Logbook of the bark MOONBEAM

Logbook of the bark MOONBEAM

Logbook of the bark MOONBEAM of Searsport, Maine, covering voyages on transatlantic routes between August, 1880 and June, 1882. Ports of call included Philadelphia, Amsterdam, New York, Liverpool, Havana, Searsport, Boston, and Port Elizabeth, South Africa. The log is an official record of the voyage, recording weather, sail configurations, and locations. It also contains more detailed descriptions of storms and the difficulty of anchoring off River Mbhashe, South Africa, where the ship was sent to pick up the cargo of a wrecked vessel. Later in the 1880s, Captain Bennett Dunbar used some pages of this log-book to draft letters, draft the ship's accounts, and make notes on loading cargo, crew wages, towage, personal business, and other details of operating a vessel in long-distance maritime trades. There are also some loose accounts for the MOONBEAM from this period.