Alexander Mansfield: 1830-31
A Condemned Ship that Kept on Sailing
The Alexander Mansfield was built around 1818 in Westerly, Rhode Island. She was a full rigged ship of 320 tons that had sailed as a Liverpool to New York City packet voyager and was condemned as unseaworthy. The Hudson Whaling Company bought her for $2,000 and she was repaired and fitted out as a whaleship.
The Alexander Mansfield sailed seven whaling voyages out of Hudson between 1830-1840. The crew list and customs documents of her 1830-1831 voyage survive. The agent owner of the vessel is listed as Seth G. Macy and the ship left Hudson in June of 1830 for the Brazilian whaling grounds, returning in March 1831 with 2,200 barrels of whale oil and 1,400 barrels of sperm oil.
Although the ship was condemned during its last voyage in August 1840 at Tahiti, 1,000 barrels of sperm oil were shipped back to the United States.
The Alexander Mansfield voyage of 1830-1831 may have inaccurately listed many of the crew members as New York City residents and not from Hudson and the surrounding area. This may have been for expediency since New York City was a port of entry. Below is our research on the men on this particular voyage:
George W. Bennett, Captain of the Alexander Mansfield, was born February 22, 1796 in Massachusetts. He married Philena Burges on July 19, 1817 in Fairhaven, Massachusetts and had six children. He also had a son and two daughters from another relationship. In addition to this voyage, Captain Bennett mastered four other whaling voyages out of Hudson and New Bedford. He died on September 23, 1873 and is buried in Fredonia, New York.
Francis Neal’s place of birth is listed as naturalized and his residence as New York City. He is described as 36 years old, 5 ft 9 in with light complexion and brown hair. He was one of the officers on this voyage. The national whaling crew database shows his date of birth as around 1799 and as on the crew of the Brig Juno out of New Bedford in 1822.
Orrin Curtis, a whaler from Hudson is listed as 19 years of age, 5 ft 8 in with light complexion and brown hair. His place of birth is listed as New York and residence as New York City. We believe this crew member is the same Orrin Curtis born in September 1807 to Polly and William Curtis, also of Hudson. He died at age 23 on March 31, 1831. Customs documents from the Port of New York list Alexander Mansfield returning in June 1831. Orrin’s death date predates the end of the voyage by a few short months. Orrin Curtis is buried in the Hudson City Cemetery.
from the 1850 Census
National Archives
Crew member James Hamlin’s place of birth is listed as New York and residence as New York City. He is listed as 21 years old, 5 ft 9 in with light complexion and brown hair. According to genealogical records, James was born about 1811 in New York State. His occupation was a cooper (barrel maker) which he may have learned on whaleships. James lived in Hudson from birth until the 1850s. In 1860 he was living at New Paltz Landing, Town of Lloyd, New York.
James and his wife Nancy had one daughter Herzella and seven sons between 1842-1858. One of his sons, Thaddeus C. Hamlin, joined the 128th New York Infantry Regiment of Columbia and Dutchess counties during the Civil War and was engaged in the battle and siege of Port Hudson, Louisiana. He was wounded during this battle in May 1863. On April 19, 1865 he died at the age of 22. Thaddeus is buried close to his parents in the Hudson City Cemetery.
Alexander Hammond, a whaler from Hudson, is listed as 19 years of age, 5 ft 4 in with light complexion and light hair. His place of birth was New York and his residence New York City. Although the genealogical information on Alexander’s birth date differs in various sources, he and his twin sister Caroline Lucinda were likely born in 1804 in Hudson. He married Elizabeth B. Blake in April 1831, about one month after the ship arrived back in Hudson. They had nine children and he also had two daughters with Sarah A. Hammond. He died on March 20, 1878 in Hillsdale, New York at the age of 74 and is buried in the Hudson City Cemetery.
Moses Youngblood West’s place of birth is listed as New York and his residence as New York City, and he is described as 18 years old, 5 ft 9 in with light complexion and brown hair. According to genealogical research, Moses Youngblood West was born around 1812 in Hudson. He is listed in the “Register of US Citizens Affidavits of US born Seaman at select
Ports 1792-1869,” meaning he held a Seaman Protection Certificate. He lived in Hudson until the 1840s. The 1850 census indicates he then lived in Canaan. Moses died in 1850 in Spencerport, New York and is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery, Rochester, New York.
Black mariner James Williams' place of birth is listed as Virginia and residence as New York City. He is described as 31 years old, 5 ft 11 in with black skin. It is unclear if James was a free or an enslaved Black man from the South and there is limited information on his life. Customs documents from the Port of New York indicate that he most likely died in a boat stove by a whale in 1831 near the remote island of Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic, roughly equal distance between Africa and South America.
__________________________________________
Additional Resource (links to PDF):
Port of New York Customs Document, June 22, 1831
National Archives
Crew List Ship, Alexander Mansfield 1830-31
National Archives
Alexander Mansfield: 1832-1833, map of voyages
Image from Whaling History