Voyages: 1874-1882
Ship: Coringa, John D. Brewer
Bessie H. Stetson was born in Hanover, MA, and was the daughter of Martin William Stetson and Ruth Bailey Stockbridge. She was raised in the Georgian-style home at 607 Broadway, Hanover. In 1867, she married Capt. Walter Lyman Josselyn (1841-1913) of Duxbury, MA. Capt. Josselyn grew up at 57 Shipyard Lane in Duxbury.
In the spring of 1874 she set sail with her husband aboard the Coringa with a load of ice for Calcutta. In the following eight years, she would make multiple voyages aboard the Coringa, traveling to various Asian ports, including Java, Shanghai, Bombay, Hong Kong, Ceylon, and Singapore. Her daughter, Bessie (1869-1845), often traveled as well. Daughter Elizabeth was born in Shanghai in 1882.
Bessie was no stranger to hardships aboard ship. The first night on the Coringa, she was unfazed to find a rat in her bed. During her days at sea, she weathered many storms, but none so violent as the one the Coringa encountered on November 12, 1880, after leaving Bangkok with a load of rice. The storm lasted for days and left the Coringa wrecked off of the Malay peninsula. To keep from being swept overboard, Bessie and her daughter were lashed to chairs on the deck. There was loss among the crew, but most, including Capt. Josselyn, Bessie, and their daughter were all able to get safely ashore. They were shipwrecked for three weeks, during which time the leader of the local village offered the Josselyns the use of a traditional Malaysian house. The crew remained in rudimentary shelters on the beach. Despite this experience, Bessie did go to sea again on the John D. Brewer.
Bessie Stetson Josselyn died of breast cancer in 1894. She is buried in Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury, MA.
Source:
Moore. W. J. Down East Captain. Devon, UK: Arthur H. Stockwell, 1967.
