During this Jennymania/rage people named towns, babies and furniture after her. There is a Jenny Lind, North Carolina, according to stories, she sang a song under a nearby tree. At least four ships were named after her, including the Nightingale that I have been writing about. Many consider this Nightingale to be one of the fastest clipper ships ever built.
In 1851, the same year Jenny arrived in Boston, the Nightingale (originally to be named Sarah Cowles) was built in Eliot, Maine. The owners planned to use the ship to take wealthy passengers to London for the World's Fair in 1851 ($125 round trip). The idea fell through, but a figurehead of a woman bearing the likeness of Jenny Lind was made and attached to the front of the ship.
Having difficulties paying the cost of the ship, this was when it turned to bringing slaves to the Americas. Of interest, the Nightingale was captured by the USS Saratoga, which had been built in 1842 at the nearby Portsmouth Navy Yard in Kittery, Maine.
After its capture, the Nightingale became a U.S. warship during the Civil War and afterwards went through owner after owner before being abandoned off Norway in 1894.
By this time, both Jenny Lind and P.T. Barnum were dead. Jenny died in 1887 after a long self-imposed retirement.
What Next? --Old B-Runner
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