Part 8.
A FAMOUS OLD WHALER.
First Flew American Flag at Hakodate, Japan.
Experiences that Befell Crew of George Howland Recalled.
Captured by Convicts and Converted Into a Pirate Cruiser.
(Providence Journal.)
An experience that befell the crew of the George Howland, a noted New Bedford whaler of the old days, was recalled by a dispatch from Guayaquil, Ecuador, the other day, announcing that about 200 laborers and convicts of Chatham, Galapagos islands, a group belonging to Ecuador, recently mutinied and killed the governor of the islands and several others, afterward fleeing in a schooner to Tumaco on the Pacific coast of Colombia, where they were handed over to the Ecuadorian authorities. They are to be shot on their return to Ecuador. There is nothing new in attempted risings of the convicts who have for many years been kept on the Galapagos for the good of Ecuador. When they have a leader desperate enough, they will attempt anything. In 1850 they captured the George Howland, one of the best known of American whalers at that time and held her for weeks, escaping from a vessel fitted out on one occasion by other whalers for the express purpose of taking the ship again, and finally abandoning the whaler under the guns of a foreign warship. The George Howland was lost in the arctic seas more than 20 years ago, but she is not forgotten by the old whaling captains of the famous Massachusetts town.
In many respects the George Howland was an unusual whaler. Her frame had been gotten out of a corvette which was to have been built in a New England shipyard for service in the war of 1812. But the second war with the British ended too soon for this and the corvette was never built. Somewhere about 1830, when the timbers had become well seasoned, George Howland of New Bedford, who sent out many whalers in the course of his life, heard of the timbers, bought them, had a sheathing of live oak placed on them and built a whaling ship to which he gave his own name. Everything about the ship was first class. There was no iron in her hull, copper only being used. She even had a brass gun for signalling, instead of the iron gun usually carried. She was a smart ship and fast, and she soon became on the best known members of the New Bedford whaling fleet. In 1871, the year in which so many whalers were caught in the ice pack in the Arctic ocean, the Howland was one of the ships abandoned there. Several of them were burned by the natives and the others were crushed in the ice. The Howland, staunch to the last, was one of those set on fire by the natives through carelessness.
The George Howland had a historic interest also, for it was her mate who first hoisted the American flag in the Japanese port of Hakodate. The Japan sea was a noted place for whalers in the old days, and Hakodate, one of the first Japanese ports opened to foreigners, was a place of call for whalers for water and supplies. When the American consulate was first established there, the George Howland happened to be in the harbor. Her captain had intended to hoist the first American flag, but the mate, whose name is not remembered, got ahead of him and had the honor of first hauling up the Stars and Stripes. Hakodate figured in the war news last week, the announcement being made that a Russian squadron had bombarded the port. It is now a Japanese naval supply station of some importance.
It was in 1850 that the George Howland, in the course of a whaling voyage, arrived at the Galapagos. The vicinity of the islands was then a favorite place for whales, and many whalers touched at the group of 13 volcanic islands in the Pacific, at or near the equator, 720 miles west of the coast of Ecuador, for water and fresh supplies. There are small plantations on the five principal islands, and even then the convicts from the mainland were kept there. And a desperate class of men they were, too. The Howland needed water, and the skipper went ashore on one of the islands on which there was a convict settlement. He had not been long absent, when a signal was made from the shore for another boat from the ship, and the mate took a boat's crew ashore in answer. Whalers usually carried three boat's crews and a few men more in those days, and this reduced the force left on board to a small number. When, a little later, they were surprised by men in boats from shore, they were able to offer no material resistance. Only one man escaped capture by the convicts who had revolted and seized their keepers when they saw the opportunity created by the arrival of the American whaler. This man was the cook, who hid in the old and remained there for some time.
The convicts had a desperate leader who had incited revolt on the arrival of the ship. When the captain came ashore he was captured and the following boatloads were also held. The convicts sent the few men of the crew remaining on board ashore and then, hoisting sail, left them. They took the ship to one of the deserted islands, and there painted her black with coal tar. They also made some changes in her rig to disguise her as much as possible. Then they put to sea and headed for the neighborhood of the coast. It was during one of the periodical revolutions, and many of the men were in the convict settlement through too pernicious activity on the side of the rebels. The Howland was speedily made a rebel privateer, although regarded as a pirate by the government side, and for some weeks cruised along the coast attempting captures.
An alarm was soon sent out for her, and at one time while she was becalmed off a port where several American whalers happened to be lying, a daring plan was conceived for her capture. The Americans chartered a small vessel, which they fitted up with arms, and then called for volunteers from the crews of the whalers to man this schooner and take her out to the Howland. There were plenty of volunteers, but one of them, a young American, who afterward became an officer in the United States navy, said the commander of the expedition lacked necessary qualities to insure success. The schooner went out after the ship, but became becalmed, while the ship caught some light airs and made her escape. After that, for some weeks more she was left to make her way unmolested along the coast. At last a Swedish or Danish war vessel caught up with her, and suspecting from her appearance that something was wrong, hailed her and lowered a boat. The convicts did not wait for the arrival of the officer with his crew. As he approached on one side of the vessel they lowered boats on the other side and rowed for shore. The officer found the ship deserted except for one man, the cook, who had concealed himself when the convicts took the whaler.
It was the presence of this man simply that secured the whaler to her owners, for otherwise she would have been a prize forfeit to the man-o'-war. This one member of her regular crew had had a hard time of it. For days he was hidden in the hold, and when he was finally forced to make his presence known he was not well received until it was found that he was a good cook, and then he was put at work in th galley. When the approach of the man-o'-war was observed he managed to hide a second time, and as there was no time to look for him he escaped the fate of the convicts, who reached shore and were mostly hung or shot there without much inquiry. The whaler was turned over to a representative of the United States government in Ecuador and eventually was brought home by her crew. The whaling voyage had been broken up and her owner had had losses where he had expected gains. His claim against the government of Ecuador was not settled in his lifetime, but was handed down to his sons, and eventually, during our Civil war, was adjudicated with some others against the same government. That country made an agreement to pay the claim in installments, and did pay a part of it. But then payments ceased and they were never resumed.
Last updated by Tom Tyler, Denver, CO, USA, Dec 1 2021.
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