Читать книгу The Inventive Life of Charles Hill Morgan: The Power of Improvement In Industry, Education and Civic Life - Allison Chisolm - Страница 21

Once again, Morgan borrowed $15 from his father, and began a new journey. This time, he went to Boston on August 14, sailed to Provincetown, and did go fishing “with a party of Ladies & Gents” as his doctor recommended.

But to derive the greatest medicinal benefits, how could he fund an extended period of fishing at sea? Within a week, he found his answer. He “engaged to go as cook for Capt. Ellis Holmes” on the schooner Juniata, a fishing excursion headed for Canada’s Prince Edward Island. Cooking wasn’t as much of a stretch for Charles’ skills, as he had spent much of the time between work projects at home helping his wife and baking.

The same day Charles signed on with Captain Holmes, he took on a true sailor’s job: cleaning out the ship’s forecastle, the upper deck of the ship where sailors lived. They set sail (after Morgan “got breakfast for part of the crew”) on August 24 and lost sight of Provincetown the next day.

The health benefits were slow in coming. Seas were rough that first full day on the Atlantic and not surprisingly, Morgan was “sea sick all day.” Two days later, however, he had his sea legs and felt he was “getting along nicely with my cooking.” They reached the Nova Scotia shore on the sixth day and anchored in several harbors over the next week.

“Caught my first fish,” he noted a week after they set sail. On shore, he “picked a peck of cranberries, besides blueberries and gooseberries.”

They reached Prince Edward Island on September 6 as Morgan battled a bad cold and sore throat. “I am quite miserable,” he wrote. Fishing continued for more than a month as the ship sailed in and out of several harbors. The bracing effects of the sea air may finally have helped Morgan’s health as he made no further comments about illness for the rest of the trip.

On shore, he returned to a familiar routine, however briefly, when he found a prayer meeting to attend. “Today has seemed more like Sunday than any day since leaving Provincetown,” he wrote on September 23. “Went ashore on Port Hood Island and went to meeting after supper.”

Pleased to report the ship was “homeward bound” on October 31, then sadly stalled in a cove the next day, Charles wrote they “started with a good wind for home” on November 3 and “hauled up to Gravin Wharf at 8 o’clock P.M.” on November 6. The following day he made it on to the last train to Clinton for a happy homecoming. Back in Boston November 12, he received his pay: $37.50 for “75 days’ labor as cook,” or 50 cents a day, about $12 in today’s money.

Given that he spent close to $6.50 on medicines and doctors’ visits over the course of the year, and wrote no further health complaints in his diary, the sea voyage delivered positive results for his body as well as his bank account.

Home less than a week in Clinton, he returned to work on a paper bag machine, but this time for J. Smith & Co. Some days he spent in Smith’s shop, others at a drafting table. Deacon Parker also hired him for further drafting on his horseshoe machine, swag hammers and a swaging machine. Morgan alternated between the projects until after Thanksgiving.

On December 13, a Thursday, he spent four hours working on the bag machine, then “went in company with Hatty, Cyrus, Aunt Abby & Harriet with a double team to Father’s wedding.” Hiram Morgan married his second wife, Eunice Goodale, that afternoon. Aunt Abby and Harriet were Hiram’s younger sisters Abigail and Harriet.

The newlywed couple continued to live in Bigelow company housing, but within a year Hiram and Eunice moved to a house known as “the McQuaid house” at 122 School Street, where it remains today. A sturdy two-story home, three windows wide with attic space, it has an attractive entry porch and adjacent garage which may have originally served as a stable.

Within a few days of the wedding, Charles was asked to make a gear cutter for J.C. Smith, who was not the same Smith refining his bag machine. Over the course of four days—spending 15 hours on it after full days on the other Smith’s bag machine—Charles completed the gear cutter project and earned five dollars, a tidy sum to end the year with. In today’s dollars, that would be worth just over $137. He continued other assignments, including the bag machine, but also worked on a stationary engine and a wire loom, most likely for Parker & Palmer.

Hiram Morgan’s house in Clinton, Massachusetts

While there are no surviving diary entries for the year 1856, Charles probably continued his work with Parker’s growing business. He did leave a notebook created that year filled with his own ideas for a paper bag machine that would have a better design than Smith’s or Goodale’s and could be commercially viable.