Pilgrim was a brig-rigged sailing vessel built in 1825 by Sprague & James at Medford, Massachusetts for Joshua Blake, Francis Stanton and George Hallett, and later sold to Bryant & Sturgis of Boston.[1] She measured 180.5 tons burthen, had a length of 86.5feet and a beam of 21.6feet.
Richard Henry Dana Jr., a Harvard College undergraduate suffering from the effects of measles, joined the crew in 1834 as an ordinary sailor for a voyage from Boston, Massachusetts via Cape Horn to California to trade for hides from the ranches around the Franciscan missions. That voyage is covered in the first part of his classic memoire Two Years Before the Mast.[2]
Pilgrim sank off the North Carolina coast after a fire at sea in 1856.
As described by Dana, in addition to six to eight common sailors, the ship's complement included three officers: the Captain, the First Mate and the Second Mate. The second mate commanded the starboard watch but while an officer was socially isolated, being neither truly an officer or a crewman. This was probably due to the size of the ship; on larger vessels with more crew, the Second Mate was clearly an officer, but on the Pilgrim, the Captain and First Mate ate together and the Second Mate had to make do with their leftovers. Besides the captain, there were four specialist crewmembers who were not part of any watch: the steward, cook, carpenter and sailmaker.
On March 29, 2020, the Orange County Register reported that the ship had sunk.[3] The ship began to heel starboard in its dock on March 29, and the decision was made to demolish it.[4]