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Incidents of a Whaling Voyage, to Which are Added Observations on the Scenery, Manners and Customs and Missionary Stations of the Sandwich and Society Islands
Incidents of a Whaling Voyage, to Which are Added Observations on the Scenery, Manners and Customs and Missionary Stations of the Sandwich and Society Islands

Incidents of a Whaling Voyage, to Which are Added Observations on the Scenery, Manners and Customs and Missionary Stations of the Sandwich and Society Islands

Date1841
Object number00001366
NameBook
MediumPaper
DimensionsOverall: 32 x 198 x 120 mm, 0.45 kg
ClassificationsBooks and journals
Credit LineANMM Collection Purchased with USA Bicentennial Gift funds
DescriptionBook titled 'Incidents of a Whaling Voyage, to Which are Added Observations on the Scenery, Manners and Customs, and Missionary Stations, of the Sandwich and Society Islands, Accompanied by Numerous Lithographic Prints'. By Francis Allyn Olmsted. Published by D Appleton and Co Publishers.HistoryIn this book Olmsted, a young educated physician from Connecticut, records the shipboard routine of both an American whaler over the course of a sixteen-month voyage. He had joined the voyage for health reasons; hoping time spent in the 'warm and mild tropics' would overcome his ongoing illness. Clearly no sailor, Olmsted's recordings offer an outsiders view of life aboard a whaler and his illustrations became the first pictures of whaling to appear in an American whaling narrative.