Four Language Passport for the Whaling Barque John A. Parker, Signed by James Buchanan as President
The Civil War on, the ship was destroyed by the famed Confederate cruiser CSS Alabama just six years later
This is our first document for a ship lost to the CSS Alabama
The whaling Barque John A. Parker was out of the whaling hub of New Bedford, and was named after whaling and iron magnate John A. Parker of that city. It was to prove an ill-fated ship, as Confederate Navy...
This is our first document for a ship lost to the CSS Alabama
The whaling Barque John A. Parker was out of the whaling hub of New Bedford, and was named after whaling and iron magnate John A. Parker of that city. It was to prove an ill-fated ship, as Confederate Navy captain Raphael Semmes, captain of the cruiser CSS Alabama, the most successful commerce raider in maritime history, reported in 1863 that “The John A. Parker, with flour and lumber, from Boston to Buenos Ayres, we burned.
Benjamin Swain, Jr. was a captain from a whaling family; in fact his father Benjamin Swain, Sr., died on board a whaling ship in 1822.
Document signed, as President, Washington, November 30, 1857, being a passport providing that “Leave and permission are hereby given to Benjamin Swain, Jr., master or commander of the Barque called John A. Parker of the burthen of 342 tons, lying at present in the port of New Bedford bound for the Pacific Ocean and laden with Provisions, stores and utensils for a whaling voyage, to depart and proceed…on his said voyage…” The document is countersigned by Lewis Cass as Secretary of State. The passport is in four languages (English, Spanish, French, and Dutch), as befits a ship’s traveling in international waters.
Passports for whaling ships signed by Buchanan as President are rare. A search of public sale records going back over 40 years shows none having reached that marketplace since 1997.
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