''Phoenix'', or ''Phenix'', was an American wooden

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Japa ...

, launched in 1821. She plied the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

from her homeport of

Nantucket, Massachusetts Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a Consolidated city-county, combined county/town government t ...

. She made ten complete voyages between 1821 and her loss, on her 11th voyage, in 1858. ''Phoenix'' and her captain,

Perry Winslow Perry Winslow (1815–1890) was a whaling ship master out of Nantucket, Massachusetts. Born February 25, 1815, in Nantucket to Joseph Winslow and Betty (Comstock) Winslow, he was the brother of another whaling captain, Joseph Winslow, and the ...

, discovered Winslow Reef, northwest of Canton, in 1851. The entire group of

Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiri ...

in the South Pacific are named after a ship, which was active in the area in the 1820s, which may be this ship. ''Phoenix'' was in the Galapagos in 1835 and 1836. On 10 January 1836 the crew was ashore and left graffiti carved into rocks there. While in the Galapagos islands the crew also gathered tortoises to eat, perhaps as many as 140.

Whaling voyages

Between 1821 and 1858, ''Phoenix'' made 11 whaling voyages:National Maritime Digital Library: ''Phoenix''.
/ref>

Fate

''Phoenix'' was lost on Elbow IslandMap of Shipwreck
/ref> in the Sea of Okhotsk on 12 October 1858, about 100 miles from Ayan.

Citations and references

Citations

References

* * * (ASIN: B00EM34EM6) * {{1858 shipwrecks Ships built in the United States 1821 ships Whaling ships Shipwrecks in the Sea of Okhotsk Maritime incidents in October 1858