William T. Shorey was a late 19th-century American whaling ship captain. He was born in Barbados July 13, 1859 and spent his life at sea. He became the only black captain operating on the west coast of the United States in the late-1880s and 1890s. He obtained his certification in 1885. His whaling voyages were based out of San Francisco. The John and Winthrop was the only whaling ship in the world to be manned entirely by an African-American crew. Shorey retired from whaling in 1908 (Wikipedia). A street in west Oakland, where Shorey lived, is named after him. Studio portrait of Captain William Shorey.
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