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 served aboard the Essex as the cabin boy and as the after oarsman in first mate Owen Chase’s whaleboat on her fateful voyage. As after oarsman, Nickerson was responsible for pulling the oar at the back, or “stern” of the whaleboat. Nickerson wrote his own account of the Essex in 1976, published as The Loss of the Ship Essex Sunk by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats in 1984.