The following is an account of Lowd's time aboard the D.S. Goodell, apparently written by an auction house which sold his diary:

William Q. Lowd, "Journal from Boston to Rio De Janeiro," February 10-November 22, 1854, 127pp.

As apprentice to Capt. Royal Herriman aboard the bark D. S. Goodell, William Q. Lowd ventured from his home port in Boston to exotic Rio de Janeiro in 1854 and then on to the equally exotic reaches of Northern Europe. Although Lowd's age is not clear, his position aboard ship and the general tenor of his writing suggests that he was quite young, probably in his teens, though he writes well in a fluid and confident hand. What he writes, though, is special: a young seaman's account of one of his first blue sea voyages, filled with the salty flavor of old salts. It isn't hard to imagine oneself on deck with Lowd when he writes of his time: "To night the captain set me on the watch with the rest of the crew. We have pretty good time spinning yarns and smoking there are t[w]o watches, starboard and larboard. I was in the starboard or second mates watch. We watch for 8 till 12 oclock at night, turn in for four hours get up at 4 again and stay on deck another four hours…."

Perhaps because of his inexperience and the novelty of the voyage, Lowd describes his experiences with a fresh, wide eyed attitude. Whether describing his relations with his fellow seamen, getting clipped in the eye by a flying fish, recounting his first experience furling the royal (top most) sail without supervision, attempting to keep a seagull for a pet, being threatened with a Neptune ceremony, or describing the sights at sea, Lowd comes across as fascinated at every little detail of shipboard life. A few passages give a flavor of Lowd's style:

Feb. 27: "The captain came on deck to tell me to see those two whales they kept coming on top water and then go down again making a roaring noise and spouting water. These were brown colored and had a great fin on his back. One come close under our bows which scared me as I thought he would flop his tail and strike the bark…." Later he writes of seeing a grampus (killer whale), porpoises, flying fish, swordfish, seagulls, and other marine life.

April 9, ashore in Rio: "there is some American hotels and sailor boarding houses there, some of the principal is California House, American House, and Hotel Pharoux. I got acquainted with a man that keeps the pilot store, he talks pretty good English… they have some very queer money here in Rio. Milras, Dumps and half Dumps. One Milra is 58 cts of our money and one Dump is 2 cts… and foreign silver money will pass there. You see the natives carry about everything on the top of there heads and the niggers they carry great coffee bags on the top of there heads and they all go in a row one behind the other singing in there native tongue…." Went up to the palace to see the emperor. After breakfast the next morning, the crew amused themselves killing rats, as many as they could, and then cleaned the decks.

April 15: "This forenoon I amused my self catching cat fish which are very plenty here., to day at 12 o'clock they killed Judas and you could see him hanging on the portege ships and at 12 they commenced firing guns from every Brazilian men of war and ringing bells and firing rockets and then they would shoot at him and making distance up and down and at the last of it the men gave him a good ducking and took him in and began to beat him and then they took out their knives and began to knife him and tore him to pieces. "

In Rio, Lowd and crew helped load coffee for export and headed for Scandinavia. En route, Lowd saw the full force of shipboard discipline for the first time. "At 3 o'clock I was awakened by a loud noise at the wheel. I got up and went on deck. The man at the wheel was half asleep and the captain just come on deck and began to talk with him and Bill saucing him. At that the captain struck him and he Bill let go of the wheel and the mate took it first calling the 2nd mate and then they had a regular squabble and the captain had bill down and held him there till the mate got the handcuffs on and then they was agoing to lock him to the main rigging but it was so cold the captain took him down in the forward cabin and told him if he would behave himself like a man that he would take the irons off and say no more about it…."

A special diary from a young seaman with great detail not only on the voyage and the places they visited, but details on shipboard duties and living conditions, with insight into crew relations and comradery, down to the minutia of washing clothes at sea. In the front of the diary, Lowd lists the crew by name, which includes one each from Scotland, Ireland, Nova Scotia, Germany, and America.

Major W.Q. Lowd