Updated on 21 August 2026 | This 108-ton, 73-foot, two-masted schooner was built in Essex in 1845, and was active for the next seven years. The masters over time were Josiah Cook, Harvey Sparks, and George H. Cornell. The agent in 1850 and 1851 was J. H. Hilliard.1 Ownership was divided into 48 shares; Jonathan H. Young held the largest stake, with 8 shares.2 The Standard-Times of New Bedford carried this brief news on 20 July 1852: “Whaling sch. A. Nickerson, of Provincetown, was lost on Matanilla Reef [Bahamas] June 16. Capt. Cornell and crew have arrived at New York from Nassau. No particulars.”
1 American Offshore Whaling Voyages: A Database, by Judith N. Lund, Elizabeth A. Josephson, Randall R. Reeves, and Tim D. Smith; and Mystic Seaport Museum Inc., New Bedford Whaling Museum, and Nantucket Historical Association.
2 “Alphabetical List of Ship Registers, District of Barnstable, Massachusetts, 1814-1913, Compiled From Original Documents Stored in the New Bedford Custom House,” prepared by the National Archives Project, 1938, accessible through HathiTrust.