Catalog entry

Commentary

The bark “Eastern Star” (1) is homeward bound on the final leg to Boston. She may be shown as a new vessel, arriving from the north, having been fitted out in Maine where she was built. Three or four miles east of Cape Ann, she is coming about, the sails aback, as momentum will keep her turning while the yards are braced around to put her on a port tack. Sailing close-hauled, she may just reach Nahant before having to tack again. With any luck, she will take on a pilot at that time, tack briefly to the eastward, and enter Boston with the wind abeam.

While tacking off Cape Ann, “Eastern Star” is in the company of a pinky (2, left foreground), whose crew is calling it a day, getting ready to raise sail, weigh anchor, and head for home. This vessel  type, while outdated,  proved so seaworthy and durable that  many survived into the twentieth century. In the left background, a merchant brig (3) is on a broad reach to the north-east  with her stu’ns’ls (studding sails) set. A half-brig (4) can be seen just below “Eastern Star’s” jib-boom, while a topsail schooner (5) on a close reach to the southeast is off her starboard quarter. To either side of the schooner, the twin lights of Thacher’s Island (6) may be seen.  

 According to records, which are fragments and subject to correction, the bark “Eastern Star” was built at Robbinston, Maine in 1853; the builders have not been identified (Ref. 1). Her owners were Josiah Wheelwright and Samuel Crocker Cobb, Boston merchants whose partnership was formed in 1851 and dissolved in 1858 (Ref. 2). She is flying the blue-bordered house flag of her owners, as can be seen in the chart of house flags below.

–Erik Ronnberg

References:

1. John Robinson and George Francis Dow, “The Sailing Ships of New England, Series Two” (Salem, MA: Marine Research Society, 1924), Plate 370: Bark “Eastern Star of Boston, 378 tons, built at Robbinston, Maine, 1853. From an oil painting by F. H. Ta_____ (sic)”

2. (Web site) bostonhistory.org, Collection Number: MS0101, Diaries of Samuel Crocker Cobb, 1858 – 1874.

Supplementary Images

Viewpoint map showing location of vessel