George Fox's Sea Journey to America

64 BULLETIN OF FRIENDS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. buildings, old trees, old books, old pictures look down upon the thoughtless boy as he passes beneath and unconsciously absorbs their lessons. So you are welcome to-day to these grounds, bringing as you do your treasures of memory to those already here. Linger to ponder, ere you go, what all this means, for " He in whose heart no history is enscrolled, Cannot discern in life's alloy the gold. But he that keeps the records o£ the dead Adds to his life new lives a hundred-fold." GEORGE FOX'S SEA JOURNEY TO AMERICA. By Commander Richmond C. Holcomb. A paper prepared for the Bulletin, based upon his address at the Tercentenary Meeting. On Eighth Month nth, 1671 (new style), the ketch Industry lay at anchor in the Thames River off Gravesend. After a meeting at the house of Thomas Yoakley, several Friends sailed down the river to embark for a journey to America. The next day George Fox came down the river in one of the Navy barges, and also embarked. With him was a young man not yet thirty years of age who with his prospective bride and her mother had come to Gravesend to see him off. He was the son of a late admiral of the British Navy, and the teachings of George Fox had made a profound impression upon him. His name was William Penn. The Industry, like other ketches of that day, was probably a two-masted ship, square rigged on the foremast, and though a fast sailer, she leaked badly. Her master was one Thomas Foster. Sea going in those days was devoid of any comforts, and a voyage to America might take from seven to twelve weeks or even longer. Fresh water frequently had to be rationed like food, and food was limited in variety, and such meat as was carried was preserved in the brine tub. Bread consisted of a type of biscuit, contemptuously called " hard tack." These were not the days of porcelain plumbing, canned goods, or artificial refrigeration . Food was often eaten from a greasy cloth, fingers served as THE TERCENTENARY MEETING.65 forks, and a jack knife as a table knife. The ship's mess is a term still preserved, and was probably more expressive of its true character in those days than it is at present. The sources of our information regarding the voyage to Barbadoes is mainly from the Journal of John Hull, though the Journal of George Fox and the Journal of William Edmonson treat of the voyage, but in lesser detail. Some fifty passengers embarked, among them being thirteen friends (knights-errant of their sect) as follows : George Fox, William Edmondson, Thomas Briggs, John Hull, John Rouse, Solomon Eccles, John Stubbs, James Lancaster, John Cartwright, Robert Withers, George Pattison, Elizabeth Hooton and Elizabeth Meeres (or Miers). Early the morning of the 13th of Eighth Month the anchor was weighed and the ship sailed out of the Thames River and around the southeast end of England toward the Dover Strait. At the Downes the anchor was dropped again. The ship had made a quick passage, having outsailed the other ships that had left harbor on the same tide with her. Arriving off Deal several Friends, among them George Fox's wife, Margaret, went ashore. The next morning they were hindered from leaving by the arrival of a press master from two of his Majesty's Men-of-War, anchored at the Downes, who impressed three of the seamen of the crew. This system of impressment was one of the hazards of sea going of those days. For over one hundred years previously the press had been practiced to secure seamen. Friends, relatives and family might wait a long time ere their Jack would return to them, for on his homeward bound journey he might be impressed by the press-master of a man-of-war and unwillingly start a new cruise. Vagrants, debtors and disorderly persons were often impressed, for the merchant sailor hated to serve under the discipline of the man-of-war. On shore it was hard to catch the sailor. His friends could hide him...