The Rochester Daily Democrat
August 22, 1849, page 2, column 2
The Rochester Sailor Girl

The following is a more full account of the Rochester sailor girl to which we have before alluded.  Port Gibson is probably the place meant instead of Port Jackson, in her account.  We have seen persons who knew her family, and there is good reason to believe that she gave a correct account of herself.  The following is from the Nantucket Inquirer of the 16th.

A Story With A Touch of Romance In It.
A letter received for A. Bathrust, Esq., says that the ship Christopher Mitchell, Sullivan, of this port, touched at Paita on the 6th of July, to land a female named Ann Johnson, who shipped at Nantucket as a green hand.  Mr. Bathurst says:
    “Miss J. is now a guest in my family.   She is a very fine young girl, extremely well bred, and has not yet acquired any of the conversation so frequently practiced by sailors.  I have promised her my paternal care, for which she is very grateful.  My daughter takes great care in making her comfortable.  She will be conducted to the United States by the first opportunity.”
    The particulars of this singular affair are given in the following letter from Mr. Woods, 1st Officer of the ship Christopher Mitchell, dated July 6th, off Paita:
    “We left this port for the Galapagos Islands.  Soon after sailing, it was discovered that we had a female on board, one of the crew that we took from Nantucket.   She went by the name of George Johnson.   Her real name, as she stated, was Ann Johnson, daughter of George Johnson, living in Rochester, New York, at 22 Oak Street, a shoemaker by trade.   She says she left home in July, 1848, and wandered as far down as New York;  started to go home again, but at a place called Port Jackson, 28 miles from Rochester, made a halt, cast off the petticoats, and assumed man’s apparel.  She stopped there one month, and then came down to Albany, working her passage on a canal horse.   Remained in Albany 10 days, and then came to New York, where she stopped some two weeks living at sailor boarding houses;  and from thence came to Nantucket, and shipped on board this ship, (the C. Mitchell.)
    “She had lived in Hartford with a man by the name of Williams, a carpenter.  She is 19 years old, and gives as a reason for coming to sea that she was told she would get some money in that business.   Her appearance now is that of a good looking, chubby boy of 15 or 17 years old;  she is stout as a woman, weighing 145.  She has done her duty cheerfully, and as well as most green boys, going aloft to take in sail in the heaviest of weather; and  only in one instance did she give out, which was off Cape Horn, during a severe gale of wind and rain.   She has taken her regular mast heads and helms all the voyage, was in my boat several times when we were first out and lowered for practice, but has not been fast to a whale.    She was so very awkward with an oar, that we took her out of the boats altogether.  Up to a week ago, she had been well all the voyage – seems to be very shrewd, and I doubt if she has given a correct account of herself.  Immediately upon discovering her sex, she was taken into the cabin where she kept herself very close.   We tacked ship and stood back for Paita, where we arrived on the 6th, and tomorrow shall take Miss Johnson on shore, and leave her with the consul, Mr. Bathurst.”