Melville on Nantucket by Nantucket Historical Association

F A L L

1991

V O L U M E 39 No. 3

Melville on Nantucket

From The President

Diane Ucci, Managing Editor Helen Winslow Chase, Historian Bruce A. Courson, Curator or Interpretation Photos: NHA collections unless otherwise credited

Herman Melville: Nantucket's First Tourist A summer evening in 1852 marked Herman

Melville's first glimpse of Nantucket, the "ant-hill in the sea" that had long captured his imagination. By Susan Beegel

Moby-Dick and Nantucket's Moby-Dick: T he Attack on the Essex Melville's use of the Essex story has practically turned him into a Nantucketer in the popular imagination. By Thomas Fare! Heffernan

"A Fine, Boisterous Something": Nantucket in Moby-Dick Melville's voracious reading habits were the source of details, information, and stories

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that he used throughout his work. Three book's he consumed fueled his fascination with Nantucket and contributed to his writing of Moby-Dick. By Mary K. Bercaw

THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOClATION OFFlCERS Joseph J McLaughlin, President H. Flim Ranney, Vice President Walter Beinecke, Jr., Vice President Ms. Nancy A. Manin Evans, Secretary and Assistant Treasurer Paul A. Wolf, Jr., Treasurer Maurice E. Gibbs, Executive Director

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Departments

We couldn't do it without you...

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Recognition of Our Committed Supporters

What's News at the NHA

his special fall issue of Historic Nantuchet begins the _ second year of its new formal, which has been ap plauded by the majority of our membership. This new format, the Museum Support Center concept, and the reopening of the Peter Foulger Museum are just a few of the accomplish ments initiated during President H. Flint Ranney'stenure. We all thank Flint for a job well done 1 At our annual meeting injuly we described our planning and operating objectives, which further defined the Association's mission, policies, and goals. As we approach our centennial celebration, the construction of the Museum Sup port Center, which will house and preserve OUT extensive collections, represents the first part of a two-phase program for the nineties. This program will enable the NHA to continue to present Nantucket's rich history to both residents and visitors. The second step is an ambitious fundraising effort that will not only allow us to present our historic properties and museums to the public but to continue our multifaceted activities and educational programs. This year our community outreach included the Living History for Children program, a lecture series, historical surveys for interested homeowners, as well as special events for members and our traditional Antiques Show. As we move closer to our one-hundred year anniversary, I look forward to OUT second century of serving and enhancing the historic community of Nantucket. -JosephJMclaughlin

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Mrs. Charles Balas Mrs. C. Marshall Beale Mr. Max N. Berry Mrs. Richard Brecker Mr. Charles C. Bun Ms. Kimberly C. Corkran Mr. Earle M. Craig, Jr. Mr. John W. Eckman Mrs. Thomas H. Gosnell Mr. Erwin L Greenberg

Mrs. William E. Grieder Mrs. Bernard D. Grossman Mr. Hudson Holland, Jr. Mrs. Earle MacAusland Mrs. William B. Macomber Mrs. Carl M. Mueller Mr. David M. Ogden Mrs. William L Slover Rev. Georgia Ann Snell Mrs. Bracebridgc H. Young ADVISORY BOARD

Mrs. Robert Bailey Mrs. Donna Beasley Ms. Patricia A. Butler Mr. Robert C. Caldwell Mrs. Helen Winslow Chase Miss Nancy A. Chase Mr. Michael de Leo Mrs. Herben Gutterson Prof. William A. Hance Mrs. Hami !ton Heard, Jr. Mrs. Robert Hellman Mrs. John G. W. Husted Mrs. Arthur Jacobsen

Mrs. Jane Lamb Mr. Andrew j. Leddy Mr. Reginald Levine Mrs. Sharon Lorenzo Mrs. Thomas Loring Mr. William B. Macomber Mr. Paul H. Madden Mr. Robert F. Mooney Prof. F. Blair Reeves Prof. Susan Tate Mr. Donald E. Terry Mrs. Mark While Mr. John S. Winter Mrs. Joseph C. Woodle

