Identity uncertain; replacement master recorded on one New London voyage, 1855–1856.
Port of command: New London, Connecticut.
The American Offshore Whaling Voyages database records a master identified only as Harris serving as a replacement master on a single New London whaling voyage. No further biographical information about this individual has been identified.
Whaling Command
HANNIBAL (AS1529) — ship, 441 tons, built in New York, New York, in 1821
New London → Spitzbergen (Svalbard)
21 May 1855 – 21 March 1856
Agent: Benjamin F. Brown & Sons
Voyage identifier: AV06135
Dennis Wood Abstract: 3-550
The American Offshore Whaling Voyages database records Harris as a replacement master on this voyage. Sources differ regarding the identity of the sailing master when the vessel departed New London in May 1855.
AOWV and Decker record the master as Harris. Other sources—including Colby, Starbuck, the Whalemen’s Shipping List, and Dennis Wood Abstract 3-550—record Thomas Welcome Roys (AM4167) as master. A ship register dated 15 May 1855, six days before the vessel sailed, also lists Roys as master.
These records suggest that Roys likely sailed as master and was replaced during the voyage by a master identified only as Harris, although the circumstances of this change are not documented.
Starbuck notes that HANNIBAL was the first American vessel to sail for the Spitzbergen (Svalbard) whaling grounds.
Colby observes that if agent Benjamin Brown and Captain Thomas Welcome Roys had reached an agreement regarding the use of HANNIBAL in 1855, New London might have become the port that introduced modern whaling technology.
The vessel HANNIBAL was later abandoned in Cumberland Inlet in 1861.
Sources
- American Offshore Whaling Voyages Database (AOWV): AM2464, AS1529, AV06135
- Dennis Wood, Logbook Abstract 3-550
- Barnard Colby, For Oil and Buggy Whips: Whaling in New London, p. 19
- Alexander Starbuck, History of the American Whale Fishery
- Robert Owen Decker, The Whaling Industry of New London
- Whalemen’s Shipping List
- Ship register for HANNIBAL, 15 May 1855
George Shaw, 2026