Page 18. MAINE COASTAL NEWS February 2010 N a u t i c a l B o o k R e v i e w
LIVE YANKEES, THE SEWALLS AND THEIR SHIPS By W. H. Bunting
Tilbury House Publishing Gardiner, Maine
496 pages; Illustrated; $30.00
When many of us learned that William Bunting was writing another book, we were elated. We were even more elated when we
heard that he was going to do a history of the famous Sewall family of Bath. What was to take a couple of years, took three due to the immense amount of material he searched through from the Sewall collection at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath and the hundreds of hours of research via other sources to give an accurate account of the family, their businesses, their ships, and those they came into contact with. When he was done he had created an accurate account of the Sewalls, an account that showed that they were not always very nice and at times downright despicable.
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One of the most noted families in Maine’s maritime history are the Sewalls of Bath, which are descendants of Drummer Sewall. Drummer fought at the Battle of Louisbourg, the Battle of Quebec, was one of the signers of the letter supporting the Bos- ton Tea Party, and following the Revolution- ary War was a major player in the founding of Bath. The Sewalls of Bath were shipbuilders, ship owners, business owners, and played in
politics and much of this family history is written about in the first few chapters of the book.
Not only does the book tell the story of the Sewall family, but also other notables who were intertwined in their story. There were other shipsbuilders, but may be the most important were the 192 ship masters who served upon Sewall ships. Throughout the book there are stories about what some of these captains went through dealing with the Sewalls. These men often put there lives on the line, did all they could to make the Sewalls successful, but unfortunately the Sewalls often did not reciprocate, treating them very poorly. Another darkside in the Sewall his- tory was how some of these captains treated their crew. There are numerous documenta- tions of brutality and the ones finding the short end of the stick was for the most part the crew member or members.
What about their ships? They built very good ships, which often gave a good return on what was invested in them. However when
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they were to be sold, not all was told about their deficiencies. It would not be unheard of to hide problems of rotten wood, or worm infested hulls. Whatever it took to make as much money as possible no matter at what or who’s cost.
Where did they stand politically? Well when the Civil War broke out they sympa- thized with the South. However remember it was the south that provided many ship own- ers a positive economic future. It was said that Thomaston, like many other ship owning towns, were sympathetic to the cause of the south. Arthur Sewall would dabble in poli- tics, but was not very successful at it. He even once was a democratic candidate for Vice President of the United States, but lost. There is no question that we are very fortunate that the Sewall papers were saved so the history of that time is better under- stood. The Sewalls lived through a very inter- esting era. There were numerous technologi- cal changes taking place in the 1800s. Sail was giving way to steam, and wooden vessels were losing popularity to iron ships. The Sewall’s shipbuilding firm continued to build when many other yards in Bath had gone out of business. It proved just how business savvy they were, true sometimes at the cost to others, and other times some got to benefit from them. Through the 1800s they were able to ride the wave of change and see where the future was heading. An example of their abil- ity was when shipping was dull in the coal carrying business, they switched to another commodity, like guano in the 1870s. Again, what ever it took to be successful. Now this book contains lots of great stories, and one of my favourites is when Arthur Sewall went on board a ship under construction at his yard. He noticed that a very nice secretary was being added to the captain’s quarters. He wanted to know who asked for it and how much was it going to cost. Well, Sewall was not going to allow any convenience like this on any of his ships, and order the carpenter building it to hack it up with a hatchet. The carpenter wanted to tell Sewall where he could go, and the captain who had order it, never took command of the ship.
For some this will be a most interesting book, filled with all sorts of great stories, which keeps a reader wanting more. To the historian, the book is filled not only with interesting stories, but with detailed docu- mentation of history. There had been a previ- ous account of the Sewalls, but this book fell far short of telling the truth about them. Bunting has created an incredible historical account of the Sewall family that can be enjoyed by the casual reader and historian alike. So if you are looking for one of the most interesting historical book you will ever read, and one about Bath’s most interesting fami- lies, then look no further.
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