EDITORIAL BOARD Mrs. Dwight Beman Mr. Robert F. Mooney Mr. H. Flint Ranney

Mrs. Susan Beegel Tiffney Mrs. Jane D. Woodruff Mrs. Bracebridge H. Young

WHAT'S NEWS AT THE NHA Changing of the Guard

fter eight years as president of the Nan tucket Historical Association, H. Flint Ranney turned the role over to Joseph J. McLaughlin al the Annual Meeting in July. Flint's devotion to and interest in the island began long before his tenure as president. He made his first trip lo Nantucket when he was lhree monthsold aboard the overnight steamer from New York lo New Bedford and then the Nobska to the island. Throughout his child hood he summered in his grandparents home on the cliff, where he and his wife Corky now make their year-round residence. As a stu dent at Dartmouth College, Flint was a his tory major and did his senior thesis on Nan tucket whaling. Flint's focus on Nantucket history continued throughout his adult years and culminated in 1983 when he was ap proached by Grace Grossman to be NHA president. During his term as president Flint in creased community awareness and involve ment in the Historical Association's mission, as well as preserving lhe endowment. Though Flint wants lo go sailing more often and immerse himself in his real estate business, he will continue to be involved with the NHA for an additional year as first vice president. The Historical Association is grateful to Flint for all the time and energy he has devoted to preservation of the island's history. New President Joseph j. McLaughlin is thrilled lo have Flint stay with us another year because he enjoys learning from someone

who also knows how lo have fun in the pro collections through the Museum Support cess.Joe grew up in Philadelphia and initially Center, and presentation of the properties to came to Nantucket on his honeymoon. Fol both residents and visitors at the best level lowing that trip he and his wife, Rhoda possible. Joe would like to network closely Weinman, were compelled to return for sum with other community organizations and mers and they purchased property sixteen receive outside feedback so the Historical years ago.Joe's attraction to the island was its Association can enthuse and surprise the history, which he continues to find "enchant public and its membership. ing" year after year. Joe worked for Polaroid for thirty years, most recently as Vice President of Worldwide Market ing Operations. He is a former trustee of his alma mater, St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia, and in Nantucket he serves on the board for the hospital, Landmark House, the Airport Commission, Friends of the Harbor, and he is also a member of the town's Finance Committee. As NHA presidentJoe wants lo build on Flint's ac complishments and continue to focus on the endowment, the Joseph]. McLaughlin Oeft) and H. Flint Ranney admiring Flint's farewell Pho10: Diane Ucci preservation of the gift from the NHA staff.

Living History

he phone was ringing off the hook from late June through August with calls from parents enrolling their children in the Historical Association's new program for chil dren. The program was designed by Bruce Courson, Curatorof lnterpretalion, and Holly Dunning and Elizabeth Duffin directed it each Friday throughout the summer. Holly and Elizabeth are both seasoned NHA do cents with a special interest in history and education. What parents and children found so en gagingabout the program was the "hands-on" approach to learning about Nantucket his tory. Groups of eight children started their day at the Old Mill grinding corn, and then on the way to the Oldest House, Holly and Eliza-

beth told them what it would have been like growing up during the 1700s. To experi ence a typical day's activities during this period the group toured the Oldest House, baked cornbread over an open fire, and made their own but ter. Visitors and residents alike were very enthused about the program and the NHA will build on this foundation for next season's outreach activi ties for children. Children actively engaged in this summer's Living History program.

