[ALSs] Three Letters From Sailor Jim Darren on the Schooner Sea Ranger to His Wife in Jordan, Connecticut

Baltimore, [MD]; Port Lavaca, [TX], 1856. Very good, tearing to edges and folds affecting small portions of text, light to moderate staining and soiling.. 9 pp. Three letters from Jim Darren, a sailor aboard the Schooner Sea Ranger, to his wife, Mel (Amelia), who resided in Jordan, Connecticut. In one letter he tells her she will not like Texas, and "Port Lavaca is the worst."

1. [ALS]: February 3rd, 1856. [3] pp. Bifolium. In his opening, Jim laments not hearing from his wife. The Sea Ranger has been gone for eight days, and though he does not divulge his location, he expects they are heading somewhere "in Cuba and from there to sum Northern part and then home which will take us into April..."

2. [ALS]: April 26th 1856, from Baltimore. [2] pp. Jim notes they are bound for New London, and that they will be delivering a load of coal to Prentis, who is one of the Schooner's owners. "We have nothing to do today so I am going to look at Baltimore... Baltimore is the best Place that I have been ... I have not seen much of it ... but I shall rather be in that city of Jordan..." He remarks that their captain is "the poorist man to do business that I ever saw," and that "if he only new as much as John [Chapman] I think he would make a grate deal more money this winter the vessel wont make not one cent this winter ..."

3. [ALS]: December 12th, 1856, from Port Lavaca, Texas, with an introductory letter from Mel's brother, Dan. [4] pp. Bifolium Dan tells his sister: "Yesterday we arrived at Powderhorn or Indianola... you better believe I made tracks for this place to see Jim... I went on board & I thought I was on Jordan Sure to see Cap Chapman ... Jim was buisy all day but we sat on a Cotton Bale untill 11 oclock and talked over things past never to return ....Jim is as fat as a pig & dont have the shakes... I am well fat... Jim says he dont like Texas much but I think he would to stay here a little while." Dan ask his sister to wish the folks in Jordan well, before noting that Jim will finish the letter. Jim tells Mel, "I have found Dan at last but I was afraid that I should not see him we had a first rate time together he went back to day and I dont know that I ever felt so bad away from home as I did when he went but I am a sailor and must learn to meet such things though they come hard sometimes ...Port Lavaca is the worst but Dan says the Victoria is better than this place but I say Texas is all alike Dan says that I am fat but I aint fat I can eat my bread and butter and drink as much rum as the next one ..."

The Schooner Sea Ranger was built in New London in 1854, and described as 95 tons, 98 x 29 feet, "One deck, two masts, square stern, sea horse head," and owned by Master John M. Chapman, A.F. Prentis, Charles Prentis, H.P. Haven, Thomas Fitch, William H. Law, and Calvin D. Willams (Ship Registers and Enrollments of New Orleans, Louisiana: 1851-1860, WPA, 1942, p236, item 1144). (Inventory #: 45168)