(2017)
Capt. George Lavender Dunham (1877-1919) | Gifford.
Ellen A. Swift seems to have been a jinxed vessel. And unfortunately for him, Captain Dunham — son of John A. Dunham and grandson of John Thomas Dunham (1817-1882) — was its master from 1912 to 1919, when it disappeared during a storm in the West Indies on 10 February. All were lost, including the captain, his wife, and their daughter. The schooner was built in Provincetown in 1882, but sailed from New Bedford beginning in 1914 because its reputation on the Cape had made it difficult to recruit crews. The year before its disappearance, toward the end of World War I, Ellen A. Swift came close to being blown out of the waters off Cape Hatteras by a German U-boat, until its captain was persuaded that neither Ellen A. Swift nor another nearby New Bedford whaler, A. M. Nicholson, were belligerents. From 1904 to 1911, Captain Dunham had commanded William A. Grozier. [Lot No. 181.]
¶ Last updated on 22 January 2018.
Provincetown’s Historic Cemeteries and Memorials, Key G-26, Page 8.