Structures Update

and the original. Mark and Rick re moved the original and delivered it Lo local craftsman Brad Murray. Brad took his summer a trio of our properties precise measurements and produced received well-deserved attention from full-scale construction drawings to the Structures Department. An additional carefully fabricate the replacement of coating of red stain was applied Lo the turning the fan light. The Structures Depart spar and roof of the Old Mill. Winthrop ment reinstalled the new one and it Hotels&: Resorts graciously donated their lift appears as if it were never removed. 1 J truck to assist Mark Fortenberry, Curator of The detailed and careful construction Structures, and his assistant Rick Morcom of the fan light guarantee it a lifespan with this arduous task. Due to the height of far longer than any of us presently the windmill's roof trim and the difficult viewing it! Staging brackets and planking have access to the long turning "tail," the lift truck made a usually dangerous and lengthy been erected along the rear ell portion procedure one of ease. Jimmy Manchester of the Hadwen-Satler House at 96 Main and Paul Michetti of Winthrop's Structures Street. This Greek Revival mansion was Mark Fortenberry performing a structural survey at 8 Photo: D,anc llcn Department were especially helpful during built in 1844-45 for William Had wen. Ray's Court ___ this process. One of its most striking features is the You will have to look carefully over the portico with its four two-story Outed col trade at the roofs edge is slated for repairs and front door of 99 Main Street, for even the umns and finely carved Ionic capitals. The a fresh coat of paint. While preparing the trained eye might not detect any differences rear ell was added Lo the house during the surface, measured drawings of the existing woodwork have been completed Lo assist with between the recently installed new fan light 1850s to accommodate servants. The balusthe project. These drawings will be on file at the NHA's Research Center for future use. Mark has had numerous requests from island homeowners concerned with problems such as removal of powder post beetles to proper procedures for restoring a circa 1750s house. Mrs. Donald C. Harris of Ray's Court contacted Mark regarding her home and areas that needed repair. After conducting a struc tural survey of the house Mark was able Lo suggest epoxy consolidation of various sup porting Limbers as well as restoration meth ods that would preserve early plastered walls and ceilings. ln addition, site drainage and hazardous materials were investigated. The survey also produced preventive measures to help minimize future problems.

Rick Morcom, Assistant Curator of Structures, utilizing Winthrop's lift truck to slain the Old Mill's turning spar and roof. Photo: Mark Fortenberry

The Museum Support Center Update

ontracts for the fabrication and erec tion of the steel-framed Museum Sup port Center building have been signed with Cape Building Systems, Inc., of Mattapoisett, Massachusetts. John Folino, owner and op erator of Cape Building Systems, is a me chanical engineer from Tufts University who specializes in industrial and commercial build ings. John has done over thirty buildings on the Vineyard and the Museum Support Cen ter will be his third structure on Nantucket. He is excited about the project and very grateful for the work. Having been involved in the preliminary stages of the building de-

sign with architect Mark Avery and Curator of Structures Mark Fortenberry, Folino feels it allowed them to tailor it to the specific needs of the NHA and reduce costs relative to those specifications. Folino sees the structure as unique in its design and thei;t'.fore challeng ing to construct. He said the structure is far from a warehouse in its appearance and cred its the aesthetics to architect Mark Avery, the Historic District Commission, and the His torical Association working closely together. Director of Development Gayl Michael and Trustee Kim C. Corkran have the two-year fundraising campaign off and

running. As evidenced on our pledge page we are receiving tremendous support dur ing the early stages of the campaign. The direct mailing to our membership brought in over $35,000 and the raffling of the Stobart painting at the summer party raised almost $2,000. The ground-break ing ceremony took place on August 23 at the building site and was celebrated by trustees, advisors,the board of selectmen, staff and members of the press. Among the events planned for the fal 1 is a Sea Chanty concert by the popular balladeer Bill Schustik.

A summer evening in 1852 marked Herman Melville's first glimpse of Nantucket, the 11 ant-hill in the sea II that had long captured his imagination.

Herman Melville: Nantucket's First Tourist?

