during a period of the 19th century nantucket off the coast of massachusetts was a hub for whaling around the world made peggi godwin of the nantucket historical situation discussed at the history of whaling and the impact it had on the small island community. the nantucket historical association hosted this top and provided the video >> good evening everyone. welcome to the intent to historical association webinar

on whaling. i'm very excited about presenting this to you today we have over 230 people participating which is absolutely shocking we are just delighted so we are going to be talking tonight about what it was like on whale hunts during the presentation, it will last about 20 minutes after that that more than happy to take questions that i hope i can answer for you so i think we're just about ready to begin. welcome i am delighted to take out your map and look at it seawater real corner of the world occupies those are the words of herman melville in chapter 14 of movie dick. he was talking about nantucket, a tiny island 30 miles at sea, about 15 miles long, but this little island became the whaling capital of the world the major accomplishment of a little place like nantucket so

tonight we are going to go on a voyage of the edward kerry. and this is going to be kept in by carey winds low. in the voyage lasted from 1854 to 1858. and he's going to be accompanied on this voyage with his wife, who is marianne, they had two children, mary and john joining them on the voyage. here we have a young man whose name is joseph array. joseph kept a journal throughout this voyage. a lot of the drawings uc came from joseph ray. he was a 21-year-old nantucket boy hired to go out on the edward carry. his job was going to be vote steer or and harpooner. that means that when they lower the wheel votes from the whale ship that are pursuing a whale,

joseph will be in the bout of the ship and he will first be using and or to help when they approach the whale. he will have a harpoon, he will harpoon the whale. and joseph joins the rest of the crew. these are men from nearly all over. from fall river, buffalo, boston, nantucket of course that's a capital and there's also came in from the azores as he sales all over the world they will be picking up other sailors around the way. that will add to the diversity of the crew. diverse whaling crews created the first meritocracy. and a young man who could prove his worth, climb up a ladder, eventually achieve success on a whaling voyage. maybe he'd become a captain even. pictured here we have absolute

boston. the first african american captain of a will ship with an all-black crew. so the ship believes in 1854. this is a really emotional time most of the town would be waving goodbye. they would be saying fair winds. because these men are going to be away from town for four years. it's a really long time to be away from the loved ones, from home just one whaling voyage that lasted numerous years. on this particular voyage the edward kerry is going to go around the tip of africa, into the indian ocean, eventually into the pacific hunting whales. primarily they're going to be looking for sperm whales. why? why do they want to get sperm whales? there is a clue. the scientific name of sperm

whales is by sitter microcephaly's. which means a large, square headed whale. that is the secret. when you look inside the wales had their, which makes almost a third of the body, you will see this chamber. and in that chamber are anywhere from 300 to 500 gallons of oil. the finest oil in the world. let alone the oil that came from the blubber of the whale as well. the quality of oil were really amazing. it had this viscosity that was very stable, not affected by cold temperatures or hot temperatures. it would stay the same and lighthouses in the world were lit with this wonderful oil. as were street lamps in northern cities of london, france, all over there were selling it all over the world. and also after all the oil was refined, they made candles out of it. these were a remarkable

product. they've learned brightly, lasted a long time. and actually the oil made such a difference in people's lives because before they had this wonderful product they had to go to bed when the sunlight. get up when the sunlight rose. now it extended their day. the majority of the crew will share the fossil, that was the very cramped, tight space at the ship. these men are sharing the space for a long time, for years. it was very slimy, dark, dank, probably very smelly. that is where the men are going to eat, sleep, tell stories, right in their journals, play cards, and it is probably both filled with tobacco smoke and infested with rats and roaches. some of the men will be very

homesick, and also probably very seasick at the beginning of the voyage. this is the core doors for the captain, his family, a much nicer space. they also will get much better food than the men down below. so joseph ray, when he has free time, he's going to spend a lot of time working on his journal. he illustrates it beautifully with sites that they see, that the ports they stop. he also writes a lot. he tells about missing home and about reflections on what life was like on the maiden voyage. we are fortunate to have all of these wonderful drawings. it will give us a great picture of what life was like on board a willing ship. it was not an easy life as you will see. up on the deck, is where the

men are literally learning the ropes. rigging the sales, sharpening the tools they will use when they encounter the wales. they will be attaching the harpoons and alliances. they will be practicing in the whale boats. so they lower the oil boat so they can learn how to newer no new for these boats quickly. and build up the calluses on their hands. and another important job was look at job they would two men would climb the highest mast on the ship. and they are surrounded by a metal hoop. and two men, stand back to back, each one responsible, 480-degree look out. 100 feet up in the air, and they've had a long voyage, they have not seen sperm whales for

