#whaleboat

[rexstewartoriginals]

Here, I post a piece that's on its way to a collector in New England. A work which I hand carved entirely of pine (with basswood accents). The work represent America's whaling industry during its early Industrial Age. The video can be viewed here https://youtube.com/watch?v=6523G6QCIUk .

[ltwilliammowett]

Daisy Whaleboat—Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum von Charles G. Haacker Über Flickr: The Daisy Whaleboat was last used on the 1912-1913 voyage of the New Bedford whaling brig Daisy (mid 19th century) on a whaling cruise from the Caribbean to South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic. It is one of the few 19th century whaleboats actually used in the whaling industry to have survived intact with its original gear to the present day.

[focsle]

The problem with Moby Dick is since Melville “won” at writing The Whaling Story I can’t find many fictional narratives set in this window of history that aren’t…..Moby Dick adaptations. What is there beyond Down To the Sea In Ships (1920s film) Down to the Sea In Ships (1940s film) The North Water (book and show, both of which I rather disliked), In The Heart of the Sea (which was much better as a nonfiction book and the movie was still trying to ride on Moby Dick for the Marketing), that real good PBS Documentary, and my beloved concert-play Seawife that had a 2 week run and was amazing and was, I felt, one of the most successful whaling medias when it came to FEELING like one was in a whaleboat and I will never be able to see it again cos……2 week run.

WHERE’S MY FOOD. I mean I also love a Moby Dick adaptation because I know it’ll probably satisfy me but also…MORE FOOD PLEASE. It’s not like, idk, media about Pirates where it feels like there are a million pirate stories.

I guess that means I don’t have a lot of ~competition on the market~…

[tallmadgeandtea]

Brewster is a man in a pretty, proper uniform?

[merit-rose]

Just reached chapter 84 of Moby Dick. The greased whaleboats reminded me of how, in high school, at the swim team's regional championships, we would get greased up prior to our events to make us more hydrodynamic. Coach told us that this was a legal move, but I never actually checked!

[thedaily-beer]

Maine Beer Little Whaleboat IPA (Picked up at Windmill Farms). A 3 of 4. Very light body but a wonderful hop profile on this -- lots of floral notes alongside tropical fruit and even some pine. The body drinks very easily and has a slight prickliness on the palate with only a mild fruity sweetness. Very light and refreshing with a great hop profile.

[pocketsizedquasar]

what you fear you have become

[ID: An ink drawing of Ahab and Moby Dick. Ahab stands at the bows of his whaleboat with his back to the viewer, holding his harpoon. Behind him, the white whale breaches out of the water. Ahab’s head is replaced by where the whale’s eye is.

the second image is a photo of the drawing including the ink & pens used to make it. the last image is a closeup shot of the drawing.]

[alter-koker]

what i don't get is how in moby dick when ishmael goes to whale church, the sermon is about jonah and the whale. this is whaleboat church, i feel like they would have covered that one on day one. how the hell do they have enough material left on jonah to talk more about him????

[uwmspeccoll]

Milestone Monday

On this day, November 20, 1820, an 80-ton sperm whale rammed and sank the Essex whaling ship in the South Pacific inspiring Herman Melville (1819-1891) to write his legendary novel Moby Dick.

The Essex set sail from Nantucket in August of 1819 with a 21-man crew in search of dwindling sperm whales. Over a year into their voyage, their captain decided to head further off the coast of the Galapagos than usual, finding themselves more than 1,500 nautical miles from the nearest shore. The bet paid off when the Essex came upon a pod of whales and set out in three whaleboats to harpoon them.

While they were away, their luck quickly changed when a monstrously sized sperm whale began ramming and ultimately capsized the Essex. Initially, all members of the crew survived the wreck and equipped their whaleboats with sails to head for land, however perilous weather and sparse rations soon took their toll. Within months, crew members were dying and left their companions to turn to cannibalism to survive. Ultimately, five men of the Essex were rescued by passing ships and lived to tell their tale. 

To mark the fate of the Essex we are looking at The Limited Editions Club (LEC) 1943 publication of Moby Dick; or The Whale presented in two volumes with illustrations by Boardman Robinson (1876-1952). Melville’s story of Captain Ahab and the great white whale is accentuated by Robinson’s muddy paintings that emulate the churning ocean adding foreboding layers throughout the book. Of the thirty-two paintings Robinson created for Moby Dick; or The Whale, eight are reproduced in full color with the other twenty-four reproduced “through an ingenious combination of the silk-screen process, offset lithography and varnish.” The volumes were printed by E.L. Hildreth and Co., bound in full sheepskin leather dyed to stimulate whale hides, and stamped in gold. 

Our copy of Moby Dick; or The Whale is number 289 from the collection of long-standing LEC member Austin Fredric Lutter of Waukesha, Wisconsin and is signed by the illustrator.

View other Milestone Monday posts here.