By Susan Beegel

ometime near sunset on Tuesday, 6July sites. As the three men made their way to their "It Might be well for the town on some 1852, the sidewheel steamer Massachu night's lodgings (probably Ocean House, a future year to provide a celebration of the setts churned into Nantucket harbor. Stand hotel then belonging to the steamship line, fourth of July at home; that we might not only ing on her deck was a young man who had and today privately owned and known as the enjoy the occasion ourselves, but attract visi never seen the island before. True, he had Jared Coffin House), they may have noticed tors to the island, to spend some of their funds served as a harpooneer on board the Nan that the island's streets seemed unusually here... A little more enterprise in such matters tucket whaleship Charles and Henry, and had quiet. That week the editor of the Nantucket would do no injury to the interest or reputa read such classics of Nantucket literature as Mirror complained bitterly about "the mass tion of our ancient town." Owen Chase's Narrative of the Loss of the exodus of citizens to the mainland" to "enjoy On the following morning.July 7t h,Judge Whale Ship Essex of Nantucket, William Lay independence day abroad and make a pleas Shaw repaired lo his courtroom. He was to and Cyrus Hussey's Narrative of the Globe ant excursion." School had been let out to hear the complaint of one Nancy B. Wheldon, Mutiny, and Obed Macy's History of Nan- "enable teachers and scholars to avail them a woman deserted by her husband Thomas, tucket. He had even written a rather long book selves of the benefit of a trip to Hyannis,"and who had "committed the crime of Adultery about Nantucket whaling himself- Moby Fire Companies #6 and #8 had gone to march with divers lewd women to your petitioner Dick. But this summer evening in 1852 marked in a parade in New Bedford. In an era when unknown." Nancy wanted a divorce and a Herman Melville's first glimpse of Nantucket, people left Nantucket for "social enjoyment suitable maintenance, but she and Thomas the "ant-hill inthe sea" that had long captured and the benefit to the health from a change of may have kissed and made up before the trial, scenery," Melville may have been the first to as no notice was given, and Shaw ordered the his imagination. When Captain Edward Barker had seen travel to the island for those advantages. Still, case discontinued. The other fourteen cases the Massachusetts made fast to the wharf and the grumbling Mirror editor foresaw a lime on the docket that day involved dull disputes over deeds, insurance, inheritances, and bankher gangplank lowered, Melville disembarked when things might be different: ruptcies. Judge Shaw made his with his two companions: Lemuel Shaw, his father-in-law decisions with great rapidity. and Painting of Melville by Asa W. Twitchell, ca.184 7. after just two hours in court was and Chief Justice of the Su ready to rejoin his son-in-law. preme Court of Massachusetts, We don't know what and John Henry Clifford, a Herman Melville did on thatJuly prominent New Bedford law morning while the Chief Justice yer and Attorney General for was in court. Perhaps he merely Massachusetts. Shaw and slept late, or perhaps he went Clifford were traveling to Nan with his father-in-law to hear the tucket on business. Just as day's caseload. Maybe he lin today's Superior Court justices gered over breakfast and read periodically hold court on the the Nantucket papers. lf he did, island, so too Judge Shaw was he would have seen Judge Shaw required lo hear Nantucket criticized i.n the Mirror, a news cases at regular intervals. At paper opposed to capital pun torney Clifford had come to ishment, for sentencing a mur represent various clients in derer to death by hanging. He court, and perhaps to do a little campaigning, for Clifford was might have read about a star tling new invention, an electric running for governor on the harpoon powered by a hand Whig ticket. cranked battery and capable of It's ironic that this former electrocuting sharks and pilot whaleman, the author of Moby whales. He could have perused Dich, was arguably Nantucket's the emotional editorials about first tourist- the first to visit slavery and glanced at articles the island for rest and relax about the nation's eagerness lo ation, and to enjoy her historic

exploit its western territories.In July 1852, the United States had troops in the Isthmus of Panama to protect this overland shortcut between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and planned to spend thirty million dollars on the construction of a transcontinental railroad. Settlers greedy for California gold were deci mating Indian populations. "Humanity may mourn; but the march of the pioneer of a system will still be onward... " proclaimed the Mirror. If Melville went for a walk, he may have stopped to browse at a bookstore on the corner of Main and Orange streets where Mitchell's Book Corner stands today. The proprietor would have known him, having advertised in the past-"New novel by Herman Melville. Redburn, his first Voyage; being the Sailor Boy Confessions and Remi niscences of the son of a Gentleman, in the Merchant service,just rec'd ... " Or perhaps he shopped for a souvenir for his wife Elizabeth. Nantucket's stores were well supplied with fur caps, cashmere and Bay State shawls, boas and muffets, French kid slippers, plain and rich chintz, printed muslins,silks,chemizetts, and lace-trimmed sleeves to match. Nostalgia for his days at sea may have drawn Melville to the docks, where he would have found whole sale dealers in copper, cordage, duck, and chains; purveyors of London and Liverpool chronometers and other fine nautical instru ments; and manufacturers of sperm, lard, and whale oil. However Melville spent the morning, he rejoined his father-in-law at noon to "dine with a friend," commonly held to be Thomas Macy. A former postmasterof Nantucket and a prosperous importer and manufacturer of sperm oil, Macy was intensely active in island politics.The son of Nantucket historian Obed Macy, Thomas had a gift for public speaking, and was much in demand as the presiding officer at town meetings and other public assemblies.Macy and Shaw had met on many previous occasions and Melville owned a copy of Obed Macy's History of Nantuc1iet person ally inscribed to him by Thomas. Melville had cited the book in Moby-Dick, where he refers to "the worthy Obed." Thomas Macy must have appreciated the young author's enthusiasm for his father's work. Without unduly stretching available evidence, we may assume that the three men dined companion ably in Macy's elegant home at 99 Main Street. After dinner, they rode "to Siasconset, & various parts of the island." Sankaty Bluff, with its attractive lighthouse newly con structed in 1849, made a particular impres sion on Melville, and his literary imagination began to work on a story about a lighthouse keeper's daughter named Agatha. She would rescue and tenderly nurse a shipwrecked sailor, and they would be married and have a