a while, but all the sudden somebody spots a sperm whale. and they know it's a sperm whale because of the spout and sperm whales have a distinct spout. it blows out of the left side of their head at a 45 degree angle. so they're the guy top says there there she blows. and the captain says, launch the whale boats. every man runs to his assigned will be out. the first thing they do, they get their boat and take off their shoes. because sperm whales have a sensitive sense of hearing, they do not want to make a lot of noise. and also they also own one pair of shoes, they don't want to lose their shoes. so we have joseph up in the bow. he's using his big or to help steer. as they approach the whale, the boat header, who is the officer in the eastern, we'll say put

down your for, and pick up your harpoon, as a near the whale. or as they say would to leather. so now joseph has harpoon the whale and the harpooned is not kill the whale but it does get his attention so the whale will take a swimming as fast as he can and the whale can swim ten to 15 miles an hour. so joseph his career encouraging everybody so now he can harpoon this whale. and this wild ride that they are on is called the nantucket sleigh ride. the most him the most exciting part of the whale hunt, but most dangerous. some of the men are just hanging on for dear life. and some are just bailing water out of the boat, someone just hanging on, and this is exciting but very dangerous. the idea is that the whale will eventually get very tired, and when the whale starts to tire, it will pull in on the line

again, and they will get close to the whale again as. now we have, switching positions. the officer the boat heather, has moved the bow, and gone to the stern, and now we have an officer, who is going to use a lands. as and then he will have the honor of killing the whale. so the officer takes up his minds. he is going to aim for the heart and along of the whale. and those are the vital organs. those are the life the whale. and he will plunge it in his lance, maybe all the way up to the hilt, and he will turn it around to do as much damage as he can. and this was a horrible way for a whale to die. as once the whale has been last, everyone just waits and they're waiting to see the whale spouting blood, and they will yell out fire in the chimney.

they know that that will will die. and as soon as they know the whale is dying, they back away from the whale as fast as they can. that dying whale mates circled the boat many times, they go into a death flurry. and all the men could end up in the water. unfortunately most of these men did not know how to swim. as we have been fortunate come across a good size pot of sperm whales, now whoever has caught the will have to get the whale back to the mothership. the mother ships to someone position. and they need to tell that will back they could be three miles away and that could be three hours of rowing just to get back to the ship and you can imagine carrying a very heavy load 40 50 even 60 sloths tons.

you would think that this poor exhausted crew could do a little rest but they immediately start cutting in the process. they start the cutting and at the side of the ship. and men will stand on the back of the whale and he has cleats an shoe so he does not fall into the water but his job is to put a big hole in the top of the head, and attach a big hook, which is attached to a wench, and now they start to peel away the blubber from the whale. and these pieces of lover that they are peeling away, as are called -- pieces. they are about 15 feet long. so it raises them up onto the deck. and then these huge pieces, go to the mincing areas. where they would use to handle knives, to cut these pieces of glover into smaller pieces.

and now you could see them cutting them up into smaller pieces blubber. next thing they do is pull the intestine in the stomach of the will. they're looking for something very specific. spill worms favor food which is squid. all squid have a horny beak. think about a parrots beak. that is indigestible. they can get lodged in the stomach or intestines of the whale. and if it happens this carted shoe forms around that b and it produced a substance called amber agree. it had a very important use. it was used, a rare find, as a fixated in fine perfumes. it had a high monetary volume -- value. next they cut off the head of the wheel. they let the rest of the

carcass go. they bring that head right on to the head of the ship. and now they go after this valuable spermaceti oil. and the youngest, smallest men on board who could be joseph array is going to be ordered to strip down and lower himself with a bucket into the head of the will to get every last drop of that very valuable oil. imagine how shocked he is. and lastly they cut off the lower jaw of the whale because they're going to save those teeth. spring will teeth are made out of ivory. then there was a downtime under whaling voyage, when the now catching wales, the captain would distribute the teeth among the crew and the men would take a rough tooth, send it down and car, engraved into the tooth scenes they'd seen on their voyage. maybe some memory of home. and they fill in those carved

lines, those engraved lines with soot from the dry works. that was a part of screen shaw, the sailors art. and now it's time to clean up the deck and prepare boiling down all the blubber. the ships carpenter will get the far going under the try pots in the trial works, a brics furness basically. they put in these bible leaves, the chunks of a blubber and there will be skin and tissue that floats up to the top. it will be skimmed off and added to the fire. they kept the fire going. drying out a whale was a long, arduous process it. could take up to two or three days or nights. no regular meals. they kept working 12 hour shifts. you can imagine the deck would be awash with blood, oil, blubber, it would be a slippery, nasty mess. actually very dangerous. the smell was horrendous.

