"Sam Williams kept a personal log and later reworked it into this never-before-published manuscript. Supplemented by other research, excerpts of the official logbook of the F.H. Moore, and from three other accounts of whaling voyages. This work opens the 19th century world of whaling to modern readers, and illuminates the current worldwide debate on whaling"--
In 1873, 21-year-old Sam Williams embarked on a whaling journey on the two-masted F.H. Moore--he steered one of the boats and threw the harpoon. He kept a personal log and reworked it into this never-before-published manuscript, now supplemented by additional research and relevant excerpts of the ship's official logbook.
Complementing this are excerpts from three other accounts of whaling voyages: Incidents of a Whaling Voyage by Francis Allyn Olmstead (1841); Etchings of a Whaling Cruise by J. Ross Browne (1846), an expose of the whaling industry; and The Gam: Being a Group of Whaling Stories by Capt. Charles Henry Robbins (1899), a personal story of nearly an entire life at sea. The four accounts open the 19th century world of whaling to modern readers in a realistic and unromantic way.
