Talk:William D. Gregory/GA1

GA Review

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Reviewer: Usernameunique (talk · contribs) 22:43, 25 April 2020 (UTC)

I have a source (signed German 1850s Bible). The inscription reads that it is from the ship’s library and is presented to the recipient (my ancestor) on Feb. 1853 at Capetown. “Presented by his friend Capt. Gregory of Ship Albers of Baltimore at Capetown Feb 1853” This goes against some info in the article, I believe. Originally in ship’s library “For use of passengers” from a Bible Society in 1852. Nash185389 (talk) 21:01, 27 July 2023 (UTC)

Lead

• an 1856 hurricane — Do we know what hurricane? There's lots of information at 1856 Atlantic hurricane season, although it doesn't reflect a January storm. 12george1, you wrote that article; any idea?

No, I haven't been able to track anything down, sorry. All I know is that it was an extremely bad year for weather and for shipping.

• Perhaps add to the last paragraph that he made a number of voyages as mate.

No point in that, every captain works as a mate before becoming a captain.

Life and career

• William was one of seven sons from the union — Any daughters?
• Worth red linking the notable ones? Also, why were they more notable than the other two captains' careers?

They are more notable simply because they've been written about whereas the others haven't. With regard to redlinks, I generally don't redlink if I intend to author an article about the topic myself, and as I intend to write another article on at least one of his brothers, I haven't redlinked these.

• Is anything known of his career before becoming a captain? When did he become a captain?
• In 1849 he served aboard the bark Lucia Maria — As a captain?

No, as a member of the crew - probably as a mate, though we don't know that.

Tejuca (1854–1856)

• Lindsey refers to Tejuca as a bark, but all contemporaneous sources describe her as a ship (see newspaper articles below) — Better to just cite the articles than say "see them below".
• the sole illustration of the vessel—the painting by Thomas Pitman (see above)—shows her to be ship-rigged. — Cite?
• she reportedly made "one of the quickest passages on record" — Who reported it?
• returning via Bahia, Brazil, on each occasion with about 5,000 bags of coffee. — Does "on each occasion" refer to stopping in at Bahia, or to returning with 5,000 bags of coffee? I initially thought it meant both, but then read on and saw the part about carrying sugar.
• At midnight, Tejuca shipped a sea — What does it mean to "ship a sea"?
• Worth adding that the storm broke the pumps, as that helps to explain how a day went by without them fixing the ship.
• the ship settling fast — I wouldn't know what "settling" meant without looking at the source.
• "a very valuable collection of interesting and valuable articles, the accumulations of many years" — Whose words?
• What happened after the sinking of Tejuca? It sounds like Gregory ended up going to France; how did he get back?

Albers (1857–1861)

• His next port of call with Albers was Whampoa — When was this?
• "where he was violently ill" — According to?
• Here Gregory left the vessel and returned to San Francisco in another ship — Why?
• Why not include the anecdote in the first paragraph? It seems to fit directly after "where she was sold for $4,000 (equivalent to $135,644 in 2023); he nonetheless remained in command", and the line "is next port of call with Albers was Whampoa" could be the beginning of a new paragraph.

Dismissal and reinstatement, 1861

• preferred — proffered?
• "a large and enthusiastic meeting" ... "signed by nearly every legal voter in Marblehead" — According to?
• William and Samuel discovered that some political opponents in their home town of Marblehead had preferred charges of disloyalty against them — Sounds like they rubbed someone the wrong way. Any more details on what led to the acrimony?

USS Bohio (1862)

• [20][21] Neither source clarifies which Matamoras the vessel was bound for. — What are the sources doing leading off the footnote?
• "valuable cargo" — According to?
• "with bits of rope, old junk, tar and other materials" — According to?
• Simultaneously, he had the crew constantly wet the sails to increase Bohio's speed. Seeing Bohio gaining on his ship — If the ship actually could go faster, why was the ruse necessary?
• reportedly due to some ill feeling between himself and some of the other officers — Any more details?

Later life and career

• "with his brother Augustus in Catalina Island" — Whose words?
• His last voyage as a mariner was in 1866, as chief mate of the Argentinian ship Panama, bound for Buenos Aires. — What about sailing back?

Personal details

• Gregory married Deborah Anne Thayer at Marblehead on 3 September 1848. — Cite?

• Added. --Usernameunique (talk) 21:13, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

• Gregory's wife died in 1868 — How old was she?

• Added enough information above (i.e., they married when she was 18) for a reader to extrapolate. --Usernameunique (talk) 21:13, 11 June 2020 (UTC)

• A single FindAGrave page is a pretty weak source to use for personal details of seven people. I would try to track down some obituaries for them—or even death certificates, since you're already using Ancestry. --Usernameunique (talk) 00:51, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

References

• 14: This is actually on page 2, I think. Given that the edge of the paper is on the left, it has to be an even page. Looking at papers from the surrounding dates, the section "The Daily Picayune" at the top left always appeared on page 2.

Bibliography

• Coddington 2016: ISBN not hyphenated.

• Fixed. --Usernameunique (talk) 01:52, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

• There's some inconsistency in whether state names are spelled out or not.

• Fixed. --Usernameunique (talk) 01:52, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Overall

• Nice article, Gatoclass. Comments above. --Usernameunique (talk) 00:51, 26 April 2020 (UTC)

Thank you Usernameunique. Would you mind if we put this one on hold for a while? I rather foolishly opened a bunch of GAN reviews myself in addition to the two GAN nominations of my own, all in a futile last-minute attempt to avoid elimination in the Wikicup. I also have a bunch of stuff that needs more or less immediate attention at DYK, and quite frankly, I hadn't expected the GAN process to be so rigorous, as it generally has not been in my admittedly limited experience. But I really need to get back to those GAN reviews I opened now, because it would be unfair to the nominators not to do so. Gatoclass (talk) 05:13, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Not at all, Gatoclass—there's no rush on my end, so take your time. For Wikicup purposes I would offer to hurry up my replies on Hurricane (clipper), but (as I think the present threshold is 75 points) unless you have an ace up your sleeve I don't think that would be much help. --Usernameunique (talk) 05:36, 28 April 2020 (UTC)

Gatoclass, friendly reminder about this review. --Usernameunique (talk) 15:38, 14 June 2020 (UTC)

@Gatoclass and Usernameunique: There has been no action on this for over a month, and the article now also has a maintenance tag for heavy reliance on primary sources; we're getting to a point where this really needs to be closed if there isn't going to be any further work carried out soon. Harrias ^talk 10:26, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Harrias, I was unexpectedly extremely busy in real life right up until the end of June. Unfortunately, a few days into July, I suffered a recurrence of a herniated disc injury to my lower back that has made it difficult to sit and therefore use the computer. Regardless, I've been able to push forward on the three remaining open GAN reviews I've been doing, and when I get one or two of those out of the way I'll be ready to return to this nomination - shouldn't be long now. Gatoclass (talk) 11:30, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Gatoclass No worries, take care of yourself. Harrias ^talk 11:33, 29 July 2020 (UTC)

Closing comment

• As mentioned in a parallel review, it's time to conclude this review. It has been open plenty long enough, and there is little question that the article is not in GA shape. Among other things, the article has received a hatnote and various tags related to sourcing and disambiguation since the review began, and the nominator has made few if any efforts to resolve the identified issues. That alone likely disqualifies the article under the third immediate-failure criterion. And then there's the fact that few of the comments above have been responded to. I don't doubt that this article could become a good article in the future. It would take resolving the issues identified above and in this paragraph; more importantly, it would take an involved nominator. --Usernameunique (talk) 05:31, 21 September 2020 (UTC)