Peter Strickland, 1837-1921

No. 3481 Peter Strickland

Strickland wrote

A Voice from the Deep. (Boston, 1873)

Peter Strickland was a Dorchester resident on Neponset Avenue from 1871 until his death,  and he was the first U. S. Consul to Senegal.

Born a farmer’s son in 1837 in New London, Connecticut, Strickland left home at age 15 for a seafaring life. By age 24 he had become a merchant marine captain. Hired by a Boston ship owner in 1864, he sailed to West Africa with a cargo of leaf tobacco and lumber; in his return cargo, animal skins to make shoes for Union soldiers. He bought a house in Dorchester, MA where he settled with his young family in 1871. His son would attend Adams Academy in Quincy. Strickland commanded dozens of sailing vessels out of Boston that traded with West Africa from 1864 to 1904.

No. 3524 Title page illustration from A Voice from the Deep.

Impressed by Capt. Strickland’s knowledge of transatlantic navigation and West African trade, the Department of State asked him to open the first American consulate in French West Africa in 1883. His major task would be to facilitate and monitor American shipping interests in the French colony of Senegal, but he was also allowed to practice his importexport business. He chose as residence Gorée Island just off Dakar on mainland Senegal. From his residence overlooking the port of Gorée, he served as consul—with no salary—for 23 years. Peter Strickland lived for about 18 years in Dorchester and died there in 1921, leaving behind a book he wrote on behalf of sailors, business correspondence, consular dispatches, and—an amazing feat—a personal journal spanning 64 years

 

The following is from Stephen Grant’s website where his book on Strickland is available among Grant’s other books.

https://stephenhgrant.com/…/peter-strickland-new…/

Peter Strickland. New London Shipmaster; Boston Merchant; First Consul to Senegal. By Stephen H. Grant. (Washington, D.C., 2007)

Two repositories in the eastern U.S. house important collections of Peter Strickland’s papers: Mystic Seaport Library, Mystic, Connecticut and University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware. Papers contain ship logs, business ledgers, 2,000 business and personal letters from 1876 to 1921. Of paramount interest is a personal journal started in 1857 on a journal to Europe at the age of 19. The last entry was in 1921 at the age of 83, where the pen fell from his hand in mid-sentence. The journal is 2,500 pages. In addition, the National Archives and Records Administration in College, Park, Maryland holds the consul’s 272 consular dispatches sent from the French colony of Senegal to the State Department from 1883 to 1905. These handwritten reports are available on 35mm microfilm reels. NARA also possesses 16 bound volumes from Strickland’s period in West Africa, in all 1,850 pages of consular records, many in Strickland’s hand. Strickland authored a book, A Voice from the Deep, published in Boston in 1873. In it, he recounts details of the sailor’s five malefactors: shipping agents, ship owners, boarding masters, ship officers, and . . . consuls.

Strickland claimed he knew more about West African trade than any other American at that time. He made over 40 voyages during the Age of Sail from New England to West Africa, carrying in the holds of his schooners, brigs, and brigantines cargo of leaf tobacco from Kentucky and Tennessee, blocks of ice wrapped up in sawdust from the Kennebec River for refrigeration. The return voyage brought rubber, peanuts, animal hides to be made into shoes and boots, palm oil for cooking, and gum Arabic from the acacia tree for pharmaceuticals, inks, and adhesives.

Because Peter Strickland knew West Africa so well, the administration of President Chester Arthur appointed him consul for French West Africa with domicile on Gorée Island in Senegal, and covering Cape Verde Is., Liberia, The Gambia, Guinea, Bissau, and Sierra Leone. Today we are familiar with consular duties such as screening visa applicants, issuing visas and passports, recording births, marriages, and deaths of Americans, and looking after their whereabouts and welfare. In the 19th century, prime responsibilities were to further American shipping, record shipwrecks and accidents, offer protection to American travelers, report deaths of mariners including loss overboard.

Strickland also reported on rowdy, insolent, and intoxicated sailors. On Feb. 7, 1888, Peter Strickland’s only surviving son, George, drowned off the coast of Senegal at night. He was in command of the schooner M. E. Higgins on official mission sailing to the coastal town of Saint Louis. He reportedly fell from the rails where he was sitting. The body was never found and the circumstances of his death mysterious. He was 24 years old, a sea captain, and his father’s vice-consul.

Skills

Posted on

December 23, 2021

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