In the heady days of the burgeoning gold rush to California, two unlikely shipmates found themselves under way in the old packet, Angelique, which departed New York in April, 1849 for San Francisco.

Eliza Farnham, published author and former matron of the female section of Sing Sing Prison, was not going for gold but “to bring refinement to that disorderly city.” Sturgis Crowell, from West Yarmouth, was making the voyage as first mate but hoping one day to get a ship of his own.

According to the book Eliza wrote about her California adventures, both of them suffered under the irascible command of Captain Phineas Windsor.

Eliza’s original intent was to claim a tract of land near Santa Cruz left to her by her adventurous husband who had traveled to California several years earlier and died there in 1848. But true to her feminist idealism she developed a plan to organize a group of well recommended marriageable women who would “bring their kindly cares and powers” to that rough hewn society of gold miners. In the end only 2 accompanied her.

Sturgis Crowell, born in West Yarmouth, had gone to sea at age 10 as cook on a coasting vessel. And, now at age 27, was making his first voyage as first mate on a full rigged ship, rounding Cape Horn to San Francisco.  While his association with Mrs. Farnham was limited to this voyage, it must have been an unsettling experience for both of them.  The formidable lady was soon involved in a raging feud with Captain Windsor, whom, she said “never named women but to deprecate them in the coarsest terms.”

The captain suspected the lady had inspired a rebellion among the 22 passengers, forcing him to make a stop at St. Catherine’s to give them a rest and replace “the bad water” on the ship about which all complained. Their relationship was further inflamed when Eliza’s nursemaid began an affair with the ship’s purser and the captain did nothing about it.  Ultimately they rounded the Horn and put in to Valparaiso, Chili, where the girl married the purser, and Eliza recruited a young Chilean woman as servant. Evidently the Captain had enough of Mrs. Farnham, and while she went back ashore to get the necessary passport for her new servant, Captain Windsor raised sail and put to sea, taking her companion and her children.

Through all these tribulations, she wrote kindly of first mate Crowell from Yarmouth, “whose good nature and kindness to the passengers, especially to the females and children, had caused him much difficulty with the captain...”

A lone woman, friendless and penniless in a foreign port was in dire circumstances -- even for the resilient Eliza. Eventually with the help of the American consul she found passage to San Francisco, arriving a month later.  There she was soon reunited with her friend and children.

Eliza soon left San Francisco, found her husband’s property, and with her own hands and help from her friend Miss Sampson and later Georgianna Bruce, rebuilt the house and developed a farm.  Her companions returned home after two years with sufficient fortune to keep themselves comfortable for the rest of their lives.  Eliza did not say how they gained such wealth. Eliza married in 1852, and developed a successful agricultural business but she divorced in 1856, and returned to New York City, where she published several books based on her experiences, and helped destitute women to find new homes in California.  

Meanwhile Sturgis Crowell continued as first mate in various vessels until 1861 when he was finally made captain of the clipper, Boston Light, departing New York for San Francisco, May 23, 1861. After a month unloading and gathering a new cargo, he was off to Honolulu, Mauritius and Calcutta where he received a message from the owners to sell the ship. Instead, Crowell sailed with a cargo of rice to Hong Kong, and there sold the vessel in January, 1863 at a price which pleased the owners.

Captain Crowell retired to his home in South Yarmouth on Old Main Street in 1873, nearly 10 years after Eliza Farnham died of tuberculosis in New York.  Honored and respected, Crowell lived some 40 years in South Yarmouth until he died at age 89.

Excerpted from an article by Haynes Mahoney