Description
Diary of a Dutch cabin boy working on the ship Isis, with entries written beginning somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean and ending
in San Francisco. Accompanied by diary translations, along with transcriptions and translations of a small number of letters
from the diarist to his parents, a monograph on his brother's foundation, and a few items about the Spakler family.
Background
Harmen Willem Spakler was born in Amsterdam in 1837. He attended boarding school in Barneveld, determined to join the merchant
marine. For his first voyage he apprenticed on the ship Isis, leaving Amsterdam in late November 1852, stopping at San Francisco
and Hong Kong, and returning by San Francisco, Valparaiso, Baltimore and Washington, D.C., arriving at Rotterdam in July 1855.
His second voyage (September 1855) on the brigantine Livorno Packet took him to Livorno, Italy, and on his return in December
1855, he was thrown overboard in a storm and drowned off the Spanish coast.