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The Journal of a Sea Captain's Wife, 1841–1845
During a Passage and Sojourn in Hawaii and of a Trading Voyage to Oregon and California
Edited by Doyce B. Nunis
Published by: University of Oklahoma Press
Imprint: The Arthur H. Clark Company
260 Pages | 6 x 9 | 7 b&w illus., 1 map
$32.50
Lydia Rider Nye's journal is unique: it is presently the only known journal kept by a wife of a ship captain during a voyage along the Pacific Coast prior to 1848. Indeed, it may be the only known journal kept by an American hide and tallow sea captain's wife while voyaging along the Pacific Coast in the first half of the nineteenth century.
Other wives accompanied their husbands aboard ship during the early 19th century, but without recording their experiences, as detailed by the editor in his prologue.
Nye's journal and letters were kept to amuse herself and inform her family. They record her voyage to Hawaii, her life in Honolulu, and her voyage on her husband's ship to Oregon and California. Her activities, places visited, and people met are fully recorded in her journal entries which contain important sidelights on the history of Hawaii, Oregon, and California.
Traveling alone by ship from New England to Hawaii, Mrs. Nye spent four months in Honolulu awaiting the arrival of her husband. She then joined him on a voyage first to the Columbia River for a brief stay, followed by a longer visit to San Francisco, including an inland trip to the Napa Valley, then Monterey, and Santa Barbara.
Astoria, Fort Vancouver, Clatsop and John McLoughlin are prominent in the portion of the journal dealing with Oregon and the Columbia River. The Nye's were McLoughlin's guest several times. Many of the Methodist missionaries, including Jason Lee, visited the Nye's on board the brig Fama.
While in California, the Nye's spent time in San Francisco, the Napa Valley, Monterey, Santa Cruz, and Santa Barbara. Among those mentioned at length in her journal are Capt. William A. Leidsdorff, George C. Yount, Thomas O. Larkin and wife, Alpheus B. Thompson, and numerous native Californios. Mrs. Nye provides a description of the hide trade, in which her husband participated.
Appendixes supplement the text, and include "Lydia Rider Nye's Guest Book Kept in Honolulu"; "William Paty's Journal Account of the British Seizure of Honolulu, 1842"; "King Kamehameha III Gala Luau Celebrating Restoration of the Hawaiian Kingdom"; and "Sir George Simpson's Description of the California Hide and Tallow Trade."
Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., is professor emeritus of history, University of Southern California, and the author of numerous books on the history of the American West, including The California Diary of Faxon Dean Atherton, 1836-1839, The Trials of Isaac Graham. For over forty years he served as editor of the award-winning journal Southern California Quarterly.
Doyce B. Nunis, Jr., Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Southern Cailfornia, editor of Southern California Quarterly, and is listed in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in the West, Contemporary Authors and the new edition of Howard Lamar's Encyclopedia of the American West. Marla Daily is the President of the Santa Cruz Island Foundation.