Subseries A. Ships’ Papers represents ships owned or chartered by Pingree. Merchant expeditions that were chartered by Pingree were referred to as “adventures” whereas ships journeyed under the ownership of Pingree were referred to as “voyages.” This subseries includes documents that were bundled by ship and voyage. Records include: bills of lading; accounts; receipts/invoices; cargo lists; bills of health; debenture certificates; insurance policies; impost bonds; Chinese linguists’ reports; prices current; and correspondence. Almost all of the voyages include an Articles of Agreement, which lists the crew members, their station and wages, dates of entry and discharge, and frequently notes on any deaths or desertions. The dates on the folders refer to the dates on the papers contained within, and not the dates of the ships’ voyage. The materials in this series relates to specific merchant shipping voyages to various parts of the world including China, the West Coast of Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and South East Asia, specifically the East Indies. Pingree exported fish, pork, oil, soap, flour, onions, and lumber, among other sundry items; and imported tea, coffee, cocoa, cloves, molasses, sugar, copal, animal hides, and ivory along with many other commodities. He also traded Turkish opium in Surabaya; documents for this endeavor are in the papers for the ship Thomas Perkins, June 1840. References to opium trade can be found in other ships’ papers as well. Pingree frequently had multiple ships abroad at a time. Portions of one ship’s cargo may have been transferred to another ship, and sold at market together. As a result the papers of vessels often contain interrelated accounts and correspondence. Two sets of papers, originally labeled as “voyage 11” exist for the schooner Dollar. Dates of these documents indicate that they represent two separate voyages. Therefore the papers dated November 1829 to January 1830 remain labeled as voyage 11. Documents dated January 1830 to April 1830 were separated into a folder labeled voyage 12. Indistinguishable documents were kept with the original voyage 11 papers.