Sold – Andrew Jackson Signed, Engraved Passport for the Whaling Ship Canton, Whose Crew Later Survived a Shipwreck
They made a remarkable 3,500 mile, open ocean journey in long boats to safety.
In the heyday of whaling, New Bedford, Mass. was the whaling capital of the United States. One of the whaling vessels that operated out of that port was the ship Canton, which was built in New York in 1808 and remained in service until 1854. It had numerous owners and captains over...
In the heyday of whaling, New Bedford, Mass. was the whaling capital of the United States. One of the whaling vessels that operated out of that port was the ship Canton, which was built in New York in 1808 and remained in service until 1854. It had numerous owners and captains over the years, but in 1834 the owner was the noted whaling agent Jireh Perry and the captain was Abram Gardner. The ship had been out on a three-year whaling voyage, and returned to New Bedford on May 31, 1834. It spent the summer at its home port, and sailed from New Bedford on its next voyage on October 25, 1834. This time the ship was out almost 4 years, not returning until May 1838.
In the early days of the American republic, ships leaving U.S. ports for foreign shores were required to have passports, and both the president and secretary of state generally signed these documents. As the Canton readied to sail, it received its papers, among which was this Document Signed, on vellum, in part in Washington and in part in New Bedford, October 21, 1834, being an ornate scalloptop ship's passport with two nautical engravings, certifying that the Canton belongs to a citizen of United States, and asking foreign nations to pass the it "without any hindrance, seizure or molestation." The document is countersigned by Secretary of State Louis McLane.
Some twenty years later, on March 5, 1854, while the ship Canton was on a whaling voyage to the Okhotsk Sea in the Pacific Ocean, it was wrecked on a sand reef at the remote Kanton Island. Its crewmen were washed ashore but quickly determined they could not survive by remaining there. So setting out in long boats with meager food and provisions, the men traveled over 3500 miles on the open ocean until finally reaching Guam 49 days after. The tale of their remarkable survival against all odds is told in the "History of the American Whale Fishery." Comes with: the printed account of the wreck of the Canton.
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