– Jenna, Special Collections Graduate Intern 

[raz-writes-the-thing]

Crimes of Essex Proportions (Broadchurch)

Alec Hardy x GN!Reader / requests are open and encouraged

Summary: Alec's stuck on his case. You just so happen to know exactly what he needs to know.

CW: murder investigation, body carving, Alec being tired as usual, reader knowing all the right things inexplicably

Broadchurch Tag List: @clarina04 @kaylinelizabeth4004 @yeethaw13 (send an ask to be added to a tag list!)

___ ___ ___ ___ ___

“Alec, are you alright?” 

Your beloved DI is currently sitting at the kitchen table, head in his hands and papers strewn about haphazardly across every single surface in your kitchen (and the lounge room too). The man groans in deep frustration and when he finally pulls his head up from his hands, you have to refrain from giggling at the red marks across his face where his hands just were. 

“I just- I don’t ken what the fuck this means,” he replies, not really answering the question but also answering the question for you at the same time. A half-answer. Ah, not alright then, you gather. “I just hate bein’ stuck- I hate it.” 

You hum, taking a look over a sheaf of papers being weighed down by his ‘best boyfriend’ mug that he says he hates. He never uses a different one though, you’ve noticed. The papers are full of notes from the coroners. There are some pictures you probably didn’t need to see, but you’re immediately pulled in by the numbers carved on the corpse's chest. ‘203.’ Hmm, interesting. The rope tied around the bodies’ hands also piques your interest as well. You can’t be certain, but- it looks as though it has been woven by hand. 

“What don’t you get, sweetheart? Maybe I can help? I know I’m not supposed to, but- you know. Fresh pair of peepers, might be worth something.” 

Half of Alec’s face is smushed against his hand, and he pulls the spare seat out for you to sit down at the table with him. He fumbles around with some of the papers before showing you a slightly grainier picture of another body. 

“He was found in 2020- there was a- erm, number carved into the skin. Two-hundred- and a little wooden carvin’ of a whale. Cold case, the locals never solved it.” 

You look over the image. You know it’s not quite appropriate, but you kind of want that wooden whale. Oh, hang on. 

“That’s a sperm whale,” you say, brows furrowing as you pull the image closer to your face. “And- we don’t even really get those here in Broadchurch. Been a few sightings in Scotland, though.” 

Alec looks between you and the paper before he interrupts your rambling. 

“Hang on- do you- hang on, do some of these things make sense to y’er?” 

You blink, dragging your eyes away from the papers to look at your boyfriend. He’s looking at you expectantly, and your mouth opens and shuts a couple of times before you mutter out an- “erm- y-yes?” 

“Well, okay- so- here’s the thing,” you say, putting the pictures down and averting eye contact. “Oh, I don’t even know where to start. Okay, so, you know Moby Dick, right?” Alec nods, clearly not following you. 

“Well, it was based on this real whaleship called the Essex, and, erm- in 1820 they set sail on a whaling expedition,” you trail off, scratching at your forehead after noticing the look on Alec’s face. “This has a point, I swear- and 2020 was the, uh, the two hundredth anniversary of them setting sail. When did you find this new one?” 

You picked the newest victim’s image back up again- “And what’s this rope made from?” 

Alec shuffles through some notes before replying.

 

“Erm- newest victim was found… November twen’y by the beach,” he pushes his glasses back up his nose as he looks for the other requested information. “Twine was made from…. Hogs hair.” 

You scoff. Of course. This was just… there was no other way. It couldn’t be a reference to anything else. 

“One of the crew mates- Benjamin Lawrence, uh- well when they were sunk by the sperm whale and those that survived were stuck out at sea in their little bitty whaleboats- Benjamin used the time to make a thing of twine with his own hair. I think… just as something to do? I mean, they were stuck out there bobbing along for ninety-three days and eating each other when they started to pop off. What else did he have to do?” 

Alec was staring at you, unsure what to make of all this. You brandished the images in front of him. 

“See- look, ‘203’ carved into the skin for the anniversary, the hog hair hand-made twine, the date the body was found, the hand-carved sperm whale? Surely there couldn’t be another explanation for all this?” 

Alec looked unsure, but based on how he’d appeared when you came in earlier, this was the best lead they had. 

“I’d be looking at people with a really big interest in nautical stories. Maybe someone in the historical society? Oooh, I wonder if a distant descendant is living here somewhere from one of the eight survivors.” 

“How do y’ken this stuff?” He asked, noting some things down. “I mean- it’s not exactly a rivetin’ subject, is it?” 

You chewed on your bottom lip, admiring the images of the hand-made twine. 

“Oh, I dunno. I think it’s pretty interesting. A special interest of mine. I’m just… glad I channelled that into creative expression and not… murder.” 

“Well, yes, there is that,” Alec replied. He got up from his seat and pressed a hard kiss onto your forehead. “I still don’t ken how y’put all that t’gether,” he said in disbelief. 

