10E2398: In The Heart Of The Sea

File under "not your father's Moby Dick"

In The Heart of the Sea by Philbrick is his rigourously researched and detailed account of whaling in the 19thC. It elaborates and continues the true story that inspired and ends in Moby Dick. For those just joining, Herman Melville's Moby Dick was a re-imaging of an actual event, the loss of the whaleship Essex. -Reading a few pages. 

For more on the subject Philbrick has another book, Why Read Moby Dick? that not only details Melville and the creation of his most famous work but also posits that MD sits as a kind of American "bible". For EVEN MORE MD insight, read the site Power Moby Dick that goes through the text line by line. Pretty great.

life -young salts at sea

In April of 1947 these Sea Scouts rowed the 30 miles from Monomoy Point on Cape Cod over to Nantucket. Then rowed back again. The full story via the Life archive. Dinty Moore beef stew for dinner apparently...

north wharf fish shacks -nantucket

This was a tag sale buy on Nantucket a few years back. Image is a screenprint (I think?). Very crisp draughtsmanship. Really love it. By Jaye R. Phillips, who I believe may be this Jaye R. Phillips -a Boston area type. Would make sense.

cranberry harvesting

Nantucketers set up these cranberry bogs about 100 years ago. Makes sense that they took cranberries (v high in vitaminC) onboard the whaling ships with them; easy guard against scurvy.

nantucket regatta

The Ninth Annual Regatta of the Nantucket Yacht Club was held on August 5, 1939. And a lovely day it looks too... These photos taken for Life magazine by David E Scherman. You must get issued a pair of canvas laceups with membership and then trade those in for saddle shoes when you leave. Nails. Click to enlarge or see more.













Reception indeed...
I'm thinking these 2 guys on left are only there for the scenery...

bookshelf -in the heart of the sea

This is going on the list... Getting the impression that In the Heart of The Sea is a rigourously researched and detailed account of whaling in the 19thC. It elaborates and continues the true story that inspired and ends in Moby Dick. I think I knew, but perhaps not explicitly, that Moby Dick was a reimmaging of an actual event -the loss of the whaleship Essex. -Further reading. In the Heart of the Sea makes no bones about its sources [ouch -ed.]

the nantucket railroad

B&W photos via Nantucket Historical Association flickr.

The defunct Nantucket railroad. That sounds like a band. Someone should open a store located on the site of the Nantucket Railroad repair shop. You know the sort of stuff I like... Hickorees on crack. I'm giving these ideas away here...

Anyway, the long-gone Nantucket Railroad was a narrow gauge rail; went from Nantucket (town) to Surfside and eventually to 'Sconset. Began in the 1880's, the line closed around 1917. Some cars sent to Europe in a war effort, one is buried where it stopped on the tracks and one is still around as the Club Car bar. Further reading.


Apparently the definitive history of the railroad is in the book The Far-Out Island Railroad: Nantucket's Old Summer Narrow-Gauge, 1879-1918 by Clay Lancaster (who was also instrumental in kickstarting the 1960's preservation of buildings in Brooklyn, further reading). The Far Out Island is rare, but available from some New England libraries. There is something intriguing about these small time railways (like the 36 Miles of Trouble) with all the boosters, and investors and failures... Also something odd about seeing a train on a (small, but almost deserted at that time) island when you know they had to import the engines, rails, railbed ballast probably... everything.

From 1907 until 1913 a tiny gasoline-powered car and its companion baggage car (affectionately known as the "Bug" and "Bird Cage," respectively) plied the rails to 'Sconset, including winter service.





Color photo via USGenArchives.

Related: Some friends did a fake Nantucket subway map that might amuse. Link.
Also, the Special Collections Dept. of the Massachusetts State Library is now working to digitize their 19th and 20th century railroad maps... then we will see hand-drawn plans and profiles, works of art really, of this railroad system. #ftw.

adam knee -scalloper

Scalloper Neil Cocker spends each October-March in Nantucket Harbor fishing for the precious Nantucket Bay Scallop. By Adam Knee.

kathryn terwilliger -rusty shackelford

Nantucket is up there with Iceland for me in the sense that it is easy to romanticise it but bet is tough to live there. You have to a) love the outdoors and b) be resourceful enough to keep your own side-projects moving along. [Sounds like VT -ed.] By definition you get that island mentality... [Like in the VT valleys -ed.] Worked for one summer on Nan' (at the old Chanticleer, wore Pops' 60's Burton tuxedo every night. Bit of stress but got to try some amazing wines; a whole other post sometime) and was then shocked to arrive back at South Station in Boston and not recognize everyone I met... (i.e. on-island you knew so many people by sight).

Anyhow, found a massive set of Nantucket images by Kathryn Terwilliger on flickr that she has agreed to share. Many treatments here from Polaroids to shooting a Holga, a Kiev 88 (new to me), some IR... even hand developing prints with coffee grounds and soda; mental. Toys are great but you still have to get up at 4am to get these pics... respect. Timeless shots of the old Grey Lady. More great stuff at her flickr site, handle: Rusty Shackelford. Thanks Katie!

mortgage button

A tradition from Nantucket that you may find in other New England homes; the mortgage button. When the mortgage was paid off, the papers were burned and the ashes placed in a prominent stairway's newel post, then the post topped with a piece of scrimshaw, often with the owner's initials etc but originally was plain. Now often made of ivory, not whale bone, and is common to be installed upon sale or construction and not stuck down until mortgage paid off. Photo and more info from NinaHelman. Forget scrimshaw, even ivory buttons run around $150... but just found the below on the 'bay... owner says it is plastic, could actually be ivory. For $7.50 might be worth finding out... (Item is handturned on Nantucket natch'.)


Below, an example of a squared newel post, sans button, via OldHouseJournal.