Neptune's Needle

... He went to school in Salem and Andover and was preparing to go on to college. His father's unexpected death in 1807, however, left the family poor, and he entered the counting-room of his uncle... He was then only fourteen years old. He later moved to Boston to join the firm of William Ropes, but left there in 1812 to go as a supercargo for Picknering Dodge of Salem, on a long voyage to St. Petersburg. At the close of the War of 1812 he took a similar voyage to the Far East, stopping at Calcutta and Sumatra. ... For fifteen years Endicott traded along the Sumatra coast, being engaged chiefly in the importation of pepper. During the delays incidental to the loading of his vessels, he made a careful and reliable survey of the coast and published Sailing Directions for the Pepper Ports on the West Coast of Sumatra (1833), intended to accompany his chart of the coast, which was of great service to American mariners and went through many editions. ... In 1830-31, while he was master of the Friendship, with a crew of seventeen men, his vessel was attacked by Malays at Qualah Battoo, on the west coast of Sumatra, and, while he was absent on shore, many of his sailors were brutallly massacred and his ship was looted. Endicott managed to escape and reach Muckie, where he found three American vessels. With their aid he was enabled to recapture the Friendship, which he eventually piloted back to Salem. An effective punishment for this outrage was administered on Feb, 7, 1832, when the United States frigate Potomac bombarded the town of Qualah Battoo.

In 1835 Endicott left the sea...

Sources

Compiler

Peter Richards