For any adventure seeking young man growing up in the 1800’s in Rochester, the idea of crewing on a whaling bark was enticing. Over the years, many a Rochester resident of a certain age went off to try his luck at sea. In the files at the Museum, there are many articles donated by area residents. One of these is a lengthy interview of 74 year old Frank Rounseville. In this article, he reminisces about his four years as part of the crew on the maiden voyage of the Wanderer.
Frank was eighteen when he left school and made the decision to sign on to the crew of a whaler. His parents weren’t happy with that career plan, but since his father had done the same thing at about the same age, there wasn’t much they could say. At the Museum, we have copies of the letters his mother, Roxanna Rounseville wrote to him while he was at sea. The letters are also reprinted in Rochester Journal #4 which is on sale at the Museum.
When Frank signed on to crew under Capt. Andrew Heyer, he had a good idea of what to expect. His father’s stories of his whaling days let him know as he said that “the cap’n didn’t give you pies whenever you wanted them.” The Wanderer was a new ship built in Mattapoisett in 1878 and began a four year voyage from Mattapoisett Harbor on June 4 of that year. They headed out with a crew of 32 and stopped at Fayal in the Azores to pick up the captain’s young wife. They then headed south of the equator and for the four years at sea, Rounseville said that he never saw the North Star until they crossed the line on their way home.
For the most part the Wanderer was a fortunate vessel. Just one month into the voyage, on July 4, they took in 100 barrels of oil. Early on, Seaman Rounseville watched the chase after whales from the mother ship, but before long he was assigned to First Mate Charles W. Barker’s boat. He must have acquitted himself admirably for after two years before the mast, he was promoted to boat steerer. He downplayed the promotion because he said, “Boat steerer’s the man who gets blamed for everything.” He did allow that he got “better fare at table and less duty at the wheel and less standing lookout.”
The luck of the Wanderer held for the journey with no fatalities among the crew and good luck at filling the ship’s hold with oil. Sadly, in the third year that luck did not extend to the Captain, whose wife died, leaving him with an infant daughter. He left the ship and turned over command to Capt. John S. Layton.
Rounseville describes both exciting chases after whales and daily chores. One job was to climb into the “case”, the reservoir in the head of a sperm whale in order to bail out the oil. All it took was a little warming before it liquefied enough to remove. He recounted stepping barefoot into the whale’s head and using a dipper that would hold a gallon and a half of oil. His clothes would often reek of whale oil for days.
There were exciting times. He told of one time when the second, third and fourth mates’ boats all fastened onto one whale and were towed from sunset until sunrise. After being gone for at least 12 hours, they returned with the dead whale.
Rounseville’s four years counted as two voyages and in the middle of that time, the ship’s ownership changed hands. He was prepared to sign on for another voyage, whereas a now experienced man, he would be eligible for a larger lay or share of the profits. However, when he learned they would be heading to the Arctic, he left the sea with $250.00 and souvenirs he had purchased in ports like St. Helena and Teneriffe and returned to Rochester. There he worked at the family’s sawmill, cut wood on his 150 acres of woodland and farmed his seven acres.
This article was written in 1935, at a time when Frank Rounseville and Joseph Stowell of Fairhaven were the only known survivors of the Wanderer’s maiden voyage. The picture shows Frank Rounseville with a few items from his voyage. He cut the cane out of ivory from a 100 barrel whale and carved it during down times at sea. The four teeth come from the same whale which he helped to catch.
By Connie Eshbach