On October 28, the Mattapoisett Museum threw open its doors, let a few goblins out, while still others came in in the form of bipedal homosapians, the most frightful creatures on earth. The pre-Halloween event was a retelling, with live action of three true tales from the museum’s archives.
The stories were gleaned for the most accurate bits of history being reformatted, so to speak, but not rewritten by museum volunteer Luke Couto. Along with Tiago Duarte, Matthew Curry, Nicholas Barao and Holyn Turner, Couto reenacted stories about special events that occurred in the lives of notable Mattapoisett residents in the 1800s.
First was the story told by Joshua Cushing, whaling captain, to the Republican Standard newspaper. Cushing had shipped out as a crew member of the Mary Ann in the 1850s. It was a merchant ship, not a whaler, trading goods from one east-coast location to another and even east into the Mediterranean.
Piracy was rampant at this time so before shipping out again, Cushing’s vessel was made to resemble a privateer. That bit of deception would not fool the Algerian pirates who roamed the seas, but the Algerian’s deception, hoisting England’s flag as the Mary Ann approached, did work. Before they could take decisive action, the pirates had gained the upper hand and taken Mary Ann’s captain hostage.
Cushing and all who sailed the wide ocean knew that if captured by a pirate, they would likely be sold off as slaves. The sailors preferred death to capture and began brewing a plan to escape from the pirates.
From the newspaper account he gave, Cushing stated, “Various ideas for escape ran through my mind, but being under the broadside of a ship of 44 guns which could sink us with a single volley, it was hopeless. I took the glass and watched the frigate, and at the end of an hour men armed with swords, guns, pistols and daggers were put off in a boat to return to the Mary Ann. At last my heart leaped with joy to see the Captain among the company, but my joy was short lived! On their arrival, the pirates brutally bound our foremast hands and threw them into the boat. Only the Captain, the cook, the cabin boy (a lad of 14) and myself remained. We were prisoners…”
But the intrepid sailors weren’t giving up. They laid a plan to trick the pirates into peering over the side of the ship, and then the sailors would flip them overboard. As Cushing tells it, “Our plan was for the Captain to again show how to catch fish with the grain staff. This would draw the prize crew to the side of the vessel – in fact, they probably would lean over the rail the better to see the action. At a given signal, each of us was to pitch a man overboard. We were now only about 7 miles from Algiers and eternal slavery.”
The end of the story is this: Cushing and the crew of the Mary Ann freed themselves from the clutches of the pirates and eventually returned home with a very exciting tale to tell. And the dagger. Well, Cushing’s dagger was returned to Mattapoisett Museum some years ago after being given to the Plymouth Society by Noah Hammond, who had come into its possession.
The second true tale comes from the life of one Matthew Hiller. When he shared his story for one of the last times, Hiller was in his 90s. In 1862, the Civil War was consuming large swaths of the young republic. But it also touched people living in Mattapoisett.
The whaling ship, the Alabama, encountered a Confederate war ship as they neared Portugal. The Alabama and its crew were taken by the Confederate sailors but later set free in San Miguel. Hiller was somehow able to keep the handcuffs that had been used to bind his wrists. The museum’s collection includes the handcuffs.
Hiller would go on to become a whaling boat captain. One of his stories, which Couto did not note as being confirmed, was being swallowed by a whale and spat out. It could be true.
The last true tale that the ensemble cast presented was likely the one with the highest creep factor – it’s about corpses.
Well actually, it’s about three physicians who wanted to study human anatomy with the goal of better understanding of human body systems and to round out the education of a Dr. William Sparrow.
As Couto suggests, Dr. A.S. Jones and Dr. Newton Southworth convinced Sparrow to go with them and assist in the removal of a corpse from the Alms House cemetery. At first, Sparrow wanted no part in the illegal grave-robbing scheme regardless of the corpse being excellent research material. He evidently caved to their persuasion, and off the trio went to collect the unknown human specimen.
They would be caught red-handed and arrested, but they never went to trial. Southworth had said he had the Board of Selectmen approval.
To learn more about these stories as well as upcoming events at the Mattapoisett Museum, visit mattapoisettmuseum.org.
Mattapoisett Museum
By Marilou Newell