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Melville's First Captain - Valentine Pease, Jr. Was Born on Nantucket in 1797 by Edouard A. Stackpole IT WILL COME as some surprise to many lovers of Herman Melville to learn that the first whaling master, under whom Melville began his whaling career, was a native of Nantucket. Captain Valentine Pease, Jr, master of the whaleship Acushnet, which sailed from New Bedford, in January, 1841, on board of which Melville signed on as a greenhorn, has been generally called a Vineyard man, because he settled on that island following his marriage. But the house in which he was born still stands on Nantucket. Captain Pease was the son of Captain Valentine Pease and Love Daggett, and their first child was also named Valen tine, but he died shortly after, and three children later, Valentine, II was born on November 22, 1797. He came to be known as Valentine Pease, Jr. Captain Valentine Pease, Jr.'s, birthplace stands on West Chester Street and is now owned by Mrs. Joseph Woodle, and has also been called the Captain Priam Brock house. Facing the south, of lean-to design, the fine old structure has been carefully preserved over the years, with the successive owners keeping the old architecture intact over a period of over two centuries. With its front facing the Lily Pond, the house has a long sloping rear roof, in traditional Nantucket style. Its great cen tral chimney sits on the roof top like a crown, with an ell protruding at the rear to serve as a summer kitchen. Captain Valentine Pease, Sr., came from Martha's Vineyard to com mand Nantucket whaleships. In the Alliance, he made a successful voyage to Woolwich Bay on the west African coast in 1795-96. During his next voyage a fifth child was born to him and Love (Daggett) Pease in Nantucket - a second son, named Valentine Pease, Jr. - born November 22, 1797. Three brothers followed Valentine Pease, Jr., Charles F. Pease born Dec. 8,1800; Henry Pease, born Jan. 18,1802; and Tristram Daggett Pease, born Feb. 18,1805. An older brother, named Valentine, had been born in 1789 but died as an infant. Three girls, Love, Martha and Sally, were born before Valentine, Jr. came on to the scene. Two of these three sisters married whaling masters on Martha's Vineyard. The three brothers of Valentine Pease, Jr. also became whalemen. Charles F . Pease, born in 1800, was lost in the whaleship L a d y A d a m s , of Nantucket, which disappeared on the Japan Grounds in 1823. The next brother, Henry Pease, born in 1802, became the master of the ship Catawba, of Nantucket, in 1840, completing a successful three-year voyage. A third brother, Captain Tristram Daggett Pease, was master of the ship Columbus, of New Bedford, in 1832. Captain Valentine Pease, Jr., took his first command in the ship H o u -
