Voyages: c. 1840s
Ship: Unknown
Mary Winslow Basset was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. In 1838 she married Capt. William Brooks Drew (1807-1876) of Duxbury. Capt. Drew sailed merchant vessels for over forty years, voyaging as far as China. The Drews lived at 30 Powder Point Ave. in Duxbury, in the home built by his father, shipbuilder, Reuben Drew. They had three children: Mary, William and George. Tragically, George drowned in 1860 at age 14 after a day of sailing with his sister and mother. Mary Winslow Bassett Drew was living with her daughter in New Jersey when she died in 1910 at age 97. She is buried in Mayflower Cemetery, Duxbury.
The only evidence of Mary Winslow Bassett Drew going to sea is found in a reminiscence written by her granddaughter, Mary Chilton Steele, in which she wrote, “I am reminded here in one episode of my grandmother, who sailed twice to South America with her husband, Captain William Drew…”
Sources:
Steele, Mary Chilton. “Triumphant Ships” c. 1940, Drew Archival Library
