Elleda Wilson: 'Wretched parsimony'
Jan. 12—The Daily Morning Astorian, Jan. 13, 1886, had an interesting tidbit about John Jacob Astor, and his "wretched parsimony and detestable meanness" over a marine chronometer.
In case you're not up on your nautical terms, Encyclopedia.com describes a chronometer as a "scientific instrument (that) was crucial to the accurate determination of longitude (or east-west direction from a given meridian on the globe) to vessels at sea."
What transpired was that one of Astor's "best captains" sailed to China six times without the aid of a chronometer. Before leaving for the next voyage, he mentioned to Astor that sailing with a chronometer (which is very expensive) is a lot safer.
"Get one," millionaire Astor said.
So the captain bought one and added the cost to the ship's account. When Astor saw the entry, he crossed it off. The captain objected in vain.
"Damn it, man," said Astor, "I told you to get one, but I did not say I would pay for it."
The old captain quit on the spot, and found employment before nightfall as commander of "as fine a ship as ever floated." He set sail three days later. At the same time, Astor's ship, with a new captain, also set sail.
The voyage to Hong Kong was close, but the captain who (as he said, himself) had "discharged John Jacob Astor," by keeping his men busy at the sails, taking advantage of the wind, beat Astor's ship by three days.
He loaded quickly, and before Astor's ship was even half-loaded, Astor's former captain sailed for New York with a full cargo of tea.
He made good time, and the cargo was unloaded and auctioned off immediately, leaving the New York tea market overstocked. Consequently, when Astor's ship arrived, the price of tea had fallen quite a bit.
Some time later, the captain met Astor. "How much did that chronometer cost you?" Astor asked.
" $600," the captain replied.
"Well," said Astor, "that was cheap, it cost me $60,000."
