Charles O. Coffin Sr.
Charles Orcutt Coffin Sr. (July 28, 1817 – likely November 1872) was an American businessman, financier, and philanthropist who was the patriarch of the Coffin family in the mid-nineteenth century. Along with his various other business interests, he was a co-founder of The Amoskeag National Bank of Manchester in 1848.
Coffin was born into the affluent Coffin family of Madbury, New Hampshire, which maintained substantial interests in the lumber and shipping industries, as well as extensive undeveloped real estate holdings throughout northern New England. During his lifetime, he diversified the family’s investments, expanding into manufacturing, railroads, munitions, and banking. The Charles O. Coffin Graduate School of Business at Litchmoor University is named in his honor.
While still a young man, he made a large fortune as a stock and commodity investor, trading iron, coal and copper on the Boston Stock Exchange. Coffin later shifted his financial attentions to a wide range of privately controlled businesses. He is presumed to have drowned at sea while a passenger aboard the merchant ship Marie Céleste, which was discovered between the Azores and Portugal on December 4, 1872, deserted and adrift, though still seaworthy, well provisioned, and under nearly full sail.
Upon the death of his father in 1845, Charles inherited both his wealth and status as patriarch of the family, assuming control over the various family businesses. On August 15, 1846, he married Ruth Elvira Hellesby, firstborn daughter of English industrialist Adam Benedict Hellesby, owner of several cotton mills just outside of Manchester in Lancashire. Her mother was Catherine (Jekyll) Hellesby, daughter of a prominent London physician. They settled at Coffinhurst, where all of their five children were born.
Coffin was an astute businessman with a keen eye for value and remarkable investment foresight. Throughout the 1850s, he invested heavily in northern railroad companies and arms manufacturers, which resulted in enormous personal profit with the outbreak of the Civil War. After the war, he shifted his investment focus to real estate, buying up properties at distressed prices in the war-ravaged southern states.
He was an early stakeholder in the emerging steel industry, buying shares in the Rensselaer Iron Works of Troy, New York in 1860. It was at this time that he began to expand his real estate interests internationally, investing heavily in banana plantations in Peru and Coffee farms in Columbia. At the time of his death, he was pursuing investment opportunities in Portugal and Spain.
At about one o’clock on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 4th, Captain David Morehouse of the Canadian ship Dei Gratia, which had sailed from New York on November 15th, came upon the Marie Céleste midway between the Azores and the Portuguese coast. Her unsteady movements and the strange set of her sails caused Captain Morehouse to infer something was amiss.
Further investigation revealed the Marie Céleste to be a ghost ship, completely deserted and adrift, with her sails partly set but in poor condition and much of her rigging destroyed. The main hatch was secure, but the lifeboat was gone, and the compass glass was shattered. There was about four feet of water in the hold, but she was fully provisioned and there were no signs of fire or violence. The last entry in the ship’s log was dated the morning of November 25th, and reported her position off Santa Maria Island in the Azores, 400 miles from where Captain Morehouse found her.
At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar, the court was unable to reach a conclusion as to the circumstances of the ship’s abandonment, after considering possibilities including foul play in the form of mutiny, piracy by the crew of the Dei Gratia or others, and insurance fraud. Although no convincing evidence was presented to support any of these theories, lingering suspicions resulted in a low salvage award.
According to Jefferson’s journal, six days into the voyage, Captain Briggs’ wife and daughter were thrown overboard by one of the passengers, a man of mixed-race named Septimus Goring, who then enlisted the three Negro members of the crew to shoot Captain Briggs and the first mate, and seize control of the ship. They convinced the rest of the crew to join their mutiny under pain of death, made prisoners of the remaining passengers, Charles Coffin and Dr. Jefferson, and set a course for the coast of West Africa.
Upon arriving off the African coast, the Marie Céleste was beset by native pirates, who murdered the white crewmembers, as well as Charles Coffin, and threw their bodies into the sea, sparing only the Negro mutineers and Dr. Jefferson, who apparently possessed some sort of lucky charm or idol, ostensibly given to him by a freed slave during the Civil War, that instilled fear in the attackers.
