Subseries A. Shipping Papers is comprised of records of ships owned, mastered, or supercargoed by Waters, whose vessels were mostly involved in trade with the East Indies and China. An interesting item among the papers of the brig Mermaid is a letter from Captain John Eagleston describing to William H. Neice, an Australian ship owner, the circumstances surrounding an attack upon Neice’s vessel Sir David Ogilby by natives at the Fiji Islands in 1838. In the miscellaneous ships’ papers is an 1840 letter from a crew member of the USS Vincennes giving a brief account of the United States Exploring Expedition. The shipping memorandum book contains accounts for brig Otter and a handwritten Malay dictionary. Trade memoranda give details of trade practice and currency exchange in a number of Asian, European, and South American ports.