Martin Van Buren Document Signed as President

Partly-printed vellum DS as president, one page, 11.5 x 14.25, June 15, 1839. Scallop-top ship's pass issued to "the Brig Inga… Elisha G. Cudworth master or commander…To Pass with her Company, Passengers, Goods and Merchand[ize] without any hinderance, seisure, or molestation." Signed at the conclusion by President Martin Van Buren and countersigned by Secretary of State John Forsyth. In very good condition, with soiling, staining, loss to the lower right corner, and seal absent.

The 1884 edition of History of Plymouth County, Massachusetts, edited by D. H. Hurd, reports: 'Brig 'Inga,' sailed June 17, 1839, and returned Jan. 9, 1840, with 720 barrels sperm-oil…This small brig of 160 tons, commanded each voyage by Capt. Elisha G. Cudworth, in a period of little more than seven years, brought home nearly 5000 barrels of sperm-oil. When the smallness of the vessel and the shortness of the voyages are taken into account, it probably has no parallel in the entire history of the whale fishery.'