Tasso

Tasso (fl. 1840s), bark of 286 tons, with a crew of 21. From 1845-1848, Tasso engaged in the California sea otter trade.

Prior to her work in California, in 1936 under command of Captain Louis L. Conway, the Tasso brought immigrants from Scotland to New York. In 1844, the logbook of the bark Tasso details a voyage from San Diego to Boston (Jan. 1844-June 1844)under Captain Samuel S. Hastings. The log keeper was Thomas Dwyer. The daily log describes wind, weather, location, shipboard occupations, and sightings of ships.

Typescript compilation of information regarding 22 vessels owned by the Boston, Mass., merchant firm William Appleton and Company, comprised of William Appleton and Samuel Hooper is available. Notes annotated by F. Gordon Dexter. Information includes builder, launching, tonnage, dimensions, and, in some cases, details of voyages and cargoes, for the ships: Admittance, Barnstable, Charlotte, Coromando, Courser, Cygnet, Delphi, Eben Preble, Edith Rose, Egeria, Hamlet, Horsburgh, Joshua Bates, Living Age, Loo Choo, Magenta, Mary Ellen, Milton, Nabob, Orion, and Oxnard, and the bark Tasso.

Of these, Admittance, Barnstable, and Tasso are known to have engaged in the California sea otter trade.