The featured antique this month is another maritime one: an original 19th century spyglass used for nearly 20 years on ocean voyages around the world by a famous Maine sea captain (of several clipper ships) named Captain Charles H. Reed. Here is a small portion of the history – in writing and photographs - of Captain Reed that has been provided to me directly from a historian at the Maine Historical Society (my additions are in parenthesis):

“Charles was born to Reuben Reed and Martha Fullerton Gilmore Reed in Woolwich, Maine, on June 13, 1845…he began sailing in his teenage years and worked his way up to the position of captain at the age of 28 (in 1873).

He married his first wife, Mary Ellen Gilmore, in Woolwich in 1871. Sometime prior to 1876, Reed became captain of the clipper Storm King (which had been built in Richmond, Maine, in 1874). He remained captain of this vessel until May of 1886, when the ship was sold to a company in Boston to be converted to a coal barge.

In 1887, Reed became captain of the (clipper) ship Servia and remained her captain until June of 1894. During this time, his first wife died of tuberculosis (in 1892).

In 1894, Reed remarried to May L. Casey (or Hutchinson, sources conflict) from Vallejo, CA. In 1895, he took on the role of captain aboard the (clipper) ship Samaria, though only through 1896.

He captained his final ship, the (clipper ship) Berlin, from 1897 until he eventually retired from seafaring life to his home in Richmond (he appears to have retired about 1900 or 01 and he died 16 November 1919).

He had one child, a daughter Lorena. She was born in 1895 and accompanied her father on several of his voyages across the sea. As an adult, she became published on the subject of female sailors, and joined the WACS (during World War II) in 1943. She continued to write about Maine and maritime history until her death in 1974. She is buried with her parents in Cotton Cemetery in Richmond, Maine.”

Summarizing additional research provided to me by the Maine Historical Society, Captain Reed’s obituary states that he went to sea at age 16 and that he sailed ‘round Cape Horn (southern tip of South America) 24 times and the Cape of Good Hope (southern tip of Africa) 18 times. He set a speed record in the Clipper Ship “Storm King” from New York to San Francisco that stood for many years until it was broken by just one day. His speed record from Rio De Janeiro to San Francisco in 65 days was beaten only once and tied only once in all the days of sail. He had a ship catch fire (but extinguished it) in the South China Sea. He rescued a sinking English bark in mid-Atlantic and its captain gave Reed the ship’s flag, removed before it went under. For years, Reed hung this flag at his Richmond, Maine, home. He was regarded in news articles as one of the last of the great clipper ship captains. As a telling of the dangerous conditions for sailors and captains in those years, Reed is noted as being remarkable for never having lost a ship at a time when most did! He is also listed in the late 1870’s as captaining the Storm King from Liverpool, England, to California; from Liverpool to Bombay, India. Then in 1882 from Oregon to Australia; 1886 from France to New York. This spyglass thus also has sailed across both the Atlantic and Pacific, in addition to the many Cape Horn and Cape of Good Hope transits.

He procured this spyglass in 1882, while captain of the Storm King since 1876 until 1886, during a port call at Liverpool, England. It’s highly likely he retained this spyglass for the rest of his career until his retirement in about 1900 or 01, using it in subsequent commands as captain of the clippers Servia (captain 1887-94), Samaria (1895-96), and Berlin (1897 until he retired in about 1900 or 01).

Of further extreme interest, a news report of 1900 states that Captain Reed had prominently displayed in his home on Front Street in Richmond, Maine, the Civil War flag that Union Admiral Farragut had flying on his ship, the USS Hartford. This is the ship in which Farragut uttered one of the most famous words in US Navy history, “Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!” Reed apparently flew Farragut’s flag, too, as a second news article seven years later states the flag was 28 feet long and it was attracting considerable attention in the neighborhood. The 1900 report also says Reed had a lamp in his home from the USS Monitor from the Civil War when it was in battle with the CSS Merrimac, one of the most famous battles of the Civil War.

How I acquired this spyglass: I bought it in the mid-1980’s (so about 40 years ago). Its provenance is complete and when I received it, it had been on loan from the granddaughter of Captain Reed, Polly Roberts to the Bath, Maine, Maritime Museum, now named the Maine Maritime Museum. Prior to that, I later learned it had been loaned to the museum in the 1960’s by Captain Reed’s daughter and only child, Lorena. She had stated in a 1943 news article that she had a lot of her father’s items from his sea voyages in her house to include every chart he used going ‘round the Horn those 24 times, his sea chest (which two crewmen had died upon), and two hooked rugs that were made (probably by his wife who frequently sailed with him, as did Lorena) at sea on the Storm King. Undoubtedly, this spyglass was one of these items in the collection. The Maine Maritime Museum today holds several items from Reed’s and then daughter Lorena’s collection, including oil paintings of two of his ships, the Servia and Samaria. Four of Captain Reed’s diaries are also held by the museum and have been digitized and are posted online for free. If you go to the Maine Maritime Museum’s website you can see them all: https://www.mainemaritimemuseum.org/

Antique of the Month - 1882 Sea Captain’s Spyglass

Sailing Adventures of Captain Reuben D. Nelson (1923-?)

Sailing Adventures of Captain Edward H. Brownell & Captain William Hall