Abstracts of whales seen and taken, 1838-1885. Open to pages for whales seen by bark John Dawson, A.S. Wicks, master, 1870-1872. KWM# A-128

Yankee whaling was a highly organized affair, not surprising given the high risks involved in such  voyages and the amount of cash invested by the whaling agents and their investors. Agents wanted their ship’s captains to return with a full cargo and employed extensive information gathering as one means to that end. An interesting technique used by whaling agents to give the captains of their vessels as much of an advantage a possible was to collate from voyage logbooks whenever and wherever whales were taken by their best captains. This information was then written down and organized into notebooks by vessel, voyage, date, latitude, longitude, captain’s name and sometimes whale species. These notebooks, often  marked “confidential” or its equivalent, would then be given to the captain of the ship along with his letter of instruction. One such notebook, “Memo of Whaling Grounds for bark Desdemona, Capt. Saml. F. Davis” opened with the following note:

Dear Captain Davis:

This book is given into your charge with the full understanding that all its contents will be kept by you in the strictiest confidence and that you will make it a point of honor not to communicate any of its contents to anyone whatever, directly or indirectly or let anyone get these in any way except the captain’s of our ships – - Aiken & Swift, New Bedford, May 29, 1882.

As one might imagine, the information in the notebook was confined to those oceanic regions to which the master was instructed to cruise. For instance, Samuel F. Davis was instructed to cruise for sperm whales in the Atlantic Ocean. Not surprisingly, the abstracts include a great deal of information not only about where whales were taken in the Atlantic, but about the Indian Ocean as well, but nothing about the Pacific Ocean. Atlantic voyages commonly rounded the Cape of Good Hope in pursuit of right and sperm whales, sometimes going as far to the east as Western Australia, while still being called an Atlantic voyage. Atlantic voyages rarely passed Cape Horn into the Pacific. Unfortunately the logbook for Captain Davis’ cruise in the Desdemona remains lost, however, he returned after three years with almost 1500 barrels of sperm oil and over 200 barrels of whale oil. Similar notebooks exist for other Aiken & Swift vessels. In addition to information gleaned from whaling logbooks, these abstracts also contain direct reports from whaling masters:

“Capt. Green says that when he cruised off the Crozettes he found whales from 30 to 90 miles directly north of Pig Island. He has heard that of late years whales have been found west of that Island… 12 or 15 miles.”

“Capt. Grant of the Horatio says a great place for right whales and where he has always found them in his outward passage in the month of December, Lat. 38.15 S   Long. 27.20 W”

“Mr. Thompson, 2nd Mate of the Nautilus told Captain Howland that in coming home they fell in with right whales in Lat. about 48 South, Lat. 44 West – a very lively ground – plenty of feed and of birds. They saw a large school of very large sperm whales the day before.”

These abstract volumes of “whales seen and taken” are condensed sources highly applicable to research into whale populations and migration dynamics as well as offering primary background on voyages not represented in public collections by formal logbooks or journals.

Michael A. Lapides, curator of ‘Arctic Visions’ adjusts a 19th century model of a Umiak (skin boat) with a photomural of the Sermitsialik Glacier in the background, taken during Bradford’s 1869 voyage to Greenland. (photo: NBWM)

A major new exhibit titled Arctic Visions – Away then Floats the Ice-Island opens to the public with an evening of free activities for the entire family, including ice sculpting, performance art, Magic Lantern show, and a gala reception on Friday, April 26 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Using the rich Arctic and ethnographic collections of the museum and through partnerships with other institutions and individuals, Arctic Visions explores the intersections between art, science and exploration through the work of Fairhaven artist William Bradford (1823-1892). Highlights of the exhibit include an unparalleled collection of Bradford’s Arctic paintings and photographs taken during his 1869 expedition to Greenland, which he later incorporated into a massive leather-bound elephant folio, entitled The Arctic Regions – Illustrated with Photographs Taken on an Art Expedition. The exhibit’s title, Away then Floats the Ice-Island is drawn from the text of this core artifact in the exhibit, which was published in London in 1873 and principally sponsored by Queen Victoria.  The extremely rare volume is being republished by David R. Godine, Inc. in association with the New Bedford Whaling Museum and released in conjunction with the exhibit opening in the Wattles Family Gallery. A book signing will take place in the Jacobs Family Gallery.