Portrait of Lemuel Shaw (1781-1861) by Southworth & Hawes. Photo courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art

daughter. Then, the husband would go to sea, and Agatha would await his return for seven teen years, only to find that in the interval he had married another woman and had chil dren by her as well.The story would be based on an actual case recounted to Melville by lawyer John Clifford on their Nantucket visit, and would be filled with Melville's admira tion for "the great patience, & endurance, & resignedness of the women of the island in submitting so uncomplainingly to the long, long absences of their sailor husbands." Agatha was not to be a merely passive heroine, how ever. She would be "learned" in maritime matters and "active during the wreck," her lover's "saviour" when his ship is driven onto Nantucket shoals in a great storm. Sankaty Bluff would form a dramatic setting for such

a story, and in an August 1852 letter to Nathaniel Hawthorne, Melville describes it in detail: "The afternoon is mild & warm. The sea with an air of solemn deliberation, with an elaborate deliberation, ceremo niously rolls upon the beach.The air is suppressedly charged with the sound of long lines of surf. There is no land over against this cliff short of Europe & the West Indies.Young Agatha ...comes wandering along the diff. She marks how the continual assaults of the sea have undermined it; so that the fences fall over, and have need of many shiftings inland. The sea has encroached also upon that part where their dwelling-house stands near the light-house.Filled with

meditations, she reclines along the edge of the cliff and gazes out seaward... , Suddenly she catches the long shadow of the cliff cast upon the beach 100 feet beneath her. It is cast by a sheep from the pasture. It has advanced to the very edge of the cliff, and is sending a mild, innocent glance far out upon the water. Here, in strange and beautiful contrast, we have the innocence of the land placidly eyeing the malignity of the sea." Nantucket readers would like nothing better than a Herman Melville story about the Sankaty lighthouse-keeper's daughter, but the fate of the Agatha tale remains a mystery. We know that Melville planned the story care fully, for he wrote three long letters to Hawthorne about it in 1852 and obtained john Clifford's notes on the case. And we know that he intended to write the story, for after an autumn 1852 visit to Hawthorne in Concord, Melville told his friend that he in tended to begin it "immediately upon reach ing home," and asked Hawthorne to "breathe a fair wind" upon the endeavor. Family let ters tell us that Melville wrote steadily through out the winter and spring of 1853, and, by late May, had completed a manuscript he called The Isle of the Cross, a work believed to be the Nantucket story, almost certainly a novel. Later that spling he apparently submitted his work to Harper Brothers for publication, but, for reasons unknown, "was prevented from printing" it. The reasons must have been

compelling, for Melville never again attempted to publish The Isle of the Cross. Today, the whereabouts of his Nantucket novel are un known. The manusclipt may have been lost or destroyed after Melville's death or even duling his lifetime, but it's prettier to think that the yellowing, hand-written pages sur vive in an old trunk in some dusty attic, waiting to be discovered. After their excursicH around the island, Melville and judge Shaw "passed the evening with Mr. Mitchell the astronomer, and his celebrated daughter, the discoverer of com ets." Mr. Mitchell, of course, was William Mitchell, cashier (a position equivalent to president) of the Pacific National Bank, former president of the Nantucket Atheneum, and Fellow of Harvard College. His celebrated daughter, Maria Mitchell, was a talented as tronomer and mathematician in her own right, and had in 184 7 astonished the world by discovering a telescopic comet, winning a gold medal from the King of Denmark and becoming the first woman elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. As far as William and Maria Mitchell were concerned, Chief justice Shaw was their most notable guest that evening. They might have asked him about his role in a sensational Boston trial of 1850, when chemistry profes sor john Webster was found guilty of murder ing a prominent citizen named Parkman, hang ing his body from grapples in a locked vault, and gradually disposing of the bits and pieces in a laboratory furnace. Or they might have

