Nicholson Whaling Collection Logbooks

The Nicholson Whaling Collection is one of the nation’s most important resources for whaling research. At the heart of the collection is the world’s second largest collection of whaling logbooks, recording more than 1,000 voyages. Within their pages, the logbooks hold records of whales captured and lost; accounts of shipwrecks, mutinies and other nautical misfortunes; poetry and paintings made by crew members in their spare time; and a wealth of data for researchers. The collection was donated to the Library in 1956 by Paul C. Nicholson, grandson of the founder of the Nicholson File Company, and it now includes more than 15,000 items, ranging from prints, photographs, scrimshaw and other artifacts to an extensive collection of manuscripts and account books. The earliest materials date from the 1700s and include a contract in which a Native American whaler agrees to be part of the crew of a 1723 whaling voyage. Hundreds of logbooks document the 19th-century high point of the whaling trade. This important collection continues to grow, thanks to an endowment provided by the Nicholson family
This collection is part of Providence Public Library Digital Collections, hosted by Providence Public Library.

Items in this collection

Journal of the Orray Taft (Bark) out of New Bedford, MA, mastered by Thomas Hamlin and kept by Ephraim Wilmarth, on a...

Journal of the Orray Taft (Bark) out of New Bedford, MA, mastered by Thomas Hamlin and kept by Ephraim Wilmarth, on a whaling voyage between 1852 and 1854.

Providence Public Library

After a twenty-six month voyage in the South Atlantic Ocean, the Orray Taft, a 176 ton bark, brought back 20 barrels of sperm oil, with 72 sent home, for a total of 92 barrels of sperm oil, plus a mere 2 bbl. whale oil. The voyage, which consisted of two cycles of summer in Azores and winter on Brazil Bank fishing, included mutinies, fights, collisions with other ships, and frequent desertions. Events described include: Aug 24, crew drunk, boatsteerer nearly kills cook. Sept. 23, mutinous letter, man refuses watch. Oct 17, fight. Nov. 27, mutiny over food. Nov 30, one of the mutineers dies. Dec. 5, mutineers in prison in Rio, ship new crew. Jan 21, 1854, whale destroys larboard boat, escapes. Mar 20, another fight. Apr 23, lose large shoal of sperm whales. May 8, boy falls from main topgallant mast. May 18, desertion. May 23, man draws knife on mate. June 2, men refuse duty. June 14, get fast to whale but line parts. Nov. 9, collision with unnamed schooner. Jan 1, 1854, fire aboard. The journal keeper, Ephraim Wilmarth, made marginal drawings of whales taken, those that escaped, those that were sighted but not struck, and other forms of sea life, as well as views of the Azores, and other marginalia. Two pages at the back of the journal detail attempts at whale-catching, and supplies and oil taken onboard.