Port of New Bedford clearance document for the JIREH SWIFT

Maker Collector of the Port of New Bedford

Date1 September 1862

Object number00028291

NameClearance document

MediumInk on paper

DimensionsOverall: 319 x 205 mm, 0.005 kg

ClassificationsEphemera

Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds

Terms

DescriptionThis Port of New Bedford clearance document for the barque JIREH SWIFT was printed on 1 September 1862. It states that the SWIFT is carrying utensils and provisions for a whaling voyage to the pacific ocean. The JIREH SWIFT was a Union whaler who sailed during the American Civil War.HistoryAfrican American shipwright and former slave John Mashow built the whaler Jireh Swift in 1853 at Dartmouth, Mass. near New Bedford. The vessel measured 122 feet in length and 454 tons. Its first voyage was to the northern Pacific and lasted nearly four years. The ship collected 45 barrels of sperm oil, 2,719 barrels of whale oil and 14,900 lbs of whalebone. Swift’s second voyage, to the same grounds, lasted more than four years and netted much more oil and bone for her owners. Nearly three years into her third voyage, on 22 June 1865 she was captured in the Arctic by the Confederate raider Shenandoah and burned, for a loss of more than $40,000 The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History hold a builder's half model of the Jireh Swift in its collection under ID Number TR*076323.SignificanceThe JIREH SWIFT was one of the last American vessels captured and burned by the CSS SHENANDOAH. Research suggests that the last shots fired by SHENANDOAH were directed at the SWIFT.