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Captain Oscar G.
Eaton
Of the many deep-sea captains of the early days, not more than a score now remain, and among, them is Captain Oscar G. Eaton of East Boston, who is one of the three captains in this city still alive.
Captain Eaton went to sea in 1854, one of the early ships in which he sailed being the “Renshaw,” an hermaphrodite brig, a type probably not now existing in this country.
A later voyage was made in the “General Ripley,” which was captured by the Federalists, and then called the “Island Belle.”
On returning from Trinidad, this vessel, which formerly bore the name of a Southern general, was captured by the Confederates, and all the crew sent to Philadelphia except young Eaton.
In 1863 Captain Eaton was mate of the brig “H. H. McGilvery.”
He became a master in 1866, and from then until 1871 he commanded the brig “L. M. Merritt,” of 366 tons.
Two years after he took command of her occurred his most exciting experience on the seas, the only accident he ever had.
While off the Western Islands, the brig was dismantled by a high wind, and during the gale the first mate was lost overboard.
There were few provisions on the ship, and the cargo was valuable.
For forty-nine days the brig drifted, and was finally rescued by the “Ring Dove,” an English
man-of-war, which towed the “L. M. Merritt” six hundred miles to Gibraltar.
After re-rigging her, Captain Eaton proceeded to Havre, where he disposed of the cargo, and where, in recognition of his efforts to save the vessel, the French underwriters gave him five hundred dollars.
The "Annie M. Gray" of 540 tons, built at Mount Desert, was commanded for a short time by Captain Eaton, also the ship “S. F. Hersey,” built at Searsport. From the “S. F. Hersey,” the command of which he took at Cardiff, Wales, three of his crew jumped overboard
just as he was well out of the harbour. The master saw that they were picked up, and then continued his voyage to Montevideo without them.
From this port he went to Callao and afterward laid along the coast of Peru, with one hundred and eighty-nine other vessels, for six months and four days, waiting for a cargo. Some of his companions had to wait even longer than that.
In 1876 Captain Eaton took command of the ship "Oneida," 1,133 tons, and with his family went to Europe. “She was a lucky ship,” said Captain Eaton, “and she made a lot of money.” In the hall of Captain Eaton’s home in East Boston is a large painting of her, and also of the bark “Penobscot,” built at Bucksport, Me. The “Penobscot,” in which he made his last voyage, was built in 1878 by Hill & Ginn for John S. Emery & Co., Boston, and was burned in 1915 near Buenos Aires.
Captain Eaton, on retiring from the sea, took charge of Simpson's
Dry Docks at East Boston, and later he became a surveyor of the American Bureau of Shipping. He is now a surveyor of the Boston
Insurance Company and the Insurance Company of North America. He delights to recall his voyages and the ships in which he sailed.
Source:
Other Merchants and Sea Captains of Old Boston, State Street Trust
Company, Boston, Mass., 1919
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