After setting the ship adrift, the Africans took Jefferson to a temple where he was made a prisoner, although he enjoyed great respect for his possession of the mysterious charm. In the end, Jefferson was able to trade the idol for a small boat and sail out to sea, where he was picked up by a passing steamer, finally able to return home to tell the tale of the ghost ship Marie Céleste.
Since then, several members of the family have publicly expressed their firm conviction that it was Jefferson himself who murdered Charles Coffin for the money he was carrying, and may have been instrumental in fomenting the mutiny. They have been reluctant, however, to provide the specific evidentiary details upon which they rely for their conclusions.
Coffin was born into the affluent Coffin family of Madbury, New Hampshire, which maintained substantial interests in the lumber and shipping industries, as well as extensive undeveloped real estate holdings throughout northern New England. During his lifetime, he diversified the family’s investments, expanding into manufacturing, railroads, munitions, and banking. The Charles O. Coffin Graduate School of Business at Litchmoor University is named in his honor.
While still a young man, he made a large fortune as a stock and commodity investor, trading iron, coal and copper on the Boston Stock Exchange. Coffin later shifted his financial attentions to a wide range of privately controlled businesses. He is presumed to have drowned at sea while a passenger aboard the merchant ship Marie Céleste, which was discovered between the Azores and Portugal on December 4, 1872, deserted and adrift, though still seaworthy, well provisioned, and under nearly full sail.
Early Life and Education
Charles O. Coffin Sr. was born on July 28, 1817, at the Coffinhurst Estate in Madbury, New Hampshire. He was the eldest son of Samuel Moses Coffin and Caroline Grace (Orcutt) Coffin. He attended The Drury Academy, where he excelled at “base-ball” and was elected class president, graduating in 1835. He then attended Litchmoor College, where he was invited to join both Red Skull and the Endymion Society. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1839.Upon the death of his father in 1845, Charles inherited both his wealth and status as patriarch of the family, assuming control over the various family businesses. On August 15, 1846, he married Ruth Elvira Hellesby, firstborn daughter of English industrialist Adam Benedict Hellesby, owner of several cotton mills just outside of Manchester in Lancashire. Her mother was Catherine (Jekyll) Hellesby, daughter of a prominent London physician. They settled at Coffinhurst, where all of their five children were born.
Career
Not content with resting on his inheritance, the ambitious Charles Coffin set his sights upon expanding the family enterprise on a massive scale. In his late 20s he built a substantial fortune trading on the Boston exchange, later investing his proceeds in textile mills, railroads and weapons manufacturers. In 1848, he joined a group of investors in the formation of The Amoskeag National Bank.Coffin was an astute businessman with a keen eye for value and remarkable investment foresight. Throughout the 1850s, he invested heavily in northern railroad companies and arms manufacturers, which resulted in enormous personal profit with the outbreak of the Civil War. After the war, he shifted his investment focus to real estate, buying up properties at distressed prices in the war-ravaged southern states.
He was an early stakeholder in the emerging steel industry, buying shares in the Rensselaer Iron Works of Troy, New York in 1860. It was at this time that he began to expand his real estate interests internationally, investing heavily in banana plantations in Peru and Coffee farms in Columbia. At the time of his death, he was pursuing investment opportunities in Portugal and Spain.
Lost at Sea
Charles Coffin departed Boston on Thursday morning, November 7, 1872, aboard the brigantine Marie Céleste, bound for Lisbon to pursue potential business opportunities in Portugal and Spain, and carrying with him a substantial amount of cash. The cargo hold of the newly refitted ship was filled with 1,701 barrels of alcohol headed for Genoa. In addition to the well-respected captain, Benjamin Briggs, and a crew of seven, the captain’s wife Sarah and infant daughter Sophia were also aboard, along with Coffin and two other passengers.At about one o’clock on the afternoon of Wednesday, December 4th, Captain David Morehouse of the Canadian ship Dei Gratia, which had sailed from New York on November 15th, came upon the Marie Céleste midway between the Azores and the Portuguese coast. Her unsteady movements and the strange set of her sails caused Captain Morehouse to infer something was amiss.
