September 11, 1841
Dearest Mother,
I love being on a whaleboat. I’m on a big boat named The America. We sailed out of New Bedford. We will sail into The Azores soon. There are four harpooners and I get to go out on the smaller whale boats with the first mate. One of the harpooners named George is ill and dying from scurvy. Scurvy is a disease that you get if you don’t have enough Vitamin C. We will need to see if anyone wants to come on the boat in the Azores.
We passed by a ship called the Tiger. They sailed out of Nantucket and were headed home. They asked if we had any mail for their captain, named William. I met the first mate and his name was James. We are trying to catch the whale called Moby Dick. Captain Frank told me about Moby. He said he is dangerous, but if we catch him, we’ll have a lot of oil. We almost caught Moby Dick , but he bit our boat and it broke in half. I stopped at the Azores, and we got a new harpooner named Franklin. I met the boat named the Bengal and the captain named Harry. We are trying really hard to catch Moby Dick. We are now heading to Cape Horn. I’m making some scrimshaw for you.
From your dearest son,
Charlie
Dearest Mother,
I love being on a whaleboat. I’m on a big boat named The America. We sailed out of New Bedford. We will sail into The Azores soon. There are four harpooners and I get to go out on the smaller whale boats with the first mate. One of the harpooners named George is ill and dying from scurvy. Scurvy is a disease that you get if you don’t have enough Vitamin C. We will need to see if anyone wants to come on the boat in the Azores.
We passed by a ship called the Tiger. They sailed out of Nantucket and were headed home. They asked if we had any mail for their captain, named William. I met the first mate and his name was James. We are trying to catch the whale called Moby Dick. Captain Frank told me about Moby. He said he is dangerous, but if we catch him, we’ll have a lot of oil. We almost caught Moby Dick , but he bit our boat and it broke in half. I stopped at the Azores, and we got a new harpooner named Franklin. I met the boat named the Bengal and the captain named Harry. We are trying really hard to catch Moby Dick. We are now heading to Cape Horn. I’m making some scrimshaw for you.
From your dearest son,
Charlie