CROSSING THE ATLANTIC
IN A 19-FOOT DORY

[CRAPO, THOMAS.] STRANGE, BUT TRUE. Life and Adventures of Captain Thomas Crapo and Wife. New Bedford: Capt. Thomas Crapo, 1893 [but ca. 1899]. 12mo. Original brown cloth, stamped in blind with gilt title on spine. 151 pages. Eight plates after photographs and sketches, including portraits of Thomas and Joanna Crapo. A couple of gatherings slightly weak. A fine copy.

SECOND ISSUE, with an epilogue on the death of Thomas Crapo (1842-1899) and inscribed on the title by Joanna Crapo. Thomas Crapo, a native of New Bedford, Massachusetts, ran away to sea at the age of 14 to begin a long career in the merchant marine, interrupted only by service in the Union navy during the Civil War and by his crossing of the Atlantic in 1877 with Joanna Crapo in the 19-foot dory New Bedford. Strange, But True is ostensibly the story of Thomas Crapo's life and maritime adventures, as told by him to a ghostwriter, but it is equally the story of Joanna - his wife, his sailing companion and an unusual woman for her times.

Fittingly, the Crapos were married aboard a ship docked in Marseilles, France in 1872. Joanna was twelve years younger than Thomas, born in Scotland and relocated with her parents to Marseilles as a child. After their marriage, Joanna frequently sailed with her husband, and he described her as "a plucky sailor, [who] wanted to go where I did" (p. 68). On one voyage, as they sailed through rough weather at night, a huge wave slammed into the stern of the ship and Joanna may have saved them all:

(pp. 72-73).

By 1877, Thomas Crapo had tried to give up the hard life of a sailor, but became restless after a series of menial jobs onshore and began to lay plans for his historic voyage; "I had for years been thinking about crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a small boat, in fact I was very anxious to outstrip any attempt that had ever been made. . . . The more I thought of it the more decided and determined I became" (pp. 77-78). Crapo had the New Bedford built for him by May of that year, and its namesake was all abuzz with the news. The boat was so small that Crapo would not be able to bring a chronometer, and would have to rely on dead reckoning and passing vessels to determine his position at sea. It was during his final preparations that Joanna informed him that, if he went, she would go too. Crapo wisely acquiesced; "I knew my wife's courage, as I had seen it tested, and I knew, without argument, that when she said she was going she meant it, and that settled it. There was no use trying to dissuade her, as it would only be wasting breath" (p. 80).

On May 28, 1877 the Crapos embarked from New Bedford in their tiny craft. After fifty-five days of sailing through thick fogs, heavy rains, gale winds, an encounter with a school of sperm whales, seas that "ran mountains high" (p. 99), a broken rudder and a near-collision with a steamship, they arrived in Penzance, England, exhausted but alive. Crowds gathered to meet them, and "Mrs. Crapo was the lion of the hour. A woman to cross the tempestuous Atlantic Ocean in a small boat like ours was what turned the people's heads" (p. 122).

The Crapos' feat brought them immediate fame and popularity, which they capitalized on with exhibition tours in England and the United States. Upon their return to New Bedford, Thomas Crapo purchased his own ship and engaged in trade along the East Coast. By 1884, he had traded up to the 141-ton schooner Gustie Wilson, but later that year Crapo lost the ship and its cargo in a hurricane off Cape Hatteras and barely survived himself. Again, Crapo purchased a ship, the Manson, and returned to sea. He was often still accompanied by Joanna, who proudly claimed that "I was always considered a fit first officer for the Manson" (p. 150). Again, Crapo lost his ship to foul weather, this time off the coast of Delaware in 1898. The little dory New Bedford was aboard the Manson when it sank, and it was lost too.

Joanna Crapo had not yet suffered her greatest loss, however. Perhaps due to financial need, disillusionment with the coastal trade or his old restlessness resurfacing, Thomas Crapo attempted to sail alone from New Bedford to Cuba in the 9-foot boat Volunteer in early 1899. Soon after, "his body was found off Charlestown beach, he having been drowned by the capsizing of his boat in a severe gale" (p. 151). Joanna Crapo was left destitute, with only the sales of Strange, But True for income. She had the book reissued with her epilogue added, and the present copy would have contributed to the support of this brave and remarkable woman. Toy, Adventurers Afloat 156. BT000089.

$400

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