By Frank C. Damon ( "The News," Salem, Massachusetts 1931?) Article reproduced in entirety

Marblehead, Feb. 19 - Last week we reproduced a photograph showing a group of 14 Marblehead men in front of Dick Bessom's store on Front Street. It was taken about 1883, according to William H. Chamberlain, the only survivor. While a publisher of the picture post cards labeled it "Old skippers of Marblehead," there were only two old masters of fishing vessels in the group, according to most of the old men to whom the picture was shown. One man thought he recognized a third, but nobody else saw more than two.

When I began my weekly visits to Marblehead in the interests of The News historical department, some 10 years ago, the late John O. J. Frost helped me make up a list of over 40 men then living in town who had made one or more fares to the Grand Banks. Among them were two skippers, "Charlie" Snellen and "Siah" Green. A third skipper, "Tom" Peach, lived in Beverly. The list has dwindled rapidly with the passing years. Capts. Snellen and Green are dead. Capt. Peach is still living in Beverly. He will be 93 if he lives until August.

There were several old deep-sea sailors in Marblehead in 1922, but no former masters of Marblehead ships.

The Last "Square-Rigger"

A term often used to distinguish a deep-sea sailor from a fisherman, made his last port in October, 1931. He was Moses Sweet, a naval veteran of the Civil war. The purpose of this story is to give him his proper place in the maritime annals of the old town. Fortunately for our purpose, he was among the habitues of Old Town hall during the years the story of the Marblehead fishing fleet was being compiled. He readily added his reminiscences to those of other fishermen, having been a sharesman on a banker both before and after the Civil war.

Little by little his own life story was drawn from him and finally he consented to pose before The News camera. The story of this photograph and of the other and later photograph by the Thomas studio of Salem herewith reproduced, is so characteristic of the man that we give it space in these introductory paragraphs, quoting from The News of Friday, May 31, 1929:

"In the book of Marblehead's dead language, to be published some day, it is hoped, by the compiler, Eben Richardson of Lynn, we shall probably find this:

"Matlow-an old deep-sea sailor, rough, gruff, and coarse on the exterior, because of his long and close association with seamen of all colors, and of all nationalities, but with a heart as soft for his home town, and for his own family, as that of any other man ever born into this world."

"I have been in close contact nearly every week with Marblehead's last "matlow" for seven years now. He has been an unfailing source of information about others, and on general subjects. Like the late 'Sam' Dolliber, however, whenever the subject grew personal, if the notebook was on the table, he moved out of the little circle. Despite repeated urgings, and the advice of his friends he positively refused to talk about himself. 'Mose' capitulated just before Memorial day, 1929.

"The story of his surrender is apropos, because it illustrates the fact that the work of compiling Character Sketches of Old Fisherman or reminiscences of elderly people, together with a photograph of their honest, weather-beaten faces, for publication in their hometown paper, is not an easy task. They fear their fellow citizens will think that they seek the limelight.

"We were talking over the forth-coming review of the lives of the 18 veterans of the Civil war still living in Marblehead, in Old Town hall one day. Commander Morris entered by the rear door at the same time that 'Ingalls' Tucker ran up the front steps. 'Mose' was smoking his pipe by the stove; it was a raw day.

"'I'll go up if you will,' said 'Ingalls' to 'Mose.'

"'Well, by George, if your face don't break Fred Litchman's camera I guess mine won't,' said 'Mose.' So the agreement was made, and about 2 o'clock that afternoon a group of war veterans, including 'Cap'n Tom' Peach of Beverly, marched up to the studio on Washinton street. 'Mose' was the life of the party, introducing his comrades with:

"'Fred, there's a bunch of young fellers outside that want to get their pictures took.'"

"The pictures were 'took,' with what satisfactory results last Monday's News bore evidence. They were true likenesses of remarkable men. If there is a hardier set, whose ages run from four-score to four-score-ten, taken as a group, I do not know where to look for them.,"

The cut that was made from the Litchman photograph appeared in The News, together with one showing the head and shoulders of 18 other Marblehead Civil war veterans, on Monday, May 27, 1929. The plate was not retouched and the wrinkled brow and half-closed eyes were the most marked features.

All Sailors Acquire This Habit

After a few years' squinting over the water when the sun is shining. While the cut did him scant justice, it was true to life in those points that it did bring out.

He was sitting in his usual corner in Old Town hall when I entered the front door on the following Wednesday morning. He must have been what he would call "laying for me," for before I could return any of the numerous greetings that fairly showered upon me, "Mose" took his pipe out of his mouth and said:

"That was a hell of a 'picter' you had of me last Friday!"

So, because we know it would please him, we use as an illustration for today's story that other photograph, made a few days later. It shows him sitting in his favorite chair on the cement floor of an open plazza at his daughter's home. The overhanging brows and the sailor's squint are there but the artist has smoothed out the wrinkles. The whole figure is shown, with the well-remembered black felt hat on one knee. It is a much more satisfactory likeness to pass on to posterity than the one to which he objected so pointedly and so strenuously.

MOSES SWEET

Moses, son of Moses and Sarah (Thompson) Sweet, was born in the house on the corner of Washington and Pearl streets now occupied by Herbert B. Carrol, Aug 28, 1844. His father conducted a butcher shop in a store on the ground floor, on the Washington street level. The Senate club now occupies these quarters. The slaughtering was done in a building that then stood near the association factories.

