Abraham Lincoln Signed Ship’s Passport For a Whaler Taken and Burned by the Confederate Raider, the CSS Shenandoah
Uncommon, this being the first we have ever carried
Document signed, as President, Washington, August 26, 1861, being a four-language ship’s passport for the whaling barque Nimrod. The Nimrod was out of New Bedford, Mass., the most active whaling port in the nation, and was commanded by Alfred C. Davis. It was “bound for the Pacific Ocean”, and was carrying “provisions,...
Document signed, as President, Washington, August 26, 1861, being a four-language ship’s passport for the whaling barque Nimrod. The Nimrod was out of New Bedford, Mass., the most active whaling port in the nation, and was commanded by Alfred C. Davis. It was “bound for the Pacific Ocean”, and was carrying “provisions, stores, and utensils for a whaling voyage.” Lincoln has signed in full, and the document is countersigned by Secretary of State William H. Seward. The white wafer seal is still intact.
The Nimrod spent 16 months in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, stocking up more than 350 barrels of sperm oil, the principal resource for lighting and for lubricating machinery in America’s pre-petroleum economy. On June 22, 1865, with the Civil War over, the feared Confederate raider, the C.S.S. Shenandoah, which was the last Confederate vessel at sea and which had not yet learned of the war’s end, attacked the Nimrod, and captured and burned it in the Bering Sea. The value of the loss was set at $29,260.
The Shenandoah was launched in August 1863, and she captured some 38 ships and took over 1,000 prisoners. She fired the last shot of the Civil War, and surrendered in England on November 6, 1865. Her flag was the last sovereign Confederate flag to be officially furled.
Lincoln signed ship’s passports are uncommon, this being the first we have ever had in our three decades in the field.
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