Hiram Willey. Autograph Letter Signed. New London, Conn., March 6, 1851. To Guy Phelps, Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co., Hartford, Conn. 1pg.+ address leaf. 

 About a life insurance policy for Harris T. Fitch who had paid an extra premium to be “permitted to pass by sea in first class vessels and reside in California and country adjacent” and then “to have leave to go to China and leave to return across the Isthmus via Chagres…I suppose voyages to China would be less hazardous than residence in California…”

Harris Tinker Fitch ran a New London grocery store until he sailed for California aboard the Vanderbilt vessel Prometheus on July 14, 1851, accompanied by the Commodore himself for the vessel’s inaugural voyage to Nicaragua, offering a transit alternative to the route across Panama. (See the listing below for maritime papers of Prometheus Captain Richard Wamack). Fitch may have then sailed for China, but he soon settled in Hawaii, becoming a commission merchant at Honolulu, where he profitably supplied provisions to visiting vessels and owned and operated a New London whaling bark. He lived a long life and died in New London in 1901.