''Phoenix'', or ''Phenix'', was an American wooden

whaler A whaler or whaling ship is a specialized vessel, designed or adapted for whaling: the catching or processing of whales. Terminology The term ''whaler'' is mostly historic. A handful of nations continue with industrial whaling, and one, Jap ...

, launched in 1821. She plied the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

from her homeport of

Nantucket, Massachusetts Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...

. She made ten complete voyages between 1821 and her loss, on her 11th voyage, in 1858. ''Phoenix'' and her captain, Perry Winslow, discovered Winslow Reef, northwest of Canton, in 1851. The entire group of

Phoenix Islands The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Kiribati, Republic ...

in the

South Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

are named after a ship, which was active in the area in the 1820s, which may be this ship. ''Phoenix'' was in the Galapagos in 1835 and 1836. On 10 January 1836 the crew was ashore and left graffiti carved into rocks there. While in the Galapagos islands the crew also gathered tortoises to eat, perhaps as many as 140.

Whaling voyages

Between 1821 and 1858, ''Phoenix'' made 11 whaling voyages:National Maritime Digital Library: ''Phoenix''.
/ref>

Fate

''Phoenix'' was lost on Elbow IslandMap of Shipwreck
/ref> in the

Sea of Okhotsk The Sea of Okhotsk; Historically also known as , or as ; ) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands on the southeast, Japan's island of Hokkaido on the sou ...

on 12 October 1858, about 100 miles from Ayan.

Citations

References

* * * (ASIN: B00EM34EM6) * {{1858 shipwrecks Ships built in the United States 1821 ships Whaling ships Shipwrecks in the Sea of Okhotsk Maritime incidents in October 1858