Ship's Papers of E. H. Hatfield (Schooner) of Edgartown

File — Box: 1

Identifier: 003-02-05

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection includes the records of two whaling voyages of the schooner E. H. Hatfield including articles of agreement, correspondence, crew lists, bills and receipts and crew accounts. The papers were originally found in a sea chest which is now part of the Nicholson Whaling Artifacts Collection.

Dates

1875 - 1882

Creator

Osborn, Samuel, Jr. (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open to research.

Conditions Governing Use

PPL believes this collection is in the public domain. Users of this item are responsible for determining copyright restrictions.

Biographical / Historical

The Schooner E. H. Hatfield, built in 1861 in Newburyport, Massachusetts, made 15 voyages from Provincetown from 1861 - 1878 before being sold to Samuel Osborn Jr. (1823-1895) of Edgartown, Massachusetts. Osborn began building a fleet of whaling ships in 1870 and by 1880 was the largest shipping agent of whaling property in the United States. Under Osborn as agent, the E. H. Hatfield made two whaling voyages. The vessel was under the command of Master William Kirkconnell Jr. (1846-1882) for a total of five whaling voyages beginning in 1873 prior to Osborn’s purchase as well as afterwards. The vessel was renamed the Aurora in 1882.

The collection includes the records of the last two voyages of the E. H. Hatfield. The voyage of June-October 1880 was under Master Kirkconnell. The voyage of November 1880-August 1882 began under the command of Kirkconnell, but he left the voyage in command of Master David B. Sprague to salvage the Schooner Ringleader of Boston found on May 21, 1881. Bad weather, questions of the seaworthiness of the E. H. Hatfield, and crew problems cause the replacement of Sprague. Master Jasper Manuel Ears (b. 1821) served as ship keeper until the arrival of replacement master Dennis D. Baxter (b. 1828).

Extent

.4 Linear Feet (1 manuscript box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is organized into three series. Series 1 includes materials from the E. H. Hatfield prior to the 1880 voyage. Series 2 includes records of the voyage from June-October 1880. Series 3 includes records from the voyage from November 1880-August 1882.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Acquired as part of the Paul C. Nicholson Whaling Collection in 1956.

Related Materials

003-01-02, Nicholson Whaling Collection Logbooks, Providence Public Library. Includes a total of three logbooks for the E. H. Hatfield from 1867-1868, 1876-1878 and 1880-1882 as well as the Aurora from 1882-1884.

003-02-06, Ship's Papers of Aurora (Schooner) of Edgartown, Providence Public Library.

003-05-02, Nicholson Whaling Collection Artifacts, Providence Public Library.

E. H. Hatfield logbooks, 1865-1866 and 1867-1868. New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Separated Materials

Sea chest for the E. H. Hatfield cataloged separately in the Nicholson Whaling Artifact Collection.

Logbooks and account books of the E. H. Hatfield and Aurora are cataloged separately within the Nicholson Whaling Logbook Collection.

Processing Information

Previously part of general Nicholson Whaling Manuscript Collection, Subgroup 4. Processing by Judith Lund in 2008 with additions made to the finding aid by Janaya Kizzie in 2014. The decision to reprocess the subgroups as individual collections was made by Jordan Goffin in 2018. The collection was reprocessed by Kate Wells in 2019.