THE WHALING FLEET.--The New-Bedford Standard, of Saturday evening, says: The bark Tropic Bird, which arrived here last evening from a whaling cruise, brought in a most excellent voyage, She has been absent but eighteen months, and Captain DAVIS hails seven hundred barrels sperm oil and fifty barrels of humpback oil. The cargo will probably "turn out" a larger quantity of sperm oil than reported.read here and here
Capt. Owen Hillman Tilton (1836 - 1901) was a whaler, the son of Benjamin Tilton of Chilmark. The log of his voyage on the bark Tropic Bird during 1876-78 can be found in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. He later became a Vineyard Haven merchant, dealing in lumber, lime, bricks, cement, and fencing. He married Eliza R. Cottle (1839 - 1913?), the daughter of Edmund Cottle and (probably) Elizabeth Ridgeway, and they were the parents of Ernest R. Tilton, Frank Owen Tilton (1864 - 1923), and Herbert L. Tilton (1869 - 1948). Frank took over the Tilton Lumber after Owen died in 1901. "Bert" ran the H. L. Tilton plumbing shop on Main Street, which later became Tilton's drugstore (and finally, Yates.) Some Tilton Family History here.
Additional Bark Tropic Bird history here.
