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The Red Headed Mermaid

“Any man who would go to sea for pleasure would go to hell for pastime.” This was what one Yarmouth skipper had to say about the “romantic” sea. But it couldn’t have been the skipper who went to Nantucket to teach whaling to the islander there and ended up inside a whale with a red-headed mermaid.

His adventures are not entirely printable but according to the story they were enjoyable. Yarmouth had her share in the golden days of the Cape’s sailing. It was a rough life and as many fortunes were lost as were made. Of the clippers there is the story of Captain Frederick Howes of Yarmouth in the Climax and Captain Moses Howes in the Competitor, and how it took them both exactly one hundred and fifteen days from Boston to San Francisco with large bets placed on them both.

Ebenezer Sears of Yarmouth was the first American skipper to take a ship around the Cape of Good Hope. There were also Captains Allen H. Knowles, Franklin Hallet and the famous brothers, John, Asa and Oliver Eldridge of the Liverpool packets; and there was the celebrated Ichabod Paddock, who had the amorous adventure with the red headed mermaid.

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