Several activities throughout the museum are scheduled as part of the opening, including ice sculpting throughout the day on the museum plaza by Thomas Brown; performance art by Drew Denny and Friends on the Lagoda at 5:30 p.m. and 6:00 p.m.; Arctic Visions Opening Ceremonies in the Jacobs Family Gallery at 6:30 p.m.; American Magic Lantern Theater show in the Cook Memorial Theater at 7:15 p.m.; and Artists-in-Residence, Zaria Forman and Lisa Lebofsky at work in the Jacobs Family Gallery.

Admission to the museum is free from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., R.S.V.P. by calling (508) 997-0046 ext. 100.

Opening concurrently in the museum’s Centre Street Gallery, is an exhibit titled, Following the Panther – The Arctic Photographs of Rena Bass Forman. The exhibit features the work of artist and photographer, Rena Bass Forman (1954-2011), who traveled extensively in search of transformational landscapes and light; it includes a selection of prints taken from her 2006 trip to Greenland, during which she retraced a segment of Bradford’s 1869 voyage aboard the ship, Panther.

Zaria Forman, Rena’s daughter, along with Lisa Lebofsky, will participate in the museum’s Artists-in-Residence Program for one month beginning with the exhibit opening. They will be creating art inspired in part by Bradford’s voyage and the public is invited to meet and speak with the artists while they are at work in the gallery.

Bradford’s 1873 book, now republished and reformatted as a 200-page hardcover will be available for $49.95 (plus tax) at the opening. It may also be reserved by calling the Museum Store: (508) 997-0046 ext. 127.

Taken together, the exhibit and the book reveal human impact on and understanding of the environment. Michael A. Lapides, Director of Digital Initiatives and curator of Arctic Visions noted, “Bradford’s work includes the use of photography, to serve his painting, and his magnificent book “Arctic Regions,” republished for the first time, serve as a poignant prelude to the rapidly changing Arctic landscape.” April 30th marks the 190th anniversary of Bradford’s birth.

Arctic Visions, related programming and the republication of Bradford’s book is generously underwritten by Bruce A. and Karen E. Wilburn, in honor of New Bedford Whaling Museum Director Emeritus, Richard C. Kugler. A recognized authority on the artist, Kugler’s 25-year tenure included building the museum’s expansive Bradford collection.

Also opening simultaneously at the New Bedford Art Museum City Gallery, a related exhibit titled The Frigid Zone: William Bradford’s Arctic Studies, includes works by Bradford from the collection of the New Bedford Free Public Library.

Since regulations call for keeping a distance of 500 yards from the NARW, it’s a rarity to get such a close up look from a whale watch boat. WW boats must stay 100 yards away from all other marine mammal species. So, what all whale watchers hope for is that the whales and dolphins swim up to the boat, so they can all get a close look.

If you’re interested in seeing the NARW up close, you may be better served driving out to Plymouth or Provincetown to view them from the beach. Sometimes they come in quite close, much closer than 500 yards.  The  Face-ing Extinction: The North Atlantic Right Whale Facebook page is reporting that 68 North Atlantic right whales were seen in Cape Cod Bay yesterday. That’s the most ever for one day.

On a related note…

We thank NECWA, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, NOAA Northeast Regional Office, author/artist Peter Stone and the NBWM High School Apprentices for putting on a great Right Whale Day here at the Museum on Monday, April 15.  It was a great way for nearly 350 people to start their vacation week and learn about the right whale.

Many of you know that we choose to hold our Moby-Dick Marathon in January because it was January of 1841 when Herman Melville sailed out of New Bedford harbor on the whaleship Acushnet. However, there are Moby-Dick reading marathons in other cities that happen throughout the year. It’s a great book, to many, the greatest novel ever. The season in which you read it isn’t particularly important.

In that vein, former NBWM curatorial intern Evander Price, now a doctoral student in Harvard’s American Studies program, is looking to connect high school students to Moby-Dick after their school year is over.  This summer, he is teaching a high school course on Moby-Dick through MIT’s intensive summer program, Junction, which aims to provide intense, college-level academic courses for high school students.  He invites any brave green whalers who might be interested aboard his literary ship.  Applications are due April 10^th, though late applications will be accepted up until May (precise date TBD).  See course description below, and on Junction’s website.

