The victim in this story is a little known whaling skipper.
Named, Gerardus Post Harrison, he was born on September 2, 1819, to
John and Harriet Wood Harrison. His father and brother were both painters,
according to census records, and Gerardus was the sole mariner in the family. He
was first recorded on the Braganza in 1834, aged just fifteen, giving
his birthplace as New Bedford. He was a little fellow, just four feet, six
inches, and by the time he shipped on the Waverley in 1842, at the age
of 23, he had not grown any taller.
But, despite being vertically challenged, he was talented
and strong enough to be promoted to the command of the Mars in 1852, and
then again in 1856. It was then that he married Caroline Ophelia — known as
Ophelia — Beaman, who had been born in Brooklyn, New York, on 2 December 1824. Her parents
were Joshua and Mary Martin Beaman. After Joshua’s death in September 1834 her
mother, Mary, had married a banker, John Bird.
As a new bride, Ophelia sailed with her husband. According to the log of the Mars, August 21, 1856, ‘At 6 o’clock Capt Harrison & lady come
aboard...’ Ophelia also connected with other whaling wives. On the Merlin, August 24, 1856, Henrietta
Deblois noted that ‘Capt. Harrison & lady came on shore’ at Fayal. In 1858
Elizabeth Marble found Mrs. Harrison on shore at Geographer’s Bay, Western
Australia: ‘She has ben on shore boarding one year but expects the ship in a
few days and she will go the next Cruse … she is very well and has a fine boy.’
By the time of the 1860 census, Captain Harrison and Ophelia
were living in New York with their two little sons, Orlando, aged three and
Oscar, aged one, both born in Australia. Gerardus was registered as a
shipmaster, and worth $5000, no small sum at the time. There was also a 16-year-old
domestic, Susan Warner, who had also been born in Australia, so may have come
to America with the Harrisons, to help with the small children.
Five years later, when the 1865 census was taken, Gerardus
and Ophelia were still in New York, but little Oscar had died back in 1860, and
another boy had been born. Orlando was eight, and his new brother, Charles, was
four, and had been born in Brooklyn. They were living with John Bird and his
wife Mary, who were listed as Ophelia’s parents, and also as grandparents of
the two boys. And, Gerardus was in fact, dead, though his family did not know
that at the time. According to his gravesite, Gerardus had died on voyage in June
1862, in theory a whaling voyage. The reality is that he was murdered
on the steamboat passage to New York.
Many years later, on September 4, 1878, Orlando filed an affidavit at King’s County, New York, first of
all testifying that he was the son of Gerardus Harrisson, deceased, and that ‘said
deceased came to his death by violence at the hands of some person unknown, in
or about the month of June 1862, as this deponent is informed, and believes,
that [it happened] on the steamboat “Bay State” between the City of New Bedford
in the State of Massachusetts and the City of New York.’
His information had come from Francis Harrison, the brother
Gerardus had visited in New Bedford, and was confirmed by a letter that had
been written by Francis on August 28, 1878, and was presented to the court.
According to this, ‘In the month of June 1862 said Gerardus P. Harrisson was at
my house in said New Bedford on a visit and on the twentieth day of said June
he left my house saying he was going to the office of Chas. R. Tucker &
co., who were at that time the agents of bark “Mars” to collect the balance of
money in their hands due him and that he was going to Brooklyn that night and
had telegraphed his wife to that effect as he had to attend to important business
there on the 21st. He left New Bedford that afternoon of the 20th
on the New York train via the Fall River boat for New York and I have never
seen him since.
‘About two weeks after him leaving New Bedford I received a
letter from his wife residing in Brooklyn N.Y. enquiring after him, to which I
replied that I knew nothing about him except as herein above stated. Thus for
the first time did I learn of his disappearance and immediately commenced to
make search for him and enquiring as to his whereabouts, but with very disappointing
results.
‘Several years afterward I was at Groton Junction … and
while there a person by the name of John Keyes sitting near me heard my name “Harrisson”
called, and after I had gone away said Keyes asked Mr. Ross, who kept the house
where we were “what Harrisson is that” and on hearing who I was he said “I sailed
with his brother Gerardus P. Harrisson” …
then told me that Gerardus P. Harrisson was dead, that sometime in the month of
June 1862 he was murdered on his way to New York in the steamer “Bay State”
halfway between New York and New Bedford and his body was thrown overboard. Mr.
Keyes saw all this and named some of the parties who participated in the murder
but he had never told this to anyone before because he was frightened and did
not dare to.’
John Keyes is not in any of the crew lists of Gerardus
Harrison’s ships, and during the last voyage of the Mars he was a seaman
on the Active, so it appears that by saying he had ‘sailed with’ Captain
Harrison he meant that he was on the Bay State at the time of the
murder. If it was a brutal group attack and he was a helpless witness, keeping
silent for so many years would be understandable. As he said, he was
frightened.
According to Orlando’s testimony, Ophelia had been left with
just $25, so it seems that the family was depending on the rest of the money
from the Mars voyage. If Gerardus was carrying a lot in cash or bonds
when he left the agent’s office, robbery and murder are plausible. Whatever the facts, Ophelia was left
impoverished and baffled by her husband’s disappearance. Her state of mind can
easily be imagined.
Ophelia passed away on 10 October 1896, and is buried in
Greenwood Cemetery, New York, alongside much of her family. Gerardus has a
memorial there, too, but there is no body in the grave.
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