"Reading the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript: A Six-Year Odyssey" Historic Nantucket article from the Nantucket Historical Association

Originally published in the Historic Nantucket, Vol 54, no. 1 (Winter 2005), p. 14-16

Reading the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript: A Six-Year Odyssey
by Donna Cooper

IN 1998, WHEN I STARTED VOLUNTEERING AT THE Nantucket Historical Association Research Library, I told then library director Betsy Lowenstein that I was interested in doing a research project related to Nantucket genealogy. She pointed me in the direction of the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript, a New Bedford newspaper. I quickly concluded that this would be an undertaking that I could really enjoy, but I had no idea that, from start to finish, the work would take me six years to complete.

The Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript (hereafter WSL) is a collection of weekly new-papers, published in New Bedford from 1843 to 1914. The NHA's collection was donated by William H. Tripp (1880-1959), curator of the New Bedford Whaling Museum for twenty-five years. Fifty-one years are covered in the NHA's collection, and they are bound in thirty-six large volumes, dating from!843 to 1894. I read through every newspaper, fifty-two editions per year for fifty-one years, compiling any information that mentioned Nantucket and Nantucketers. The information I was able to gather I then entered into the NHA database, adding information about Nantucket families for people interested in the island's genealogy. As the only volunteer involved on the project, I was able to organize the information into a concise format that can be easily found and is easy to read. Since I've begun the project, the volumes of WSL, along with many other important and irreplaceable manuscript collections, have been moved from the Peter Foulger Museum to the Fair Street Research Library and are now stored in a climate-controlled, state-of-the-art depository vault in the basement of 7 Fair Street

As a newspaper, WSL was intended to provide those involved in the whaling industry with information about the movements of whaling vessels, the fate of the crews, prices of oil and whalebone, and the state of the oil markets. Crew listings, as well as the positions each crew member held on his ship, shipwrecks, mutinies, illnesses and deaths of crew members, and important maritime discoveries were all part of the news included in these papers. This information was gathered from "gams" between ships, conversations with captains and crew when they returned to their port, or whenever family members or friends received mail from a crew member on a vessel. When this news was shared with the editor of WSL, he in turn printed it in the papers, bringing either sadness or relief to hometown connections.

WSL is a fascinating study, not only of whaling in Nantucket and throughout Massachusetts, but also a historic chronicle of island news, island government, marriages, the lives and deaths of respected local personalities throughout the years, and also period advertisements. Even after the glory days of whaling in Nantucket had ended, there were still men from our island who crewed on ships leaving from other ports and men who still had connections to whaling through ship ownership or commerce. Reading the newspapers, I was transported through history, both national and local, finding information about Presidential elections, men leaving Nantucket to find wealth in the California Gold Rush, the Civil War and its aftermath in Nantucket and throughout the nation, assassinations, the major shift from the whaling industry to tourist trade on our island, the building of the Cape Cod Canal (a long and expensive project), the construction of the jetties in our own harbor (an unbelievably expensive feat at that time and quite an island event), the establishment of the lifesaving stations along the south shore, and the building of the Nantucket Railroad — to name just a few news items that were mentioned. Also included in WSL were interesting articles concerning household hints, recipes, jokes, new books and magazines available at the time, interviews with aging Nantucketers and whaling captains about "the good old days," and also local poetry. The advertisements are a font of information and quite humorous today. The ads were not only for items of whaling interest—provisions, ropes, harpoons, charts, and instruments—but also displays of fashions of the day, plants and seeds for sale, household goods, and, of course, drugs, ointments, and remedies for any ailment known to mankind.

In the six years that it has taken me to complete the project, I have learned a great deal about what life was like on Nantucket in the nineteenth century. Items about the preeminent families of Nantucket—the Coffins, Folgers, Starbucks, Macys, Husseys, Gardners, and others—were cited, including plans for family reunions, gifts donated to the town, wedding announcements and obituaries; but there were also articles about how blacks and Cape Verdeans established a permanent place for themselves on the island, the importance of the Quaker religion and its views on the changes taking place on Nantucket, the temperance movement, the building and staffing of our lightships and lighthouses, the arrival of the steamboats and how much easier the trips to and from the mainland were made by their service, thus enabling tourism to get under way, and the establishment and demise of several newspapers on Nantucket, all while the Inquirer and Minor survived and became the true lifeline for news about our island and the country.

News of the day about local personalities and interests also came from WSL. Did you know: that a native Nantucketer was caught embezzling from the Pacific National Bank, all stolen monies paid off by his father; that a fortune was found buried under a house in town when it was being remodeled, and the townspeople were in quite a stir to find out how the money ended up there, where it came from, and to whom it belonged; that we had a visit by President Grant (one of five Presidents to visit Nantucket) who thought our island was lovely; or that we have our very own sea serpent living in the waters off Tuckernuck, one that has been seen many times throughout the years by people traveling between the mainland and our island? All of these bits of information were included in WSL and made for very interesting reading. The owner and editor, Eben P. Raymond, was a native of the island, and this perhaps explains why so much information about Nantucket appeared in a New Bedford newspaper.

The most remarkable information to come out of this project is that as much as things change on the island, many things stay the same. Included in WSL were articles that are all too familiar in our newspapers today. There were complaints about the huge homes being built. After the end of Nantucket's prominence in whaling, many people resented the influx of visitors as the tourist trade developed, and the rudeness of visitors and their outrageous demands were written about in the newspaper. The overcrowding of our town streets, beaches, and inns because of the tourist trade; the higher cost of goods and furnishings as tourism developed; and the steamboats being loaded down with visitors coming just for the day or even for an extended stay were difficult for Nantucketers to accept after many years of the "sleepy town" atmosphere on the island. Also recorded in the papers was the infighting among the selectmen and the town's lack of appreciation for their elected officials. Lawsuits against the town for damages to locals and their properties were also being filed. All this sounds similar to what we read about today in our local papers.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working on this project and I'm grateful for the help I received from Betsy Lowenstein, Libby Oldham, "Ralph" Henke, and Georgen Gilliam Charnes. I truly believe they were as excited as I was when I was finally able to say that the work on WSL was completed. My hope is that interested in genealogy will find a piece of the puzzle they are looking for—a better understanding of their family member and his or her life on Nantucket - through an article or just a short sentence from the Whalemen's Shipping List.

Donna K. Cooper has owned a house on Nantucket since 1993 and has been a full-time resident since 1996. She is an avid reader, especially of historical literature, plays golf, and loves to travel and go antiquing. After the death of her father in 1983, she discovered the satisfaction of doing genealogical research. Donna is married to Karl Schulz and has two daughters and a grandson.