Conversations in Retirement

I have been talking with Kazue Campbell. She is a Scholar of Japanese, now retired from BU. She is busy translating a book from Japanese. The Book is an account of William Wheeler, of Concord Massachusetts and his efforts to improve the Agriculture in the North part of Japan beginning in 1876. Kazue was complaining about loosing steam on the work of translation. I said, “Please keep going. I want to read the book.”

I told her about my Grandfather’s visits to Japan about this time with the U S Navy and sent her pictures of his ship, at the time, the USS Kearsarge. She replied;

“Do you have any idea why did this ship went to Japan in 1874? It was 2 years before William Wheeler went to Japan together with William Clark and David Penhallow to start the first agricultural college in Japan, perhaps in Asia. ( Japan and the U.S.A. had the first commercial treaty in 1858, opening a number of ports. ) I look forward to talking with you on the subject.”

The Kearsarge was a US Navy war ship. If you look closely at the pictures you can imagine being underway at sea, the sails spread, a minimum of smoke from the stack. They would keep the boilers going to enable them to quickly "fire up" and increase speed with the steam driven engine, which was a new innovation in a war ship, increasing maneuverability in a battle encounter. My Grandfather was an "Engineer" in charge of the steam boiler. They probably burned coal which would have dirtied the sails and drifted over the deck. Quarters must have been tight below deck where you shared space with the steam engine, coal, canon balls and black powder, guns, sailors, galley, infirmary. The Officers would have tiny private quarters. My grandfather had a "sea" chest made out of Camphorwood in China. I still have it. It would be loaded on board when he reported to a ship for duty. The mementos he brought back, mostly from China, were small things, buttons, the wood cut print from Hiogo Harbor small pictures, a fan, a couple of daggers, things that wouldn't take up much space in his chest.

Looking at the pictures of the Kearsarge I am filled with awe and nostalgia. The beauty of the ship's lines, the craftsmanship the idea of a self contained community crossing the Pacific to Japan, under sail. It was all wood, with brass and iron fittings, built in Maine. It was the top of technology in its day.

I look forward to reading William Wheeler’s account of his multiple trips to Japan to establish a College of Agriculture. I must say I am more in sympathy with the purpose of his trips though my Grandfather’s mission may have helped William to accomplish his.