Captains

This painting of the ship Elizabeth is attributed to Marie Edouard Adam, c.1883. It was mostly Searsport sea captain capital that financed Elizabeth, built in Newcastle, Maine, by Haggett & Co., and named for the wife of her first master, Phineas Pendleton III. Launched in October, 1882, she went ashore nine years later at Rocky Point, San Francisco. Elizabeth’s wreck is a story of loss for four Searsport families. Her master, Captain John Herbert Colcord, was travelling with his wife and two children, who were saved, although he died.

Phineas Banning Blanchard was the son of William H. Blanchard and Clara E. Pendleton Blanchard. He was born February 20, 1879 (at sea on the Bark Wealthy Pendleton) and died March 23, 1962. He commanded the Bark Herbert Black, 1899-1900; the Bark Willard Mudgett, 1901-1904; the Ship Bangalore, 1903-08; and the S.S. Hermosa, 1905. He retired from the sea in 1915 and was associated with Turner and Blanchard Stevedores, Brooklyn, New York. He served eight months in the American Navy during the Spanish-American War.

William H. Blanchard was the son of James Blanchard, Jr. & Mary Young Clifford Blanchard. He was born in1836 and died in September, 1904. He was a passenger on the Bark Willard Mudgett, commanded by his son Captain Frederick Pendleton Blanchard, when the vessel sank with no survivors.

James Nelson Pendleton was the son of James Hervey Pendleton & Esther Houston Pendleton. He was born November 16, 1853, in Searsport, Maine and died in June, 1920, in Eustis, Florida. He commanded the Ship David Brown 1882-86; the Ship Nancy Pendleton, 1887-92; and the Ship Mary L. Cushing, 1893-1900. He retired from the sea in 1900.

Captain Oliver Winslow Park was the son of Oliver Crary Park & Catherine Elizabeth Park. He was born June 7,1849  in Searsport, Maine and died December 4,1930, in Grinnell, Iowa. He commanded the Bark Helen Angier for a short time in 1874.  Captain Park survived the shipwreck of the Bark Trovatore in November, 1870, when he was Second Mate; he and two sailors were the only survivors when the Trovatore was hit by a waterspout in the Adriatic Sea.

James M. Blanchard was the son of James Blanchard, Jr. & Mary Young Clifford Blanchard. He was born April 6, 1846, in Searsport, Maine and died on December 6, 1870 (with his wife & family while in command of the Bark Trovatore, which was struck by a waterspout off the coast of Messina in the Mediterranean Sea, on a voyage from Trieste to Palermo). The Bark Trovatore was his first and only command.

Benjamin Coombs Pendleton was the son of Joseph Pendleton & Fanny Coombs Pendleton. He was born December 18, 1844, in Searsport, Maine and died at sea in August, 1888, on a voyage from Hong Kong to Callao, Peru. His one command was the Bark Abbie Carver, 1882-88, on which he, his wife, and all but one of his children died.

Jeremiah Grant Park was the son of Samuel Park II & Mary P. Patterson Park. He was born on December 9, 1849, in Searsport, Maine and was lost at sea in November, 1916. He commanded the Bark William Wilcox; the Ship Alert, 1883-84; the Ship Acme, 1910-14; the Ship Magna Reva (formerly the Pyrenees); the Schooner Fairchild; and the Bark John Ena, 1912.

Nathan Pendleton was the son of Phineas Pendleton I & Nancy Gilmore Pendleton. He was born December 2, 1808 and died September 24, 1857, in Augusta, Maine. He commanded the Brig Alexander, 1832-35; the Ship Dunbarton, 1841-45; and the Ship Bell Rock, 1850.

Jeremiah Merithew was the son of William Merithew & Lydia Adams Merithew. He was born on October 26,1792, in Pittston, Maine and died on February 17, 1862. He commanded the Schooner Harriet & Eliza, 1822, 1829 (lost at Eastham, Massachusetts on passage from Belfast to New York); the Schooner New York, 1830 (lost on one of the southern shoals); and the Schooner Ranger, 1840.