Revolutionary War Soldier Becomes Whaling Captain
Joseph Plaskett soldiered in the Revolution, then took his fight to the whales.
Joseph William Plaskett (1775-1827) was born just as the American Revolution began. As a young man, he served as a soldier in the Continental Army — part of the generation that won American independence.
After the war, he turned to the sea. He became skipper of the whaling ship Rose, hunting sperm whales across the Pacific. He sailed as far as Canton, China, where he traded whale oil for tea and silk.
His military record and seamanship earned him respect in Nantucket’s tight-knit whaling community. When he died in Boston in 1827, he left behind a widow Persis, seven children, and a legacy that would produce more whaling captains.
His portrait and silhouettes remain in the Nantucket Whaling Museum — one of the few Revolutionary War veterans whose image survives in that collection.