The Sterling genealogy

534 THE STERLING GENEALOGY
m. June 1, 1853, Augusta, dau. of Charles and Harriet
(Warner) Edmond, b. Aug. 6, 1831. George E.
Beach was a tailor in Bridgeport. He d. Apr. 27,
1877.
793 CAPT. JOHN WILLIAM STERLING (David, Abijah,
Stephen, Jacob, William), b. in Bridgeport, Conn., Sept. 4, 1796;
m. 1st, Jan. 18, 1832, Mary R. Judson, b. Apr. 10, 1807, dau. of
Daniel and Sarah (Plant) Judson, who d. June 2, 1838 ; m. 2d,
Aug. 20, 1839, Catharine T. Plant, b. Jan. 5, 1816, dau. of the
Hon. David and Catharine (Tomlinson) Plant.
Mr. Sterling's intense love for the sea was of early develop-
ment, and his father after vainly offering him a college educa-
tion as an inducement to remain at home, shipped him before the
mast under his uncle Capt. Daniel Sterling, on board the Aris-
tomenes, bound for Liverpool and Archangel, in the hope that the
length and hardship of the voyage would cure him of his boyish
fancy. England was then searching our decks for her seamen,
and the " protection " which he carried is still in existence. It
bears date Oct. 15, 1810, and describes him as " an American
Seaman, aged fourteen years, of the height of four feet, eight
inches and a half, dark complexion, dark hair, black eyes."
The ship lay at Liverpool three months, during which he at-
tended night school and studied navigation. Afterwards at Ar-
changel, he was enchanted with the wonders of the bursting Arctic
summer, and his eleven months of absence only served to fix more
firmly his choice of " a life on the ocean wave."
At eighteen years of age he sailed as second mate on the ship
Fingal, which carried General Proctor back to England after the
disastrous defeat of the British and Indian army at Tippecanoe.
It was a stormy passage, and night after night the old general
came on deck, fearful lest the ship should founder, entrusted to
the charge of the " boy of eighteen."
In the summer of 1817 he was offered the command of a brig.
He accepted it, engaged his crew, and superintended the loading
of the cargo ; but upon making application at the custom house
for clearance papers, just before the vessel was ready for sea,
it transpired that the captain was but twenty years old, and the