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Carter, John Calvin.

Journal of Travel &c. Commenced August 18th 1867 on sailing from Baltimore Md. for San Francisco California. [Medical officer’s journal of a voyage aboard the U.S. Revenue Cutter Reliance from Baltimore to San Francisco, and from thence to aboard the SS California to Alaska].

At sea, Baltimore, San Francisco, Alaska, and other locales, 17 August 1867–17 July 1868. 4to (11.25” x 9”), three quarters black calf and brown paper over boards. 68.5 ruled pp. manuscript in ink, followed by numerous blank ruled leaves. CONDITION: Covers fair, front cover detached; first gathering detached, contents else very good.

The journal of a former U.S. army doctor serving as surgeon on the U.S. revenue cutter Reliance from Baltimore to San Francisco, and evidently enjoying a friendship with Michael A. Healy—a.k.a. “Hell Roaring Mike”—who would later become the first person of African-American descent to command a ship of the U.S. Government.

Dr. John Calvin Carter (1837–1870) reported for duty as medical officer aboard the U.S. Revenue Cutter Reliance on August 17th, 1867: “The vessel is a new one of 227 tons, having been built for this, her first voyage by John T. Fardy & Bros of Balt.” The Reliance and her sister ship Vigilant were the last sail-only cutters in the USRCS, and Carter accompanied John A. Henriques (captain); Edward B. Furlong (first lieutenant); M. A. Healey (second lieutenant); T. B. Mullett (second lieutenant); and Lemuel Cowan (third lieutenant) on her maiden voyage from Baltimore to San Francisco, where she arrived—“after a voyage of six months and nine days”— on January 27th, 1868. Obliged to abandon his initial plan of returning east immediately, and “having a horror of being idle in a perfectly strange place,” Carter obtains an appointment as Acting Assistant Surgeon in the U.S. Army. After over a month exploring San Francisco (“what a complete Babel it is, a second New York”) he boards the steamer California on March 10th and continues up the West Coast and down Puget Sound, arriving at Fort Steilacoom in late March, and then, a month later, at Fort Wrangell in the newly-acquired territory of Alaska. The final entry in the volume, written in Alaska, is dated July 17th, 1868.

Carter’s entries are observant and fluently-written, and cover a wide range of details from life at sea, at various ports of call, and at Fort Wrangell. He records natural observations (e.g., porpoises and bioluminescent waters) and notable meals (at Christmas on the Reliance they have “soup, chief ingredients of wh[ich] were beans & grease…salt horse, roasted spuds, called otherwise potatoes, Coffee & hard tack”) and significant events, including the death of the cabin boy, William A. Howard, who was washed overboard, and Lt. Healy’s capture of a porpoise (which they later eat), among other “piscatorial feats.” Entries written at sea usually begin with the weather, and sometimes include latitude and longitude, barometric readings, and the temperature of both air and water. (Carter notes in September: “Some of these observations…are wrong, but folks who present strictly correct statements, as to their whereabouts…are, I fancy, liable to the charge…of being graduates of school, of which ‘Munchausen’…was the patron saint, or ‘humbug’?”) While aboard the Reliance, Carter has little medical work to do (sailors, he reflects, being so unlike soldiers), and he “hardly knows” how to compare his new stifling idleness to “my 4 years of army experience.” To fill his time, Carter begins to keep not only his own log, but that of “my friend” Lt. Healy; he also mentions his attempts to maintain his French and improve his Spanish, “which may be of some use in future.”

The Reliance reaches “Caeira,” off the coast of Brazil, in late October, and spends several days resupplying before sailing twelve miles further to Santa Catharina, their intended destination. Going ashore, Carter notices a group of young boys in the street conducting “a kind of drill or inspection” under an officer; visits the American Consul and his wife (both “very clever & agreeable”); goes to the market (“such a gabbling and cackling of Portuguese I never heard in my life. How should I?…Beef from 3 to 5 cents per pound, eggs 16 cts per dozen, &c.”); and collects a variety of coins “to take home as curiosities, so enough of the ‘Brazilian ‘branch’ of the ‘root of all evil.’”

On a stormy November afternoon, Carter records Lt. Healy’s capture of two albatrosses:

Cold and thundering weather all the afternoon. Walking the boardroom. The most desirable place for all with no business on deck. Lt Healey caught two Albatross this afternoon, one of them was drowned when hauled in, he was a splendid specimen and measured 10 feet stretch of wings. The 2d one we allowed to live for some time. The unfortunate bird was evidently out of its element, not being able to rise from the deck to fly, and making about as much progress in walking as a broken legged fowl would, on land. He was very spiteful too, thrusting his sharp & hooked beak viciously at any one going near him. He took his head off finally and I had it skinned and hung up dry to take home as a specimen. His feet & those of the other were taken off & appropriated by some of the officers, who were busy during the afternoon skinning them. The skins to be made into fancy reticules & other curiosities.

