AOWV records often provide information or at least hints about a whaling master’s birth, death, and family. In the case of Charles, none of that information is present. However, voyage crew lists in New London Crew Lists in many cases can provide relevant information. The lists from three ships on which Charles served (information below) suggest an approximate year and place of birth and residence. That information appears below in the review of Charles’s career at sea. Unfortunately, crew list information can be helpful, but is always not reliable, as the information below shows.
BLACKSTONE’s crew list dated July 1833 for its 1833 voyage shows that Charles was then age 37, suggesting birth about 1796. It shows him born in Long Island (presumably NY) and a resident of Mystic CT. EUGENE’s crew list dated October 1841 records him then age 45, again suggesting birth about 1796, and born in and a resident of Southampton (again, NY). Southampton is a town in Long Island, so there is consistency. On the other hand, GENERAL WILLIAM’s crew list dated November 1838 shows him then age 30, suggesting born about 1808, an outlier. The other ships on which Charles sailed did not include a crew list for their voyages.
Unfortunately, the above information by itself was not sufficient to identify this Charles in online genealogical or newspaper sources. Others named Charles Fordham appear in searches but their supporting information, such as it is, lacks facts or detail that could lead the author to have any confidence that Capt. Charles Fordham was identified. So, absent further information, his personal life must remain a mystery.
The records of the ships on which Charles served as master and their home port is confusing at best, in large part because of the inconsistency in the primary and secondary sources.
AOWV lists Charles as master of one ship with New London as home port (AERONAUT) and one with Groton CT as home port. (BLACKSTONE).
AERONAUT (AS0826): (ship, 265 tons, length 94 ft., built in Amesbury MA in 1822, lost in 1856). AERONAUT sailed on May 23, 1832 for the So. Atlantic, returned on March 16, 1833. A map for this voyage in AOWV shows the ship’s track in whaling grounds in the So. Atlantic south of the Equator. Starbuck, Decker, and Colby do not show an 1832-1833 voyage for this ship. Colby (p. 8) states that Charles Mallory purchased AERONAUT in 1830 and “in 1834 he began to send her out of Mystic”. AV00343.
BLACKSTONE (AS0989): (ship, 258 tons, length 89 ft., built in Somerset MA in 1827, registration surrendered and condemned in Cape Town on March 2, 1846). BLACKSTONE sailed on July 15, 1833 for the So. Atlantic, returned on April 10, 1834. A map for this voyage in AOWV shows the ship’s track in whaling grounds south of the Equator in the So. Atlantic and off the east coast of Africa. Colby and Decker record this voyage with Mystic CT as home port. Starbuck records the first voyage of BLACKSTONE departing in 1834 under Thomas Andrews (AM0148), also with Mystic as home port. Zane’s Whalers Out of Mystic lists Charles and BLACKSTONE on a list of “Owners of Mystic Whalers and Vessels in which They Owned Shares”. Silas Beebe was the agent. AV01890.
Charles served as a member of the crew on three ships for three voyages, home port New London unless otherwise indicated. His first crew position was as first mate on AERONAUT for its May 1831 – March 28, 1832 voyage, just prior to becoming its master; GENERAL WILLIAMS (AS1445) for its 1838-1840 voyage; and EUGENE (AS1326, home port Stonington CT) for its 1841-1846 voyage.
Sources used: see sidebar and sources cited in text.
George Shaw
American Institute for Maritime Studies
Mystic Seaport Museum
October 2025