Ship's Papers of Courser (Bark) of New Bedford

File

Identifier: 003-02-14

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of the papers of Courser during a whaling voyage from 1865-1869. Included are records related to the crew and financial records. Of particular note in this collection is documentation relating to the crew including arrest and detention, discharge and death. There is also documentation regarding the shipment of kanakas, Pacific Islanders who worked as indentured servants. Additionally, there are papers related to damage to the vessel from a hurricane off Block Island.

Dates

1865-1869

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 bark Courser was built in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1855. It completed four whaling voyages, all out of New Bedford, until it was run down by the steamship Ytata in the North Atlantic and abandoned on November 26, 1873. This collection includes the paper of the whaling voyage from 1865-1869 under Master Joseph Hamblin Jr. (1825-1895) of Nantucket.

Extent

.4 Linear Feet (1 manuscript box)

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Arrangement

The collection is organized at the folder level.

Custodial History

Unknown.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Unknown.

Accruals

No accruals are expected.

Related Materials

003-01-02, Nicholson Whaling Collection Logbooks, Providence Public Library. Includes one logbook and two account books for voyage of Courser from 1865-1869.

Courser logbooks, New Bedford Whaling Museum

Separated Materials

Logbooks and account books of Courser 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 12. 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.