The Reliance rounds Cape Horn in relative peace, and makes a call at Valparaiso (“the town in the first place badly belies its name, wh[ich] signifies vale of paradise, a horrible misnomer indeed…”) before arriving in San Francisco. His first impression of the city is that

it is far more cosmopolitan than any other American city except New York. It has four hotels which would be a credit to any metropolis. At these and along Montgomery Street, wh is the Broadway of San Francisco, one sees that curious mingling of faces, from all parts of the earth, wh is so noticeable in New York. The Celestials [i.e., people of Chinese descent] here are to be seen in great plenty and in all qualities of dress from that of the wealthy Chinese merchant, of whom there are many, with large amounts down to the miserable creature who ekes out an existence no one knows or cares how. The single matter of the hair is a distinguishing mark between the castes .Those of the higher orders including Merchants, Physicians, &c dress well in dark silk fabrics, & wear the hair shaved all except a portion made with a long que [i.e., queue], plaited & hanging nearly to the ground. The lower classes are dirty & offensive in person and dress, and wear the hair coiled round the head. Vast numbers of the latter are employed as porters, carrying their burdens in round baskets slung to either end of a pole, resting upon a mat on the shoulder. Others are saloon and hotel waiters, bootblacks, &c. Others again, earn a good living by washing and many are the signs peeking out from little courts and up from dingy basements signifying that ‘Ah Sing’ or ‘Yet Waa’ or ‘Hong Tat[?]’ does washing & ironing…

His voyage north aboard the steamer California is a “completely disgusting experience of steamer life” (the steamer itself, though not “by any means to be considered a sample of Ocean Steamship comfort,” was nothing in comparison to the dreadful weather). In Vancouver he stays at the St. Nicholas Hotel, and notes the diverse population of “French, English, Americans, Jews, & Indians.” From Vancouver he takes the steamer Anderson to Fort Steilacoom, admiring the scenery of the Sound, and taking note of

groups of Indians clothed in all sorts of fantastic styles…clustered around their fires, in front of their rude wigwams, preparing what simple fare they had. The women of course doing the work, the men lying or standing lazily about while the youngsters were chasing around on the beach with those of the dogs, that were not hanging around the fires, watching a chance to grab a tempting morsel.

Carter stays at Fort Steilacoom, sharing quarters with Company E, 2nd US Artillery, for a month. Although he is met by “the first [ambulance] I had been in or seen since the war” and finds the hospital “well conducted in all departments,” he is compelled to wait—“reading, smoking, fishing, shooting, receiving letters from dear friends at home, reading them o’er and o’er again”—for his own work at Fort Wrangell, where he arrives, after a stop at Tongass Island, on May 3rd:

As two or three days were required to get our stores &c ashore, I decided to remain on board the steamer and ‘take the benefit’ of civilization as long as I could, being utterly in the dark as to when I should have another opportunity, but finally, every thing appertaining to ourselves and our comfort or discomfort was landed, & we stared fate in the face & came ashore, not to fare as badly as we thought for, as tents with good floors in them were already pitched, I soon made a raid on my Hospital bedsteads & pressed two into active, or passive? service. The first few days were rather rough of course, but as we came to find, and overhaul our [?] for things needful and useful we were soon as comfortable as possible under circumstances, & quietly decided to ‘fight it out on this line, if it took all summer or a whole year.’

The place now presents a striking Contrast to its appearance on our arrival, from ‘Early morn to dewy Eve’ may be heard the stirring sounds of ax and saw, wielded by sturdy men in constructing the Store houses, Bakery, & other buildings necessary for the proper conduct of our Post affairs…

Although by July 11th there is

nothing of a hospital yet, though we improvised one of a small tent, as one of the Command has been too ill with fever to remain in the unavoidable confusion of the general quarters. Upon the high ground back of our present position the site for the fort & blockhouses has been cleared, after more labor for the extent of ground than many of us ever saw before, a large number of great sumps have been removed from their resting place of scores of years, by first digging round the roots and chopping them off, & finally by hitching the mules to them…

