Updated on 31 August 2026 | Amelia Alexis (Doyle) Chase was the owner of Alice, an 86-ton, 83¾-foot-long, two-masted, billet-headed schooner built in Bath, Me., in 1876.1 Her husband, Josiah Augustus Chase was its master. He was among the earliest of Provincetown fishing captains to venture to the waters of West Africa. On 3 April 1898, Alice was destroyed by fire while at anchor in Monrovia, Liberia. Captain Chase died 11 days later of what was then described as “coastal fever,” a 19th-century catch-all diagnosis. He was buried in Monrovia, with a cenotaph at Gifford Cemetery.
In memoriam
• Amelia Alexis (Doyle) Chase (1856-1942)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 283847503.
• Josiah Augustus Chase (1849-1898)
Find a Grave Memorial No. 283846757.
The captain of Alice was buried in Monrovia, Liberia.
1 “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.