William Earle (AM1670)
AOWV includes two separate entries for William Earle (AM1670, AM1674) and treats them as two different masters. William Earle #1 (AM1670) is listed as master of the J.E. DONNELL (AS0331:1851-1853 voyage) and JIREH SWIFT (AS0341:1853-1857 and 1857-1861 voyages). The home port for both of these vessels was New Bedford. To William Earle #2 (AM1674) has been attributed the role of replacement master on both the New London-based NILE (AS0491:1858-1870 voyage) and EUROPA (AS1328:1866-1872 voyage), with a home port of Edgartown MA. The listing for AM1670 includes personal data as well as William’s wife’s name, whereas there is no such information for AM1674. Upon closer examination, based largely on the 1953 publication, Whaling Wives, by Emma Mayhew Whiting and Henry Beetle Hough, the opinion of this writer is that the master of the J.E. DONNELL and JIREH SWIFT, and the replacement master on the NILE and EUROPA, were one and the same person.
Whiting and Hough (p. 151) also show that William Earle, otherwise known as Billy, served as mate on at least two ships, EMILY MORGAN (AS0170) and EUROPA (AS1328), following his ten-year service as master. They further state that Billy Earle, the previous master of the JIREH SWIFT, “… had sailed from Edgartown as first mate of the Europa [1866-1872 voyage] under Captain Thomas Mellen but, suffering from rheumatism in the Ochotsk, he had finally left this ship at the Sandwich Islands to go home as master of the Nile.” Thus, it was during this second phase of his career at sea that he was chosen to be a replacement master as the need and opportunity arose, no doubt because of his previous experience as master.
William’s service as the last of at least six replacement masters on the 1858-1870 voyage of the NILE was his only voyage on a ship with New London as home port:
NILE (AS0491): (bark/brig, 322/292 tons, built in New York NY in 1826). The NILE departed New London with George Destin (AM1579) as master in May of 1858, bound for North Pacific whaling. On June 28, 1865 it was captured by the SHENANDOAH in Bering Strait, south of the Diomede Islands, and bonded for $45,000. Throughout its almost twelve-year absence from home, it stopped frequently in the Hawaiian Islands to send home oil in other ships, change masters, take on new crew members, and replenish supplies. The NILE was finally brought back to New London on May 6, 1870 under the command of William Earle (Hartford Courant, 5/10/1870), culminating what has been called the longest voyage in American whaling history (Colby and Starbuck). After returning to New London, NILE was converted to a barge. Williams and Haven were the agents for this voyage. AV10491.
William was born in Terre Haute IN on September 22, 1817. His father was John Earle. No other information about his parents has been found. On July 11, 1851 he married Georgian(n)a Butler (1833-1893), daughter of Henry Butler and Love Pease of Edgartown MA, in Providence RI. U.S. Federal Census data for 1860 show William and Georgiana living in Edgartown with their three children, Eliza Scott (born 1848), William Henry (born 1852), and James A.M. (born 1854). In 1866, at age twelve, James A.M. Earle joined his father as cabin boy on the EUROPA, beginning his own career as a whaleman, eventually becoming master of nine voyages of CHARLES W. MORGAN (AS0089), sailing out of San Francisco (Whiting and Hough, p. 258-262).
U.S. Civil War records for June, 1863 show that William served as Acting Master for the U.S. Navy.
William died in Abington MA on January 24, 1881 and is buried at Old Westside Cemetery in Edgartown MA. The inscription on his gravestone reads “Capt. William B. Earle.” Georgiana died on February 6, 1893 and is buried at Colebrook Cemetery in Whitman MA.
Sources used: see sidebar and sources cited in text.
Maija M. Lutz
American Institute for Maritime Studies
Mystic Seaport Museum
June 2025