Lost at Sea: Father and Son

Do you hold the key to finding what happened to Mystic's Captain Charles H. Gates and his son? There are no bodies under this memorial in the Lower Mystic Cemetery. The following is an excerpt of my book, Mystic Seafarer's Trail (if you know anything more, please tell me):

Although we know how the David Crockett met her end, there are other Mystic-built ships that simply disappeared. Mystic cemeteries are full of markers engraved with anchors and “Lost at Sea.” While visiting the dead Sissons, I noticed a large stone placed as a memorial to Captain Charles H. Gates and his 18-year-old son. It stated that father and son were last seen on the Cremorne leaving San Francisco on June 1, 1870, bound for Liverpool, England, and they “were never heard from.” In addition to them, 22 other crew members were lost at sea.

Did they join all the others who found their eternal rest in the sailor’s graveyard off Cape Horn? The Cremorne had been advertised as superior in strength to the David Crockett. If that’s true, perhaps the Cremorne will be found someday, a ghost ship still sailing the high seas. (This has happened before. In 1872, the brigantine Mary Celeste was found abandoned yet still sailing the Atlantic. Food and personal belongings were intact, but passengers and crew had simply disappeared.)

Before Captain Charles H. Gates went missing, he had lived near me at 48 New London Road (U.S. Route 1). His wife, Jane E. (Latham) Gates, sold their home 12 years after his disappearance. Never remarrying, she was finally reunited with her husband and son upon her death 53 long years later. She is buried near their stone in Lower Mystic Cemetery.
 

If you would like to know more about  sea captains from this era, read my book, Mystic Seafarer's Trail, which is available online and Mystic area shops.

###

 

The ongoing upkeep and maintenance of the Lower Mystic Cemetery is funded by grants and generous contributions from these community organizations and as well as private donations:The Charles B. Allyn Foundation, the Anderson-Pafford Foundation, Groton Elks Lodge No. 2163 and the Mystic Garden Club. For more information (or to make a tax deductible donation), please contact Lower Mystic Cemetery Association Secretary Judey Buckbee at jsbuckbee@gmail.com.