Underway

The Roman took her departure with Laura and her family and a multinational crew of 31 men on Thursday, October 29, 1868. They left New Bedford and although the logbook from this voyage of the Roman is lost, there are some records, which give us some idea of the possible route they might have taken.

Some of the ports that whaling vessels from New Bedford would visit included Fayal in the Azores, Brava in Cape Verde, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, Santa Cruz in Patagonia, Cape Horn and Valparaiso in Chile, Lima in Peru, Juan Fernandez Island and Charles Island in the Galapagos. Ships only stopped long enough to get fresh water, food and other provisions because their sole mission was to get to the waters where they could capture whales.

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National Archives and Records Administration