Robert Treat Paine Papers, Volume 1
Agreable to your desire Upon my first coming into this Country I made Enquiry concerning the price & the circumstances of a Vessell's Loading with barrell Staves. I should have wrote you by Capt. Emerson, but I had not satisfy'd my self in the thing, since wch. I learn that there are no blls. Staves fit for the Irish Market sold under twenty six & eight pence Proc.; but then they are sapt & drawn & 32 Inches Long. Capt. Jno. Campbell says that upon sutable notice he would engage to load a vessall of about 120 tones in three Weeks. Severall Vessells loaded here last Year & gave that price for their Staves, & many more are expected in again. If you see cause to pursue that Voyage, I heartily wish you Success. I Subscribe my self your very humble Servt.,
Solomon Davis (1716–1791) was a prominent Boston merchant. He was later a son of Liberty and a member of the Fire Club. A close companion of Boston merchant John Rowe (1715–1787), Davis appears often in the latter's diary. See John Rowe, Letters and Diary, 1759–1762, 1764–1779, ed. Anne Rowe Cunningham (Boston, 1903), 26, 28. 3off.
Upon my first Arrival I wrote you by Capt. Emerson which I expect you have reced., since wch. Time have been Industriously Employ'd in loading the Hannah, which is at last accomplish'd & her Rigging fitted for sailing. You may wonder what should detain me so long in the Country, nor is it possible throughly to satisfy you unless you were here to see the Situation of the Country & the Circumstances of Loading a Vessell here. The Letter of Advice got so late to Mr. Blunt that he was obliged to engage a few Staves of one Man & a few of Another; (for no man would undertake to get many the Crop being so near on hand) that so I was obliged to go to three different Rivers for My Load & to a great many Landings in each River; barely wch. Moving about of my Vessall consumed a quarter of the Time. Another Detriment that attends my Arriving So late into the Country, is, that not having any quantity of199Staves to cull my Load, I was obliged to take a great many that are very thick & clumsey, by means of wch. the vessell will not Carry as many by some thousands as was expectd, but upon enquiry I find that the Staves will sell the better for being So large. In order to make them stow the better I have saw'd them all to the proper Length, & I believe the Hold is as well Stow'd as possibly could be, her Decks are full fore & aft, I expect to want some Literage, but how much can't say. I have laid in Such Provisions as is thought Necessary for the Voyage, wch. is as bad as can well be eaten, Provisions are always scar