Having few medical patients—“disease has fortunately kept away from us”—and little interest in “the principal amusements here, viz. card playing, fishing, gaming, & boating,” Carter and one “Lt. Ring” undertake an “expedition in a canoe, paddled by two Indians to find a piece of cedar suitable for buoys”:

After a hard pull or paddle rather of some eight or ten miles, we reached a spot which we had visited six or eight weeks ago. Found a cedar suited to our minds, and set our Indian to work to fell it. To work they went, one at a time, as we had brought but one ax, & that wretchedly dull. R took a hand now and then to spell them & keep his blood going right, while I owing to a stiff shoulder, had to sit on a rock in the rain for some three hours watching…and wondering what on earth had possessed me to come away from a warm fire, & ride ten miles in the rain to see two Indians making a frantic attack upon an obdurate cedar, with a dull ax…

The tale ends with their successful return, “R satisfied and I disgusted with our day’s experience,” and the journal itself closes in a disconsolate mood:

the long and anxiously expected Steamer has not made her appearance yet, and to add to our impatience, we learn that a few days since a steamer passed by on the other side, without so much as calling to see, if we were dead or alive, perhaps though t’is just as well, as we don’t care about seeing any body, or any thing, till they bring us some news from the world, for we might as well be out of it, as where we are.

John Calvin Carter was born in 1837 and served as an assistant surgeon in the 4th Maryland Volunteer Infantry throughout the Civil War. A Dr. John C. Carter appears in Baltimore city directories for 1867/68 (at 83 e Baltimore), 1870, and 1871 (at the northwest corner of Fayette and Paca). A notice in The Baltimore Sun states on December 31st, 1870 that a Dr. John Calvin Carter died “On the morning of the 30th of December, after a protracted illness. His funeral will take place, without further notice, from the residence of his father, No. 385 West Fayette street, on tomorrow (Sabbath) afternoon, January 1st, at half-past two o’clock."

SOME REPRESENTATIVE PASSAGES:

August 24, 1867 “We have had a dull, tiresome day. Nothing in sight, & only progressing moderately. We established a rule to day, that whoever left anything lying on the case containing the Ship’s Book, should be fined five cts. The amount of fines to go to the Wardroom boy who keeps a slate, upon wh, he makes a mark opposite each man’s name, for every offence; he has five scratches down to me already, that I must be more careful. It certainly is a very good way to make people learn to be tidy. I have something more now to do, as a undertook to keep Mr Healey’s log Book for him. It is no trouble to me & helps fill up the lazy moments.”

August 27, 1867 “We abuse our berths now, calling them hot little holes &c, but I don’t imagine they will be any too warm as we are going round the Horn. Last night I was fancying the awful hours of the middle passage, as I had read of the huddling together of hundreds of poor devils in heat, darkness, & disease, the living many times chained to the dead. That’s one of the beauties of slavery.”

August 28, 1867 “The restrictions to entire freedom of action, wh are indeed necessary to a ship’s perfect discipline, fit rather awkwardly upon one who in a four year’s service with a Regiment did just what he pleased, after his regular morning duties were performed to his own satisfaction, & in accordance with the rules of the Army for the Medical Dept. Still, discipline is a good thing, & those who don’t like it, should not as the [?] saying goes, ‘Take the less of it’ but rather the more of it, so that they will come to like it.”

September 21, 1867 “Two of the officers & myself were writing in the Wardroom, when suddenly the terrible cry of ‘Man Overboard’ rung in our ears. We were all on deck in an instant, & learned the sad news. Wm H. Howard, Cabin Boy while out on the martingale back ropes was washed overboard. A heavy sea running at the time. He was unable to swim, & as he was carried past the Ship, he was seen to make a few struggling motions with his hands but nothing like an effort at self support. A chair was thrown overboard in the hope that it might be of some service to the unfortunate. At the same time the Ship was hove to & 2nd Lieutenant Healey & 4 men, were quickly lowered away in the Captains Gig, & went after him, they rowed over & around the spot where he was last seen, until there was no possible hope left. They returned as they went, & after being hoisted up, & the boat secured, we filled away on the Port Tack, leaving the poor boy in his vast watery grave till the day when the Sea shall give up her dead.”

