Description:

Amistad - Extremely rare and interesting nautical letter of Commander Thomas R. Gedney, crucial party to theAmistadcase which made it to the Supreme Court. Gedney lost his claim to salvage the ship also along with Cinque and the rest of their Africans

Manuscript Letter Signed "Thos R Gedney" as commander of the ship Plymouth and postscript signed "TRG," 2 pages, 8.25" x 10.5". Ship Plymouth, [China], October 4, 1849. To Commodore [David Geisinger], commander of the East India Squadron from 1848-1850. With blank integral leaf. Fine condition.

In part, "I received yours of this morning, with the box for Hendricks and letters and papers for the 'Ohio' which shall be attended to. As there is a heavy sea on this morning and you would most probably get wet and certainly find much difficulty in getting off to the Ship, I thought it best not to send your boat ...

"I am truly sorry to report to you that some of our men have been guilty of stealing from the China Junks. Yesterday morning Ayouke reported to me that one man had lost $140 - that another had lost a string of cash and one two bags of rice and an anchor. I could not believe it - and should not have believed that any money had been stolen & lost had not Mr. Doty found stowed away under the Head $93 - and the cash in one of the Mess Chests. The man who took the cash confessed ... If the owner of the Stolen money comes on board, as I expect today, I will have the whole amount returned ..."

"I do not believe that the two bags of rice were taken, as the men could have no opportunity of disposing of them. The anchor was left at Cumsingmun buoyed I am pretty certain, and the owner can get it when he goes back..." Cumsingmun Bay is about 12 miles northeast of Macau, off the coast of China.

The decision in 1839 of Navy Lieutenant Thomas R. Gedney (1799-1857), then commanding officer of the brig Washington, to file a claim for salvage of the schooner Amistad brought the case to the federal courts and set in motion the proceedings that eventually led to the Supreme Court's decision freeing the Africans. Gedney's brig Washington had been conducting a coastal survey in Long Island Sound when it encountered the Amistad.

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