Title: Moby-Dick and Modern America

Description:

“I have written a wicked book, and feel as spotless as a lamb.”

–Melville in a Letter to Hawthorne, July 1851

This class is an introduction to Herman Melville’s famous epic, Moby-Dick; we will read the book in its entirety.  This course explores a wide range of subjects, such as: philosophy, metaphysics, ontology, World/American/Scientific/Maritime history, art, mythology (Greek and otherwise), cetology, geography, popular art/ culture, justice, poetry, environmentalism, etymology, civilization, savagery, Shakespeare, heroism, war, nothingness, evil, darkness, hell, the abyss, god, death, race, religion, monstrousness, genius, madness, wisdom, ethics, eschatology and some slice of the complexity of existence within the human condition.

We will embark on this literary ship of the past as it winds its way from the world’s beginning to the present day, beginning at page one with Ishmael, a young man who, contemplating suicide, instead decides to commit himself to sea.  You can expect to finish this class with no answers, but rather, a firm grasp of the magnitude of the questions.  You can expect to improve enormously as a reader, to be mind-blown, blubber-brained, and equipped with a whole new set of philosophical and analytical tools to approach any daunting work of great literature you may read in the future.  Have no fear: we will work together as a crew to harpoon this evil epic.  Join me on a whaling voyage around the world!

Crimper with serpent motif made of sperm whale ivory, circa 1840s-50s, New Bedford Whaling Museum.
(Photo: Richard Donnelly)

The 24th annual Scrimshaw Weekend takes place May 17, 18, and 19. This year’s special events are a classic swap meet and Nautical Antiques Show on Friday afternoon, and an optional fieldtrip “behind the scenes” to Mystic Seaport on the Sunday. Between times, sessions held all day on Saturday will feature illustrated presentations on the origins and history of scrimshaw, the identification and connoisseurship of masterworks, tips on collecting, and research on prices and market trends, all provided by experts gathered from across the nation — followed by a cash bar reception, gala banquet, and evening program.

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is the scrimshaw capital of the world, and the annual Scrimshaw Weekend is the world’s only forum devoted to the indigenous shipboard occupational art of whalers in the Age of Sail. Founded in 1989, the gala event attracts collectors, curators, folk art enthusiasts, amateur historians, antiques dealers, and others from coast to coast, who gather to share their enjoyment of this distinctive and beautiful art form.

This year’s program is particularly compelling. It turns out that some of the works hitherto attributed to the most famous of all whaleman artists, Edward Burdett of Nantucket, may actually have been produced by someone else — and an Englishman at that. So like some of the great works previously thought to have been painted by Rembrandt, some scrimshaw attributions have now become controversial. Collector and scrimshaw historian Judge Paul Vardeman of Kansas City, Mo., will produce the evidence and make the surprising case for “The Two Burdetts: New Perspectives on the Genesis of Pictorial Scrimshaw.”

In altogether different kinds of surveys, antiques sleuth Richard Donnelly of Barrington, R.I., will reveal the hitherto hidden identity of the great so-called Mechanic Artisan; scrimshaw artist Ryan Cooper of Yarmouth, on Cape Cod, will speak about “The Tabua Gift of a Fiji Chief in the 1830s,” back-to-back with “Tabua and Palaoa: Royal Scrimshaw Collectors in Nineteenth-Century Polynesia” by Dr. Mary Malloy of the Sea Education Association and Harvard University.

Fred Calabretta of Mystic Seaport will address the scrimshaw of George Comer, a celebrated New Bedford whaling captain who was trained in field-collecting techniques by Franz Boas, collected artifacts for natural history museums, and lived among the Inuit in the Canadian Arctic.

There will also be reports on new insights into the lives, careers, and productions of other notable scrimshaw artists, the annual Market Report by Andrew Jacobson of Ipswich, Mass., the ad hoc exhibition of scrimshaw consigned to auction later in 2013, and the launch of a new book entitled Scrimshaw and Provenance, capped off by a profusely illustrated presentation of “Scrimshaw Treasures at Mystic Seaport” by Dr. Stuart M. Frank, Senior Curator Emeritus of the Whaling Museum, author of Ingenious Contrivances, Curiously Carved, and host of the weekend event since 1989.

The Sunday fieldtrip will be hosted by Dr. Frank, together with scrimshaw historian Michael Gerstein and Paul O’Pecko of Mystic Seaport.