supposedly you could smell in a tech it will ship drying out a whale as much as 30 miles away. you could smell it way before you see it. the joseph -- the edward kerry has been quite lucky and they now have killed 35 wales and the captain says set sail for nantucket. you can imagine these are men who are homeward bound, really ready to go home. but the first thing they do when they know they're on their way home is they break apart the trial works. they throw it overboard. they don't want the captain to take any more whales. they want to be sure they're on their way home. so on their way home this time they're seasoned navigators, they go around the horn. they arrive in nantucket in 1858. and they off-load all these

parts of oil, it will go to an oil refinery for processing. finally it is time to pay out or tell the men what they have earned on the voyage. a captain, certainly a ship owner could become a lengthy man after one voyage. someone like joseph, the steer of the vote, will receive one 100th of the proceeds of the voyage. and a lowly semen would receive one 168 of the proceeds. joseph has kept such a wonderful journal. told so many wonderful stories and it's quite exciting to read. i will tell you about one of the adventures when he talks

about rescuing a fellow named tucker. on thursday, april 12th at 9 am the crimes of man overboard resided over the ship. the wind blew heavy. they succeeded in reaching him. he had a bucket under him which fortunately happen to go over at the same time. the name of the lad was samuel christian. another entry from the journal with sunday, august 27th, 1854, joseph describes the hard work that took place on the whale ship. working like the old harry, putting spurs over the stern, making gaskets, rigging son sales, all of us homesick as the devil, so ends this 24 hours of trial and tribulation. so what happened to young joseph? well after this voyage he went out on another whaling voyage out of mystic, connecticut.

unfortunately he was up in the sales. he fell from the foremast. he was lost at sea. what happened to the edward carry? it went on another voyage from 1854, sorry, 1858 to 1864. and it stopped in san francisco where it was sold and it resumed its whaling. then in 1865 it was captured and burned by the confederate raider shan indaba. that was the end of the vote. so now whaling was completely over by the time of the civil war in nantucket. people would think that probably the 18, the 19th century was the heyday of whaling. actually it was more the 20th

century. when soviet, european fleets, asian fleets, start hunting whales for meat rather than for oil. surprisingly in the 200 years of whaling the nantucket was doing approximately 1 million whales were killed. in the 50 or 60 years of more modern whaling where they have big factory ships and grenades, harpoon guns and so on over 3 million it's estimated over 3 million wales have been killed. well populations are still quite threatened. they really are under considerable threat from various levels, loud drilling in the sea, pollution, garbage, entanglement with fishing gear, collisions with other ships. so that is the end of our whale hunt for the evening. i am so glad so many people were able to join us. and i would be more than happy

to take questions at this point. >> okay, we have a few questions here. >> all right. >> first one is the, on the sperm oil bottle, was sperm oil in fact used as a gargle? it was. we do have a bottle in the whaling museum. and it was used as -- . it doesn't sound too appealing does. it >> the visuals for the whaling vote for the early movie, was the ship the charles morgan? >> i think it was. >> it was the charles morgan. >> okay it was, and the movie is a silent movie, that was made in the 1920s, and it's called down to the sea in ships. and it's an actual will hunt, but a lot of it is hollywood's interpretation of it. but it gives us some great footage. >> we have a question about the

photographs, was the dates and sources of the different photographs. >> the photographs, from the journal? >> it is just a question, as to one of the states and sources of the photographs. they're talking about both, i guess the journal and the photos we used. >> so we do have these remarkable drawings, and stories that were in -- the journal. a lot of it is from the movie down to the sea ships. and some of it is from our collection of course. >> okay and a comment from someone, they saw merit on the crew list. this is the merrick from the 18 thirties? >> we do have some of our collection, i'm not sure if it

