338 THE AMERICAN WHALEMAN 



found in the New Bedford Public Library, in the Old Dartmouth Historical 

 Society Museum at New Bedford, in the Fearing Collection at Harvard Uni- 

 versity, and in the Nantucket Whaling Museum. Other ports also yield in- 

 dividual manuscripts and smaller, informal collections. The New Bedford 

 Public Library has incomparably the best collection of account-books; while 

 the Old Dartmouth Museum has perhaps a larger number of log-books. The 

 Fearing Collection contains a smaller number of carefully chosen manuscripts, 

 mainly log-books of more than ordinary interest. Because these various re- 

 positories contain hundreds of individual manuscripts, reference to them is 

 made in terms of groups, or types, of material. 



A — Material in the Neiv Bedford Free Public Library 



New Bedford Free Public Library, "Collection of Books, Log-Books, Pamphlets, 

 etc., Illustrating the Whale Fishery." Second Edition, April, 1920. A con- 

 venient guide to the manuscripts available in this one collection. 



Wood, Dennis, "Whaling Vessels From the United States." 4 Volumes. These 

 four volumes, each containing from 600 to 700 pages of legible notes closely 

 written in long-hand, and carefully indexed, constitute a veritable Dooms- 

 day Book of American whaling. They include a summarized record of hun- 

 dreds of whaling vessels which sailed between 1831 and 1876. Dates of 

 voyages, when spoken at sea, sizes of cargoes, accounts of mutinies, wrecks, 

 or other unusual events, the final disposition of each vessel, when known, — 

 all these facts, and others as well, the indefatigable author set down with 

 meticulous care and a fine pen. 



, Crew-Accounts of Some Sixty-five Voyages Made Between 1836 and 



1879 by the following New Bedford Vessels: Ships James Maury, Fabius, 

 Canton, JVm. C. Nye, Montreal, Brighton, Benjamin Tucker, Charles JV. 

 Morgan, Adeline, Triton, Alice Mandell, Isaac Hoivland, Samuel Robertson, 

 Three Brothers, and Hibernia; and barks Marcella, Minerva, Endeavour, 

 Mars, Arab, and Gypsy. 



, A Collection of More than One Hundred Account-Books of Whaling 



Merchants and Insurance Companies, Including Journals, Day-Books, Waste- 

 Books, Invoice-Books, Cash-Books, Ledgers, Slop-Accounts, Receipt-Books, 

 Letter-Books, Memorandum-Books, Labor-Accounts, Insurance Policies, and 

 Registers of Ships and Voyages. Most of these manuscripts came from the 

 whaling firms of Charles R. Tucker & Company, Charles W. Morgan, and 

 George Hussey, with a few early volumes belonging to William Rotch; 

 while the insurance forms were those of the Bedford Commercial Insurance 

 Company and of the Mutual Marine Insurance Company. 



, A Large Collection of Whaling Log-Books, Dating for the Most Part 



From the Middle Decades of the Nineteenth Century. Because of the endless 

 monotony which characterized whaling voyages, log-books possess an air 

 of sameness which renders them far less valuable for research purposes than 

 account-books. There is both interest and significance, however, in their 

 unstudied, mechanical portrayal of the atmosphere which pervaded a whaler 

 at sea, and in their brief, sententious, matter-of-fact records of many terrify- 

 ing and tragic experiences. 



B — Manuscripts in the Daniel B. Fearing Collection, Widener Library, 



Harvard University 



, A Collection of Whaling Account-Books and Log-Books, Relatively Small 



But Well-Chosen. The Log-Books Include Those of Voyages Made by the 

 Ships Heroine, Orozimbo, Martha, Lucas, Herald, Acushnet, and Archer; 

 and of Other Voyages Made by the Barks Charles Drew, Chase, Aivashonks, 



