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"Ann Alexander's" Scrimshaw Set Tells The Story of a Ship Sunk by a Whale By Edouard A. Stackpole
A FEW WEEKS ago the Nantucket Historical Association received a small collection of scrimshaw from Lillian Deblois Fox, of Seekonk, Massachusetts. They were inheritances from her family, having been originally owned by Captain John Deblois, of Newport, a successful whaling master. Featured in the collection were three sperm whale's teeth, very well designed, with engravings of women, each tooth bearing a different style of dress, in Victorian design. These teeth, mounted on a wooden base, tell one of the great stories of the sea — a remarkable episode in the history of whaling — that of the loss of the whaleship Ann Alexander, of New Bedford, sunk by a sperm whale in the Pacific Ocean. Naturally, when such an incident is mentioned one immediately thinks of the Nantucket whaleship Essex, destroyed by an attack by a sperm whale some thirty years before this particular incident. But the Essex had a sequel of the crew in open boats for ninety days, which the crew of the Ann Alexander were fortunately spared. But in the latter case, the episode has a unique aftermath, in that the whale that sank the ship was killed a few months later by another ship, and identified by a harpoon found in its body bearing the name of the Ann Alexander, and in the head of the great bull sperm were found pieces of the ship's timbers embedded when his huge head struck and smashed in the bow of the old vessel. The remarkable story of the Ann Alexander's teeth, (as they are to be known), began with her launching at South Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 1805. She was owned by George Howland, of New Bedford, a member of the Society of Friends, and named for an Irish Quakeress then travelling in this country. The ship was first employed in the merchant service by the Howlands, and on her very first voyage under Captain Loum Snow, bound for the Mediterranean, she fell in with the British fleet off Portugal just after the Battle of Trafalgar. It was not until 1820 that she began her long career as a whaleship, and had fifteen consecutive voyages as a whaler when she was placed under the command of Captain John Scott Deblois, in 1850 — to sail on what was to be her last voyage.
