Solomon Bunker

Marker honoring Col. Pawling, Troy, NY

In 1777 the schooner Rose, captained by Solomon and on the way to St. Martins, was captured by the British. We have not found how Solomon made his way back to the colonies but he is next listed as serving in the American Revolution under Colonel Albert Pawling, an aide-de-camp under George Washington who commanded a regiment of Swiss soldiers, known as ‘Pawling’s Levies’, who guarded forts in Ulster and Orange Counties in Upstate New York for the duration of the war.

Portrait of Samuel Shaw with his signature, from The journals of Major Samuel Shaw, Wm. Crosby and H. P. Nichols, 1847

After the war, Bunker was captain of at least two whale ships from Nantucket (1785 & 1786). Then in 1786 he left the Port of Hudson on the brigantine Columbia and, during this voyage, brought Captain Samuel Shaw, first US Consul to China, from Macao in the South China Sea to Canton.

At that time, the new nation had begun trade directly with China instead of relying upon the British East India Company. Americans wanted tea, porcelain, spices and silk. As a new country they had no cash but traded with ginseng roots from the Appalachian Mountains - prized as an aphrodisiac and herbal remedy in China - and otter pelts.

Solomon Bunker is then listed as Master of the Prudence, 1791, and the American Hero in 1795-1797, which was owned by Thomas Jenkins & Sons, and brought in the largest cargo of sperm whale oil in American History. On land, he opened a tannery and became an assessor in Hudson.