Whaling ship Globe (1815)

Date: 1815 to 1830
Location: Nantucket, Nantucket, Massachusetts, United States

Contents 1 Description 1.1 Summary of Whaling Voyages 1.2 The 1824 Mutiny of the Globe 1.3 The Crew of the 1822-24 Globe Voyage 1.4 Timeline of Mutiny and Aftermath 2 References

Description

Whaling ship.

Ship-rigged, 293 tons, 1815, Massachusetts.

Owner: P. & C. Mitchell

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Summary of Whaling Voyages

Voyage	Depart	Port	Master	Destination	Note
1815-1818	24 Oct 1815	Nantucket, MA	George W. Gardner	Pacific	2015 bbl oil
1818-20	3 Mar 1818	Nantucket, MA	George W. Gardner	Pacific	2090 bbl
1820-22	9 Aug 1820	Nantucket, MA	George W. Gardner	Pacific	250 bbl
1822-24	20 Dec 1822	Edgartown, MA	Thomas Worth	Pacific	372 bbl, Mutiny
1825-28	1825	Nantucket, MA	Reuben Swain	Pacific	2015 bbl

The 1824 Mutiny of the Globe

Four of the crew of this ship, headed by Samuel Comstock, (a boat-steerer) mutinied on the night of January 26th, 1824, and murdered Capt. Worth, Mr. Beetle, Mr. Lumbert and Mr. Fisher, and carried the ship to one of the Mulgrave Islands with the intention of destroying her; and after taking out most of the provisions, sails, &c., they quarreled and shot Samuel Comstock, having previously hanged one of the mutineers.

Samuel Comstock's brother George, a boy 15 years old, assisted by Gilbert Smith, (one of the boat-steerers) and five of the crew, escaped with the ship, and arrived safe at Valparaiso. Commodore Hull, in command of the U. S. ships in the Pacific, sent the schooner Dolphin, Lieut. John Percival, to the Mulgrave Islands after the survivors, viz.: Silas Payne and John Oliver, mutineers, Thomas Liliston, Cyrus M. Hussey, Roland Coffin, Columbus Worth, William Lay, Roland Jones, and a native of the Sandwich Islands. In November 1825, Lieut. Percival found Cyrus M. Hussey and William Lay, the only survivors, the others having been killed by the natives. Hussey and Lay arrived safe home in April 1827 and published a narrative of the mutiny the following year.

The Crew of the 1822-24 Globe Voyage

Name	Role	Age	Home	Fate
Thomas Worth	Master	29	Edgartown, MA	Murdered by mutineers
William Beetle	1st Mate	26	Edgartown, MA	Murdered
John Lumbert	2nd Mate	25	Nantucket, MA	Murdered
Nathaniel Fisher	3rd Mate	20	Edgartown, MA	Murdered
Gilbert Smith	Boat-steerer	20	Edgartown, MA	Escaped on ship
Samuel B. Comstock*	Boat-steerer	20	Nantucket, MA	Killed by co-mutineers
Stephen Kidder	Seaman	18	Edgartown, MA	Escaped on ship
Peter C. Kidder	Seaman	21	Edgartown, MA	Escaped on ship
Columbus Worth	Seaman	16	Edgartown, MA	Killed by natives on Mulgrave Isl.
Rowland Jones	Seaman	16	Edgartown, MA	Killed by natives
John Cleveland	Cook	21	Tisbury, MA	Discharged at Hawaii
Constant Lewis	Seaman	19	Tisbury, MA	Deserted at Hawaii
Holden Henman	Seaman	23	Canton, MA	Deserted at Hawaii
Jeremiah Ingham	Seaman	17	Saybrook, CT	Deserted at Hawaii
Joseph I. Prass	Cabin boy	14	Portugal	Deserted at Hawaii
Cyrus M. Hussey	Cooper	19	Nantucket, MA	Rescued from Mulgrave Isl.
Roland Coffin	Cooper	17	Nantucket, MA	Killed by natives on Mulgrave Isl.
George Comstock	Seaman	15	Nantucket	Escaped on ship
William Lay	Seaman	17	Saybrook, CT	Rescued from Mulgrave Isl.
Daniel Cook	Seaman	22	Boston, MA	Deserted at Hawaii
Paul Jarret	Seaman	24	Barnstable, MA	Deserted at Hawaii
Recruited in Hawaii	---	---	---	---
Silas Payne*	Seaman	---	Sag Harbor, RI	Killed by natives
John Oliver*	Seaman	---	Shields, England	Killed by natives
Anthony Hanson	Cook	---	Barnstable, MA	Escaped on ship
Joe Brown	Seaman	---	Sandwich Islands	Killed by natives
William Humphries*	Steward	---	Philadelphia, PA	Hanged by mutineers
Thomas Lilliston	Seaman	---	Virginia	Killed by natives
Joseph Thomas	Seaman	---	Norwich, CT	Escaped on ship

