From Thomas Waters Jr. to his parents, Elizabeth Waters and Thomas Waters Sr. (July 18, 1870)

[Thomas Waters to his parents]

[from a transcript]

Ship Wealth of Nations

         at sea   (1870)

Dear Father and Mother

I am manufacturing this letter at sea and hope soon to be in England.

I wrote to you from Paita, we are making a long passage, had much calm weather off Peru and now again in the vicinity of the Line.  We had real beautiful weather off Cape Horn, but we encountered a tremendous sea cross sea [a cross sea has wind-generated waves that are non parallel] and got boarded by one which, if the ship had not been very strong, would have made a dangerous affair for us and as it was it did us a great deal of damage – smashed all our cabin doors, ladders, foreward house, Hatch house, in fact did all the usual damage that hundreds of tons of water hurled on board in one wave can do, besides pouring an alarming amount of water through our open deck seams and top sides, flooding one of our fresh water tanks with liquid guano and spoiling 2000 gallons of water, leaving us only a weeks allowance of clean water. However we got things to rights again all but the fresh water and I am longing for a drink of good pure water, tho’ I do not think the nasty guano water at all unwholesome as my crew are all in the best of health and I have not lost a man this voyage by either death or desertion which is a very unusual thing; we had to throw overboard some of our cargo for the safety of all concerned; pump and bale.  I sometimes fancy that I am getting nervous – I think the constant anxiety which ship masters endure on long voyages and unsuitable diet with other causes and so little relaxation is trying to the best constitutions.  My flowers are doing well, Cape Horn hail killed all the out of doors flowers but the self sown seed of Janey’s marigold and some mignonette, a thistle and a dock and two blades of grass have come up, and I actually picked three fine mushrooms about a month ago.  My California or Madeira ivy is doing well, but my geraniums, parsley, nasturtiums are dead. I bought in Lima a beautiful creeping geranium, highly scented and a constant flower but it died after we got around the Cape.

July 3rd 1870  Becalmed again – beautiful but very unprofitable weather, very trying to a captain’s patience and temper.

July 12th  I will finish this note as I hope to arrive in Cork soon and will he very busy.  When I find out where the ship is ordered to I will drop you a line.  I have got a real nice little garden on, marigold in flower and some mignonette.  Had a fine lettuce last Sunday and have got a thrifty sweet potato growing. I will telegraph to Ben where to send me Amy’s letters. Hoping the Old Folks at home are well and everybody else.

Your affectionate son

           Thomas Waters

July 18th 1870

Off Cork.