One hundred and sixty-eight years ago, on Jan. 21, 1854, Capt. Jared Wade Jr. (1811-1889) wrote to his wife, Harriett Bushnell Wade (1831-1911), from St. Helena Island. This British island in the South Atlantic served as an important stopping-off port for the whaling and shipping industry. According to letters from family members, Harriett accompanied Jared on at least one voyage to Asia, but for this trip she stayed at home in Sag Harbor.
This letter was written during Wade’s voyage on the Roanoke, which left from Greenport and remained at sea until 1857. According to the whaling historian Alexander Starbuck, the voyage collected 488 tons of sperm oil and 351 tons of whale oil.
Wade reported to his wife that his ship had been at St. Helena for six days, and he planned to be there for a few more. While he remained optimistic that the season was improving for whaling, he admitted that the voyage had been unsuccessful thus far, with only two whales captured. He predicted that he would need to stay at sea for at least another five or six months before he could begin the journey home.
Wade also addressed Harriett’s news from her last letter, that the money he’d lent his brother’s business had been entirely lost. It’s unclear whether the loan went to his brother Benjamin’s shipyard or his brother Oliver’s mercantile business. But Jared’s tone remained positive: “We must begin anew. I wish you would not let it trouble you for it will not make any difference with me.”
Wade went on to say he didn’t want Harriett or their “darling boy,” William, to suffer, cry, or lose sleep over the situation. To reassure her, he explained the arrangements he’d made for his family to retain credit with his friend William Payne and a local merchant, “Mr. Douglass,” until he returned from his trip with more money.
In 1875, after Sag Harbor’s whaling industry had died out, Jared Wade was appointed keeper of the Montauk Lighthouse.
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Andrea Meyer is the head of the East Hampton Library’s Long Island Collection.