“This is one of my all-time favorite events at the Museum,” Stuart Frank commented. “The folks who attend are so interested, so companionable, and so welcoming of newcomers — with a big meal and lots of merriment in the middle — that it sometimes seems like what an ideal family Thanksgiving is supposed to be. It’s great fun and I always learn a lot.” The people seem to agree: participation is truly national, and in recent years friends made at the Scrimshaw Weekend have been exchanging off-season visits to one another in New England, California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Colorado, and elsewhere.

The fourth annual Nautical Antiques Show kicks off the weekend’s activities on Friday, May 17, from 12:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. featuring for sale high quality marine antiques including scrimshaw, nautical instruments and tools, whaling logbooks, ship models, photos, paintings, prints, New Bedford memorabilia, and more in the Jacobs Family Gallery. Admission to the Nautical Antiques Show is included in Scrimshaw Weekend tuition; $5 for the general public, or free with museum admission or membership.

Scrimshaw Weekend tuition for the Friday and Saturday sessions, including Nautical Antiques Show, buffet lunch, sumptuous Saturday evening dinner & program, and admission to all open galleries & exhibitions at the Museum is $335 ($370 after May 1); $295 for Museum members ($330 after May 1). Tickets to Saturday’s banquet only may be purchased for $75 each. Call to reserve seats for the optional fieldtrip to Mystic on Sunday, May 19.

For more information or to register, please contact visitor services at (508) 997-0046, ext. 100 or email: frontdesk@whalingmuseum.org.

Special hotel room rates are available for Scrimshaw Weekend attendees. Call for details: Fairfield Inn and Suites New Bedford by Marriott, 185 MacArthur Drive, New Bedford, MA 02740 (Tel. 774.634.2000), and Hampton Inn New Bedford/Fairhaven, 1 Hampton Way, Fairhaven, MA 02719 (Tel. 508.990.8500).

Full scholarships are available to university-level students, courtesy of Ronald Bourgeault and Northeast Auctions of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The New Bedford Whaling Museum is grateful to Northeast Auctions and the Maine Antique Digest for their generous support of what promises to be another great event.

Blue whale study done by RIchard Ellis, in preparation for Jacobs Gallery mural.  From NBWM collections, 2000.10.

Sadly, it is estimated that by the time industrial whalers agreed to stop hunting all blue whales in 1966, only 1% of the original population of approximately 200,000 Antarctic blues remained.  Such was the efficiency of the floating factories that processed the whales brought to them by catcher boats that used cannon-fired harpoons.

North Atlantic right whales are beginning to return to Massachusetts coastal waters for feeding and gathering in ‘surface active groups‘, otherwise known as SAGs.  Perhaps the best way to see these animals is from shore, especially a place like Race Point Beach in Provincetown. Whale watch boats must maintain a distance of 500 yards from these animals, as opposed to 100 yards for all other species typically seen on local whale watches. So, the whales are more likely to be closer to the shore than they are to a boat.

North Atlantic right whale breaching in Cape Cod Bay, May 2009. Taken by Regina Asmutis-Silvia/WDC

Your New Bedford Whaling Museum will celebrate this unusual, endangered species on Monday, April 15 with our fourth annual Right Whale Day. From 10:00am – 2:00pm, with the help of our friends at Whale and Dolphin Conservation, New England Coastal Wildlife Alliance, NOAA’s Office of Education, artist/author Peter Stone, and the Museum’s High School Apprentices, we will have a right whale obstacle course, multiple craft and activity tables, a 48-foot inflatable right whale (which you can into), a right whale drawing workshop, stories, lots of information and artifacts and cake. You can also sign the petition to extend past December 9 the rule that has done a very good job of protecting these whales from ship strikes.  All of these activities are FREE.

So, if you don’t have a date this weekend, don’t feel so badly. At least your unlucky streak hasn’t reached nearly two and a half decades.

Mr. Rearden’s first book, The Raven’s Gift, was a very interesting and gripping story of survival, clashes of culture and the importance of cooperation in the face of dire circumstances.  The Yupik connection was especially intriguing when one considers the eight years of partnership the Whaling Museum shared with the Alaska Native Heritage Center and the others in the ECHO (Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations) Project that wrapped up in 2011. I suspect that Don’s next book will be just as readable and entertaining.

