Repair and refit ledger for American whalers out of Fairhaven and New Bedford, 1845 - 1846

[Fairhaven, MA], 1845 - 1846. Original leather backed marbled boards.. Good; binding rubbed and a bit worn; some signatures loose in the casing.. Small folio, commercial bound ledger, appx. 180 pp.

A most interesting commercial record for an unidentified 'finish' worker who was responsible for leading, caulking, painting, and miscellaneous other finish or repair work aboard a variety of vessels - but primarily whalers - out of Fairhaven and New Bedford in 1845/`46. The entries are detailed and explicit as to costs, materials employed, time, and brief description of tasks. In addition to the ships there are entries for all kinds of house finish work both public and private for residents of Fairhaven. Among the ships named with full page entries are the Acushnet, Sharon, Pacific, Ansel Gibbs, Amazon, Rebecca Sims, Java, Heroine, Florence, Eliza Adams etc. - at least 16 individual ships are named and others identified. In addition to repair are the comprehensive entries for new ships, e.g., Abraka, new schooner Fish Huttelstone (appearing with several full page entries). Associated with this employment on new ships was work undertaken for two unidentified 'steam boats' in Fairhaven. In several instances work aboard ship is associated with undertakings for the members of the ownership group of the vessel. See Lund, Whaling Masters ....