Ambassador to the Penguins: A Naturalist's Year Aboard a Yankee WhaleshipIn 1912, a young naturalist named Robert Cushman Murphy was offered the opportunity of a lifetime - to spend a year on one of the last Yankee whaleships out of New Bedford, on a voyage to the Antarctic. During the voyage, Murphy not only collected specimens and took photographs, developing them in seawater, but kept a journal that was later published and became a bestseller. Now, Eleanor Mathews, his granddaughter, has now taken Murphy's diary and supplementing it with his own original photographs, to present this fascinating story for modern readers. As a portrait of seafaring life, of the whaling industry still under sail, and an account of a natural history expedition, it is a unique window into a vanished time. |
Common terms and phrases
albatrosses Almeida animals Antarctic ashore Barbados Bay of Isles beach Bedford began Benjamin Cleveland birds blackfish blubber boat boatsteerer brig bull cabin boy Cadela calm Captain Cleveland carcass casks Correia cove crew Cumberland Bay cutting-in da Lomba Daisy Daisy's deck Dominica dory eggs feet Fernando de Noronha fish floated flukes forecastle four gentoos Glacier Grace Emeline greenhand Grytviken Harbor harpoon hauled head hoisted hunt island Johnny killed king penguins lance land letter looked lowered masthead mate miles morning Murphy wrote Murphy's Museum nests night oars ocean officers petrels port Possession Bay pulled rock sail sailors sea elephants seemed sharks ship ship's shore sight skin skipper skuas South Georgia species specimens sperm whales steamer stern steward surface took trypots turned tussock grass voyage watch weather whaleboat wind wrote to Grace