The Only African American Ship Captain on the West Coast of the United States in the Late-1880s and 1890s

The Only African American Ship Captain on the West Coast of the United States in the Late-1880s and 1890s

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.

Shorney was born in Barbados and spent his life at sea. After only ten years at sea, he became the only African American ship captain on the west coast of the United States in the late-1880s and 1890s. He obtained his certification in 1885. His whaling voyages were based out of San Francisco on the whaling bark John and Winthrop. The John and Winthrop was the only whaling ship in the world to be manned entirely by an African-American crew.

Shorey retired from whaling in 1908.

Onshore he lived in Oakland and worked on the docks as a special policeman for Pacific Coast Steamship Company from 1912 to 1919.

In 1919 he died from the Spanish flu pandemic. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Oakland, California.