Search

Moses Bond's journal contains a memoir of his life from 1786 to 1815, including accounts of his early apprenticeship, vivid descriptions of his sailing career, and his wife's death in childbirth.

Of the 35 pages in Moses Bond's journal, the first twelve are devoted to basic arithmetic problems. These include word problems, most involving investment. The journal proper begins on page 13 with a title page. Though Bond wrote the journal in 1808, he is recounting events that date from 1786 to 1808. The memoir is 22 pages long. In 1814, Bond added a half page about the death of his wife in childbirth.

On the first two pages, Bond writes briefly about his apprenticeship; Osgood Carleton, the well known mathematician who taught him navigation; and Edward Preble, a merchant in Boston who was part owner of the ship Levant. The remainder of the memoir contains an account of his sailing career aboard the ships Levant, and Adamant from 1806 to 1808. Bond recorded the many places he visited in Europe, the Mediterranean, Africa, and India, and sometimes provided detailed descriptions, especially for Cape Aden in the Arabian (or Persian) Gulf, and the ancient city of Tarragona in Spain. He also mentions various cargoes the ship carried, mostly sugar, coffee, wine, and spirits.

Bond wrote about many events, including stormy weather, pumping water from the leaky ship, loading and unloading cargo, and nearly running aground. One time the ship "pitched away our fore top mast with my friend H. Oxnard at the head of it, he however luckily held in the rigging and saved himself without any injury." He also mentioned how they were received by different countries and the lengths of time they had to spend in quarantine. On a visit to Barcelona, in possession of the French, they had to pay a fee to avoid being tried for "breach of the Edict of Napoleon." At one point, the ship was seized and searched by Spanish privateers, and another time they were captured by a Maltese privateer, and taken to Malta.

Bond's own feelings are reflected in the events he recounts. For example, he describes the privateers as overbearing wretches employed "to annoy the Enemy for want of other employment." He also wrote emotionally about the deaths of his sister and friend William C. Fuller, both of whom died while he was at sea. In December, 1814, six years after he wrote the memoir, Bond recorded the account of his wife's death on Dec. 5. "Sad remembrance will bleed at every pore in recounting the sufferings of that dear woman."