VFM 2098: Letter and log extract from the Bark Shepherdess, 1849 April 2-November 1

Abstract

This manuscript letter and log extract, written by the first mate of the whaling Bark Shepherdess of Mystic, Connecticut, chronicles the vessel's 1849 whaling season. Written in installments from Lahaina, Maui, and at sea, the text details 19th-century whaling operations, extreme weather, and ice fields in the Sea of Okhotsk. It features a first-hand account of the June 18, 1849, death of boatsteerer Charles W. Holmes (alias Charles Richards) by a whale strike, and concludes with draft obituary notices for Holmes and another seaman, Thomas Wood.