We hope to share more work created by other Scholars in Residence in the coming months.

Whaleman George A. Gould drew this sperm whaling scene in the journal that he kept while sailing onboard the ship Columbia of Nantucket between 1841 and 1845. It is an exemplary example of whalemen’s artwork showing that most desirable of events; the successful hunting of these valuable animals as shown by the bloody water and spouts. KWM #213, Courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The Yankee whaleman plied his trade on a richly colored blue-water world of sea foam, often rose-tinted through his own making by the bloody spouts of the mortally injured animals it was his employment to pursue. As the whale’s slate-black beetling flukes flailed briefly and frantically through the air, silhouetted against white clouds, he caught it all permanently in his mind’s eye, and put it all down on paper, or in the case of scrimshaw, ivory, or bone. These same colors,the white of the clouds, the deep blue water and pale blue sky, the red of the blood; these same colors he had conveniently at hand, in his kit of watercolor paints, to color his nation’s flag in the background snapping red, white and blue from the mast of his floating home. The whaleman was often a patriot, proud of carrying his nations’ flag onboard his nations’ shipping to the far-flung beaches, bays and harbors of the world’s insulae. His dramas were far from pacific, albeit so often played out across the whaling grounds of Melville’s “mysterious, divine” Pacific Ocean; “Off Shore,” or “On the Line,” or “On Japan,” with his stabbing iron harpoons and lances on the one hand, and the sperm whale’s snapping, toothy jaw, or the sweeping flukes of the right whale on the other; impressive action, no doubt, and worthy of a picture or two.

“December 16th, 1854. At daylight saw a shoal of sperm whales. Lowered all three boats and struck 4 and killed 3.”The above quotation is from the journal of Perry G. Wing of Westport, Massachusetts. He drew the above picture and recorded the successful whaling event in his journal kept onboard the bark Dunbarton of New Bedford, Mass., in 1854. ODHS #967, Courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Not all whalemen drew pictures of what they had seen but enough did to record, better than words can describe, what it meant to hunt these great marine mammals in the decades between 1820 and 1880 when fleet upon fleet of American ships roamed the oceans of the world killing whales for profit. Whaleman Francis Allyn Olmsted (1819-1844) in the preface to his published whaling narrative Incidents of a Whaling Voyage allowed that: “embellishments of this kind are often as essential in forming a correct idea of a scene, as the printed page itself… for a single glance gives a far more vivid idea… than the most elaborate description.” In their vessel’s logbooks and their own personal journals whalemen drew many pictures and after the hunt, engraved even more on the teeth and skeletal bones won of vanquished sperm whales, and upon the limber baleen plates of the equally hard-fought right and bowhead whales and on the snowy tusks of walruses. He occasionally went so far as to paint in oils or pastels, a more peaceable employment once ashore, and one, Robert Walter Weir, even became a professional magazine illustrator after his time in the whale fishery. Others, including Benjamin Russell of New Bedford went on to continue their careers as painters of whaling scenes for the larger public. Russell became famous as the creator of a traveling whaling panorama, a ship portraitist and a printmaker.

“May Friday 8, ’59. At 8 ½ A.M. Joe Kirby raised a school of sperm whales. Run down to them and hauled aback. 1st and 2nd Mate lowered down. The whales perceived us. The Captain lowered away and struck one. The whale stove him. The Mate got the Captain and killed the whale.” The above descriptive text is taken from Charles P. Dewey’s journal kept onboard the bark John Dawson of New Bedford, 1855-1859. It relates to an event that may also have been witnessed by Robert W. Weir (1836-1905), whaleman and professional magazine illustrator who was sailing in the same waters around Madagascar onboard the bark Clara Bell of Mattapoisett at the time and later drew the picture in Dewey’s journal. ODHS 590, Courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling

No matter the medium, however, when it comes to his artworks there is more to the picture than meets the eye. There was a real story alive behind every piece of whaleman’s art, but those specific stories have seldom been re-told in words or if they ever were, are lost to time. This is due in part to the nature of the pieces. Scrimshaw whaling scenes, vibrantly alive at the time of their making, found their life through the tales of their creators. They were the relics of his experience, gifts perhaps to his shipmates, family or friends, or worthless things made out of necessity to while away the inevitable tedium endemic to the profession, and kept for their private significance maybe only to their maker. As the creators disappeared, often so did their stories, but these engraved objects, with lost intents remain alluring, mostly disassociated from their makers and whatever it was he was trying to convey, and remarkably evocative.