was the same. there are so many families that were connected in nantucket, and so many of them have the same first and last name. so i'm not sure but it's a great question but i don't know. >> another question is, how did joseph's journal survive and come to nantucket? >> it came back with joseph, and then i don't know and certainly it's someone and one of his descendants was going to donate it to their we are very fortunate to have it. along with many many other ships the research library has an amazing collection of journalist and lob looks and there's a great project going on right now that to transcribe all these journals and books. >> there's a question what was it that was thrown overboard to encourage the voyage again? >> yes at the end of the voyage,

they break apart this brick furness, and they throw all the bricks overboard, because they don't want the captain to be tempted to take another whale. but there's another reason for that to. they use that try works numerous times, to try for 30 or 40 whales. so the mortar between bricks could be weakened, and they're going to be going around cape north, and they don't want that trial works to break apart in the storm and damage the ship. >> we have a few more here. so so a lot of the men especially the green hands. they really didn't need any requirements. to they needed a crew, and they need to learn the job as we go. and the captain, and the first

mates, would've been mostly nantucket men. and they would've been much more experienced. and they would have worked their way up the ladder, so i will sailing these big ships they would've had experience. >> who was the edward -- that the ship was named after? >> i did not know that until today but the original owner of the ship and his name was -- . he named the ship after his father in law and it was sold to other people over the years. and this particular voyage, the owners of the ship where the two -- brothers who. have a house on main street. and how still exist today and after the coffin brothers on the ship, then it went to the starbucks family, and then it was sold in san francisco. >> we have a question about why don't people hunt sperm whales today? >> well, number one there is a

moratorium against hunting oils. so that started, i think that was in 1986. but anyway, and there is a moratorium on hunting oils for commercial purposes. but there are still some commercially that is still done. but sperm whales, are not easy. they are a very deep water will. and the wheels that would migrate by nantucket, we don't have the sperm whale that did migrate by nantucket but that was a rare occasion. so hopefully, these whales will have time to recover. it is estimated, that they are around 300,000 sperm whales left in the world. that's not a great number, but hopefully enough that they will be able to survive. >> okay, and the question about this presentation itself, is the story the same one that

george grant would tell? that's >> a great question, and the contest changed over the years, we had done a lot of different presentations, and this is the first year that we use the edward carry journal. but yes, it is very similar to the one that george -- would've started all those years ago. >> he was a whaler? >> yes he was a whaler. yes yes. >> the question was one was photography first available to record whaling? >> well that i do not know. when did photography? i'm not sure i really don't know. sorry. >> we probably have to look at our own collection, i think the earliest things we have are around the early 18 forties. but they are mostly portraits at that time. it's probably difficult to take things on the ship. >> yes right.

great question. >> was it unusual to go around both capes on a single voyage? >> i think it was very unusual. i think once none tucked hers, recognize the rich whaling grounds in the pacific, the quickest route would be to go generally cut across the atlantic, go to the azores, cape verde islands, then along the eastern coast of south america, and down around the horn. then into the wailing areas of the south pacific. a lot of the hunting was down along the equator. so really out in the middle of the pacific ocean. i think it is fairly unusual, but this particular voyage did go around the cape of good hope. but other ships did that to. but i think it was more common, to go the other route around towards the pacific. >> another navigation related question. when did the whalers first enter into the southern ocean around antarctica?

>> even on whaling voyages, early in the 18 thirties, or thereabouts, they are coming into the pacific. but they would also follow the wales. they would file follow the migration of wales. so the wheels were young, in warm waters around the equator, but depending on the season, they would either go very far north, or very far south, to antarctic. they would go their to feed. because that was a richer feeding grounds for them. so dependent on the time of year. >> okay. >> so as a little question -- . >> it depends on the size of the whales jaw, they have 30 or 40 teeth. some of the men were very proficient at carving we'll teeth. they also would use whale bone. and they would carve busts.

those were usually made out of whale bone. they made, doug swift's, and dragging wheels, and if you get the whaling museum you'll see all the different items that were made. all under the art of dumb scrimshaw. but i would think that the the teeth were more in the designs. >> did they either will meet or discarded? >> they did not eat the whale meat. first of all, we have a thing about the horrible smell, and so this was very unappealing, and in particular whales, have in order to dive so deeply, to go way down like to do that, they can go down under a mile or two deep. they have to have something called a lot of mile globe and

