Uncommon Whaling Ship’s Passport Signed by Franklin Pierce As President

New Bedford was the home of the American whaling industry in the mid-19th century, and that industry was a huge one because people lit their lamps using whale oil. Some families there made fortunes, and many others enjoyed great prosperity. One of the latter was Benjamin S. Clark, master mariner, who in 1845 built a Greek-Revival style house in the town suitable to his position as a whaling captain. Clark sailed as Captain as early as 1829, when he took the helm of the ship Abigail and sailed it to the Pacific Ocean; he returned in 1831 with 2,500 barrels of sperm oil. After only a few months on shore, he again sailed the Abigail to the Pacific whaling grounds in late 1831 and returned in 1835 with 2,258 barrels of sperm oil. Clark was part owner of the Abigail during the 1831 trip and its next two voyages. In 1836, he took command of the ship Clarice, sailing it for the Brazil Banks, and returning to New Bedford in 1838 with 72 barrels of sperm oil and 934 barrels of whale oil. He left later in 1838 for the Pacific Ocean whaling grounds, returning in 1841 with 1,206 barrels of sperm oil. He had a part-interest in the Clarice in 1838 and interests in other ships during the 1840s and 1850s. According to accounts at the time, Clark was quite a character. One of his sailors wrote that he “would get drunk often & when boozy would go aloft with two spyglasses & sing out to keep the ship steady?” In time Clark’s son of the same name also became a whaling captain.

On July 31, 1856, Clark was captain of the Ship Chili, which was built in 1819 and taken out of service in 1864. On that date he left on a whaling voyage bound for the fertile seas of the Pacific Ocean. Knowing that the ship would be gone for years, he made sure it was well provisioned and ready for any exigency. As part of his preparations, he had requested a ship’s passport from the port collector’s office.

In the early years of the Republic, when American vessels engaged in foreign trade left the United States, they carried passports with them. These were large, impressive documents and contained their text written in four languages – English, Spanish, French and Dutch. The president and secretary of state both signed them through Monroe’s presidency, but after 1825 fewer and fewer were signed by chief executives. Thus, presidentially signed ship’s passports become scarcer from that time forward, and die out altogether in the Grant administration. When the president and secretary of state signed the ship’s passports, they did so in blank, and the executed passports, not yet filled out, were sent on to American ports. When a ship was ready to head to sea, the port collector at that port, or one of his deputies, would fill in the specific details details for that ship and give the paper to the captain.

Document signed, Washington, July 29, 1856, being the ship’s passport for the Ship Chili, Benjamin S. Clark, Captain, out of New Bedford, Mass., “of the burden of 291 6/95 tons”, laden with “provisions, stores and utensils for a whaling voyage”, and bound for the Pacific Ocean. The Great Seal of the United States is intact, and the document is countersigned by Secretary of State William Marcy. Deputy Port Collector James Freeman has also added his authorization. Clark and the Chili returned to New Bedford on June 8, 1860, with over 1,000 barrels of whale oil.

A quite uncommon document, as we can only recall seeing a few other whaling ship’s passports signed by Pierce over the years.