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By Casey Nyvall PR & Collections Intern  Framed watercolor of the Richmond moments from disaster. E. F. Tufnell. The Richmond was one of many whaling ships in Cold Spring Harbor’s fleet that set out to search the sea for great, majestic whales. The fleet consisted of nine vessels which sailed between 1837 and 1862. The Alice (six voyages), Edgar (one voyage), Huntsville (five voyages), Monmouth (twelve voyages), Nathaniel P. Tallmadge (four voyages), Richmond (two voyages), Sheffield* (three voyages), Splendid (five voyages), and Tuscarora* (six voyages). Not bad for a company of community investors! But don't be fooled; the Richmond was unlike the rest of the fleet. Behind the Richmond’s stately name lies a tale unpredictable as the ocean waves—a couple separated by miles of ocean, a shipwreck, and even a court battle! Philander Winters was captain of the Richmond. With a name that distinct, who could forget him? Definitely not his wife Martha, who stayed on shore, dealing with her own struggles far away. Be sure to check back for our March post, which will dive deeper into Martha’s story! But for now, back to her husband. He relied on his first officer Henry Robinson to keep track of daily occurrences on the Richmond, chronicling the progress of the voyage and the crews’ daily lives at sea. The logbook was even used as evidence in the court trial! The prospect of an easy hunt and holds filled with valuable oil and bone lured many captains into the Bering Sea. At the time when the Richmond was sailing these waters, the whales of the region did not yet fear the whaler. To quote many a thrilled captain, the "whales are plentiful." The Bering Seas had only been opened to American whalers by Captain Thomas Welcome Roys a season before the Richmond's ill-fated voyage.  Framed print, right whaling in Behring Straits & Arctic Ocean. Made from an original attributed to Benjamin Russell. In this image you can see whaling vessels at various stages of pursuing and processing the whale. Bathsheba Demuth, author of Floating Coasts: An Environmental History of the Bering Strait, writes of floating coasts of gelatinous ice. “Each winter, cold hardens the sea… Ice crystals form, skimming the ocean’s surface when the temperature drops… As the cold deepens, icy crystals intertwine into a greasy film, thicken, and become slush. Sometimes, ocean swells ball the slush into lily pads of ice. Sometimes the young ice rolls over the ocean’s surface like an oil slick, still carrying enough brine to be elastic. Sheets of slushy ice slide and adhere to each other on the waves… It was these formations that Yankee captains feared: the slurry hardening around their hulls, then turning solid and opaque. Slabs of yearling ice will build four, five, six feet thick between October and May, hundreds of miles of sea covered over by a suspended coastline." Whaling in the Bering and Arctic seas was full of danger, storms, ice flows, fog. “[F]or a copper-plated, wood-hulled sailing vessel, the ice was treacherous. In a night, a rime could grow over the ocean and clog the rudder. In a day, solid ice rumbled toward ships on wind and currents… Sailors looked out onto ice hidden in April fog, or late-summer gales bearing icebergs able to pierce their vessels.” In very poor weather conditions, sailors relied on a technique called dead reckoning. Navigators used the vessel’s last known coordinates and speed to chart a course forward. This method was used frequently in the Arctic Whaling Grounds. In 1849, the Richmond sailed into a dense fog in the Bering Strait, forcing Winters to rely on dead reckoning. While the ship wrecked on a reef, no one was hurt. Though that alone might sound news-worthy, the story doesn't end there. It begins! As the ship was in no state to keep on its voyage, Winters signaled to surrounding ships for help. According to the Steamship Historical Society of America: “Flag signals became the principal means of naval communications by the early 18th century. Flying the national ensign upside down is an internationally recognized distress signal. At night, flares can signal distress. A blue flare, which is often hand-held, signals that a vessel requests a pilot.” The captains of the nearby vessels saw. They agreed to rescue Winters and his crew if he sold them the Richmond’s cargo in return. Winters took the deal, and the captains purchased the cargo before bringing the crewmembers aboard to safety. However, the captains then sold the cargo among various ships. Years after the shipwreck, John H. Jones, co-founder of the Cold Spring Whaling Company, sued the captains (one of whom was named William Post). He claimed the deal struck between Winters and the captains was not valid. By law, contracts (the terms of a deal) are valid only if both the creator and the person who accepts the contract are on equal footing—the person who accepts the contract’s terms must do so of their own free will. There can be no coercion involved. In simpler words, there can be no circumstances that force the acceptee into the deal. Jones argued that Winters was cornered into selling the cargo, because his only other option was to remain stranded with his crew on a wrecked ship as part of an unfinished voyage. His side made the case the captains should have salvaged the cargo, rescuing Winters and his crew while accepting some compensation. This would have left the Cold Spring Whaling Company with more money from the cargo, with the captains making less of a profit than they actually did.
The case went to district court, the first level of federal courts, also known as the level which handles trials. Unfortunately for Jones and the company, the judge ruled in favor of the captains, represented by William Post. The case Post v Jones was closed. It had an unhappy ending for the Cold Spring Whaling Company …Or so it would seem! Jones would not give up. He appealed, asking the courts to re-examine the case. He believed during a second trial, a judge would see he was right. The appeal meant bringing the case up to circuit court, the next-highest level of the tiered court system. Circuit courts deal particularly with appeals, going over cases another time in search of legal mistakes that might have led to the district court ruling. If they find mistakes, they change the ruling! If not, they leave the decision as it was. Jones must have been nervous waiting for the results of his second chance. This time the judge and jury ruled in his favor instead, asserting the contract between Winters and Post was not valid, and that Post, along with the rest of the captains, only had the right to salvage the Richmond. Jones was ready to close the case once and for all! But now Post was unsatisfied. Post appealed the case this time, and in doing so brought the case to the Supreme Court. Whatever this court decided, it would be the most definitive ruling yet. On January 28th, 1857, after hearing the case and deliberating, the Supreme Court justices made their decision. They held the previous ruling, but specified that Post and the other captains were entitled to half of the money made off the cargo. Jones was still content, having been proved right, and Post and the other captains were compensated for their trouble. This ship’s story proves even unsuspecting people can end up impacting our nation’s history. The Richmond was truly a notable addition to the Cold Spring whaling fleet! *The Tuscarora was named after an Indigenous American tribe, known for their hunting skills and medicinal hemp. *There was a mystery surrounding the Sheffield, solved in this post! Sources:
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