An actual 1837 Atlantic trip aboard a Sag Harbor whaler told in fictional form, illustrated with woodcuts. Well-disguised fictional account of sailors’ life, near-mutiny and desertion, etc. The hero is a novel reader (see p. 61-2, 92, 139), and the author an accomplished writer.
Five Years Before the Mast, Or Life in the Forecastle, Aboard of a Whaler and Man of War.
- Whalemen's Reading
New Light on Herman Melville’s Cruise in the Charles and Henry,
- Whalemen's Reading
Second section is on books aboard the ship Charles and Henry on which Melville shipped in 1840 for five years.
The American Whaleman: A Study of Life and Labor in the Whaling Industry.
- Whalemen's Reading
A very engaging introduction to life aboard the American whaler, the business enterprise behind it, the contrast of cabin and forecastle life, as well as details of the actual pursuit.
The Arctic Whaleman, Or Winter in the Arctic Ocean: Being a Narrative of the Wreck of the Whale Ship Citizen, of New London.
- Whalemen's Reading
An account of whaling in the Bering and Chukchi Seas; the wreck of the 'Citizen' in Sept. 1852; and customs and behavior of the natives of the Chukotsk Peninsula, as experienced by the ship's survivors during a nine-month sojourn there. Part Two gives history (in general) and details of whaling, the various whales and outfitting.
The Seaman’s Library Manual.
- Whalemen's Reading
Intro. By Christopher Morley: I have seen the Green Box [American Seamen’s Friend Society library boxes] in use aboard American ships at sea, and I know what it means…to the reader off duty.
The Press-Gang Afloat and Ashore.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 42-3, description of life of impressed seaman: With books he was for many years ‘very scantily supplied.’ It was not till 1812, indeed, that the Admiralty, shocked by the discovery that he had practically nothing to elevate his mind but daily association with the quarter-deck, began to pour into the fleet copious supplies of literature for his use. Thereafter the sailor could beguile his leisure with such books as the Old Chaplain’s Farewell Letter, Wilson’s Maxims, The Whole Duty of Man, Secker’s Duties of the Sick, and, lest returning health should dissipate the piety begotten of his ailments, Gibson’s Advice after Sickness. Thousands of pounds were spent upon this improving literature, which was distributed to the fleet in strict accordance with the amount of storage room available at the various dockyards. [Footnote: Ad. Accountant-General, Misc. (Various), No. 106—Accounts of the Rev. Archdeacon Owen, Chaplain-General to the Fleet, 1812-7.]
The Big Sea: An Autobiography….
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 3: Melodramatic maybe, it seems to me now. But then it was like throwing a million bricks out of my heart when I threw the book into the water. I leaned over the rail of the S.S. Malone and threw the books as far as I could out into the sea—all the books I had had at Columbia, and all the books I had lately bought to read.
A History of the Whale Fisheries, from the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 178, [don’t know that this is relevant but worth checking—books here may refer to account books ]: … as they claim to know the procedure of the former company having their in their possession, they are first in the field and "that the design manifestly tending to the increase of nayjgation, and the benefit of all His Majesty's subjects, it is humbly hoped, will receive countenance and encouragement."
Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt: Only Survivor of the Crew of the Ship Boston, During a Captivity of Nearly Three Years among the Savages of Nootka Sound… .
- Whalemen's Reading
Jewett’s first voyage in 1803 involved some whaling and sealing in the Pacific Northwest, but it was a short time before the ship was captured by the Nootka people and most of the crew killed. Most of the book is devoted to his 28 months of captivity, and his analysis of the Nootka natives.
The Lure of the Whaling Journal.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 162, Feb. 24, 1859: I am teaching Cooper Orthoepy and definitions for which he has generously offered me the large sum of one dollar.
The Life and Adventure in the South Pacific. By A Roving Printer.
- Whalemen's Reading
The attribution comes from the Nautical Magazine 23 (1864) p. 66, but who it is I haven’t learned. A bit more literate than the average whaleman but not a riveting book—a good overview of whaling but not with the art of a Melville or Bullen.
Outfits for a Whaling Voyage.
- Whalemen's Reading
p. 3: outline has as its last item: “Ship’s library”:
Seamen’s Missions: Their Origin and Early Growth.
- Whalemen's Reading
The classic study on the subject.
The Charles W. Morgan.
- Whalemen's Reading
The Morgan, fully restored in 2016, is now the flagship of Mystic Seaport. It is thought to be the last surviving whaler.
Life on the Ocean, Or Twenty Years at Sea: Being the Personal Adventures of the Author.
- Whalemen's Reading
A Baltimore Captain in the Merchant Service who gives an autobiographical travel diary while intending to give a true picture of life at sea “blending with it those wholesome moral and religious truths, which should be inculcated upon the minds of seamen (p. 4).