Series 49. Logbooks: U.S. Navy (1799-1928, undated)
Scope and Content
The series consists of original and transcribed log books from US naval vessels, including those under the command of John Paul Jones (see Series 28) and Isaac Hull (see Series 27) (USS Constitution) and from lesser-known ships on routine cruises.
The Serapis logbook is notable for the variety of uses the volume was put to on the vessel under both British command and after its capture by Jones aboard Bon Homme Richard. It includes lists of officers and men aboard Ariel under the command of Jones, and deserters from Bon Homme Richard; was kept on board Serapis from September 26, 1779, to October 14, 1780; and aboard Queen of France in August and September of 1782. It ends with material transcribed at an unspecified date from Jones's papers on deposit at the Library of Congress as of January 18, 1872.
The 1824 USS Ontario cruise was via the West Indies to the Mediterranean, where it joined Commodore William Bainbridge's (see Series 1) squadron and protected commercial shipping along the Barbary Coast from pirates. The volume includes drawings and writing at the end, probably by the child or children of Murray Mason, Fairfax County, Virginia. A midshipman at the time of this log, he may have been on Ontario and returned home with the book.
USS Potomac departed New York in August, 1831, on its first overseas cruise to join the Pacific Station via the Cape of Good Hope. On February 6, 1832, it shelled Quallah Batoo, Sumatra, in retaliation for the February, 1831, capture of merchant vessel Friendship and the murder of her crew. The logbook was kept by midshipman James L. Parker. In the volume are two newspaper clippings: "View of the Castle of San Juan d'Ulua with the burning of the Mexican brig Creole by Lieutenant James Lawrence Parker and passed midshipmen Hynson and Rodgers USN" (undated) and from "The Daily chronicle and General Advertiser" of August 7, 1847, a memoriam from Commodore Matthew C. Perry on Parker's July 12, 1847, death from disease brought on by wounds sustained in an attack on Tuspan, Mexico.
The Constelation [sic] and Grampus logbooks are bound on continuous sheets that appear to have been removed from a previously sewn volume. The title page of each shows a hand-rendered drawing of the ship at full sail.
The 1844 Constitution logbook documents a cruise to the African coast off Madagascar. It includes hand-drawn maps of the area showing the ship's route and one with soundings documented; appendices on "Madagascar," "Hints on the Economy of a Man of War" (noting health and cleanliness issues on a long cruise to an unhealthy place), "The comparative merits of hemp and chain cables…valuable extract from a report transmitted by the Board of Admiralty by Captain W.F. Owen Royal Navy," "Chronological abstract of the cruise," "Barometrical observations in the Mozambique Channel during the months of October and November 1844," "Wooden Anchors," and "The Mozambique channel".
The Penguin logbook documents routine shipboard operations during travel between Key West, Charlotte Harbor, and Apalachicola, Florida, before ending at Baltimore, Maryland, as part of the ship's protection of Union naval forces during the Civil War.
Related Materials at The New-York Historical Society
The Serapis logbooks were edited by John Sanford Barnes (see Series 3, Series 28) and published as "The logs of the Serapis - Alliance - Ariel, under the command of John Paul Jones, 1779-1780; with extracts from public documents, unpublished letters and narratives," by the DeVinne Press, New York, as the Society's first volume of publications in 1911.