Ship's Papers of Aurora (Schooner) of Edgartown

File — Multiple Containers

Identifier: 003-02-06

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection includes the records of three whaling voyages of the schooner Aurora including articles of agreement, correspondence, crew lists, bills & receipts and crew accounts. It includes fairly complete documentation of all three voyages including the expenses of the work in Fairhaven prior to the 1886 voyage.

Dates

1882 - 1886

Creator

Nicholson, Paul C. (Paul Coe), 1888-1956 (Collector, Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open for 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 Aurora was built in 1861 in Newburyport, Massachusetts and originally named the E. H. Hatfield. It made fifteen 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 renamed the Aurora in 1882 and made three voyages for Osborn in 1882-1884, 1884-1885, and 1886-1886. The whaling voyage of 14 November 1882-28 September 1884 was under Master Dennis D. Baxter (b. 1828). The whaling voyages of October 22, 1884-November 2, 1885 and March 2, 1886-March 5, 1886 were under Master John S. Reynolds (b. 1862). Between the voyage 1884-1885 and the voyage that began in 1886, the vessel was rebuilt at Fairhaven. It was abandoned in the North Atlantic on March 5, 1886 due to severe leaks though the crew was saved.

Extent

.4 Linear Feet (1 manuscript box )

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is organized into three series according to each voyage.

Custodial History

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

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of Paul C. Nicholson, 1956.

Related Materials

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

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

Separated Materials

Sea chest for the Aurora 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. These items are digitized and available at https://archive.org/details/providencepublicnicholson

Processing Information

Previously part of general Nicholson Whaling Manuscript Collection, Subgroup 6. 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.