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Archiver > GenMassachusetts > 1998-11 > 0911267636


From: "Jill Jessen Hernandez" <>
Subject: Re: WHALING route from New Bedford, MA, 1840
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 1998 17:53:56 -0800


Lois, talk to me ..

You wrote:*****My GG-grandfather, Mark NICKERSON, made one whaling
voyage when he was 19.
He wrote a letter in 1842 to his parents, describing the voyage. I
have a copy of that letter. (He vowed he would remain on land for
the
remainder of his days!) The following is a list of islands the ship
went to, in
the order they were encountered. Could someone help me chart the
course
of that voyage??

Florus, Canvo, Fayal, Pico, St. Nicholas, Branco, Foye, Trisdean de
Chune,
Crossell, Augustine Bay on Madagascar, St. Paul Island, Coffin's Bay
of New Holland, Wright's whale ground (where they stayed for 6 wks),
St.
Helena, Ascension, then Long Island and back to New Bedford. (Some
of these
may be misspelled.)

From: Jill Jessen Hernandez-

Are you sure GG-grandpa never sailed again ??? He just might have...
What ship was he on ?? Knowing the ship he was on is the key to
"charting the course", I have found..

I will attach a query that I have sent regarding my GG-Gpa. Now,
coincidentally, the captain that my George W. WOOLEY sailed with, on
the GANGES, was named James B. NICKERSON. There were lots of
Nickerson's sailing around the world on whalers in those days.

I go to Hawaii about 40 days per year. I was bored one day and went
to the Hawaii Archives and Library looking for GG-Gpa that sailed to
the Sandwich Islands and found, at the Univ.. Of H on Oahu, a HUGE
collection of microfilms from the Sailing ports of the East US.
There is so much information on all ships and so much personal stuff
that it would take years to review it.

Here's where I started. "American Whalers and Traders in the
Pacific : a guide to records on microfilm.. by Robert Langdon ,
Pacific Manuscripts Bureau Australian= National University Canberra,
1978

I do not think that these films are anywhere in the US except the
East Coast Whaling Museums and Libraries and Hawaii all the rest are
in Univ. in the Pacific Islands.

There are also " Dennis Woods Abstracts" and "Starbucks"

*** But a "John B. NICHOLSON" in So. Dartmouth, Mass has a Whaling
log book that is unfilmed it is that of : NICKERSON, J. B. on
the GANGES Voyage 1853 from Nantucket.

**PLEASE does anyone know this man ??? I really want to talk to
him.. I did have his (thought it was) his phone number.. He did not
return my call. If he has this log, my GG-Gpa may be in it ..

Any info to share ??

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