William T. Shorey
Encyclopedia
William T. Shorey was a late 19th Century American whaling
ship captain known to his crew as the Black Ahab
. He was born in Barbados
July 13, 1859 and spent his life at sea. He became the only black captain operating on the west coast of the United States in the late-1880s and 1890s. He obtained his certification in 1885. His whaling voyages were based out of San Francisco on the whaling bark John and Winthrop. He retired from whaling in 1908 and lived in Oakland until his death from the Spanish flu
pandemic in 1919. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California
.
WIlliam T. Shorey was of African descent through Barbados.
Whaling
Whaling is the hunting of whales mainly for meat and oil. Its earliest forms date to at least 3000 BC. Various coastal communities have long histories of sustenance whaling and harvesting beached whales...
ship captain known to his crew as the Black Ahab
Captain Ahab
Captain Ahab may refer to:* Ahab , the captain of the Pequod in Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick* Captain Ahab , a Los Angeles based pop/electronic band...
. He was born in Barbados
Barbados
Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
July 13, 1859 and spent his life at sea. He became the only black captain operating on the west coast of the United States in the late-1880s and 1890s. He obtained his certification in 1885. His whaling voyages were based out of San Francisco on the whaling bark John and Winthrop. He retired from whaling in 1908 and lived in Oakland until his death from the Spanish flu
Spanish flu
The 1918 flu pandemic was an influenza pandemic, and the first of the two pandemics involving H1N1 influenza virus . It was an unusually severe and deadly pandemic that spread across the world. Historical and epidemiological data are inadequate to identify the geographic origin...
pandemic in 1919. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California
Oakland, California
Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...
.
WIlliam T. Shorey was of African descent through Barbados.