The first line in the ship’s log of the Rhode Island privateer sloop Independence on August 4th, 1776, was this:
At 8 AM One Eight Dollar Bill Lost
Odd as it may seem that Captain Jabez Whipple would bother recording such a thing, it makes sense if you consider that eight dollars was more than a month’s pay for many sailors.
Pardon my speculations on trivial historical matters, but I have to wonder how the bill got lost. Maybe someone in the crew had stolen it; but if Captain Whipple had suspected that, I’m sure he would have made a search for it, and the log doesn’t mention anything of the sort. More likely, it seems to me, a breeze took it overboard. The log says that they had “plesent wether” and a “smuth See” that morning, but surely there was enough wind to carry off a piece of paper. I’m afraid I’ll just have to keep on wondering.
In the meanwhile, I’d also really like to know what it means when the log says that at 6:00 AM on August 14th, all hands were busy “a Dancing”. Was that a nautical term that I haven’t yet found the meaning of? Or were Wednesday mornings always set aside for recreation aboard the Independence? We may never know.