Nanina: 1812-1813

The Voyage that Ended in Treachery

The Nanina was a medium sized brig of 232 tons built in Hudson. Although the port of origin for this voyage was Hudson, the ship completed her fitting out in the Port of New York. On April 6, 1812, the same day that the Nanina was ready for voyage, Congress passed an embargo on all vessels in United States harbors and waters. Captain Valentine Barnard realized that if the Collector of the Port of New York received instructions from Washington, the Nanina would not be allowed to sail and so he went to Sandy Hook to finish fitting out. She then departed for the Falkland Islands on a seal pelt and oil expedition.

Captain Valentine Barnard was born in Nantucket but moved with his wife to New York in 1773 and his son Charles was born in Hudson in 1781. The first vessel Valentine is reported to have captained from the Hudson port was the Prudence in September 1792. He died in 1823 in Brooklyn, New York.

On board the Nanina were Charles Barnard, Valentine’s son, and Barzillai Pease, who were both captains in their own right. It is because of Charles and Barzillai that the story of the Nanina is known. Charles wrote a book, A Narrative of the Sufferings and Adventures of Capt. Charles Barnard detailing his life as a castaway and Barzillai’s journals with his many adventures and misadventures are in the Syracuse University Manuscript Collection. The crew list names Valentine as the captain and Charles as the crewman, though in his book Charles indicates he was captain.

The Adventures & Misadventures of Barzillai

Barzillai Swift Coffin Pease was born in Edgartown, Massachusetts on July 27, 1773. He was the son of Barzillai Pease, a seaman who was a prize master aboard a privateer during the American Revolution, and Deborah Coffin Pease. He died in Hudson on August 7, 1852 and is buried in the Hudson City Cemetery.

When Barzillai was fourteen years old, his family moved to Hudson. He lived both in Hudson and Coxsackie during which time he and his wife had two sons and two daughters. Both sons died young, one of them by drowning.

In 1789 he made his first voyage aboard the whaling ship Prudence and continued his seafaring life at least through 1826. He traveled aboard whalers and sealers during his early years but occasionally on ships carrying cargo; sometimes as a crew member, at least once as mate and several times as master of his own vessel. His journals cover 37 years of his seafaring life beginning as a much abused cabin boy until Valentine Barnard took him under his protection. They include his many mishaps at sea where he narrates in vivid and spellbinding detail the difficulties, quarrels and deprivations crewmen faced on voyages.

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Additional Resource (links to PDF): 

Journal of Barzillea Pease, entries from 1812

Syracuse University Manuscript Collections - Bird Special Collections