APPENDIX F 



What were the subsequent fates of the various men and ships taking part in this important 

 year of discovery (1820-21) in the South Shetlands? Of Captain John Davis little is 

 known. The Huron returned to New Haven in 1822, after a second season under Captain 

 Davis at the South Shetlands. She was then sold and her new master was Captain Robert 

 Macy of Nantucket. Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer made a third voyage to the Antarctic 

 (1821-22) in the sloop James Monroe, during which time he joined with the British sealer 

 Captain George Powell to discover the South Orkneys as well as skirting the Antarctic 

 Peninsula. His subsequent career as a clipper-ship skipper and owner reveal him as a most 

 enterprising man. The Hero was sold at Coquimbo, South America, in 1822, following that 

 second sealing season at the Shetlands. 



The Hersilia, under Captain James Sheffield, did not return to Stonington with her com- 

 panions following the 1820-21 season, but sailed for the west coast of South America, where 

 she was captured by the Spanish pirate Benevedes. Sheffield and most of his officers and crew 

 were forced to sail the pirates from Auroco and return to that port, where the Hersilia 

 dragged her anchors one night and drove ashore. Captain Sheffield and eleven of his own 

 crew pretended to assist in salvaging the brig but instead escaped in two whaleboats under 

 cover of darkness. They made their way up the coast for twenty days and spent five nights 

 in the open sea to avoid recapture, finally reaching Valparaiso, where Sir Thomas Hardy, 

 commander of the British squadron there who heard of their story, welcomed them aboard 

 the Conway, Captain Hall. This was a strange turn of fate as a decade before Sir Thomas 

 commanded a British fleet which bombarded Stonington, Captain Sheffield's home port. 



Hardy offered to send the Conway to Auroco as Commodore Ridgely of the U. S. Con- 

 stellation was occupied by other troubles. But when the Conway reached the pirate strong- 

 hold the Hersilia was found burned together with the ship Ocean. The pirate Benevedes 

 had also murdered Captain Russell of the Nantucket whaleship Hero and the cabin boy, 

 as well as Captain Clark of the Perseverance. 



Captain Sheffield and mate Daniel Clark returned home in the Nantucket whaler fVash- 

 ington with eight of her crew members on board. Two members, B. Edward Stanton and 

 David Kellogg came home in the Constellation. Those of the crew who were captured by 

 the pirates were forced to march with them as volunteers. Daniel P. Stanton got away after 

 eleven days of such service; Benjamin Rogers also escaped overland to Valparaiso, and 

 Nathaniel Richards similarly got clear, afterward shipping on a Rhode Island brig. 



Captain Sheffield died a few years later, a comparatively young man, and unfortunately 

 little record of his voyages remain. As the master of the Hersilia, the first American sealing 

 vessel into the South Shetland area, he deserved wider recognition by his contemporaries 

 and has earned a place in our maritime history, especially in his home port of Stonington. 



Captain Robert Johnson in the Jane Maria returned to New York from the South Shet- 

 lands on May 12, 1821, with a cargo of skins for James Byers. He returned to the Shetlands 

 during the next season (1821-22), and came back to New York in April, 1822, accom- 

 panied by the Wasp, under Captain Benjamin Morrell. On the next voyage to the South 

 Seas, Captain Johnson took out the Henry, and Morrell was his consort in the PFasp. This 

 time (1822-1824) they sailed to the remote Auckland Islands, south of Tasmania and New 

 Zealand. The fVasp was sold at Valparaiso by Morrell in 1824. Captain Johnson then 

 (June 1824) sailed again for the Aucklands. The last ever heard of Captain Robert Johnson 

 and the schooner Henry was that they were headed due south from the Antipodes Islands, 

 on an exploration cruise for new sealing islands. On this voyage he disappeared. Thus perished 

 an intrepid mariner and courageous commander. 



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