The Concertina at Sea - The Anglo-German Concertina

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1890 Traveler, three-masted barquentine, British, traveling from Scotland to Spitzbergen 1891 Kite, steamship, Arctic Greenland, American 1894 Dunard, steamship, British, England to Brazil 1899 Esquimaux, whaling steamer, British, London to Baffin Bay Concertinas and the Royal Navy 1860s HMS Royal Oak , iron-clad frigate, British 1867 HMS Juno, wooden-hulled steam corvette, British 1886 HMS Alexandra, broadside ironclad steam warship, Mediterranean Fleet 1890 HMS Immortalite, Orlando class steam battleship, British, Channel Fleet 1890s HMS Orlando, Orlando class steam battleship, British, Channel Fleet 1895 HMS Tourmaline, warship, British 1899 HMS Undaunted, Orlando class steam battleship, British, Channel Fleet 1900s HMS Isis, Eclipse class masted cruiser, British 1907 HMS Encounter, steam battleship, British, England to Tasmania 1909 HMS Vindictive, steam battleship, British 1915 HMS Harpy, Steam Depot Boat, British, observed at harbor on the River Stour 1916 X152, Royal Navy motor lighter, Suez canal 1917 HMS Revenge, battle cruiser, British, North Sea WWI 1927 Name unknown, battleship, British, Atlantic Fleet 1940 HMS Wolfe, armed merchant cruiser, British, North Atlantic The concertina in the United States Navy 1862 CSS Alabama, three-masted screw sloop-of-war and raider, Confederate, Liverpool dock 1864 USS Nautilus, bark-rigged steam sloop-of-war, American, blockade duty in Civil War 1898 Name Unknown, Man O’War, American, Charleston SC harbor 1898 USS Maine, Pre-dreadnought battleship, American, Havana harbor 1900 to 1920, and the last days of commercial sail 1906 Wavertree, sailing ship, British, Plymouth to Vancouver around Cape Horn 1902 Liverpool, four-masted clipper ship, British, England to Australia 1903 Cimba, three masted iron hulled clipper ship, British 1904 Orinoco, merchant sailing ship, American, New York to South America 1912 Endurance, three-masted barquentine, British, England to Antarctica 1919 Juteopolis (later Garthpool), four-masted bark, Cape Horn 1920s White Star-Dominion Line, British, England to Canada, concertina used by Captain Thomas Jones 4
II. A Compendium of Occurrences The 1850s Figure 2. The schooner Allen Gardiner, at Banner Cove, Tierra del Fuego, October 1855. From Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, 1861 In October 1854, a two-masted, 88 ton schooner named the Allen Gardiner set sail from Bristol, England. Named for the founder of a mission on the Falkland Islands, this ship was built for the ‘Patagonian or South American Mission Society’ for the purpose of converting the native inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego to Christianity. There are several accounts of this voyage, which is of interest as the earliest yet-documented use of a concertina at sea. After nearly a year in transit, the vessel arrived at Tierra del Fuego, and contact with the natives commenced: Sunday Morning, October 21 1855. We entered Banner Cove, a charming place and first rate anchorage, being well-nigh landlocked. We had no sooner cast anchor than somebody cried out, ‘There they are- the natives are coming off!’ All eyes were strained in the direction pointed out, and soon a canoe, with an old woman and three men, paddled towards us. …We beckoned for them to come nearer- and invitation they speedily accepted, and two of them were assisted up the ship’s side. …They were delighted with the several trifles given to them, and the crew dressed the old man in a pair of trousers, tarpaulins and cap…They walked up and down the deck with Bunning, who was quite free and humorous with them, and they wanted everything they saw. …They were remarkable mimics; whatever you said was repeated by them, and your actions closely watched and faithfully imitated….we tried what effect music would have on them, the captain striking a few notes on the concertina; we afterward sang the doxology, to which they listened with much attention. 2 Another member of the party, W.P. Snow, recounted, ‘They did not like a looking-glass when shown to them, but the music of a concertina delighted them exceedingly.’ 3 This reference shows that the concertina could indeed survive a long sea voyage, and moreover that its use at sea was not considered remarkable at the time. The mission was ill-fated; four years later the crew of the vessel was attacked at harbor off the island, and all but one of that crew perished at the hands of the native population. Also in 1855, a three-masted clipper ship named the White Star (ex-Blue Jacket) was sailing from Liverpool to Melbourne, Australia, carrying 600 immigrants. The White Star, at 2339 tons and 288 feet in length, was one of the fastest ships afloat in her day, and became the first of the famed White Star passenger fleet. The passengers published an onboard newsletter, with the following announcement: The choir, composed of Miss Ford, the Messrs. Miller, Mr. Seward, the Messrs. Ford, &c, and accompanied on the concertina by Herr Kohler. (They) have greatly improved since they commenced singing together, and, last Sunday, chaunted the “Venite” and “Jubilate”… 4 Herr K W Kohler appears to have been a passenger, and was the treasurer of the passenger’s organization on that voyage. Figure 3. The British clipper White Star, ca. 1855. From an original lithograph in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts; www.pem.org In 1859, a young American named Kimble Bent, who had joined the British Army in Ireland, became disaffected with this service and deserted, by joining the crew of the Boston bark Maria. The ship was sailing from Cork to Boston, …when about three hundred miles off the land a furious easterly gale began to blow, and the old barkey sprang a leak. Hove-to in the storm, all the crew could do was to stand to the pumps. The huge Atlantic seas came thundering on deck, and more than once washed the men away from the pumps. For six days and six nights they wallowed in the deep, all hands, sailors and passengers, taking turns at the pumps, working for their lives. All those terrible days of storm and fear the Maria's hands had nothing to eat but hard biscuits soaked with salt water. There was no place to cook and no means of cooking, for the galley with all its contents had been washed overboard. While the crew laboured at the pumps, the captain tried to cheer them up and put a little life into their weary bodies 5
Page 1 and 2: . The Concertina at Sea: A History
Page 3: Table 1. Index of ships where sailo
Page 7 and 8: As passenger ships became larger, t
Page 9 and 10: nder the awning, to the music of a
Page 11 and 12: and some were excellent dancers. Th
Page 13 and 14: The 1870s The Levina was a commerci
Page 15 and 16: Figure 18. Impromptu sailor’s ‘
Page 17 and 18: Greenland. They made several attemp
Page 19 and 20: …we rewarded ourselves with a lit

The Concertina at Sea - The Anglo-German Concertina

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