a sailor's discharge, and aphorisms.
The official records confirm that Haynes's voyage with the Iris was not a success. Of the 41 whaling ships which sailed out of New London in 1844, the Iris was out the longest (nearly four years) and returned with one of the smaller hauls (1300 barrels of whale oil and 10,000 pounds of whalebone), though at least they were not one of the eight vessels that never made it back to port. See Starbuck, pages 416-419. Shortly after his return, Haynes became a partner in a Californian mining adventure, and then returned to Bridgehampton, where he owned a farm and raised a family. See Memorials of Old Bridgehampton, 290-291 and 342. with--An 1842 engraving of a quadrant and sextant A manuscript note on determining longitude 4 contemporary clippings and a 1868 letter to Haynes from a cousin. a compelling account of an ill-fated whaling voyage, consigned by a descendant.