Name/Title
Coasting Captain; journals of Captain Leonard S. Tawes, relating his career in Atlantic coastwise sailing craft from 1868 to 1922Entry/Object ID
Library.1406Description
xix, 461 p. illus. (part col.), ports. 24 cm.
Coasting Captain; journals of Captain Leonard S. Tawes, relating his career in Atlantic coastwise sailing craft from 1868 to 1922 by Leonard Tawes, edited by Robert H. Burgess.
Mariners Museum publication no. 28.
Contents: Foreword -- Introduction -- 1853-1873 -- 1874-1878 -- 1879-1880 -- 1881-1883 -- 1884-1885 -- 1886-1887 -- 1888-1891 -- 1892-1893 -- 1894-1895 -- 1896-1898 -- 1899-1901 -- 1902 -1905 -- 1906-1922 -- Appendix -- Index.
Summary: At a young age, Tawes ended up on the wharfs in Baltimore. He got a job on a ship. He didn’t have a clue. The captain said, ‘We’re going to Rio (de Janeiro)’ and he thought that was near Cape Charles. He had no clue he was going to South America, Still, Tawes continued in the maritime life, working his way up from cabin boy to captain, and eventually became part owner of a three-masted schooner, The City of Baltimore. He sailed the schooner for more than two decades along the coast, mainly in trade to the West Indies and South America. After retiring from the seafaring life in his mid-50s, Tawes ran a successful oyster business in Crisfield, Maryland and was a respected community leader, including serving as deacon at his church and on the board of directors of the local bank. In the 1920's he he recorded his seagoing career so that his granddaughter would have some knowledge of his career. But he also documented a phase of American shipping about which very little has been written.
Dr. Bliss, CEO, Jax Historical Society, in the Dec. 2022 issue of Jacksonville History Matters wrote that Capt. Tawes often called at Jacksonville. Locals such as Napoleon Broward and his younger brother were both riverboat captains with whom Tawes became well acquainted. Another encounter happened in an early 1891 visit, when Tawes arrived in Jacksonville from San Juan, Puerto Rico, at that time still a Spanish colony. During this same 1891 visit to Jacksonville, Captain Tawes had trouble with federal officials, who sought to arrest his cook for striking another sailor. When U.S. Marshals boarded the “City of Baltimore” searching for the accused, named Bert Adams, Captain Tawes hid his crew member and enlisted Captain Montcalm Broward to help the fugitive make good his escape aboard Broward’s steam tugboat, the “Kate Spencer. His description of his encounter with Mr. Joseph E.Lee as Collector of Customs shows a hard-working, stick to the law officia. There is much to learn about Jacksonville from Leonard Tawe’s journals, about business, navigation, sailing, and the lumber trade, in addition to bringing notable figures from our past into sharper focus. Captain Tawes offers brief but vivid glimpses of Jacksonville during the late nineteenth century...Dr. BlissCollection
LibraryLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Primary Object Term
BookNomenclature Sub-Class
Other DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsSearch Terms
Tawes, Leonard S., 1853-1932., Jacksonville (Fla.) -- History., Lee, Joseph E.Publication Details
Author
Tawes, Leonard S., Burgess, Robert H.Publisher
Mariners MuseumPlace Published
* Untyped Place Published
Newport News, Va.Call No.
VK 140. T3 A3LCCN
67017219