Logbook for Grace: Whaling Brig

Murphy, Robert Cushman. Daisy, 1912-1913. New York: Macmillan, 1947.
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An engaging account by a 25-year-old naturalist of a whaling voyage to South Georgia in 1912, taking the form of a log written to and for his new wife, Grace. Witty and reflective, including lots of material on his own reading and library, mostly during the ship’s passage through the tropics.

Incidents of a Whaling Voyage. To which are Added Observations on the…Sandwich and Society Islands.

Olmsted, Francis Allyn. New edition. New York: D. Appleton, 1841. [Reprinted Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1969.].
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Olmsted was a passenger aboard the whaler North American [a temperance ship] in 1839, a trip taken as a kind of rest cure for his chronic nervous debility. He returned to Yale for medical school and in fact graduated but died in 1844 after a second voyage.

South Latitude.

Ommanney, Francis Downes. London: Longmans, 1938.
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A beautifully written book on whaling in the Weddell Sea, where R.R.S. Discovery II was trapped (like Endurance) but escaped.

Greenland, the Adjacent Seas, and the North-West Passage to the Pacific Ocean. Illustrated in a Voyage to Davis’s Strait during the Summer of 1817.

O’Reilly, Bernard. New-York: James Eastburn & Co., 1818.
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O'Reilly served as surgeon aboard the whale-ship Thomas, in order to gather scientific information on the northern regions. He gives much information concerning Arctic zoology, whale fishery, natural atmospheric phenomena, observations of magnetic variation, the history and habitation of Greenland, and observations concerning the possibility of a Northwest Passage." Field - "The observations of the author on the natives of Greenland, are recorded on pp. 52 and 85, of which the last two are occupied with a vocabulary of their language. Five of the plates are illustrative of the features, or habits of life of the Exquimaux." According to Abbey an article in the 'Quarterly Review' called the book 'a bare faced imposition.' Stanton & Tremaine mentions the book is said to have been plagiarized from material prepared by Sir Charles L. M. von Giescke. See Kenneth Hill: The Hill Collection of Pacific Voyages. Three Volumes (San Diego: 1974-83). p. 219, and Thomas W Field: An Essay towards an Indian Bibliography. (Detroit: Gale, 1967). p. 297.

Life on the Ocean, Or Thirty-Five Years at Sea, Being the Personal Adventures of the Author.

Paddack, William C. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press, 1893.
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Biography of a Nantucket/New Bedford whaleman and merchant seaman who shipped for the Pacific aboard the Planter in 1847. Although a short book it has several references to the monotony of sea life. The following are typical and repetitive. (p.143): Most of the time during the past thirty-five days we have had moderate winds, and nothing has occurred to interrupt the usual routine of duty and the monotony of a sea life. (p. 146): As usual in a long course of fair winds and pleasant weather, nothing occurred to interrupt the monotony except for the excitement produced by the anticipation of our seeing dear friends once more, which served as a general topic of conversation in the forecastle and amongst the officers. (p. 219): During the ten following days, nothing of moment transpired to disturb the monotony which is usual on board a passenger steamship. [Paddack lapses towards the end when he says “There is always something to be seen, and life is never monotonous” (p. 236).

Ship’s Libraries; Their Need and Usefulness.

Pierson, John S. New York: American Seamen’s Friend Society, 1878. 33 p.
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p. no page: After you’ve done everything to assure the physical and spiritual welfare of the sailor, “the only way left to reach him is by the printed truth—The Bible, the tract, the good book. Just here then comes in the ship’s library with its indispensable offices,--the last important advance made in the line of religious work among seamen,--the ‘missing link,’ I think we may call it, in the chain of evangelical agencies for their benefit.”

The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket….

Poe, Edgar Allan. New York: Library of America, 1984. p. 1003-1182.
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Fictional account of mutiny on Grampus, June 1827, followed by rescue by a whaler which sailed nearly to the South Pole. Very little about books, but the cabin of Pym’s friend Augustus contained “a table, a chair, and a set of hanging shelves full of books, chiefly books of voyages and travels” (p. 1021). When Pym, a stowaway, was first hidden before departure he describes his hideaway on p. 1024: “I now looked over the books which had been so thoughtfully provided, and selected the expedition of Lewis and Clarke to the mouth of the Columbia. With this I amused myself for some time, when growing sleepy, I extinguished the light with great care, and soon fell into a sound slumber.” That seems to be the last mention of books in this exciting and inventive tale.

The Journal of Annie Holmes Ricketson on the Whaleship A. R. Tucker, 1871-1874: from the Original in the Kendall Whaling Museum.

Ricketson, Annie Holmes. (New Bedford, MA: Old Dartmouth Historical Society, 1958).
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A good example of the so-called petticoat whaler, the Captain’s wife., aboard the whaler A.R. Tucker. This is a fairly calm memoir with some observations about the business of whaling, and frequent reference to books, newspapers, and letters but seldom with any reading details.

Of Whales and Men.

Robertson, R. B. New York: Knopf, 1954.
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A delightful account of a ship’s doctor on an 8-month cruise of a whaling factory ship, with something of a psychological emphasis on the men he was with.