Atwood Collection

The son of a fisherman, he was born in Provincetown on September 13, 1807. His early years were lived in poverty, following the seasonal catches of sea-herring, mackerel, cod and the scale fish such as haddock under his father's supervision from the age of nine. His family moved to Long Point in 1818 in order to fish from shore there. His house was the only house on Long Point at that time, but was soon joined by others to form a small community of approximately two hundred persons between 1818 and 1850. The Atwood family home is now located at 5 Nickerson Street, having been floated over when the Long Point community was disbanded in 1860.

Although Nathaniel Atwood was intimate with cod fishing from the age of ten years, having been pressed into it by the necessity of assisting his father, this was not an unusual age for boys to begin fishing in Provincetown at that time, for many a native son began their fishing careers at nine or ten. Atwood's career lasted for fifty years until 1867 when he retired as an active captain of fishing vessels and devoted his energies to the manufacturing of medicinal cod-liver oil and in pursuing his life-long interest in ichthyology.

His autobiographical record as presented in testimony before the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries, published in 1887, is a fascinating account of all the fishing activities out of Provincetown from 1816 to 1867, including, and most especially, the whaling industry. Captain Atwood was captain of numerous vessels from the port of Provincetown during his long career, but perhaps his most notable experience occurred when, as captain of the whaling schooner "Cetacean", he rescued the crew of the British vessel "Lone Star" (all nine men and a dog) for which he received a telescope from the Queen of England with the following accompanying citation for "his humanity to the master and crew of the brig "Lone Star, N.S." whom he rescued from the wreck of their vessel, 30th March, 1867." The ship's telescope and the related correspondence concerning the rescue of the "Lone Star" and other artifacts flesh out the donation to the town by Nathaniel Atwood's last living descendant, Richard E. Atwood.

A detailed account of Captain Atwood's years as part of Provincetown's fishing fleet was presented by him in a series of successful lectures before large audiences at the Lowell Institute in 1868, probably at the behest of Louis Agassiz. These lectures, together with his testimony for the Commission of Fish and Fisheries already mentioned, doubtless constitute one of the most specific and personal overviews of the heyday of Provincetown's great fishing fleet as seen through the porthole of Nathaniel Atwood's clear eye and his extraordinary capacities as a man of action and a man of science.

Josephine C. Del Deo