Kingsport 1844: King Timmy’s Hotel

9) King Timmy’s Hotel
8 Doyle Street, The Yards, Harborside. Est. 1795

A) The Flophouse
King Timmy’s is a sailor’s flophouse, a three-story wooden building crammed with tiny rooms. Rent is 25¢ per day, with a 50¢ deposit on the key. A sign in the lobby announces, “Rent must be PAID in 24 HOURS or your possessions will be MOVED TO THE STREET. No throwing things out the window. NO VISITORS.” The rooms are cramped but reasonably clean. King Timmy’s residents are mostly sailors between voyages, but a few shipyard workers and itinerant railroad men add some variety. Many of the residents are on casual terms, calling each other by nicknames and playing cards in the narrow hallways. The flophouse is also home to numerous stray cats, many of which have been “adopted” by residents and named after Kingsport sea captains. The most recent addition is a three-legged white cat named “Jerry.”

B) Personalities
The hotel is owned by Hipolito Doyle, a descendant of King Timothy of Doyle’s Rock (see Encounter 41 for details). Formerly a harpooneer on the Celaeno, in 1839 Doyle fell from the rigging and broke his arms. He inherited the flophouse from his grandfather, who married into the Tuttles after the Revolution. Lito is assisted by his mother Beatriz Cintra Doyle, a heavyset Portuguese woman who smokes a corncob pipe and dresses somewhat immodestly for her age. Residents know that when Mamãe Bee is fronting the desk, the “NO VISITORS” policy is interpreted with welcome flexibility. Still a romantic after all these years, Beatriz allows sailors to smuggle in sweethearts and prostitutes, providing they offer a token bribe. Flipping her a dime is customary, but a swig of rum or a tasty sweet will suffice. And if the Lothario is one of her favorites, a flirtatious word may be enough—provided it’s spoken in Portuguese and accompanied by a fetching wink!

C) Leland Morgan & Ulysses Dixon
Leland Morgan rents a room at King Timmy’s Hotel when he’s between voyages, and he begins the scenario here. He’s been storing Ulysses Dixon’s sea-chest while his friend visits his family in Philadelphia, and has secured an adjacent room for Dixon for October 27–31. Morgan does not share in the general camaraderie of the flophouse, and is dimly aware that some of the residents call him “Gumby” on account of his gangly posture. If Dixon takes a room here, he’ll be surprised to find that Lito Doyle is an old shipmate from the Celaeno, the very boatsteerer whose harpoon Dixon seized when Doyle froze in the face of danger.

White Leviathan > Chapter 1—Kingsport 1844
[Back to Encounter 8, Erasmus Doppler & Sons | White Leviathan TOC | Forward to “The Wharves”]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 1 September 2023
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
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