Further investigation revealed the Marie Céleste to be a ghost ship, completely deserted and adrift, with her sails partly set but in poor condition and much of her rigging destroyed. The main hatch was secure, but the lifeboat was gone, and the compass glass was shattered. There was about four feet of water in the hold, but she was fully provisioned and there were no signs of fire or violence. The last entry in the ship’s log was dated the morning of November 25th, and reported her position off Santa Maria Island in the Azores, 400 miles from where Captain Morehouse found her.
At the salvage hearings in Gibraltar, the court was unable to reach a conclusion as to the circumstances of the ship’s abandonment, after considering possibilities including foul play in the form of mutiny, piracy by the crew of the Dei Gratia or others, and insurance fraud. Although no convincing evidence was presented to support any of these theories, lingering suspicions resulted in a low salvage award.
Eyewitness Account
On April 3, 1885, the Boston Herald published excerpts from the diary of an American doctor named Jameson H. Jefferson, who claimed to have been a passenger on the Marie Céleste, surviving capture and imprisonment at the hands of Negro mutineers and African pirates. Although there is reason to doubt Jefferson’s account, at the time of its publication it was widely received as an authentic retelling of the mysterious events that had taken place over a decade earlier.According to Jefferson’s journal, six days into the voyage, Captain Briggs’ wife and daughter were thrown overboard by one of the passengers, a man of mixed-race named Septimus Goring, who then enlisted the three Negro members of the crew to shoot Captain Briggs and the first mate, and seize control of the ship. They convinced the rest of the crew to join their mutiny under pain of death, made prisoners of the remaining passengers, Charles Coffin and Dr. Jefferson, and set a course for the coast of West Africa.
Upon arriving off the African coast, the Marie Céleste was beset by native pirates, who murdered the white crewmembers, as well as Charles Coffin, and threw their bodies into the sea, sparing only the Negro mutineers and Dr. Jefferson, who apparently possessed some sort of lucky charm or idol, ostensibly given to him by a freed slave during the Civil War, that instilled fear in the attackers.
After setting the ship adrift, the Africans took Jefferson to a temple where he was made a prisoner, although he enjoyed great respect for his possession of the mysterious charm. In the end, Jefferson was able to trade the idol for a small boat and sail out to sea, where he was picked up by a passing steamer, finally able to return home to tell the tale of the ghost ship Marie Céleste.
Skepticism and Suspicion
Although Jefferson’s account captured the popular imagination and has come to overshadow the official reports on the Marie Céleste matter in the cultural consciousness, it has also been met with considerable skepticism, particularly from the Coffin family. Rather than accepting his story, they denounced him at the time of its publication as a publicity hound seeking financial gain.Since then, several members of the family have publicly expressed their firm conviction that it was Jefferson himself who murdered Charles Coffin for the money he was carrying, and may have been instrumental in fomenting the mutiny. They have been reluctant, however, to provide the specific evidentiary details upon which they rely for their conclusions.
Charles O. Coffin Sr.
INDUSTRIALIST
Charles O. Coffin Sr. c. 1865
Photograph by Albert Gregory
Photograph by Albert Gregory
Children
PERSONAL INFORMATION
Born
July 28, 1817
Madbury, N.H., U.S.
Died
likely November 1872
Atlantic Ocean
Alma Mater
Litchmoor College
Occupation
Industrialist
Political Party
Democratic
Spouse
Ruth E. Hellesby
Children
Steven
Deborah
Charles Jr.
Judith
Caroline
Parents
Samuel M. Coffin
Caroline G. Orcutt
Relatives
See Coffin Family
Marie Céleste c. 1861
(then under Canadian registry)
Artist unknown
(then under Canadian registry)
Artist unknown
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