This detailed whaling scene is engraved on a piece of panbone, that is, the skeletal jawbone of a sperm whale. Like many pieces of scrimshaw it is anonymous and in this particular case is possibly British. It shows successful sperm whaling around Ball’s Pyramid, Lord Howe Island in the Tasman Sea between New Zealand and the east coast of Australia. NBW #2001.100.1226, Courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

When the artist drew his pictures in a logbook or journal, however, then those stories have the potential for re-creation. Associated text can sometimes provide clues as to why a particular scene or vessel was permanently recorded. Though the mediums of engraved scrimshaw and paper drawings are radically different, the latter can inform the former, because, for all intents and purposes they are the same – one simply has associated text. Except in rare cases where the stories of the pieces can be glimpsed through sometimes rewarding but almost always extensive and time-consuming research, scrimshaw whaling scenes are mute if powerful testaments to the whaler’s life.

As any hunter will tell you, preparation for the moment of action is vital to the success of the hunt. Hunters get themselves into position and then they wait. Similarly, the whaleman’s business as a hunter upon the high seas of animals that spend much of their time submerged, was of a nature that left him a great deal of excess time. As he cruised the whaling grounds, back and forth, day after day, or while making a passage from hunting ground to hunting ground, he often employed himself in recording in his journal the animals that he encountered, the scenes of the hunt, the picturesque sailing ships in the immediate vicinity and the careful outlining of the silhouettes of the often exotic, faraway islands and landfalls that only a world-faring seaman would encounter. As many of these places had seldom been seen by any Westerners at all his observations served the two-fold purpose of satisfying his own curiosity and creating a reference for future navigation. As a mariner in a culture that took commercial navigation very seriously indeed, he was often trained in and lived with a tradition of manuscript illustration. Manuscript maps and recognition drawings of landfalls, carefully and accurately rendered could literally mean life or death, the success or failure of the voyage, and the enabling of the navigation through the trackless oceans of the world.

John Martin of Wilmington, Delaware drew this recognition drawing showing the silhouette of one of the Samoan Island group in the South Pacific. Such drawings allowed mariners to positively identify landfalls at sea. Martin’s illustrated journal kept onboard the ship Lucy Ann of Wilmington, 1841-1844 is one of the great illustrated American whaling journals. KWM #434, Courtesy of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

The combination of these variables came to serve as deep wells of creativity. That creativity in turn served as an outlet for his feelings of patriotism, his eye-witness to tragedy, his obvious sense of wonder, his esprit de corps and frequently, the specificities of navigation questions. These are the roots of some of the stories told by the art of the American whaleman but there is more to the stories even than this. These are stories of his personal world exploration; they are of the ships that were his home on the deep and the violence that was his calling, considerable bloodshed and incredible natural phenomena. They are tales of loneliness, industry and, doubtless, more than a little bit of romance. Killing a sixty-foot animal with a twelve-foot spear from a thirty-foot boat with a team of five other guys in the midst of the fabled Galapagos Islands, admittedly, has a certain romance.

Pictures drawn by whalemen come from within a rich context and it is their similarities as well as their differences that speak most powerfully to their documentary nature as historical sources. Much can be learned from the comparative study of these illustrations and it is because that, so many of the these pictures, do, in fact, look alike, that historians, teachers and museum interpreters can ascribe some veracity to that which is being pictured. Sperm whales, for instance are often drawn seemingly exaggerated in size. Obviously this is because they are generally very large animals but what is even more telling is that the very largest animals are often drawn or noted. In one case the whaleman captioned his picture of a whaleboat going onto an enormous sperm whale “One of the whales you read of.” Such a statement implies that very large sperm whales were noteworthy and can give clues to modern researchers as to certain aspects of sperm whale biology from an earlier period of first-hand observation. It could also serve to underscore the whaleman’s very real desire to make as much oil as possible, fill their ship, go home and get paid, and additionally it can serve as evidence of some of the more social aspects of a whaleman’s life. When it comes to the study of maritime affairs, where so much of the action takes place far away the experience of most people, the art of the mariner becomes an indispensable interpretive tool and a joy to the enthusiast of vernacular art forms.