William Roach: Nantucket Whaler, unknown maker from the United States

Sallie Casey Thayer spent several summers on Cape Cod where she owned a beach cottage. Receipts from shops in Provincetown, Massachusetts, as well as nearby cities including Boston and Salem, testify to her continued collecting activities during these holidays. Numerous purchases included bottles, pitchers, dishes, furniture, jewelry, and a lace shawl. Whether or not Thayer acquired this painting while in New England, it speaks to her travels and long-standing interest in U.S. history and industry during the colonial period and into the 19th century. The painting depicts a whaling ship belonging to one of the most prosperous and well-known whaling families. The Roach or Rotch family of Nantucket and New Bedford were to the late 18th- and early 19th-century whaling industry what Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller would be to the steel and oil industries.In 1833 (the date inscribed on this painting) William Roach, Jr. (1759–1850) ran his family’s whaling company. Like his father, William Roach, Sr. (1734–1828), Roach Jr. was a devout member of the Denomination of Friends (or Quakers) as well as an early and staunch abolitionist. His father, a pacifist, refused to participate in the Revolutionary War. Like many other Nantucket maritime merchants, Roach Sr. took a neutral stance to continue garnering support for his whaling industry during the Revolutionary War. His ongoing negotiations with the British for shipping permits led to his indictment for high treason by the American colonial government. One of Roach’s ships, the Dartmouth, played a key role in the Boston Tea Party. After delivering whale oil to England, the Dartmouth was chartered to the East India Company in 1772 to carry tea on the return voyage. Tap on the Web icon above and click on the link to view a ship model of the Dartmouth.