Table of Contents

Scope and Content Note

Information for Researchers

Administrative Information

Description

Subject Headings

Inventory of the Ship's Papers Collection

In the New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains account books and other financial records, customs, and conular documents, business correspondence, insurance policies, bills of sale, sail plans, and similar records relating to whalers, merchant and cargo ships, and other types of vessels that were in service between 1771-1927. Many of these vessels belonged to whaling agents and merchants whoc resided in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and nearby towns, including Boston, Dartmouth, Edgartown, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, and Westport. Also represented by documents in this collection are vessels which sailed from Honolulu, Hawaii, Nantucket, Mass., New York City, N.Y., Newport adn Warren, Rhode Island, and San Francisco, California, as well as from ports in Connecticut, Georgia, Maine, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. In addition, these materials include several manuscripts which concern British, Canadian, and German vessels.

More than half of the records in this collection relate to voyages of whalers which sailed from New Bedford, Mass., and vicinity between 1795-1927. These documents include agent/owner accounts, bills, and receipts erflecting the expenses and profits of whaling voyages; outfitting books; crew accounts; Sea Letters, Whalemen's Shipping Papers, contracts, writs, correspondence, pages from logbooks, and other records concerning seamen who served on these vessels; insurance policies and bills of sale; protests and surveys, usually relating to storm damage to whalers; and notices regarding the adjustement of marine insurance claims following the loss of vessels, particularly due to the Arctic Disaster of 1871. These records are supplemented by manifests, freight lists, bills of lading, and memoranda generated by the transport of whale-oil and whalebone on cargo ships that usually sailed from Honolulu, Hawaii, to New Bedford. As a whole, these materials constitute business records of numerous Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, and Westport, Mass., whaling agents, including Jonathan Bourne Jr., Gideon Allen & Son, Andrew Hicks, I. H. Bartlett & Sons, J. Holmes Jr. and Brother, Edward Coffin Jones, L. Kollock & Son, Thomas Luce, S. Thomas & Company, Swift & Allen, Swift & Perry, and Isaiah Franklin Terry.

The remaining records in this collection prinicpally concern voyages of merchant ships which sailed from American ports between 1771-1895. Many of these vessels were engaged in the coastwise trade between New England, New York City, and states to the south, particularly Virginia. Other records reflect voyages from Boston, New Bedford, New York City, Newport, San Francisco, and elswhere to ports in the West Indies, South America, Europe, and Asia, especially those in Brazil, England, Sweeden, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Russia. These documents consist of customs records such as crew lists, manifests, certificates of ownership and registry, clearance papers, and permits to discharge cargo; bills of sale, insurance policies, and charter-parties; bills of exchange and lading; protests and financial accounts relating to damage to or the loss of cargoes and vessels; sail plans; and bills and receipts. Prominent New Bedford, Mass., merchants represented by these records include: James Arnold, Nathan Chase, Warren Delano, Humphrey, Nathaniel, and Thomas Sculyer Hathaway, George Howland Sr., James Howland II, John Howland Jr., Joseph Howland, George Hussey, John Avery Parker, Benjamin Rodman, Samuel Rodman Sr. and Jr., Joseph Rotch, William Rotch Sr. and Jr., William Rodman Rotch, and Seth Russell & Sons.

This collection also contains records of several pilot boats, lighthouse tenders, a salvage vessel, and a United States naval ship dating from 1837-1885. Notable among these documents are correspondence, agreements, financial accounts, and memoranda relating to the activities of the pilot boats Favorite of Tisbury, Mass., 1837-1842, and Penekese of New Bedford, Mass., 1869-1877, and a roll book giving the names, stations, and service dates of soldiers who manned the Delaware (Ship) during the Civil War.

Materials in this collection are arranged in alphabetical Series and Sub-series according to the name and rig of individual vessels. Descriptions of records pertaining to each vessel include the names of home port(s) and agents or principal owners, whenever this information has been found.

Arrangement of Collection

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Information for Researchers

Access to the Collection

Unrestricted. Consult librarian for an appointment.

Preferred Citation

New Bedford Whaling Museum Research Library Mss 79 [sub-group, series, sub-series, folder/volume as appropriate], [item]

Copyright Notice

The copyright law of the United States (Title 17, United States Code) governs the making of photocopies or other reproductions of copyrighted materials. The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 United States Code 552a) governs the use of materials that document private individuals, groups, and corporations.

Under certain conditions specified in the law, libraries and archives are authorized to furnish a reproduction if the document does not infringe the privacy rights of an individual, group, or corporation. These specified conditions of authorized use include:

If the researcher later uses a copy or reproduction for purposes in excess of "fair use," the researcher is personally liable for copyright. privacy, or publicity infringement and agrees to indemnify the New Bedford Whaling Museum from any legal action as a result of the error. Permission to obtain a photographic, xerographic, digital, or other copy of a document does not indicate permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, sell, distribute, or prepare derivative works from the document without permission from the copyright holder and from any private individual, group, or corporation shown or otherwise recorded.

Permission to publish, exhibit, perform, reproduce, prepare derivative works from, sell, or otherwise distribute the item must be obtained separately in writing from the holder of the original copyright (or if the creator is dead, from his/her heirs) as well as from any individual(s), groups, or corporations whose name, image, recorded words, or private information (e.g. employment information) may be reproduced in the source material. The holder of the original copyright is not necessarily the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is not legally liable for copyright, privacy, or publicity infringement when materials are wrongfully used after being provided to researchers for "fair use."

This institution reserves the right to refuse to accept a copying order if fulfillment of the order is judged in violation of copyright or federal or state privacy law. This institution also places restrictions on the use of cameras, photocopiers, and scanners in the research room.

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Administrative Information

Provenance

Accession records indicate that most of the materials in this collection were given to the Old Dartmouth Historical Society by many different donors between 1903-1981. In addition, several items were purchased from manuscript dealers during the same period.

Processing Information

Processed by: Patricia J. Albright and Judith Downey; with assistance from Margaret Brightman, Barbara Groves, Henry Kettell, and Henry Sherman, ca. 1982

Encoded by: Mark Procknik, 09 May 2012

Funds for processing this collection were provided by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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Description

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Subject Headings

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Vessel Names

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