Capt. S. L. Gray

LIBERTY HILL IN Lebanon, Connecticut, is the final resting place of Capt. S. L. Gray, master mariner, whose death, manner of burial and family circumstances all inspired stories, some of which are still remembered by local residents today. The inscription on his headstone, now pocked by age and toppled by vandals, reads: Capt. S. L. Gray died on board ship James Murray near the island of Guam March 24, 1865 Age 51 years, 4 mo.
Captain Gray was master of the whaling ship James Murray, which sailed from her home port of New London on what turned out to be a tragic voyage, just after the outbreak of the Civil War. Aboard -- in addition to the usual crew, of course -- were Sarah Gray, the captain's wife, and their 16-year-old daughter, Katie. It was not unusual in those days to find the wife and even the children of sea captains accompanying a husband and father on whaling expeditions, most of which lasted from two to four years. Mrs. Gray, however was not a frequent companion to her husband on such voyages and was much better known for her domestic accomplishments back home in Lebanon than for her maritime ventures. It was said, however, that Katie had been with her father on all his whaling trips.
Before his vessel cleared New London, Capt. Gray had been warned that he should be on constant lookout for Confederate raiders, not only along the southern coast of the United States but also in the whale fisheries of the southern and western Pacific, the James Murray's destination on this particular trip. But alert as he undoubtedly was, Capt. Gray was on deck and vulnerable on the day his whaler was engaged by the famous southern raider Shenandoah, in waters near the island of Guam.
They say that an early shot from the Confederate ship mortally wounded Capt. Gray. And while the officers and crew of the Murray somehow managed to avoid being sunk or captured by the Shenandoah and were able to get their wounded skipper into a harbor on Guam in a reasonably short time, Capt. Gray died aboard his beloved ship on March 24, 1865. It also might be mentioned that there were some who claimed that Capt. Gray did not die as the result of wounds received in the naval action, but from diphtheria, one of the most dread diseases of the nineteenth century. Whatever the cause, however, there seemed to be little doubt that the master of the James Murray was dead.
Although it was customary to give an ocean burial to sailors who died at sea thousands of miles and many sailing months from home, Sarah Gray would not hear of delivering her husband's remains to Davy Jones' locker. Instead, she ordered the crew to open a barrel of rum from ship's stores, place Capt. Gray's body in the spirits and then seal the cask -- permanently. And so it was that when the James Murray finally returned to New London, the makeshift coffin holding the "pickled" body of her late master was removed to Lebanon, where it was buried -- rum, Capt. Gray and all
-- in the family plot at Liberty Hill Cemetery. Katie Gray outlived her father by only four years. When she died, she was buried near Capt. Gray and next to the graves of five brothers and sisters, each of whom had died, under somewhat mysterious circumstances, before or around their second birthdays, while their father and oldest sister were away at sea. While no one knew the cause of the deaths of the five Gray infants, some people believed that Sarah Gray had some sort of hand in their early demise. They said that Katie survived as long as she did only because her father took her to sea with him. Their suspicions were strengthened when Katie passed on after living for four years with her widowed mother. Some who knew Sarah Gray well were of the opinion that her cooking could have been a major contributing factor in snuffing out her children's lives. Whatever the case, Sarah outlived her husband and all her children by more than twenty years. Last of the legend-provoking family, she lies with them forever in Liberty Hill Cemetery.

from Legendary Connecticut by David E. Philips / ISBN 1-880684-05-5 / $17.95

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