Of Storms, Sharks, and Stolen Spirits: An 18th-Century Transatlantic Tale

Transatlantic voyages in the 1720s were long and precarious, often rife with maritime challenges like bad weather, dwindling rations, and unpredictable crews. Even under the best circumstances, these trips were tedious and unpleasant.

Adam Cuninghame’s 1728 journal provides a rare glimpse into early 18th-century sea travel. The journal is in the John D. Rockefeller Jr. Library’s Special Collections at Colonial Williamsburg. The first two pages are long since lost.

Day 33

A month into their voyage, an unidentified ship approached and fired upon them, causing alarm. They discovered the crew aboard the other ship were French, and their captain was merely drunk and showing off.

Days 60–65

By early June, problems arose with provisions. Passengers indentured for service, known as “transports,” broke into the ship’s wine chest and stole “about 3 doz: of our wines.” The punishment was severe: the culprits were tied to the ship’s pump and whipped.

By this time in the voyage, Benjamin Franklin would have been in Philadelphia, while Cuninghame wasn’t even halfway through his journey… he still had over three months left.

Day 95

During a night storm on July 7, the intoxicated captain ordered the sailors to hoist the sails, ignoring his mates’ warnings and endangering their lives. The crew eventually forced him into his cabin, though water still entered the ship and “damag’d several parcels of goods."

Days 96–115

Over the next few weeks, the crew caught fresh fish, which Cuninghame claimed were “a great preservative against yᵉ scurvy.” Even so, the crew suffered from scurvy throughout their journey. Caused by a deficiency of vitamin C, symptoms included fatigue, anemia, and swollen, bleeding gums.

Days 123–153

Over the following weeks, the crew encountered several ships and traded with them for provisions like salted fish, rum, and flour. Water aboard was scarce, bread depleted, and they were reduced to eating peas.

Day 169

On September 19, the sea became mountainous, the sky grew dark, and the ship was hit by a violent hurricane, with “nothing but terrour before us.” Masts and sails were lost, the ship was tipped to its broadside, and three men were washed overboard though miraculously survived.

Days 169–174

Only two feet of water had entered the hold during the storm—much less than expected—though goods were damaged. The crew also had to improvise with masts gone. They set up “an ould foretop mast” and patched torn sails as best they could.

Day 179

Around 5:00 in the afternoon on September 29, Cuninghame and the others sighted North Carolina after nearly six months at sea. Despite the day’s good news, one man fell overboard and another one died that same day.

Days 180–181

They anchored alongside two other ships, one having transported enslaved people and another carrying rum, sugar, and molasses. During a stormy night, one of the ships slipped its anchor. The wind forced it against a hard beach, wrecking the ship and killing all aboard.

Day 201

On October 21, after “6 months and 17 days” at sea, the reckless captain ran their ship aground in the Chesapeake Bay, a fitting end to the harrowing transatlantic voyage. Of the original 19 crew members, five had died on the journey, far more than the typical death rate for such a voyage.

An already overcrowded profession and a high cost of living in Williamsburg severely limited Cuninghame’s opportunities. He traveled through Virginia and Maryland but found the places he visited were already supplied with physicians or too poor to support one.

Cuninghame eventually found work around King George County in Virginia and returned to England in the mid-1730s. In a third letter, written from England in March 1736, he explained to his father that he was out of money and arranged a secret meeting with him.

He wrote to his father: “…if you please (which I think would be both for your honour & my safety) I may be transported from Port Glasgow to some of the forreign Plantations where I may pass the remainder of my days in a Sincere repentance for my former folly.”

What happened next is a mystery. His request to his father suggests a desire to escape his past and start anew in a distant location, and no known records of him exist after that last letter. What ultimately became of Adam Cuninghame may never be known.