Family necessities made it imperative that young Moses should begin his contributions to the general purse when he was nine years old. While he never said so, directly, the inference was plain that his school days ended when he became a wage earner. He was about the same age as William H. Wormstead. Mr. Wormstead does not recall young Sweet as a fellow pupil in any of the lower grade schools. The boy's first work was driving sheep from South Danvers to his father's slaughterhouse. The father died about this time and his mother married again.

Moses never made any complaint of the treatment accorded him by his stepfather but he did say that the home surroundings changed greatly with the coming of other children and he soon tired of the drudgery that seemed to be his lot. Like many another boy in a similar situation in those days he spent his few leisure hours on the wharves. He early caught the fever of the sea.

So one day his mother took him by the hand and led him up to the home of "Miah" Preble, skipper of the Josephine. It was 1857. The boy would not be 13 years old until the last week in August.

Glad to Accommodate the Mother,

Understanding perfectly all the conditions, "Miah" agreed to take the youngster along and to take good care of him.

"Did you want to go?" Moses was asked when these notes were made.

"Sure thing, I did," was the prompt reply.

Now most of the stories that have been written about Marblehead boys in the period just before the Civil war represent the mother in tears as her lusty offspring pleads for a chance to show that he can do a man's work in the one line then generally open to all beginners. Not so this Spartan mother of Old Marblehead.

She offered her son freely and without fear, knowing that "Miah" Preble was a good man, that her son would be amenable to discipline, and that she could trust the Maker of all three to do what was for the best.

"The skipper and I dressed about all the fish" said Mose in telling the story of that fare. "We had a good trip. I never got a cent, but I took naturally to sea life and never left it until I got too old. Then, like others in my class, I went to work in the Gregory seed house and kept at it until I could no longer do even that light work."

A little mental calculation on the day Moses imparted his information showed that he had labored at some task for over 73 years.

In 1858 he made his second fare with Capt. Preble, receiving no pay. In 1859 he made his first money at sea, when he sailed with Capt. Sam Harris in the J.P. Merriam. IN 1860 he made a long fare with Capt. George A. Bell in the William Franklin, a trip lasting from April 17 to October 8. Although obtaining only 14,000 fish, Capt. Bell gave his young sailor $50.

Then came the Civil war, and Moses, prevaricating slightly in regard to his exact age--he was only 17--joined the navy, enlisting under Captain Samuel Gregory of Marblehead in the Western World. John Curtis, William Lyons and William T. Gilley of this town also enlisted in the navy at the same time.

On Blockade Duty

Nine months the Western World was on blockade in Southern waters, afterward joining the Potomac flotilla. Then Mr. Sweet joined the New York two-gun tugboat Thomas Freeborn. When his three years; enlistment was up he was discharged and returned to Marblehead, where he found shore life dull after his interesting life in the navy. Two months later he re-enlisted, sailing from Boston on the gunboat Mary. For nine months the ship made Port-au-Prince its headquarters, guarding mail steamers between Haiti and the United States.

Returning home again at the close of the war, he enlisted again in 1865 in Boston, sailing on the Colorado, sister ship to the U.S. Frigate Constitution, having two decks of nine-inch muzzle loading Dahlgren guns and carrying a crew of 650 men.

On the Colorado Mr. Sweet sailed from New York on June 25, 1865, for the Mediterranean sea. Before returning in 1868 the frigate sailed from the Adriatic to many ports, visiting Cherbourg, Gibraltar, Palermo, and Naples among others.

He enlisted November 20, 1861, as quarter gunner, NO. 126, and was discharged November 19, 1864, while serving on the Thomas Freeborn. He re-enlisted January 13, 1865, as an ordinary seaman. The late Admiral Dewey was an ensign on one of the vessels on which Mr. Sweet served.

Mr. Sweet made trips to the Grand Banks with Captain Dexter Craig, Capt. Peach, and Capt. Bill McCabe of Beverly, and Capt. Thomas Loham and Capt. Edward Thompson of Marblehead. Among the vessels in which he served in the Civil war were the North Carolina, the Western World, the Sangamon and the Thomas Freeborn.

At the Washington Navy Yard

After his re-enlistment of January 13, 1865, he served as an O.S. for three years, on the Ohio, the Neptune, the North Carolina, the Colorado, the Vermont and again on the Ohio.

From 1887 to 1905 he was captain of many yachts, including the cutter Rondina I, the Casella, the Edith, the Cherokee, the Vision, the schooner Rondina, and others during the yachting seasons. In the winter he went bay-fishing for many years. The latter years of his life he worked for the James J.H. Gregory & Sons Seed company.

Before he died he instructed his daughter to give his Grand Army badge, his discharge papers and other effects pertaining to his services in the Civil war to Chaplain Lyman Rollins post, Veterans of Foreign wars, of which he was a member.

He married Lizzie E. Allen of and in Marblehead, April1, 1870. She died in August, 1928, at their home on Front street. I often visited them there and can testify that "Mose" had a softer side than the one he habitually showed when talking over his experiences on the sea. Mrs. Sweet was a confirmed invalid in her last years and her husband ministered to her every want.

Mr. Sweet closed his home and went to live with his daughter, Mrs. John Dennis at the corner of Washington and Pearl streets. Besides Mrs. Dennis he left another daughter, Mrs. Rea Handy.