Folio (ca. 34x20,5 cm or 13 ¼ x 8 in). Ca. 60 leaves (15 at the rear blank). Brown ink and pencil on lined paper, filled in on recto and verso; in all ca. 89 pp. of text. Original light brown quarter sheep journal with marbled papered boards. Covers with chipping on the lower outer corners, spine with cracks and minor losses, water stains on the lower corners on text pages; overall good journal with legible text.

Copy of the letter from USS “Jamestown:” Sitka, Nov, 15th 1867. Folio (ca. 34,5x21 cm or 13 ½ x 8 ¼ in). Bifolium with manuscript text on rectos of both leaves. Brown ink on lined paper; docketed on verso of the second leaf. Fold marks, minor soiling on verso of the second leaf not affecting the text, otherwise very good.

Appointment papers: Navy Department, 9 August 1866 and 30 January 1874. Both Quarto (ca. 25x20 cm or 9 ¾ x 7 ¾ in). Printed forms completed in manuscript; brown ink on wove paper; both with additional manuscript remarks on the upper margins. The 1874 form with an ink stamps of “Flag Ship Wabash, U.S. European Fleet” and dates on recto and verso. Fold marks, paper slightly age-toned, otherwise very good.

An interesting collection of original documents related to the history of the formal transfer of Alaska from Russia to the United States and the first raising of the American flag over Sitka on October 18, 1867. The collection was created by a U.S. naval officer, Sullivan Dorr Ames and dates back to his service on board the U.S. steamer “Resaca” in 1866-1869. Commissioned in 1866, “Resaca” was assigned to the U.S. Pacific Squadron to relieve the USS “Jamestown” on its patrol of the Pacific coast of Mexico and Central America. While in port in Panama, both ships suffered the outbreak of yellow fever (“Jamestown” – 59 cases, 21 deaths, “Resaca” – 77 cases, 19 deaths) and in an attempt to reduce the spread of the disease, departed north in April 1867, staying on quarantine in San Francisco. Both ships joined the U.S. North Pacific Squadron under the command of Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher and went to Sitka in August 1867 to take part in the formal transfer of Alaska to the United States. During the ceremony on October 18th, “Resaca” fired a salute at the raising of the U.S. flag in front of the governor’s residence (Transfer of Russian America// Daily Illinois State Journal. November 15, 1867, p. 1). She left Sitka for San Francisco in January 1868 with Princess Maksutov, wife of the last governor of Russian America, on board (Distinguished Arrival// The San Francisco Examiner. January 28, 1868, p. 3).

The manuscript journal is a comprehensive collection of instructions and assignments for “Resaca’s” crew members during her first Pacific voyage. It consists of the following parts: Watch Bill (crew members’ shifts on forecastle, fore top, main top, afterguard, &c., lists of “petty officers & idlers,” “marines,” “firemen & coal heavers,” &c.); Quarter Bill (lists of crew members of the “First Division,” “Second Division,” “Third & Powder Division,” “Fourth & Masters Division,” “Boarders, Pikemen”, &c.); Station Bill (assignments of sail operations: “loosing & furling,” “reefing & hoisting,” “tacking & wearing,” “mooring & unmooring,” “getting underway & anchoring,” &c.); Fire Bill (instructions to all crew members in case of fire on board, lists of people assigned to pumps); Muster Bill (lists of Officers – including “Lieut. Commr. S.D. Ames,” Petty Officers, Seamen, Ordinary Seamen, Landsmen, Boys, Firemen & Coal Heavers, and Marines); and Boat Bill (lists of crew and corresponding flags of “Resaca’s” lifeboat, launch, four cutters, and “dingy,” text of the “General Orders for Armed Boats”). Twenty pages of pencil-drawn tables and lists provide more details on the operations with sails, “Officers’ stations,” and launch and cutters’ crews.

Several notes in the Muster Bill mention desertions or hospitalizations of “Resaca’s” seamen, landsmen and firemen in 1866 and 1867 – in Pernambuco, Rio, Montevideo, or Valparaiso. The manuscript also contains a pencil drawing of “Resaca’s” three masts (mizzen, main, and fore) with their exact measurements.

The period copy of the letter, written in Sitka on November 15, 1867 (with a note “S.D. Ames, Lt. Commander” on the top margin of the first leaf), refers to some tensions between the executive officers of USS “Jamestown” and USS “Resaca.” Written by “L. Barnes, acting ensign” of USS “Jamestown,” who served as a caterer of the ship’s wardroom mess (area where commissioned officers dined and socialized), the letter is addressed to “T.S. Gray,” his counterpart on USS “Resaca.” Barnes informs Gray that USS “Jamestown” “positively declines” to provide “mess & attendances” to “Resaca” as their stores are “provided sufficiently for our own necessities only, & which could not be replaced here.” Barnes explains that if they had to purchase the necessary supplies themselves, “at from three to four times the cost <…> which purchased with our greenbacks (selling at 65 cts.) would make our pay realize to us not more than 10 cts. on a dollar. You on the contrary are paid in coin. We fail to appreciate the deficiency which would compel us to sacrifice our pay in this manner to your economy & convenience <…>

Paragraph No. 83 of the Regulations cannot be made to subserve your interests. If yours even was a case of necessity, this ship is not the only place of refuge <…>. The time you propose we should assist you while the “Resaca” is [painting?] you estimate from one month to five weeks or longer. Even if for a shorter period our objection is the same”. The assistance to “Resaca” would result in the “interference with the proper discharge of our duties, the unnumerable annoyances & discomforts” and raise “sanitary considerations.”

The letter dates back to the time when both ships were stationed in Sitka shortly after the transfer of Alaska and showcase the realities of service on the U.S. naval ships in the early days of the American administration in Sitka.  

The collection also includes two official papers, certifying Sullivan D. Ames’s appointment as Lieutenant Commander of the U.S. Navy (August 9, 1866, with the commission to “U.S.S Kearsarge, Boston, Mass.”) and Commander (January 30, 1874, with the commission to USS “Wabash,” North Atlantic Station, with her ink stamps on recto and verso of the document).

Overall an important collection of original documents and a period copy of an interesting letter providing details on the service of USS “Resaca” in the Pacific and the Alaskan waters during the transfer of Alaska to the United States.

“Commander Sullivan Dorr Ames, son of the late Chief-Justice Ames, of Rhode Island <…> was born in Rhode Island July 16, 1840, and entered the Naval Academy in 1856. During the rebellion, having been promoted, first to Master and then to Lieutenant, he did service in the steam sloop Dacotah in the North Atlantic Squadron, and participated in the attack on Sewell’s Point., May 22, 1862. Later he was attached to the European and North Pacific Squadrons. He received his commission as Lieutenant Commander in 1866. From 1869 to 1872 he was at the Naval Academy. In 1873 he was on staff duty on the Wabash, the flagship of the European squadron and served in the same way, the succeeding year on the Franklin. In 1874 he was commissioned as Commander. He acted as Light-house Inspector in 1875, and for the two following years was on ordnance duty at Portsmouth” (Obituary: Sullivan Dorr Ames// The New York Times, 23 November 1880, p. 2).