Austin Bearse (1808-1881) was a sea captain from Cape Cod who provided transportation for fugitive slaves in the years leading up to the American Civil War.

Coordinating with Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Wendell Phillips, Lewis Hayden, William Ingersoll Bowditch and other committee members, Bearse undertook several daring slave rescues in his 36-foot sloop, the Moby Dick.

[4] In one case, the committee hired him to retrieve a fugitive slave named Sandy Swain from the brig Florence, which was moored at Fort Independence after sailing from North Carolina.

He brought with him several white abolitionists and a party of black dock workers from Long Wharf, and persuaded the captain of the brig to hand Swain over to him.

Apparently fooled, the captain of the Sally Ann turned the stowaway over to the Bearse brothers, who brought him to South Boston and put him up in his home.

[1] In 1853 Bearse was interviewed by Harriet Beecher Stowe at the office of the Liberator as part of her research for A Key to Uncle Tom's Cabin.