Need help finding a British Sailing Ship--My Grandfather's dying request

Question

My 90 year old grandfather is in the last few months of his life.  He has asked me to find the British ship his great grandfather Robert M MacBeath sailed on.  He would ultimately like to find a photo, a painting, anything that he can hang on his walls to look at during his last days.

My grandpa McBeth is a tough salt who was in the army during the Korean war and worked as a truck driver/mover for Mayflower.  He even had the privilege of moving the home of Ronald and Nancy Reagan long before they were in the White House.  He has many wonderful stories to tell and is one of the people who inspired me to start genealogy at the age of 12.

His great grandfather Robert M MacBeath was born in Glasgow Scotland in 1823.  According to my grandfather, he was part of the crew on the HMS  Martha, but jumped ship (ahem--deserted) in order to look for gold in California.  They may have been docked in San Francisco when he left.  The dates he would have been on the ship would be somewhere between 1836 and 1858 (these are the arrival dates estimated of his arrival to the US).  I can find no record of this ship.

EDIT: I just found out this was not a naval ship, but a merchant vessel.  It docked in Boston in 1849. And docked in San Francisco in 1850.

Any help would be appreciated even if it leads me to needing to pay for a record or such.  Thank you!

Comments

Deserted is harsh. He was an immigrant who sought asylum from an oppressive ship's master and became, in time, an American citizen dedicated to the ideals of democratic life and an outstanding member of his community. Right?

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LOL! Um no.  If it was a British Naval ship, then he deserted plain and simple.  But I am not surprised.  The MacBeath's are a strong willed line of people (I may have inherited a large dose of this).  He actually sought to make his fortune more than anything else, but he did become and outstanding member of his community.   :-)

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At least he went after American gold. There was mining in the Yukon too. YOU COULD HAVE BEEN CANADIAN ! ! ! ! ( no offense intended to our Canadian members, honest) 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=mxFtEqXhdGc

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Robert M's brother James chose to go to Australia to look for gold.  I could have been Australian too.  Did you know my family is moving to BC, Canada?  No joke.

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(Sob) I'll miss you. Hugs smooches

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LOL.  Only going to be two hours north from where we are now.  And WikiTree travels well :-)

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And happy you will be!

Answer 1

See photos at

 

Images for His Majesty's ship Martha 1849

 

Comments

I tried googling every search parameter I could think of.  None of the results brings up a ship of the Martha or even the Martha in a list of British ships

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These all have HMS in them. Some of them have Martha as a name associated with a ship that is not named Martha.

There were 3 ships named Martha that I could find. All of them sunk at least 20 years before our sailor jumped ship.

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Thank you Richard :-)

Answer 2

I don't know if it is necessarily a British ship, but I did find reference to a ship called Martha that sailed to San Francisco from Nantucket and was reported in the New York Herald in circa 1849.

http://www.sfgenealogy.com/californiabound/cbindex.htm

Also from Liverpool to New York at varying times in the 1800s.

http://immigrantships.net/nycarrivals1_6.html

Comments

Thank you Laurie :-)

Answer 3

I came across this that might help

http://collections.mun.ca/cdm/ref/collection/mha_mercant/id/6605

It looks like a full list of all ships named Martha that were in the Merchantile Navy in 1894. Shows where built & when.

Looks like there are at least 15 that might match.

 

Here is a nice list of all the Royal Navy ships, but no sign of a 'Martha'... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ships_of_the_line_of_the_Royal_Navy

 

1st possible - Brig Martha - This one was launched in 1838 & went missing in 1850. Know to have traded on west coast of South america. 2 pictures found (2nd would look nice hanging on a wall !!!)

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/charles-miller-ltd/catalogue-id-srcharl10003/lot-6cc9118f-0737-4335-ad86-a449000c6bfa

http://www.artnet.com/artists/joseph-heard/the-brig-martha-passing-the-fastnet-rock-homeward-3fzmi_NTKbwumkC6_IMiyQ2

 

2nd possible - The Barque 'Martha' docked in San Fransisco September 21, 1851, came from Chile. One web page found but no photo, but the web site might be worth investigating a bit further as it talks about the gold rush and deserter - 2nd link is to a page showing the bounty paid for returning the deserters of a US Navy ship.

3rd & 4th link to page where the Barque Martha is in the port of San Francisco on 9th Jan 1852. And anothe ship called 'Martha Tawne' is there on 9th June 1850. NB no mention of the Barque Martha being there in 1851 as per first link.

5th link is to wikipedia for a generic photo of a barque

http://www.maritimeheritage.org/passengers/ma092151.htm

http://www.maritimeheritage.org/ports/usCaliforniaSanFrancisco.html

http://www.maritimeheritage.org/inport/1852.htm

http://www.maritimeheritage.org/inport/1850.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barque

Comments

FANTASTIC LINKS!! Thank you Sandra.  I am going to call my grandfather and see if I can't get a little more info on what type of vessel it was.  I had already checked the English Navy list with no luck, so perhaps it was a merchant vessel.

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I just found out this was not a naval ship, but a merchant vessel.  It docked in Boston in 1849. And docked in San Francisco in 1850.

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Looking up the dates of the californian gold rush it seems to be from 1848 to 1855, so that should narrow the timeframe a bit. The dates also tie in with your edit ie Boston 1849 & San Francisco 1850.

 

Another possibility... http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/biog/argonautsHU20151006

 

and  http://www.seacoastonline.com/article/20151005/NEWS/151009579

.. Talks about a passanger transport on the bark Martha. Left Portsmouth (USA) in 1849 ariving San Franscisco 1850.

