President George Washington and Secretary of State Thomas Jefferson Sign a Passport For the “Ghost” Sloop Harmony

As beautiful condition a document bearing these signatures as you can find

In the early days of the American republic, ships leaving U.S. ports for foreign shores were required to have passports, and both the president and secretary of state frequently signed these documents. Between 1790-1793, passports signed by Washington as President were also signed by Thomas Jefferson as Secretary of State.

Document Signed by President Washington and Secretary of State Jefferson, Philadelphia, November 14, 1793, a ship’s passport in English, French and Dutch giving permission to “Timothy Parker, master or commander of the Sloop Harmony…of the town of Norwich…lying at present at the Port of Charleston and bound for Trinidad and laden with Tobacco, Rice, Flour, Bread, Wine, Butter, Iron, Beef, Shingles, to depart and proceed with this said Sloop.” Parker had been commander of the U.S. Navy frigate “Oliver Cromwell” during the Revolutionary War. The document is countersigned by Isaac Holmes as Collector of the Port of Charleston and Stephen Ravenel as Justice of the Peace, and its white seal is still intact. Documents bearing the signatures of both Washington and Jefferson are increasingly rare, and this one is in unusually fine condition.

In March 1794, perhaps on its return from this very voyage, the Sloop Harmony was met at sea not far from Santo Domingo drifting about, half full of water, with no one on board, her sails gone, and what rigging that remained useless. Apparently the whole crew had perished and the sloop had become a ghost ship. In June an insurance affidavit was filed in Philadelphia certifying the loss and the value of the sloop’s contents.