* Principal mutineers

Notes :

• It is uncertain whether Joseph Thomas, subject of a flogging on the day of the mutiny, was part of the original crew or recruited in Hawaii. He may have been brought on at some other time during the voyage.
• This was the first command for Thomas Worth. He was a veteran officer on earlier voyages of the Globe and was recommended by the previous master Capt. George W. Gardner. Although the mutiny survivors didn’t fault Capt. Worth for instigating the mutiny, there were complaints about the amount and quality of food being served and time allowed for meals. The captain discharged the ship’s cook in Hawaii and six crewmen deserted. The replacements were described as “abandoned wretches” by one of the survivors, ie., rejects from other whaling ships.

Timeline of Mutiny and Aftermath

• 20 Dec 1822 - The Globe sets sail from Edgartown, Massachusetts, for the Pacific whaling grounds.
• May 1823 - Globe makes first stop at the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii).
• Dec 1823 - The Globe returns to Honolulu for provisioning. Six crew members desert and one is discharged. Replacements are recruited.
• 26 Jan 1824 - Earlier this day, crewman Joseph Thomas is flogged for insulting the captain. That evening, four crew members led by Samuel Comstock initiate the mutiny by murdering the captain and three officers.
• 29 Jan 1824 - Co-mutineer, William Humphries, is put on trial (found loading a pistol) and subsequently hanged.
• 15 Feb 1824 - Mutineers and crew land ship at the Mulgrave Islands (Mili Atoll, Marshall Islands).
• 17 Feb 1824 - Samuel Comstock is killed by co-mutineers. Later that night, six crewmembers escape on the Globe leaving nine surviving crew stranded on the island.
• 25 Feb 1824 - About this date, the crewmembers on the island were attacked and killed by natives only sparing Lay and Hussey who were brought to different villages.
• 14 Jun 1824 - The Globe reaches Valparaiso (Chile) four months after escaping the Mulgrave Islands.
• 21 Nov 1824 - The Globe, refitted and with a new captain, returns to Edgartown, MA.
• 17 Aug 1825 - The U.S. schooner Dolphin is dispatched from Lima to search the Marshall Islands for any Globe survivors.
• 29 Nov 1825 - Lay and Hussey are rescued by the Dolphin in command of Lt. John “Mad Jack” Percival.
• 22 April 1827 - William Lay and Cyrus Hussey return to New York on the ship United States almost 4-½ years after departing on the whaling voyage.

The Globe sailed on one more whaling voyage then was eventually broken up at Montevideo (or Buenos Aires), April, 1830.

References

• “The Whaling History”, database, New Bedford Whaling Museum, entry for vessel “Globe”, WRI AS1475, https://whalinghistory.org/wri/AS1475 (accessed 18 May 2023).
• Wikipedia contributors, "Globe (1815 whaleship)," Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Globe_(1815_whaleship)&oldid=1120520793 (accessed June 15, 2023).
• Wm. Lay, and C. M. Hussey, A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantucket, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824, And the journal of a residence of two years on the Mulgrave Islands; with observations on the manners and customs of the inhabitants (New London, Lay & Hussey: 1828), https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/28955/pg28955-images.html .
• Arthur R. Railton, “Six Island Whalemen Murdered In History’s Most Brutal Mutiny,” The Dukes County Intelligencer, Vol. 31, No. 1 (August 1989): 20-40, https://mvmuseum.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/1989-C-Aug.pdf .