Logbooks of Boxer, America, Cadmus, and Seneca, and Instrument of Public Protest

1818-1821, 1824

Mariner James Copland kept this logbook aboard the Boxer (on which he was employed by John Jacob Astor) from March 1-May 9, 1818; the America from January 28-June 17, 1819; the Cadmus, captained by Reuben Brumly, from September 1, 1819-January 25, 1820; and the Seneca from June 1, 1820-February 6, 1821. Entries record the ships' voyages from New York to Hamburg and St. Petersburg; Madeira to Calcutta; Calcutta to New York; New York to Cape Verde, Montevideo, Cuba, and back to New York. Includes observations, happenings on board, entertainment at ports, sightseeing at Elsinore, quarantine and customs regulations, information about the cost of goods, weekly Bible classes on the Seneca, the death of [?] Hyslop, supercargo on the Seneca, and other matters. Also included is a "Public Instrument of Declaration and Protest," dated July 1824, found in the logbook, in which Copland recorded events leading to the confiscation of the ship General Brown and its cargo in the port of Callao, Peru during Peru's war for independence. This document appears to be missing pages, as Copland's account ends mid-sentence