“Could you, erm- would you mind comin’ into the station later, providin’ a statement f’er all this?”

You wiggle your eyebrows at him suggestively, delighting in the way he laughs. He almost sounds embarrassed. Almost. 

“You taking me in, officer? Hmm? Have I been naughty?” A flush creeps up his neck, and oh, isn’t that interesting. Hmm. You might have to see what that’s about later. Maybe he’d like it if you were a little naughty sometimes. “Course I will, love. Just let me know when. You can borrow my books too if you like. I have a few on the Essex.”

 

“That would be great,” he says, taking your hand and pressing a kiss to the skin. “We could leave now. Sooner we get this case sorted, sooner I’ll be able t’sleep again.” 

Makes sense. You peck him on the cheek, grab your coat and find your couple of books from the bookcase in the home office and meet him by the car. It’s crazy to think that your little special interest is helping out with a criminal investigation, but you were happy to help out in any way that you could. And like Alec said, the sooner this whole thing was solved, the sooner you’d get your boyfriend back. 

As expected, once all the connections were made between the Essex and the bodies, it didn’t take long for Alec and Ellie to solve the case. 

Another criminal behind bars, and a slightly easier sleep for Alec.

  And another year passes on the anniversary of the sinking of the whale ship Essex.

[saints-who-never-existed]

Still thinking about Jopson after the other day and I feel like there's a wee bit similarity between he and David Young that I want to discuss and weep over more.

Young clearly had an incredibly difficult, poverty-stricken upbringing 'at the Foundlings' and it shows in the way that just keeps on trucking until he breaks down completely. Enduring all the hardships and misery of Victorian Britain had been ruining his health so much from the day he was born and had been doing it so insidiously that he didn't even think much of all the horrible symptoms of illness that had been inflicting him. They were simply par for the course. He'd been enduring them all his life.

And I think Jopson's deterioration very much echoes all of that. We know he's from a working class background and endured many hardships throughout his life also whether it be, again, the usual awful vagaries of the time period or the additional mental/emotional stress related to his mother.

Like Young, Jopson seems to just keep on trucking until he breaks down completely. One minute we see him help to lift a whole adult man into a whaleboat and then, seemingly in the blink of an eye, there he is in bed going downhill fast. It's not hard to imagine that his hard life would also have had him thinking little of the horrors his body was going through and being destroyed by.

It's not hard to imagine that he also had been enduring those kinds of things all his life...

[jawbonejoe]

Fuck Titanic and the door, the only sea focused ‘they could’ve made it’ moment I’m on is Queequeg and Ishmael. Queequeg 100% could’ve jumped from the masthead of the Pequod and swam to Ishmael in the whaleboat, EVEN with the extraordinary force that a sinking ship creates in the water

[ltwilliammowett]

Scrimshawed spermwhale tooth, scrimshawed by the Naval Engagement Engraver, 19th century

Obverse with whaling scene of a whaleship trying down, three whaleboats and five whales, two of which are waifed, and a big spermwhale underneath. Reverse depicts a rescue scene with an American-flagged single-deck gunship racing toward a distressed ship flying an upside down flag.

[focsle]

Drawing a comic…..you just have to know how to draw so many things at so many angles……..

[goingtoweather]

June's Whaling Webcomic Wednesday update is here! Content warning for animal injury/cruelty in this batch of pages.

Beginning of Update Beginning of Comic Also on Tapas

---

This update commences with a hard pull after a sperm whale. Middle part, the differing styles of Captain and 2nd Mate are made plain in the management of their boats, and a shanty is sung. Latter part, the waist boat fastens, but the hunt's not done. So ends.

I also wrote an accompanying historical context essay for this one about the design of whaleboats, harpoons, and the function of whale line. It's a bit verbose, as always. Call me Ishmael I guess.

Hoping to round out this chapter by July's update. If you'd like to see the closure before then, please consider joining my patreon. Subscribers get early access to pages throughout the month as I finish them, in advance of the public publishing. Otherwise, we'll be bent on our oars til the dead of summer, see you then!

[charliethomascoxuniverse]

💕 Charlie Cox as Ishmael 💕

Moby Dick (2011) Pt XVI ~

“Drink and pass!” [Ahab] cried, handing the heavily charged flagon to the nearest seaman. “The crew alone now drink. Round with it, round! ....Drink, ye harpooners! drink and swear, ye men that man the deathful whaleboat’s bow -- Death to Moby Dick! God hunt us all, if we do not hunt Moby Dick to his death!” (MD, Ch 36)

“I, Ishmael, was one of that crew; my shouts had gone up with the rest; my oath had been welded with theirs; and stronger I shouted, and more did I hammer and clinch my oath, because of the dread in my soul. A wild, mystical, sympathetical feeling was in me; Ahab’s quenchless feud seemed mine.” (MD, Ch 41)