General Whaling chat - Gam here

[AvastMH]

Hello OldWhalers,
I thought it would be fun to have a general whaling chat page where we can post odd and/or interesting information, poetry, songs, pictures, stories of the whales and how they are doing now.

Clifford W. Ashley's
A Glossary of Whaling Terms

When ships meet up they 'gam' each other.
From the Oxford English Dictionary'
1. colloq. Originally: a social meeting among whalers at sea. Later more generally: a social gathering, a 'get-together'; a chat, a gossip. Chiefly U.S. regional (New England) in the extended sense.
1851 H. Melville Whale II. xi. 75 What does the whaler do when she meets another whaler in any sort of decent weather? She has a gam.
1866 'M. Twain' Lett. from Hawaii (1967) 78 He'd been among his friends having a bit of a gam.


Here is a link to our Whaling terminology and background topic.
This holds a list of commonly found terms. In addition there are overviews of North American whaling, and an introduction to the log books, from the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

[AvastMH]

Thank you to mapurves who put this on the Whatcha listening to? board

In honour of the new Old Weather Whaling, Judy Collins singing Farewell to Tarwathie.
Wonderfully evocative - especially with the whales singing along.

I looked up Tarwathie on the map...there's not a lot there these days

[AvastMH]

A ditty from one of the log books. It is unclear if it comes from the Morning Star in 1872, or the Almira in 1858 Link to the page (If you move to the next page in the log you can get a better view of it )



Original Whaling Song
Has a love of adventure or promise of gold
Or an ardent desire to roam
Ever tempted you far over the watery world
Far away from your kindred and home
With a storme beaten Captain free harted and bold
And a score of brave fellows or two
Who are inured too the hardships of hunger and cold
A fearless and joly bold crew.

[AvastMH]

Salvaging the wrecked whaling schooner Jane Grey.

The U.S.S. Thetis went searching for the wreck of the schooner Jane Grey on 12 August 1888. They spotted the wreck at 3:10 PM, around 71.38N, 156.26W about 4.3 miles E3/4S of Point Barrow, Alaska.

She was lying on her port side, masts resting on an ice floe. ... Sent lines to her & hauled alongside.

At 4:15 started ahead with engines & towed schooner into the water. Came to anchor at 4:30. ... Sent carpenter's mate to nail canvas + boards over holes in schooner's side. Hooked her falls at topmast head to straps around the lower head of schooner masts preparatory to righting her.

6 P.M. to 8 P.M. Crew engaged in righting schooner "Jane Gray" & at end of watch she went upright, her decks below water.

8 P.M. to Mid. Righted schooner, raised her sail awash & battening down hatches. Main hatch & cord wood hatch open at end of watch.

13 August
At 3:15 placed coffer dam in main hold and started pumping.

4 A.M. to 8 A.M. Raised the schooner "Jane Gray" & put both watches at work pumping her out. At end of watch she was rising rapidly, her main deck being only six inches below water. Ship drifting with the tide, with the schooner alongside.

8 A.M. At 9:25 her main deck was clear of water. At 10 cast off all lines & at end of watch about two feet of water in bilge. Drifting until 11 when went ahead under one bell ... Towing schooner alongside.
Meridian to 4 P.M. Pumped water in schooner down to four inches. Trimming ballast. At end of watch vessel listing 5 degrees to port.Towed her alongside until 1.40. At 2.45 dropped schooner astern, nine men aboard her. ... Transferred to schooner one 1200 lb kedge anchor. Received from schooner some provisions which being decided perishable were distributed for men aboard this vessel.

Over the next few days or so, they towed the schooner south along the coast of Alaska. They stopped near the Corwin Mine, but finding no-one home, they searched a few miles north, finding another exposed coal seam. They remained there for about a week, mining and loading coal. Eventually ten men were transferred to the Jane Gray and ordered to sail her to San Francisco.

[AvastMH]

Tuesday, September 4^th, 1888

At anchor off Port Clarence, Alaska.

We have been towing the Jane Gray for many days and have finally arrived at Port Clarence from the coal mines near Cape Lisburne.

8 A.M. to Merid

Ensign R.P. Schwerin U.S. Navy was order by the Commanding Office to take command of the schooner "Jane Gray" & Ensign R.F. Lopez, U.S. Navy was detached from the command of the Schooner "Jane Gray" & ordered as Executive Officer & Navigator of this ship.

[AvastMH]

See (and hear) the stunning diversity of bowhead whales' songs

[AvastMH]

Wednesday, September 5^th, 1888

Port Clarence, Alaska.

The Jane Gray does not seem to be a lucky ship.

8 A.M. to Merid

Sent Ensign Simpson in charge of the steam launch to tow schooner "Jane Gray" inside Grantley Harbor. By order of the Commanding Officer Ensign R.P. Schwerin was ordered to relinquish command of the schooner "Jane Gray," report on board this vessel, & was then placed under arrest to take passage in the schooner "Jane Gray" to the Mare Island Navy Yard, and then to await the action of the Honorable Secretary of the Navy regarding charges preferred against him by his Commanding Officer:- Disrespect, insubordination, and other charges to be preferred in writing.

