John M. Cavarly Papers

This collection contains 47 items related to John M. Cavarly, a ship's captain, who worked for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, from 1864 to 1890. Documents include some correspondence, scrapbooks, and ship's log. As well, the collection also includes the manuscript of the 1961 novel Annie's Captain, about Cavarly and his wife written by their granddaughter Kathryn Hulme.

There are ten pieces of correspondence, six of which relate to particular voyages and four are letters from Cavalry to his daughter. The Scrapbook Pages are also filled with correspondence relating to Pacific Mail Steamship Company. The other scrapbooks contain clippings from newspapers regarding voyages, ships, and amusing anecdotes. The Bound Scrapbook used to be a ship's log and there are pages that are not covered in newspaper clippings. The photographs include one photograph of the John M. Cavarly, a photograph of the steamer "City of New York," and a photograph of her officers, including Captain Cavarly. The manuscript, Annie's Captain, is a work of fiction about the lives of John M. Cavarly, his wife and their family.

Subjects in the collection include: CSA Florida; John Newland Maffitt; United States mail steamers; Pacific Mail Steamship Company; sailing anecdotes; fiction of Ship captains' spouses; fiction of ship captains; steamboats and steamboat disasters; San Francisco Steamboat lines; Steamboat lines to China; Steamboat lines of the Pacific Ocean; United States Civil War fiction; United States Civil War naval operations.