John Edwin Abbot to his mother Nancy (Stickney) Abbot, 4 June 1847

[From John Edwin Abbot in Liverpool, England, to his mother Nancy (Stickney) Abbot. He describes their passage across the Atlantic to Liverpool, and says they won $200 in a bet with the owners of another ship on who would get there first; says they are at liberty in the evenings, plus time for meals on shore; says they should be finished unloading tomorrow and sail for Canton in 10-12 days.]

June 4th 1847

Dear Mother,

As we have got a little leisure time today, I thought I could do no better than to write home. We sailed from the wharf about ten o'clock, and arrived in Liverpool on the thirtieth, making a passage of eighteen days. The Anglo American sailed four days before us and got in one day after us, so that we gained the bet of 200$ which the owners made before we started. We had very dirty weather comming across, raining and blowing all the time.

I like the ship very well althoug she worked very hard first along. And the we could not have better officers and crew than we have got, so that I am quite contented, although I confess I never was homesick so long as I was this time.

I like Liverpool very much because you lay alongside of the wharf, but you do not get much time ashore excepting in the evening. We have to get our meals ashore at a boarding house. We have an hours time for breakfast and an hour and a quarter for dinner and after supper we are at liberty to go anywhere that we like.

We have discharged two thirds of our cargo and shall probably finish tomorrow. We shall probably get away in about ten or twelve days and I do not think that it shall be more than three months to Canton, and if we are lucky there we shall be at home in five months.

Captain Benjamin Lovet's1 ship lies right astern of us. I suppose all hands are well at home, and you have got a little to rights about the fence and so forth. What puzzles me most is how you are agoing to get along with the garden when George2 is gone.

It is now nearly supper time and I must finish it off as short as it is. If I do not I shall get a cold supper.

Your affectionate son

John E. Abbot

P. S. Please excuse everything.

  1. Probably Benjamin Lovett (1811-abt 1873)
  2. George William Abbot (1825-1861), John's brother, Nancy's son