in their blood, and it gives them oxygen to be able to do that but it makes their meet a very dark color, so it is unappealing so this was all about oil it wasn't about meat. >> coming back to the sperm oil, what's the difference from the oil from the blubber and oil from the head? >> the blubber duo from the blubber had to be boiled down. the oil in the head, was pure oil. and it is the only creature in the world, that has oil in its head like this. there has been a lot of questions about why biologically, does the whale have all this oil in its head? and the answer is nobody really knows exactly for sure, but the supposition is that it acts as a buoyancy control. so it allows the whale to dive so deeply and come up quickly. but we are really not sure it's

hard for scientists to study whales because they're underwater most of the time. . >> the question is how competitive was nantucket and other whaling centers? >> certainly for good period of time, starting in the mid 1700s to the 1800s. none tuck it people, were premier when it came to whaling. they were very very successful. hunting sperm whales, and but then in the mid 1800s, bedford began to take over. there were a number of things that happened in nantucket that really ended the whaling business. one of those being the great fire of 1846. and the gold in california, that took so many young men away from this.

and then the discovery of oil. the civil war. there was a number of things have happened over a certain period of time, that ended whaling on nantucket. and new bedford, was really the next big whaling center. and after that san francisco also. they got into whaling. so it's over by the time the civil war was around was over. >> why was it so uncommon for the crew members to not know how to swim? >> that is a good question. i think that is true, i've heard is true, but when you think about it now, all our children no go to pools an oceans and take swing lessons insulin, but people weren't using the ocean around us as a resource for no relaxation. i think the idea of luring to swim never occurred to them i don't know. as >> okay question, did women

ever travel on whaling ships? >> yes, not very often, but only the sailors wives were allowed to go on a whaling voyage. no one else. and it wasn't really frequent, but some whaling wives to go along. there are some wonderful stories in the whaling museum, two had women who came with their husbands on whaling voyages. there's a new book called leagues a blue by betsy tyler. and it tells about a woman who went on a voyage with her husband, and kept the journal. and we have that. so that is a wonderful source of what it was like for a woman to go out away from home, and it was quite an adventure for a woman in those days. but the women that were left behind and tuck it, we're very powerful woman. because look at that the men were gone. and the women had to run this town. and they did so in a remarkable way. we have a wonderful story of

nantucket women who were so ahead of their time. >> it's interesting comment and question here, i was in norway, as and had smoked whale at the bourbon fish market, what's type of whale to have that market most likely? >> it could be any kind of whale. certainly yes, the norwegian norway and iceland, and japan, offer will meet as a delicacy. it could be a humpback whale. it could be you know i don't know, it could be different kinds of wales. >> we have a little correction here, from one of our old friends. as from jim -- . >> good old jim. >> he said it appears, that the morgan, was used for status scenes, and the wanderer was

rerig for some of the whaling scenes. and as it's great information, and will have to look at that. >> yes exactly. >> hi. jim >> yes thank you. >> so question here about the presentation, and will it be posted somewhere or as we share it again? >> i'm not sure where or when, but we did records this. so we will post on our website when the time comes. >> another one is given our proximity to the whales, is their local hunting here in new england? >> certainly early whaling in nantucket, was right around nantucket. there are wales going by here, particularly the north atlantic right whale. and that migrates up and down the east coast. but the early whaling, before they had the -- on board, they didn't have the option of going out for three or four years on a whaling

voyage. if they caught the whale, they have to get back to nantucket to process it. so yes, there was a lot of whaling in the early days. as >> we have a comment, about antarctic whaling. in that there was also greenland willing stations, and probably the closest point to the antarctic peninsula. >> right right. as >> i'm confused hollen freelance north? >> yes ok, again we have some dramatic stories in journals, and logbook's. and a painting in the museum. that all tell how difficult it was, when they were really in the arctic. because often, the ships would get stuck in the ice. and that could be very fatal. if the ice closes in, they it will collapse the ship. very very dangerous. but there are a lot of whales up there.

so that's why they went. >> i will question is it possible to purchase -- candles today. >> it is illegal to hunt sperm whales, and wales so no. >> last question i think we will and not a high note. >> when with the men awaited women rule? >> yes, most definitely. as >> and i see the whaling station it was manned by green landers. okay that is the end of our list here. >> that's good. thanks >> great lot of comments. >> and this is terrific. >> okay we'll thank you all for joining us, and we look forward to doing this again sometime. >> yes thank you everyone. >> thank you back. >>

it is a tremendous pleasure to be here. you know moby--- is my personal bible and and not being an academic. it is a tremendous pleasure to be here. movie dick, is my personal bible. and not being an academic, i miss the camaraderie, of being with fellow intellectuals. so