author

Thomas H. Jenkins

A whaling captain from the New Bedford area, he left behind a vivid first-person account of life at sea and one of the era’s most dramatic whale-ship disasters. His writing is valued today as both adventure narrative and maritime history.

1 Audiobook

Bark Kathleen sunk by a whale : to which is added an account of two like occurrences, the loss of ships Ann Alexander and Essex

Bark Kathleen sunk by a whale : to which is added an account of two like occurrences, the loss of ships Ann Alexander and Essex

by Thomas H. Jenkins

About the author

Thomas H. Jenkins is remembered for Bark Kathleen Sunk by a Whale, a short nonfiction account published in 1902. In it, he recounts the loss of the bark Kathleen after a sperm whale struck the vessel, turning a real whaling voyage into a tense survival story.

Available records connect him with the New Bedford, Massachusetts, whaling trade in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Archival sources also identify him as Thomas Harrison Jenkins and show that he served as master on other whaling voyages, including the Gay Head II and the Wanderer.

Because so little biographical material is widely published about him, Jenkins is best known through his own sea writing and the historical records around his voyages. That gives his work a direct, eyewitness quality that still appeals to readers interested in maritime adventure, whaling history, and firsthand narratives from the age of sail.