William T. Shorey

William T. Shorey (July 13, 1859 – April 15, 1919) was a late 19th-century American whaling ship captain known to his crew as the Black Ahab. He was born in Barbados July 13, 1859. He was of African descent through Barbados. Spent his life at sea. He became the only Black captain operating on the west coast of the United States in the late-1880s and 1890s. The John and Winthrop was the only whaling ship in the world to be manned entirely by an African-American crew.