Lady sailor on whaleship LYDIA, "equal to any man"

This early report of a black woman on the crew of a Nantucket whaleship appeared in the New London Bee (New London, Connecticut) on June 10, 1801, reprinted from the New England Palladium (Boston, Massachusetts) of June 5, 1801. Found in the online Newspaper Archives at GenealogyBank.

The given date "18th May last" means May 1801, indicating completion of the second of two voyages by the Lydia when William Clark (or Clarke, elsewhere) served as captain in 1800-1801. The female sailor went disguised as a man on both voyages, as documented in Alexander Starbuck's History of the American Whale Fishery (Waltham, MA, 1878) pages 195-196:

"One of the crew a disguised female; had been two voyages undetected."

New London, CT Bee - June 10, 1801 via GenealogyBank

On the 18th May last, arrived at the bar off the harbor of Nantucket, the ship Lydia, capt. Clark, belonging to Micajah Coffin & Sons, of that place, from a southern whaling voyage, with her casks full of whale oil. One thing worthy of notice happened in the course of the voyage, which will serve to show that the female form may exist without possessing all the soft and delicate habits so much admired in the sex. On the voyage, one of the blacks belonging to capt. Clark's crew was discovered to be a woman; notwithstanding which, capt. C. informs us, that she has performed all the duties incumbent on a sailor equal to any man he had on board. What induced the young lady to disguise herself and enter into so dangerous and laborious an employment we have not yet been informed.

Palladium -- June 5. 

Reprinted from a "Boston Paper" in the New York Gazette on June 11, 1801; and Alexandria, VA Times and District of Columbia Daily Advertiser on June 15, 1801. Also reprinted in the Philadelphia, PA Gazette of the United States for June 11, 1801.