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Captain George A. Grant, Whaleman

By Peter M. Wilson

Seventy-three years ago, a curious six-year-old was presented to a remarkable gentleman who had just been appointed curator and custodian of the Whaling Museum and all the wondrous objects exhibited there. The lad's grandfather, William B. Medlicott, made the introduction. We were standing outside under the large carving of a whaleboat and its crew on the wall of the museum where, with a bit of ceremony, he said, "Peter, I would like you to meet Captain George Grant," and it was he who had made the carving.

Grandad and Grant had much in common. They were both born in 1857; Grant died in 1942 and Medlicott in 1943. Their neatly trimmed silver-gray hair and mustaches framing very blue eyes gave them similar fine good looks. The captain's intent clear eyes remain fixed in my memory to this day.

Both men came from seafaring families. Grant was the son of Captain Charles Grant, who was noted in the "100 Years" issue of the Inquirer and Mirror as "the most famous whaleman." Charles went to sea in 1825 at the age of eleven, as steward aboard the John Jay out of Nantucket. His whaling career covered fifty-six years. He received his first command aboard the Walter Scott at thirty, sailing from Nantucket in 1844 for a voyage of four years and eight months. He was accompanied on the next voyage by his wife Nancy (Wyer), who continued sailing with him for thirty-two years, when he retired from the sea in 1881. All of their children were born during whaling cruises in the Pacific. George, the youngest,arrived October 28, 1857, when Nancy was ashore at the British Consulate in the town of Apia on the island of Upolu in Western Samoa.

Medlicott descended from ship brokers in Bristol, England. His father, William G. Medlicott, went to sea at age twenty-one, sailing aboard ships carrying brokered cargoes. During a voyage to America in 1837, his strength as a swimmer enabled him to survive a shipwreck off of Long Island, New York. Not long after coming ashore, he decided to stay on this side of the Atlantic, where he eventually settled in Longmeadow, Massachusetts, as a manufacturer of woolen clothing in nearby Windsor Locks, Connecticut. His son, William B., was born in Longmeadow and as a young man began to visit Nantucket in the early 1880s, both as an insurance representative and as the result of his growing devotion to the island. Of primary interest was his participation in the development of the Nantucket Historical Association, where he met many people involved in the organization, including Grant and his longtime friend William F. Macy.

Grant had his share of whaling experiences, and verbally dramatized many of his adventures for visitors to the museum, delighting young wish-to-be greenhands. Many of his yarns were about his father, whom he would describe as a fine, respected whaler. Three weeks after Grant was born, he was taken aboard the Mohawk wrapped in "banana skins." The ship set sail from Upolu on November 24, 1857, and headed easterly across the Pacific where the crew continued to take whales. In February 1858, they lost a blubber pot when it rained two barrels of oil into the fire, which was safely quenched. Fifty barrels had been taken since the Mohawk departed Samoa. Captain Charles Grant was hoping to take forty more. But the captain's goal of a taking another forty whales was dashed with only one pot in the tryworks. On February 19, while at anchor in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, fitting out for the voyage home, Captain Charles Grant was able to take on oil as freight. They rounded Cape Horn and reached Nantucket August 28, 1858. George at ten months knew nothing of all these activities, but he was to learn much about whaling during the years to come.

Grant continued to sail with his parents until he was seventeen, when he signed on the Mary Frazier and remained part of the crew for four years. He was well trained for the task, having harpooned his first whale at sixteen. When he returned to Nantucket in 1880, at age twenty-three, he married and, like many of his fellow whalers, went back to sea the next day. Between visits to the island, he sailed on ships for thirty-three years. Following retirement, he served nineteen years at the Surfside Lifesaving Station and then became curator and custodian of the Whaling Museum. He served in that capacity until his death in 1942.

Medlicott did not follow a career at sea; however, his business interests and skill as a maker of ship models took him offshore from time to time. After graduation from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in 1876, he taught mathematics and science for two years and worked in his father's knitted-goods factory from 1879 to 1893. He then began a career as an authority on property insurances. For twelve years he lectured on the subject at Harvard and was a member of the Business School faculty. During his many years as a claims representative, his travels took him to San Francisco in the aftermath of the fire in 1906, to the West Indies in 1914 as a representative of the Atlas Assurance Co. Ltd. of London, and to Nantucket. On several winter crossings to the island, his skill as a skater enabled him to finish the journey to town from the ice-bound steamer. In June 1884, Medlicott married Grace Harding. They had six children, including my mother, Grace Medlicott Wilson. William died on October 30, 1943.

On frequent return visits to the island, I always took time to call on Captain Grant at the museum. My last visit before his death was in the summer of 1942. Memories of him and the contagion of his wonderful talks about whaling have influenced my attempts to follow in his footsteps as an interpreter at the Whaling Museum.

Peter M. Wilson manages the Periwinkle Guest House on Nantucket and has worked as a member of the NHA interpretive staff for three years. This is his first article for Historic Nantucket.