A 1926 lithograph called “In All Her Glory” by Gordon Grant that I bought in an antique store yesterday.
Port Isaac fisherman sing Blood Red Roses - YouTube
A 1926 lithograph called “Queen of the Sea” by Gerald M. Burn. I bought this and the lithograph above for a grand total of $10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voYnAuh7Yhs
The Flying Cloud, a beautiful clipper.
Flying Cloud - YouTube
The Doobie Bros. “Flying Cloud,” a beautiful piece by the band’s bassist, Tiran Porter. Goes well with the above painting.
Mountain. Nantucket Sleighride - YouTube
A Nantucket sleighride is when a whaleboat crew harpoons a whale and gets dragged for miles across the ocean until they are far from sight of the ship. Often, they never returned—no trace of them ever turning up. Felix Pappalardi wrote this and was a resident of Nantucket Island (where I stayed in 1996). He dedicated the song to Owen Coffin. Owen was a 15 yo lad who served aboard the whaleship Essex. It was rammed by an enraged sperm whale and sank in 1820 in the South Pacific. The crew was huddled together in the tiny whaleboats adrift for weeks with little food or water.
At one point, the survivors starving, they drew straws. The loser would become lunch for the others. Owen drew the short straw. The CO, Captain Pollard (I once served under a Captain Pollard), was Owen’s uncle and offered to take the boy’s place but Owen said no. He drew the short straw fair and square and he was willing to die to save his mates. He was shot in the head, dismembered and eaten. A short time later, all were rescued and it appeared that Owen died needlessly although no one could have known that at the time.
Back in Nantucket, a hearing was held and Captain Pollard was exonerated. Cannibalism was deemed legal in extreme instances. However, Pollard was never given command of another vessel. He was brother-in-law to Owen’s mother but she never spoke to nor even looked at Pollard for the rest of her life as though he were invisible. Clearly, she thought he should have been the one to die and treated him as though he had.
Pollard became a lamp-keeper in the city of Nantucket. He still held this job when Melville met him and interviewed him as research for Moby Dick (which was based on the ordeal of the Essex). He found Pollard and amiable but sad man who seemed glad that someone even wanted to hear his side of the story.
Whaleship.