L. Clark (AM5623)

Capt. Clark, first name not known, served as a replacement master for one voyage on one ship, home port New London:

E.R. SAWYER (AS1240): (schooner, 127 tons, length 79’, built in Essex MA in 1853). It sailed on July 14, 1864 and was lost on Heard’s Island on September 17, 1866. Dennis Wood Abstract 4-307, showing only “Clark” as master, describes what happened: “Reported lost, Parted her chains and went on shore at Hurd [Heard’s in Connecticut Ship Database] Island Sept. 17, 1866 during the heaviest gale and sea ever known at the island was a total loss, all hands saved.” Richard H. Chappell was the agent. AV03954.

Capt. Clark’s only service as master was serving as a replacement master for James Henry Rogers (AM4133) who died during the voyage. Decker and Starbuckshow “Rogers” as master for this voyage, with no mention of the death of Capt.

Rogers. Colby does not show “L. Clark” as a master for any voyage. New London Crew List does not show “L. Clark” as a crew member for any voyage.

The identity of Capt. Clark must remain a mystery, absent further information.

Sources used: see sidebar and sources cited in text.

George Shaw

American Institute for Maritime Studies

Mystic Seaport Museum

December 2024

L. Clark, in American Offshore Whaling Voyages on WhalingHistory.org
Return to New London Whaling Masters

Sources for New London Whaling Masters

For genealogical information: Ancestry.com, Family Search, Genealogybank.org, Find A Grave, and newspapers.com.

For whaling-related topics: The principal online sites are available at research.mysticseaport.org. It has numerous valuable drop-down menus including American Offshore Whaling Voyages (AOWV), Connecticut Ship Database and New London Crew Lists as well as others. AOWV is organized around identifier numbers for masters (AM….), for ships (AS….), and for voyages (AV….), all easily searchable. It can also be reached directly at wh alinghistory.org and Whalemen’s Shipping List. Three secondary sources that I used in almost every case were Alexander Starbuck’s History of the American Whale Fishery (Starbuck), Barnard Colby’s For Oil and Buggy Whips (Colby), and Robert Decker’s Whaling Industry of New London (Decker). Dennis Wood Abstracts, indexed in AOWV, contains useful abstracts of logbooks. Other sources are cited in the text in particular cases.

I had the good fortune to correspond and meet with Judith Lund, the person behind the massive American Offshore Whaling Voyages database, who provided useful guidance along the way and was a resource when I found possible errors or inconsistencies in the sources. I refer to AOWV’s Whaling Resource Identifiers for masters (AM…), vessels (AS…), and voyages (AV…) in the text. Number references in AOWV are to those identifiers. The dates of voyages are approximate as the records vary.