![]() But as all my remonstrances produced no effect upon Queequeg, I was obliged to acquiesce and accordingly prepared to set about this business with a determined rushing sort of energy and vigor, that should quickly settle that trifling little affair. ![]() I had not a little relied upon Queequeg’s sagacity to point out the whaler best fitted to carry us and our fortunes securely. Now, this plan of Queequeg’s, or rather Yojo’s, touching the selection of our craft I did not like that plan at all. I have forgotten to mention that, in many things, Queequeg placed great confidence in the excellence of Yojo’s judgment and surprising forecast of things and cherished Yojo with considerable esteem, as a rather good sort of god, who perhaps meant well enough upon the whole, but in all cases did not succeed in his benevolent designs. But to my surprise and no small concern, Queequeg now gave me to understand, that he had been diligently consulting Yojo-the name of his black little god-and Yojo had told him two or three times over, and strongly insisted upon it everyway, that instead of our going together among the whaling-fleet in harbor, and in concert selecting our craft instead of this, I say, Yojo earnestly enjoined that the selection of the ship should rest wholly with me, inasmuch as Yojo purposed befriending us and, in order to do so, had already pitched upon a vessel, which, if left to myself, I, Ishmael, should infallibly light upon, for all the world as though it had turned out by chance and in that vessel I must immediately ship myself, for the present irrespective of Queequeg. By digitising some of these treasures, a new project aims to use the hunters’ records to shed light on historical populations and migration patterns – and so inform conservation efforts today.Įuropean settlers began whaling off North America’s east coast in the mid-17th century, moving into deeper waters from the 1720s as coastal whale numbers declined.In bed we concocted our plans for the morrow. They give a remarkable insight into life at sea, but also meticulous detail on which whale species were present where and when. More than 5000 logbooks and journals exist from the era of North American commercial whaling. ![]() We know all this because Shattuck was the ship’s log-keeper. On, Shattuck himself very nearly died when his steering oar broke and he was catapulted into the sea. A sperm whale tried to eat one of the whaling boats. Another got a bucket of water thrown in his face for sleeping on the night watch. One man had his leg amputated after breaking it in a fall. There were accidental fires on board, and a sail-ripping collision with another boat. During that time, Shattuck witnessed fighting, flogging and desertion. Mason would travel as far afield as the south Pacific, the Arctic Ocean and the Sea of Japan. Over the next three years, he and the crew of the Eliza F. ON 2 December 1853, Orson Shattuck set sail from his home port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, to hunt for whales. Centuries of hunting for oil and blubber devastated whale populations
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