Unsigned letter from Harriet to Father, November 6, 1871

Unsigned letter from Harriet to Father, November 6, 1871

Weather; Voyages and travels; Shipwrecks

Hattie apologizes to her father for not writing more often of their travels. They have had many mishaps on their journey from Canton to Ningpo. They encountered rough waters, a fire in the cargo hold, and after those repairs, the ship hit a rock, causing it to fill with water. They almost had to use the lifeboats, and Henry and Harriet asked to be put together in the same lifeboat. It scared Harriet and was the closest she had ever come to a shipwreck.

Noyes, Harriet Newell

The College of Wooster, Special Collections, Noyes Collection, Box #1

Unpublished

1871-11-06

Council on Library and Information Resources Hidden Special Collections Grant

PDF

eng (English)

Text

noyes_c_cor_067

Ningpo
Nov 6th '71
My dear Father.
I fully intended
when I left Canton to keep
a minute record of all that I saw
and heard to send to the "dear
ones at home". But what do you
think instead of that I have
not yet written [u]a single word[/u]
and already almost a month
has passed Henry has written
and I suppose told you something
of our journey hither. We left
Canton Oct 10th having as we
thought ample time to reach
Ningpo by the 20th as the trip
ought to be made in five or
six days. But as the Shanghai
paper had it the "Canton delegation
arrived in Ningpo in the morning
of the 28th after having met with
as many misfortunes on the way
as Aeneas." What that worthy's
mishaps were I do not know but

we had quite a series of accidents
as soon as we came out of
Hongkong harbor we found it
quite rough and for the first time
I was really seasick for a few
hours. I was very glad of it for I
had been very billious and felt much
better afterwards. We were soon
obliged to come to anchor for 36
hours & wait for the sea to get into
a calmer frame. Next thing some
of the cargo took fire but it was fortunately
discovered in time to prevent much
damage being done. we however put
into Amoy for a day for repairs and
had a most delightful visit with
the missionaries there. Next morning
the American Reformed mission [u]seven[/u]
in number all accompanied us out
and saw us safe on board the
Eastern Isles again. We soon set
sail (got up steam I mean) and
were again on our way. Next [?morn?]
we were going along beautifully and
at 1/2 past seven a sudden shock
+ instant "stoppage of everything"
informed us that we had struck
a rock. The shock did not seem

very severe however and we imagined that perhaps there
was not much damage done. The tide was coming
in + in about two hours she floated off and then we
could see that she was seriously injured. While on the
rock the bows of the steamer were pointing up her stern
much higher than the stern but as soon as she was
fairly in the water again the position was reversed +
we knew by the way the fore part of the vessel settled
down that she must be rapidly filling with water.
The pumps were set to work immediately but they made
little head way at first and it seemed quite probable
that we might be obliged to take the life boats. They
were soon got ready stored with prevision et cetera et cetera our
on deck and thus we awaited the Captain's orders. He
told us each which boat to go in + first Henry + I were
appointed to different boats but that was not very
satisfactory to us + so he said it made no difference

It did not seem as though there was
any danger but I think we both felt that
if we should be doomed we would want
to be [u]together[/u]. At twelve o clock the Capt
came aft to say that the pumps were
beginning to gain on the water. and
perhaps they might be able to get the
steamer back to Amoy for which
port they were running. He had had
a hole cut through in one place so as to
let the water into the middle of the ship
where it would be reached by a large
pump worked by the main engine
+ that soon made an impression. It
threw out the water at the rate of a ton
a minute in a stream 14 inches in
diameter. Part of the cargo had been
thrown out of the front of the ship +
some removed to the stern so that
she finally began to float more lightly.
+ having the mind with us and a
smooth sea we got on very well +
reached Amoy the next morning at
sunrise. This has given us perhaps
a little clearer idea of a shipwreck
than we had before although this was
a very mild form + had none of the
horrors that it would have had in the
middle of a dark night with a high
sea running. I suppose our
greatest danger at least so the Captain
thought was from the pirates who infest
these shores.



宁波
1871 年 11 月 6 日
我亲爱的父亲。
当我离开广州时，
我完全打算将我所见所闻记录下来，
以发送给“在家中亲爱的人”。
但是你认为我还没有写一个字，
亨利写的已经快一个月了，
我想告诉你一些我们到这里来的旅程。
我们于 10 月 10 日离开广州，
因为我们认为有足够的时间在 20 日之前到达宁波，
因为这次旅行应该在五六天内完成。
但正如上海报纸所说，
“广州代表团在途中遭遇了与埃涅阿斯一样多的不幸，
于28日上午抵达宁波。
”我不知道有什么值得的不幸，
但我们一出香港港就发生了一系列事故，
我们发现它很糟糕，
我第一次真的晕船了几个小时。
我对此感到非常高兴，
因为我一直很聪明，
之后感觉好多了。
我们很快就不得不抛锚 36 小时，
等待海面平静下来。
接下来，
一些货物着火了，
但幸运的是及时发现，
以防止造成太大损失。
然而，
我们在厦门进行了一天的维修，
并与那里的传教士进行了最愉快的访问。
第二天早上，
七名美国归正传教团都陪我们出去，
看到我们再次安全地登上了东岛。
我们很快就启航了（我的意思是起航了）并再次上路。
第二天早上，
我们进展顺利，
在 7 点 1/2 时，
突然的震动和瞬间的“一切都停止了”告诉我们，
我们撞到了一块石头。
然而，
冲击似乎不是很严重，
我们认为可能没有造成太大的损坏。
潮水来了，
大约两个小时后，
她漂浮了起来，
然后我们可以看到她受了重伤。
当在岩石上时，
轮船的船头指向比船尾高得多的船尾，
但当她再次完全进入水中时，
位置就反转了，
顺便说一下，
我们知道船的前部安定下来，
她必须迅速注满水。
泵立即开始工作，
但起初它们几乎没有进展，
我们可能不得不乘坐救生艇。
它们很快就准备好存放在甲板上，
因此我们等待船长的命令。
他告诉我们每个人该上哪条船，
首先亨利和我被指派到不同的船上，
但这对我们来说不是很满意，
所以他说这没有区别。
似乎没有任何危险，
但我认为我们俩觉得如果我们注定要在一起，
我们会想在一起。
十二点钟，
船长来到船尾说水泵开始吸水。
也许他们可以把轮船运回厦门，
他们正在运行的港口是哪个港口。
他在一个地方切了一个洞，
以便让水进入船的中间，
在那里由一台由主机驱动的大泵到达，
很快就给人留下了深刻的印象。
它以每分钟一吨的速度在直径 14 英寸的溪流中喷出水。
一部分货物被甩出船头，
一部分被移到船尾，
这样她终于开始更轻地漂浮了。
和我们一起心灵和平静的大海，
我们相处得很好，
第二天早上日出时到达了厦门。
这可能让我们对沉船有了比以前更清晰的认识，
尽管这是一种非常温和的形式，
并且没有在黑暗的夜晚和公海奔流时会发生的恐怖。
我想我们最大的危险至少是船长这么认为的，
来自那些出没于这些海岸的海盗。

Letter