History Of The "Old High School" 1828-1840
by Charles Wells Chapin






birthday, and was absent 13 months. He made other voyages as seaman on the ship "Chatham" to Charleston and Liverpool, on the "Eclipse" to Calcutta as second mate, and on the brig "Margaret" to Savannah and the West Indies. In the summer of 1836 he was offered the command of the brig "Swan," fitting out for the west coast of South America, and made the voyage around Cape Horn as captain, when but three months over 20 years of age. After spending two years on that coast and visiting all its principal ports, be returned as passenger on the whaling bark "Columbus" of New Bedford. He then bought the brig "John Gilpin," went to South America, sold the vessel at Lima, Peru, and returned as a passenger on the whaling ship "Massachusetts" of Nantucket. He afterward bought the brig "Wallace" and took out a cargo of naval stores for the United States fleet on the Rio Janeiro station, sold this vessel to the Russian Governor of Kamtchatka and came home via Callao, Peru, and the isthmus of Panama. After remaining at home about two years he bought the brig "Grand Turk" and loaded it with material for a shipyard in Hong Kong, China, then lately acquired by the English. He arrived there after a passage of i64 days, and, when the cargo was discharged, sold the brig and returned home in the bark "Sharon" of Boston.
        Capt. Emery was agent of the New England coal mine at Portsmouth, R. I., for two or three years from 1856. He was also for several years interested in Lake Superior copper mines, and was secretary and treasurer of the Pewabic and Franklin mining companies, having an office in Boston. In the winter Of 1878-9, New York parties, largely engaged in the cedar and mahogany trade, were desirous of exploring the river Amazon, in order to obtain a supply of the valuable woods of the tropics. Capt. Emery agreed to take charge of the expedition. He sailed from Boston in the schooner "Knowles," for Para, Brazil, and thence proceeded up the Amazon for several hundred miles, carrying the United States flag where it had never been


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