Concerning damage to another ship.
The letter is on the letter head of the Danish Vice Consulate.
It is dated at Liverpool April 24, 1877

Captain Zaccheus Allen
(1843-1915)

Zaccheus Allen was born September 20, 1843, at Bowdoin ME, the son of James M. and Adaline Allen. His death record says his father was a master mariner, and there was a James Allen in command of Maine vessels in the 1860s and 1880s, but the 1860 census for James Allen and his family records his occupation as truckman. Both parents were born in Bowdoin as well, but the family (he seems to be the only child) moved to Richmond ME by 1860.

In 1870 Zaccheus Allen married Francesca R. Hathorn (sometimes recorded as Frances) at Richmond, and they maintained a house there. However, he does not show up in census records in 1870, 1880, or 1900, evidently being missed because of being at sea. The Allens had two sons, Joseph (who also went to sea but does not seem to have risen beyond the rating of mate) and Thomas M. R. (who became a druggist). His family sometimes accompanied Allen aboard his vessels.

According to later court testimony (see Live Yankees, page 100) he became an officer about 1862. He became the chief mate of America in 1866, probably joining the ship at New York in March or April, and stayed as an employee of the Sewall fleet of Bath for nearly the rest of his working life. He first commanded the ship Humboldt in 1874, commanded Eric the Red in 1876 and lost her in 1880, and became master of the Harvester from 1881 to 1885. He left the Sewalls for a bit, to command the Richmond ME ship Charles Dennis from 1886 to 1888. Returning to the Sewalls in 1889, he commanded the Benj. F. Packard from then until his 1904 retirement, with one short break.

For much of his career, both as mate and as master, he was being accused of harsh treatment, sometimes including murder, of sailors. He never suffered a criminal conviction, but did pay some fines. The Red Record of the Sailors’ Union of the Pacific recorded the accusations against him in vivid detail, and mainstream newspapers joined in. In command of the Packard he became known as Tiger Allen, hired his son Joe as mate, and the vessel acquired an unsavory reputation. For details see Live Yankees: The Sewalls and their Ships by W.H. Bunting, 2009.

He retired to Richmond about 1904, and there began a campaign to stop boys playing baseball in the field beside his house. The field was owned by someone else. Eventually he took the case to court and won in 1910; the Bath Daily Times ran the story under the heading, “Not a Patriot,” evidently referring to baseball being the “national pastime.” The games had been going on in the lot for 25 years at that time.

On February 8, 1915, Captain Allen died at home in Richmond, aged 72, of heart disease.
From: http://archon.mainemaritimemuseum.org/?p=creators/creator&id=176


"Eric The Red"
The ship Eric the Red was owned by F & A Sewall and was built in 1871 at Bath, Maine. She was lost on September 3, 1880 after striking the Otway Reef southeast of the Cape Otway Lighthouse in Australia. She had left New York under the command of Captain Allen, on June 12, 1880 carrying items for an Exposition being held in Melbourne, Australia.

This was one of Australia's more famous 19th century shipwrecks.