Today in History: The Peerless Gets a Crew

On this date, November 15, 1861, Captain Robert Major signed on a new crew at Liverpool for his India-bound ship, the Peerless.

The new crew — average age 26 — was comprised of  two mates, a carpenter, boatswain, steward, and cook, together with thirteen seamen and six apprentices.   The Peerless didn’t put to sea for another four days.  The delay, suggests Brian Simpson, “may well have been designed to allow [the] crew to sober up.”  In the lore of Raffles v. Wichelhaus, this particular vessel, will be known as the “October” Peerless.

[Frank Snyder]