tales of daring and
disaster, and among them was the heroic and amazing figure of one Peter
Jackson who belonged in the brig Ceres. While running down the river
from Calcutta she was thrown on her beam ends and Peter, perhaps dumping
garbage over the rail, took a header. Among the things tossed to him as
he floated away was a sail-boom on which he was swiftly carried out of
sight by the turbid current. All on board concluded that Peter Jackson
had been eaten by sharks or crocodiles and it was so reported when they
arrived home. An administrator was appointed for his goods and chattels
and he was officially deceased in the eyes of the law. A year or so
later this unconquerable sea-cook appeared in the streets of Salem,
grinning a welcome to former shipmates who fled from him in terror as
a ghostly visitation. He had floated twelve hours on his sail-boom,
it seemed, fighting off the sharks with his feet; and finally drifting
ashore. "He had hard work to do away with the impressions of being
dead," runs the old account, "but succeeded and was allowed the rights
and privileges of the living."

The community of interests in these voyages of long ago included not
only the ship's company but also the townspeople, even the boys and
girls, who entrusted their little private speculations or "adventures"
to the captain. It was a custom which flourished well into the
nineteenth century. These memoranda are sprinkled through the account
books of the East Indiamen out of Salem and Boston. It might be Miss
Harriet Elkins who requested the master of the Messenger "please to
purchase at Calcutta two net beads with draperies; if at Batavia or any
spice market, nutmegs or mace; or if at Canton, two Canton shawls of the
enclosed colors at $5 per shawl. Enclosed is $10."

Again, it might be Mr. John R. Tucker who ventured in the same ship one
hundred Spanish dollars to be invested in coffee and sugar, or Captain
Nathaniel West who risked in the Astrea fifteen boxes of spermaceti
candles and a pipe of Teneriffe wine. It is interesting to discover what
was done with Mr. Tucker's hundred Spanish dollars, as invested for him
by the skipper of the Messenger at Batavia and duly accounted for.
Ten bags of coffee were bought for $83.30, the extra expenses of duty,
boat-hire, and sacking bringing the total outlay to $90.19. The coffee
was sold at Antwerp on the way home for $183.75, and Mr. Tucker's
handsome profit on the adventure was therefore $9