August 08, 2010

About the Essex.













I was looking for some information about the Essex,
the whaleship who was attacked and sunk by a
sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean in 1820.
Herman Melville based his novel 'Moby-Dick'
on this incident but the real story is even more
horrible, look here too.
The Essex was a normal whaling ship of the early
1800s; it was 26m long and had 3masts; it also
carried five smaller whaling boats.
The drawing on the top comes from the notebook
of Thomas Nickerson, the cabin boy of the Essex;
his account was found in the 1960s and is called:
The Loss of the Ship Essex Sunk by a Whale and
the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats.
The writing below the drawing says:
"Here lay our beautiful ship, a floating and dismal
wreck"
It's gonna be difficult for me to offer a nice story for
the Age of Discovery project; could be I'll make one
with an happy ending for both the whale and the ship :-)
The second photo is me on my 'deck'.
I could have said something like "There might be
a sea over there, behind those buildings" but I
didn't, it was my sister who came up with that idea.
I aged the photo here, found via Fine Little Day.
The beautiful Japanese watercolor of a whaler comes from here.
The press cutting is the Far West, that's not a whaler,
but I liked the photo.
Good Night and Sweet Dreams!

9 comments:

  1. Good morning Renilde!
    Hope you find the swell
    in our week ahead.

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  2. What a fascinating story...and that drawing, to think where it came from. I really like how the aged picture of you on your deck fits in with the ship imagery. :)

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  3. thank you Gina and Marina :-)

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  4. It's interesting but so dramatic! I followed your link. It's unbelievable that those men survived for such a long time. It must have been so scary for all of them. This is a hell story! Ending on a more positive note I like, like, like your pin cushions so much. I'm a fan :-)

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  5. Have you read the book by Nathaniel Philbrick? It is amazing.

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  6. to aja: not yet, but he's on my list :-)

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  7. i hope you can come up with a happy ending, maybe the whale and the ship find some peace then...i´m sure it turns out great!

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  8. Oooh yes, I was going to ask the same thing as Aja. In the Heart of the Sea is so, so good! x

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