Steamer Massachusetts towing a Nantucket whaler to sea in the camels.

asked about his 1851 walk through a furious, stone-flinging mob to uphold the Fugitive Slave Act in the Sims trial, for despite his personal abhorrence of slavery, Shaw believed (prophetically) that without the rule of law dissent over slavery could plunge the country into civil war. Or the Mitchells might have chosen to discuss science with Shaw. Like Maria, he was a Fellow of the American Acad emy of Arts and Sciences, and he had pub lished papers in the Academy's proceedings on subjects suchas camphene, a burning fluid expected to replace sperm oil. In fact, Shaw's fame overshadowed Melville's for many years. Because the judge's long career coincided with the Industrial Revo lution in Massachusetts, his decisions deeply influenced commercial law in the United States, and in a 1918 biography of Shaw, his now renowned son-in-law is mentioned in just two sentences and a footnote carefully explaining that "Herman Melville was an au thor of considerable ability." Yet, although Melville was unknown to many of his con temporaries, the Mitchells would have been familiar with his talents, and perhaps able to draw him into discussion. The Nantucket Atheneum owned a copy of his Typee: A Peep at Polynesian Life, and William Mitchell, who was interested in the South Seas, might have asked Melville about his sojourn with a canni bal tribe in the Marquesas. The Nantucket newspapers had reviewed Omoo and Redburn, and Maria Mitchell may have purchased a copy of Moby-Dick for the Atheneum during Courtesy of Paul C. Morris's collection

which was designedly destroyed by a whale heard the waters pour, as mountain torrents her tenure as librarian. ago." Melville knew Pollard's down a flume. nearlythirtyyears We can only speculate about what might What happened when Herman Melville have been discussed that evening in the story well, as he had read Owen Chase's Pollard, whose unhappy history Captain met a himself while disaster Essex the of account Mitchell's living quarters at the Pacific Na in Chapter 45 of Moby-Dick? recounted had he Acushnet ship Fairhaven the aboard whaleman tional Bank, but one thing is certain. Unless it author, they simply "ex the to According read "the it, put himself Melville 1841.As in was raining or foggy, father and daughter took Melville and Shaw to their makeshift ing of this wondrous story upon the landless changed some words." Melville could hardly observatory on the roof of the bank for a view sea, &: close to the very latitude of the ship have invoked this elderly man's nightmarish of the stars, a treat they characteristically wreck, had a surprising effect upon me." memories by asking him about the loss of the extended to distinguished guests. After a simi Surprising, indeed, for Melville used the de Essex, about his three-month ordeal in an lar visit, Ralph Waldo Emerson noted in his struction of a ship by an enraged bull sperm open boat, about the drawing of lots, about consuming his murdered diary, "In William Mitchell's flesh to save his nephew's observatory I saw a nebula could Melville Nor life. own in Cassiopeia, the double have asked Pollard about the stars at the pole, the double loss of his second command, stars of Zeta Ursi." the ship Two Brothe r s, Although they met only smashed on French Frigate this once, Melville would re Shoals somewhere west of member Maria Mitchell, a the Sandwich Islands. But handsome dark-eyed, Melville did call on Pollard, woman almost exactly his perhaps in the parlor of his own age, for the rest of his little house at 46 Cent re life. Sometime between 1886 Street, now the Seven Seas and 1891, the year of his Gift Shop. The ill-fated cap dealh, he wrote a very strange had long ago given up tain poem titled "After the Plea to become a night sea the sure Party" and told in the watchman on Nantucket voice of a woman astrono wharves, but while "to the mer. Melville had been re he was a nobody," islanders cently reminded of Mitchell to Melville he seemed "the by Julian Hawthorne's biog most impressive man, tho' raphy of his parents, wholly unassuming, even Nathaniel Hawthorne and His humble-that I ever encoun Wife, a book which mentions tered." Later Melville would the astronomer's long so write about Pollard in a poem journ with the Hawthorne called "Clarel." family in Italy, and her celi At ten o'clock on Friday bate career as a professor of morning, 9 July 1852, the astronomy at Vassar College. steamer Massachusetts cast While "After the Pleasure free from her moorings, car Party" has little to do with rying Herman Melville away the actual life of Maria from his first and last visit to Mitchell, Melville clearly Nantucket. Together with identified with her sacrifice Judge Shaw, he was bound of sexual fulfillment for sci for another three days of rest ence, and her voice becomes relaxation on Martha's and a vehicle for his own despair Vineyard, and a crossing by over a life he believed wasted sailboat to Naushon. The trip in the pursuit of a madden to Nantucket had been a suc ingly elusive literary fame: cess. According to Shaw, "A nd kept I long "Melville expressed himself heaven's watch forthis, Con Gansevoort Lansing Collec1io11, 1885. By Rockwood extremely well pleased with temning love, for this, even Herman Melville Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library this? 0 terrace chill in Norththe excursion, he saw many em air, 0 reaching, ranging things &: met with many tube I placed Against yon skies, and fable whale for the climactic final chapter of Moby people, whom he was extremely glad to see." Or, as Melville himself described his vacation chased Till, fool, I hailed for sister there Dick. "Retribution, swift vengeance, eternal mal in the islands, scribbling in a guest register at Starred Cassiopeia in Golden Chair. In dream I throned me, nor I saw In cell the idiot ice were in his whole aspect, and spite of all Naushon- "Blue sky- blue sea-&: almost that mortal man could do, the solid white everything blue but our spirits." crowned with straw." The next day, Melville's last on Nantucket, buttress of his forehead smote the ship's star Susan Beegel is both a M elville and was also full, spent in "various calls&: visits." board bow, till men and timbers reeled. Some Judge Shaw recorded the most important fell fiat upon their faces. Like dislodged trucks, Hemingway scholar. She has published two books visit- "Amongst others met with Capt Pol the heads ofharpooneers aloft shook on their and several journal articles. Susan is a year lard, who was master of the whale ship Essex, bull-like necks. Through the breach, they round resipent of Nantucket.