[AvastMH]

Saturday, September 8^th, 1888

Port Clarence, Alaska.

8 A.M. to Merid.

At 8.30 sent in working party to upright schooner "Jane Gray" (hove down on beach). Party brought schooner out touching in the entrance to the harbor owing to swift current. Steam launch towing schooner. ... Ensign T. G. Dewey, U.S.N. was ordered to command the schooner "Jane Gray."

[AvastMH]

Schwerin seems not to have been in too much trouble...

Schwerin, Rennie P.
Cadet Midshipman, 25 September, 1874. Graduated 10 June, 1881. Ensign, Junior Grade, 3 March, 1883. Ensign, 26 June, 1884. Lieutenant, Junior Grade, 30 June, 1891. Resigned 6 March, 1893.

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I don't know if this refers to the Schwerin above, but someone with that name has done pretty well
http://www.sfgenealogy.org/sf/1932b/sr32_s.htm

[AvastMH]

Oh boy - the tale of the Jane Gray has given me a good chortle. Frankly Schwerin was probably patted on the back for lasting as long as he did. That schooner was turning into a real dead albatross around the Thetis' neck.
In fact I wondered if her name became infamous. And that's when I discovered a very sad story of her final journey some years later

[AvastMH]

More in Thetis (1888) -- Discussion: Questions, Comments and Coordination

[AvastMH]

See (and hear) the stunning diversity of bowhead whales' songs

Wow - that's not what I was expecting at all. I don't know what sort of song I know, but it's not that. Sounds like a good party going on

[AvastMH]

More in Thetis (1888) -- Discussion: Questions, Comments and Coordination

Well found Randi....

'Ownership of the vessel came into question and a nasty, protracted legal battle ensued, revealing fraud, deceit and corruption at every turn. Rumors and speculation as to the cause of the disaster consumed conversations around the world. She'd been wrecked before. Was she a "hoo-doo," cursed with sailor's superstition? Or were MacDougall and Southwick at fault?'

Interesting about the 'hoo-doo'

[AvastMH]

I found a fascinating interactive map in the web site WHALING HISTORY - Connecting All Things Whaling


The covering article is: 'Oil & Bone: American Ports in the Golden Age of Yankee Whaling' By Kerry Gathers

I changed the map to show 1855 and checked the whalebone landed for New Bedford only. The numbers are sobering:

[AvastMH]

Hi

I came across these and thought they were of interest (although the 'Hope' logs are not being transcribed)

https://venetianvase.co.uk/2011/02/20/a ... he-arctic/
https://chrisroutledge.co.uk/2012/08/07 ... -journals/

'In the Spring of 1880 Arthur Conan Doyle, then a 21 year-old medical student, sailed as ship's surgeon on board the Hope, an Arctic whaler, out of Peterhead'. (Scotland)
'Doyle's role on board ship was primarily as medical officer or surgeon, but in reality there was little for him to do but observe the scenery (and on several occasions fall into it), and to act as a companion for the ship's captain, Captain Gray.'
The British Library have published his diaries including pen-and-ink sketches of life on the Arctic sea.

[AvastMH]

Very cool!

[AvastMH]

Great find!

[AvastMH]

OK - the grim side of whaling:
The Mary and Helen is up near the top of the Bering Sea and not far from sea ice. The Captain, BF Wing, is a great collector of other ships' whaling successes. I notice that the page is already underlined during a scan through by the New Bedford Whaling Museum Library, and the 100 barrels has been picked out. It is way beyond other numbers that I've seen elsewhere so I thought to check it out...and it comes up as pretty much 'legend' (see below).



From https://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarcti ... _whale.php
Of particular note in the sperm whale is the huge spermaceti organ in the head, the reason for the head being from 1/4 to a 1/3rd of the length of the animal. Clearly this is an enormous structure and while it has similar counterparts in other Odontocetes - many dolphins and small toothed whales have a bulbous "melon" with a similar internal structure - it is developed to an extreme in the sperm whale. The organ itself is full of oil which becomes a solid waxy substance at room temperature. About 25 to 40 barrels of whale oil could be had from a sperm whale of average size. Extremes of over 100 barrels are found in legend.

PS - there is a comment about the cutwater. It was a mat of metal chain across the bow of the ship to aid moving through seaice. That section of the bow was also enhanced by several shaped planks of wood.

[AvastMH]

On the 25th May they get one that give 111bbls


i think it's Capt Owen in charge by then ; in stream D , 30th June they have to get a lot of extra barrels (1525 I think) on sale or return, so presumably they've done rather well this trip

[AvastMH]

111 barrels ?!? Epic! Oh my goodness. There must be a record of larger single catches somewhere. Sounds like another job to put on my ticket

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I just got to that page - and seeing that number again took my breath away. I'm trying to picture how beautiful that whale was.