 

And another possibility http://www.prospecthillcemetery.com/milestones   Look at lot 115 - talks about a Captain Eben Hinckley who took the ship Martha to San Francisco in 1849.

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This is what is throwing me--my grandfather says the Martha was an HMS--in other words a British ship.  However, he says it stopped in Boston in 1849 before leaving for San Francisco.  I know Robert MacBeath's sister Jane lived in Boston for some time before moving to California.  So was he in Boston with her and saw a chance to be a crew on the Martha for "free" passage to San Francisco?  Or did Jane travel on the Martha from Britain to Boston?  I'm just thinking out loud here :-)

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I'm guessing you are in USA so maybe you are unaware of the following.

HMS stands for His/Her majesty's ship and only applies to ships in the Royal Navy.

The merchant navy is sometimes nicknamed the 'wavy line' because the officers looked identical to Royal Navy apart from the rank on their sleves which were made up of wavy bands instead of straight.

If your grandfather says his great grandfather was in the merchant Navy then he would not be on a HMS ship. The 2 navy's do get mixed up by people. Maybe your grandfather is saying it was a HMS ship because he knows it was british when in fact it was just a normal ship.

As to his sister Jane being in Boston, my guess is that Boston was far more civilised in those days and she waited until San Fransisco was more developed (and civilised) before she move there.

 

I don't know much about USA geography but when I looked on the map it shows portsmouth as just being north of Boston (well on the map it doesn't look that far away). So perhaps the Bark Martha that sailed from portsmouth to San Fransisco might have stopped at Boston to try to get a few more passangers. Your ggggrandfather might have joined there or maybe he was already part of the crew. Unfortunately so far I havn't found out where the Bark Martha was before Portsmouth but I guess it could have come from UK. NB Bark is also spelt Barque (UK/USA spelling???)

One question to ask your grandfather is about the yellow fever that struck the ship on it's voyage from Portsmouth to San Fransisco ie did his gggrandfather say anything about people being ill on the voyage. He probably won't know but if he says yes then the Bark Martha looks like it could be the right ship.

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Somehow, earlier I missed your first link to the Mercantile Navy List.  Another excellent link!  I am very intrigued by the Martha registered in Glasgow a Brig made in 1841. I am going to see if I can find out more about the one you mentioned above and this Martha as well.

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My 4th great aunt wasn't in Boston until 1858 so that theory doesn't wash

:-(

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I found more info in Robert's obituary.  He was visiting his sister in Boston and The Martha was not originally bound for San Francisco, but Australia:

"He was in Australia when he heard of the discovery of gold in California, and later when on a visit to his sister in Boston, Mass. he found all his relatives and friends very much excited over the discovery, and making ready to start for the land of gold, so decided to join them and took passage on the sailing vessel "Martha", bound for Australia, which they planned to leave when she reached the Golden Gate. They arrived off the coast in December, 1849 but adverse winds drove their ship out to sea and they could not get through the Golden Gate until January 5th, 1850. Eighteen of the crew took one of the ship's boats crossed the Bay and landed in Contra Costa County, making at once for the mountains. They reached Sutter's Fort, then occupied by the soldiers and after resting up, started for the gold fields on the American River, where the yellow metal was being taken out in quantities along the banks of the stream."

I did find a sailing ship named Martha that docked in Boston in July 1849 en route from Liverpool. It is a Boston ship--not British.

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Hmm, strange route to get to Austrailia.

My USA geography isn't that good but isn't Boston on the east coast & San Fransisco on the West coast. That means they sailed all the way round South America and back up to San Fransisco before heading off to Australia.

Anyway I'll throw a couple more finds at you..

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/BSA/SAShips1850.htm

http://members.iinet.net.au/~perthdps/shipping/mig-sa2.htm#sa2

1st one is propably the best, but they are both a list of passanger ships arriving in Australia in 1850. None specifically say they came fom Boston or San Fransisco, but they probably made other ports on the way. (4 Martha's on the first list & 2 on the second)

 

 

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Thank you Sandra for all of your help. This was rather a needle in a haystack type of search. Unfortunately, I have run out of time.  They are saying my grandfather is not expected to last more than a few more weeks.  Who knew there could be so many ships named Martha sailing at the same time!

Answer 4

Martha (Ship index)

Several ships have borne the name Martha:

• Martha (1796 ship) - Built in 1796. The British East India Company chartered her for a voyage to Bengal, where she wrecked.
• Martha (1799 ship) - Constructed in Sydney in 1799, the schooner was a sealer and merchant vessel that wrecked near Sydney, Australia, in August 1800.
• Martha (1810 ship) - Launched at Quebec in 1810. In 1818 she transported convicts to New South Wales. She remained in the South Pacific as a whaler until she was condemned in 1820 as unseaworthy and then sold for breaking up.

Answer 5

Fate of HMS Martha from https://www.familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/2186754

this has a very interesting story with details of some people, crew and passengers, it was a loyalist ship

Comments

Thank you Emma (great name by the way :-) ).  This Martha shipwrecked before the time period of 1850 I'm looking for.

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you too emma lol

the links I have placed above this have the exact one, this was merely to discount the HMS Martha (which I should have put... naughty me... sorry)

there is a site I am also registered on called wrecksite, https://wrecksite.eu/wrecksite.aspx

 this would be a good site to refer to

Answer 6

Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1849 lists several Marthas, although none of the ones with destinations match Boston or San Francisco. 

Comments

Lloyd's Register of Shipping for 1850 lists pretty much the same ships.

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That is a boatload of Marthas!  Thank you Greg.  This has been a monumental task!