September 30, 1867 “Have had cloudy weather with light squalls…This afternoon we had another piscatorial feat by Lt Healey in the capture of a fish about 6 feet in length & weighing I should judge between 60 & 70 Lbs. The back, fins, & flukes were of a fine ultra-marine blue & light on the belly. The upper jaw was nearly twice as long as the under one & terminated in a rounded spear of bone about 10 or 12 inches in length. None of us knew the particular class to which he belonged. He was larger than either porpoise or dolphin, but with a smaller head than the former, closely adhering to the throat, was a sucker about 10 inches long. Both to this fish & the shark the sucker is an inveterate enemy, living upon the blood wh[ich] it draws from their bodies, when placed with his suction apparatus in contact with the dec considerable force was required to dislodge him. The sucking surface about 3 inches in length by 2 in width…”

December 17, 1867; Valparaiso “After a run of 43 days from St Catherine’s we anchored in this harbor…in 25 fathoms water, nothing done with my journal, for the last 7 days, having been obliged like the newspaper people, to wait patiently for items, but two days before making port, the water was observed of a color nearly approaching that of claret, it seemed confined to a space of probably a mile in circumference; fears were entertained of shoals, and sail was shortened upon the ship at once, the gig was called away, the Captain & 1st Lieut, proceeded in her for the purpose of sounding, the question of shoal water, was soon settled, as they returned in about an hour, without having found any…I believe that the discoloration was caused by vast quantities of marine animalculae clustered together.

Today, about 4 hours previous to coming in and while waiting the tardy movement of the pilot, numbers of whales were seen, spouting in all directions, and as a whaling vessel was within short rifle range of us, we were anxious to see the sport, but it was no go, her people took no notice of them, for she as we afterward learned had a full cargo of oil, the whale having it all to themselves, breaching, as whalemen call it, first blowing, and then rising almost perpendicularly out of the water, apparently by the muscular power in the tail of the fish, they do not come down numbly, as the porpoises do, but with a roar and crash, like that of a giant forest tree. So they went, thundering along, & throwing showers of water in the air, & making it look like showers of rainbow hues in the bright sunlight. How much I wished, that ship had had a few hundred barrels less of oil on board.

A few words will settle Valparaiso, the town in the first place badly belies its name, wh signifies vale of paradise, a horrible misnomer indeed, for so far from there being any thing Paradisiacal about it, the French name for a warmer place would suit it better. The population is probably between 12 and 15 thousand, consisting in a word, of a regular cosmopolitan portion, prevailing religion Roman Catholic of course, though I believe there is a faint attempt at Protestantism by the American Sea Mens Friend Society.

The business of the town is in great part confined to the furnishing of naval stores of all descriptions, inasmuch as the place is a rendezvous for the American, English, French, and Spanish fleets in the South Pacific, there are other stores of course for general or special traders, some good others poor, prices in all branches high, the market was the best thing I saw, so pleasing from its novelty, here, under the influence of the Sunny South American clime, were arrayed in tempting profession not only the fine native productions, but everything to be found in our own dear homes, think of delicious strawberries larger than…any of ever saw before, green pease, green corn, tomatoes, everything in fact in to grace ones table, in December.”

February 5; San Francisco “The ‘Cliff House’ about 4 miles from the city & approached by an excellent road, is a favorite resort for pleasure hunters who go out there in the fine afternoons in all manner of styles, some in handsome open road wagons driving four in hand, some with double teams, others single and the remainder gotten up in gay equestrian style. There they remain for a time enjoying the grand view seaward & amusing themselves otherwise, & then return by a different route. A prominent feature of interest in this vicinity consists in great numbers of sea lions, floundering about in the water in all kinds of antics, & then climbing upon the rocks, roar & back like a parcel of great dogs. The Californians set great store to them, as pets, and to injure or kill them is punishable with heavy fines.”

July 11; Fort Wrangell “The 4th passed off as pleasantly as we could make it. Could only fire two guns one at the sunrise and one at noon, as we had no blank cartridges. Capt Smith entertained his own officers & several invited guests from the telegraph station in our mess room. Had a splendid turkey & other good things to accompany it, dinner passed off nicely and all were pleased. The men all dined together near their quarters in the open air. They had plenty of roast beef, pies, plum pudding &c and did ample justice to all placed at their disposal. Our friends at Tongass did better justice to the day at least than we, as by an arrival from there, we learn. They fired 36 guns at noon, had gun practice in the afternoon and other kinds of enjoyment, However, we’ll try and do better next time.”

A former US Army surgeon’s lively account of his experiences on a US revenue cutter around Cape Horn, exploring San Francisco, and working as a doctor during the construction of a fort in the newly-acquired Territory of Alaska.

REFERENCES: “Sailing of the Revenue Cutter Reliance,” The Baltimore Sun, August 21, 1867, p. 1; “Died,” The Baltimore Sun, December 31, 1870, p. 2.

Item #9815

Price: $2,750.00

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