Timothy was born in Nantucket MA on September 21, 1857. He was the son of Paul (born in Nantucket) and Hannah Clisby (born in Cotuit MA). The Nantucket census for 1880 shown him as age 22, “sailor.” According to Nantucket death records, he died on August 11, 1896 “by drowning while attempting to save his boats crew at Blackhead Island, Cumberland Sound.” He was then age 39 and a “master mariner.” The Brooklyn (NY) Times Union (3/28/96) reports the “loss of three whalemen, among them Capt. Timothy Clisby, of Nantucket, by capsizing of a boat.” The Buffalo (NY) Courier (9/28/1896) reports that those lost by capsizing of whale boat was Timothy, two gentlemen from England and Scotland, and four natives.
Timothy was master of three voyages on two ships with New London as home port:
ROSWELL KING (AS2313): (schooner, 135 tons, length 74’, built in Rochester MA in 1837). It sailed to Cumberland Sound in 1881 and was lost that year in Cumberland Inlet or Hudson Strait. Decker shows the ship’s prior voyage but not this one. C.A. Williams was the agent. AV12605
ERA (AS0712): (schooner, 134 tons, length 90’, built in Boston MA in 1847). AV04569. It sailed again, same destination, on June 10, 1884, returned on November 26, 1885. AV04570. C.A. Williams was the agent for both voyages.
An article in the Boston (MA) Globe (3/6/1886) reports that “On [Timothy’s] last voyage, from which he returned in November, he rescued a crew of twenty-four men from what must have been sure death by exposure and starvation had he not been informed by the natives of their condition. After rescuing this crew his vessel was caught in the ice and was frozen in a year. He had provisioned for twenty-one men only, his regular crew, and the extra number he was thus forced to victual drew so heavily on his stores that he was compelled to put all on short rations for several months. His experience with a mutinous crew, as related by himself, was thrilling in the extreme….”
Sources used: see sidebar and sources cited in text.
George Shaw
American Institute for Maritime Studies
Mystic Seaport Museum
January 2025