William Martin
The sketch above was most likely done by Captain Joeseph Delain, a fellow African American Whaling Captain from Aquinnah. A likeness of Captain Belain can be found in the story about Skip Finley's book below. This is the only existing likeness of Martin that I have found.
William Martin was born in 1829 in Edgartown, a bustling whaling port on Martha’s Vineyard, to a young mother, Rebecca, who was 20. His father isn’t mentioned so that he might’ve been raised by Rebecca and his grandmother, Nancy, in a modest home typical of the island’s working families. He was the great-grand child of a woman from Africa enslaved on Martha’s Vineyard. His grandmother was also born into enslavement. When and now Rebecca was freed is unclear.
Growing up in a multigenerational household, he likely learned early resilience—Edgartown’s maritime culture meant men were often absent, leaving women to manage daily life. The salty air and creak of ships shaped his childhood; by the 1840s, whaling was the island’s lifeblood and boys like William were drawn to the sea.
As a young man, he joined the maritime trade, a natural path in a town where wharves teemed with sailors and coopers. His literacy and steady hand earned him a role as log keeper on the whaler Europa, sailing by 1857. This job—tracking weather, catches, and crew—wasn’t glamorous but vital, offering a glimpse of the wider world: Pacific whaling grounds, stormy seas, and months away from home. Life aboard was grueling—salt pork diets, cramped quarters, and the constant risk of storms or scurvy—but it paid, and for a 28-year-old in a whaling peak, it promised adventure and status.
Back on land, William married Sarah Brown in 1857 at the Baptist Church on Martha’s Vineyard. Sarah, born in 1832, was a Native American from Chappaquiddick Plantation, a Wampanoag enclave across the harbor. At 18, the 1850 census caught her working as a maid for the Morse family in Edgartown, a typical gig for Native women in a white-dominated economy. Captain Morse Was married twice, first to Joann Pease on December 7th, 1823 and then to Mary Smith. Sarah Brown was originally a servant in the Pease Household and probably moved to the Morse Household, where the marriage linked the families. At the time of the census she would be 18.
By their wedding, Sarah was 25, and their union bridged cultures—an African American mariner and a Wampanoag woman—reflecting both personal choice and the island’s mingled heritage. They settled with her family on Chappaquiddick, likely in a simple home among kin, where land and community ties endured despite encroaching pressures on Native holdings.
William’s life after marriage isn’t detailed, but patterns suggest he either kept sailing or shifted to shore work—perhaps fishing or shipyard labor—as whaling declined post-1850s. Living on Chappaquiddick, he’d have adapted to Sarah’s world: a quieter rhythm of tides and seasons, maybe raising kids amid extended family. His maritime days gave him stories; her roots gave them a place. Together, they navigated a changing island—whaling’s fade, tourism’s rise—balancing survival and identity in a small, tight-knit corner of America.
They are both buried in the cemetery on Chappaquiddick. Their gravestone looks inland which is unique among the gravestones as all the others face out to sea. It is a rather substantial monument and suitable for a man who had attained some measure of success. To link it all together, I noted that William Martin died on September 5, 1907, just thirteen days before Norman Dudley Johnson was born on September 28, 1907.
Below are some links to further reading on the subject including a book by Skip Finley who dives into the lives of William Martin and Captain Collins A. Stevenson
