History Bytes: A Month in the Life, Midshipman Charles Hunter on the USS Potomac, November 1832

September 4, 2014

By Maggie Stack, NHS Buchanan/Burnham Intern 2014

Charles Hunter, the son of William and Mary Robinson Hunter, obtained a commission as a Midshipman in the United States Navy in 1831, at the age of 19. He joined USS Potomac, an American frigate (a mid-sized ship of war), which had been ordered to Kuala Batu in Sumatra to answer for the murder of American sailors aboard the merchant vessel Friendship the year before.

Hunter kept a detailed journal of his life aboard USS Potomac, on the advice of his mother, herself a dedicated diarist. Typical of his profession, he describes the weather conditions and workings of the ship, but also records the interactions of the other Midshipmen, the attitudes of the other officers and men, his program of self-education, and his own moods. The following entries are from a 31-day Atlantic crossing, between Rio de Janiero and Table Bay.

On 5 November, the Potomac left Rio de Janeiro, where it had been for several weeks. Hunter looks forward to the month-long passage to Table Bay:

“I am delighted to get to sea again I am in much better spirits than when laying in port and should like to remain at sea Permanently.”

The routines of life aboard ship resume; Hunter records, on 6 November that,

“The same sea scenes have commenced of Mids taking the sun”

Indicating that he and his fellows are using the elevation of the sun at noon to determine the latitude of the vessel, an important calculation to keep an accurate location for the ship.

Hunter records his other efforts to educate himself, independent of the lackadaisical efforts of the ship’s school master. The Potomac, like many other naval vessels, had a man assigned to teach the midshipmen subjects that were needed for their careers, but they would not pick up in their day-to-day duties: foreign languages, composition, mathematics. Hunter, however, did not receive much in the way of instruction from his school master. On 9 November he writes that he has begun

“to translate a history of France in French which I suppose will take me a year I translate about a page and a half every day”

Hunter also writes the same day that he is starting to review his algebra and has set out a program of Calculus problems for himself, leaving very little time for his other reading, David Porter’s Journal of a Cruise Made to the Pacific Ocean.

As the Potomac continued in the Southern Atlantic, Hunter noted the foreign wildlife. On 12 November, the men of the Potomac captured an albatross with a wingspan of 10’3”, noting that

“what is very remarkable they cannot fly from the Deck and appear to be perfectly powerless when out of the water and when there it is very difficult for them to raise themselves.”

The weather worsened on 14 November and Mr. Hunter’s seamanship was tested;

“Mr. Shubrick [the first lieutenant] took me, showed [me] what to do, and told me to go aloft and see it done. I immediately stripped off pea jacket and was on the fore topsail yard. [It] was raining very hard and blowing a gale. The Commodore [John Downes] was on deck at the time and I am almost sure he thought better of me for seeing me so active & trying to be useful, the wind blowing hard & much to do. I was happy, altogether very wet.”

By 15 November the weather had abated, and Hunter was amused to see that,

“the rigging indicated our having had rainy weather, and also of it now being pleasant, for it was filled with pea jackets, pantaloons etc. etc. hung up to dry.”

Although the good feeling accrued in Rio de Janiero had apparently worn off, and the occasionally violent quarrels that had plagued the midshipman’s berth resumed:

“There happened in the steerage today a quarrel, an occurrence no ways uncommon in the steerage. The parties engaged being Mid. Cocke & Taylor; one had his jacket torn the other a slight mark on the cheek.”

And on 19 November, within two weeks of leaving Rio, Hunter’s wonder at life afloat had definitely worn off. Boredom with routine set in with a vengeance:

“thus far have we sailed without seeing else but sky and ocean, the same things seeming every day without anything happening today or enliven our monotonous life.”

On the 21st, Hunter felt desperately homesick and alone on the Potomac, and the conflict in the midshipmen’s mess wore him down:

“There is much quarrelling and much evil feeling among the midshipmen, so much sufficiently there is displayed that one would suppose himself to be in a Court of some powerful Prince where are all jealous of one another and endeavor to exalt themselves by oppression of others. There is so much evil feeling displayed that I shall endeavor to get removed to Falmouth when we get upon our station, where I hope my friend William Adams will be.”

And on the 26th, he noted with irritation what he and the other midshipmen perceived as busy-work:

“Have been coppying[sic] the station bill today and all the mids are busy in doing the same. They are very long and all the mids think it very hard that they should be obliged to write them.”

Evidently, the poor spirits were endemic. On the 28th, Hunter wrote regretfully that he,

“Had a fight with Mid Stanley this morning for which I am very sorry, as he is a person against whom I never had any ill will. He attempted to strike me; I soon got the advantage of him but did not wish to hurt him, but he was in a great rage. [I] hurt his eye a little.”

The Midshipmen’s antipathy to their school and school-master remained unchanged, however:

“Our school being very rather an uncomfortable place, and our master one of the dullest of persons, is but poorly attended and when the Mids are there it is only to write Journals station bills or read novels.”

On 6 December USS Potomac finally arrived in Table Bay, ending their 31-day passage from Rio de Janiero.

A doodle found inside the cover in one of Taylor's journals. From the NHS collection.

A doodle from the inside cover in Taylor’s journal. From the NHS collection.