Photographic Portrait of Thomas Nickerson

Identifier: GPN4361
Title: Photographic Portrait of Thomas Nickerson
Creator: Unknown
Measurements: 12.7 x 17.8 cm (5 x 7 inches)
Materials: wet plates
Technique: wet collodion process; photography (process)
Date Created: 1870s
Location: Nantucket Historical Association Library
Subject: Whalers (Persons)--United States; Portrait photography--United States
Description: A photograph of Thomas Nickerson in which he seems to be seated. Nickerson, who was born on Cape Cod in Massachusetts and raised by his grandparents on Nantucket, served aboard the “Essex” as the cabin boy and as the after oarsman in first mate Owen Chase’s whaleboat on her fateful voyage. He was just fifteen years old. As after oarsman, Nickerson was responsible for pulling the oar at the back, or “stern,” of the whaleboat. Nickerson, Lawrence, and Chase were rescued by the “Indian” of London after 91 days, on February 18, 1821. Nickerson wrote his own account of the “Essex” in the 1870s, which was published as “The Loss of the Ship Essex Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats” in 1984.