East Sails West: The Voyage of the Keying, 1846–1855

5. The Final Leg—Towards Journey’s End

Leaving New York With the New York court case out of the way and perhaps with a need to get clear of the city, in November the Keying made its way to Boston with its remaining British sailors and up to fourteen remaining Chinese crewmen. Whether more Chinese or European crew were signed on before the ship left New York is unknown. It is equally obscure whether the visit to the Sectional Dock to have the bottom scrubbed actually took place, though some time must have been put aside for major maintenance before the next move. Not only was the bottom foul, but there were the sprung mast and the ripped sail to repair, and no doubt a host of minor problems with the running rigging, with individual timbers and with the deck gear that will have been building up during the long and arduous voyage. But repairs will have had to take second place to earning money through public admissions, and then to the major dislocation to schedules and finances that the court case will have caused. Whether once it had quit New York the Keying sailed under its own power or was towed is unclear. We do not know when the Keying actually left New York other than sometime in early November. All we know is that she arrived in Boston on 18 November 1847, for a stay that was to last three months during the onset and early months of winter. Astonishingly, and as we shall see inexplicably , the junk then left what would have been a safe winter haven to complete its voyage to Britain in the worst conceivable month of the year. The passage that Charles Kellett chose is likely to have been via the East River and then on up Long Island and Block Island sounds, round the notorious Chapter 5 The Final Leg—Towards Journey’s End Map 5 New York to Boston The Final Leg—Towards Journey’s End 147 waters off Nantucket and Cape Cod to Boston. Most probably Charles Kellett had with him someone familiar with the passage to advise him, especially if he opted to take the demanding but more sheltered route through Vineyard Sound or Muskeget Channel and Nantucket Sound. It is a demanding passage, as one can work out by reading the forty-one pages of directions in Blunt’s pilot backwards , editing out the irrelevant parts about havens and detours one does not intend to take.1 It would have been possible, bar the passage out round Cape Cod,2 to day-sail the whole way, using either the bays of the north shore of Long Island or the many havens along the New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts shores. Given the possibilities of calling in at the many ports along the way from Bridgeport to New Bedford, where one would assume there might have been some curiosity in the Keying worth slaking, one can only infer that Kellett had reason to get to Boston with some despatch. The rapid approach of winter is the most likely reason, though the long association of Boston interests in the China trade would argue another. There is no evidence that the East River route was taken. All that can be said is that it is the most direct, and offers the relatively sheltered waters of Long Island and Block Island sounds for at least half of the passage. But it is, in any case, a nice conceit to entertain, largely because the Keying and its crew would have sailed past the shipyards of Brooklyn—principal among them those of Smith and Dimon—where the first of the fabulous tea-clippers were being built. The first proto-clipper, Captain Nathaniel Palmer’s revolutionary Houqua, built at Brown and Bell’s yard, had been launched for the famous New York and Canton firm of A. A. Low and Brother on 3 May 1844. The following year, the John Willis Griffiths design Rainbow became the world’s first ‘true’ or extreme clipper to be launched. New York and New York shipyards were abuzz with the continued excitement of the China trade. By early 1848—the year that gold was discovered in California—the clipper was the ship to build; many of the New York yards will have been busy with such orders. In the East River, there were over a dozen shipyards turning out 160 and more ships a...