Reuben Merrill (December 2, 1818 – June 16, 1875) was an American merchant sea captain. He was a native of Cumberland, Maine, and lived the latter part of his life in nearby Yarmouth. His house, known as the Captain Reuben Merrill House at 233 West Main Street in Yarmouth, was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.
Early Life
Merrill was born on December 2, 1818, in Cumberland, Maine.
Career
Merrill was a leading mid-19th-century sea captain. He went to sea in his youth and eventually became a master mariner. He served as captain of the merchant ships Cumberland, Yarmouth, Esther, and Champlain.
His final vessel, Champlain, was built in 1874 by Campbell & Brooks in East Boston, Massachusetts, for W. H. Kinsman & Company. It registered 1,473 tons. While the ship was being fitted out, Merrill noticed three martingales (spars used to hold the jib boom in place) at the dock and correctly identified the largest as intended for his vessel. Believing it was too small, he requested a larger one, which was subsequently made.
Personal Life
On October 1, 1846, Merrill married Hannah Elizabeth Blanchard. The couple had four children: Elizabeth (who died in infancy in 1847), Osborne, Eva, and Ferdinand.
During the peak of his seafaring career in the 1850s, Merrill commissioned Portland architect Thomas J. Sparrow to build a home. The house, completed in 1858, is a large three-story Italianate wood-frame structure and is considered one of Yarmouth's most elaborate 19th-century homes. It is one of three known surviving works by Sparrow.
Death
Merrill died on June 16, 1875, at age 56, when he was knocked overboard from the Champlain during a shipwreck near the Farallon Islands, California, off San Francisco, in dense fog. After ensuring his crew was safely aboard the lifeboat, he was struck by the martingale he had personally requested from the ship's builders the previous year. He drowned, and neither his body nor the cargo (valued at $210,000) was ever recovered. His eldest son, Osborne, who served as the ship's first mate, witnessed his father's death. Merrill has an epitaph on his wife's headstone in Yarmouth's Riverside Cemetery.
