Letterbook of George Newell of Boston 11 September 1843-24 March 1845; 16 June-7 December 1850; 16 May 1853-26 March 1855

A 3972

fonds

1843-1845

932165

Microfilm : CY 1419, frames 1-76

1 volume of textual material

The 1843-1845 letters are mainly to his agents at Para and Maranhan where he traded in hides, rubber articles, tapioca, cocoa, etc. and to the captains of the brigs Mary Ann and Malta which he owned possibly jointly with Messrs Chandler Howard & Co., Boston. The few letters in 1850 are written on a trading voyage of the barque Sea Breeze to Canton via San Francisco, Honolulu and Hong Kong and are mostly addressed to Messrs Nichols, Pierce and Co. of Boston, part owners. The 1853-1855 letters are written when Newell was master and supercargo of the Sea Breeze and are mainly letters to Messrs Bradford and Macomber of Boston, part owners of the barque but contain also private letters which repeat the same information. The letters begin in May 1853 when the barque arrived in Melbourne with a cargo of flour; owing to the fall of market this was taken to and sold in Sydney and the barque left for Batavia on 31 July to load coffee for Boston. In the Java sea she struck a reef which necessitated repairs at Batavia. As coffee could not be procured and after an unfortunate deal in rice for the Canton market, she was chartered to carry sugar to Bushire in the Persian Gulf and wheat thence to Bombay. Back to Java in August 1854 she loaded with rice and coffee for the Melbourne Market and afterwards set off for Auckland where she remained from the beginning of December 1854 to the end of February 1855 procuring a cargo mainly of gum copal. Cost of victualling at Auckland and prices for the miscellaneous cargo she bought there were given. She then set off for Boston with the gum and a freight mainly of potatoes for Melbourne. The last letter is from Melbourne where 16 passenger and a freight of kauri gum and merchandise were embarked. Besides detailed information on the various markets the 1853-1855 letters contain descriptions of dealings with crews, their wages, cost of repairs to ship, etc. The last pages have been torn off but seem to have been blank

Information transferred from Manuscripts Leaf Catalogue No. 1 (6-74A) as part of the eRecords Project, 2010-2011