Melville's use of Essex story has practically turned him into a Nantucketer in the popular imagination.

Moby-Dick and

Nantucket's Moby Dick: The Attack on the Essex L

ike many another Nantucket story, the sinking of the Nantucket whaleshipEssex would probably have enjoyed some enduring popularity even if Herman Melville had not taken it as the model for the tumultuous concluding chapters of Moby-Dick. As it is, Melville's use of the Essex story has practically turned Melville into a Nantucketer in the popular imagination. Melvilleprobablywould not have minded the misconception too much, but misconception it is, for Melville, as far as anyone knows, had not even been to Nan tucket when he wrote Moby-Dick. For a good account of Melville's relation to the island one can refer to Susan Beegel's article in this issue. It would be interesting to know if Melville would have dared use so extravagantly dra matic an event as the ramming and sinking of a ship by a whale-even in a novel that was extravagant in so many other ways-if the story of the Essex had not been in circulation. Why? Because whales just did not do that kind of thing. Were it not forthe Essex, a ship sunk by a whale would have come across as a facetious seaman's yam. Whales stove boats all the time, but ships? Never. The story of the whaleship Union had been floating around since 1807 when it went down after some kind of contact with a whale, but the details of that event are so vague that there is reason to believe that the ship ran into the whale, not vice versa. The Essex's great adventure began fifteen months out of its home port. The ship, which had left Nantucket August 12, 1819, and had enjoyed rather typical success in its hunt for whales, arrived by November 20, 1820, at a point a few minutes south of the equator, 119 degrees west longitude. At eight o'clock that

By Thomas Farel Heffernan morning whales were sighted and the boats were ordered lowered. The first mate, Owen Chase, whose boat had been splintered by a whale, was forced to return to the ship for repairs. While on deck he noticed a large whale bearing down on the ship and ordered the helmsman to come about to avoid it." The words were scarcely out of my mouth," Chase wrote, " before he came down upon us with full speed, and struck the ship with his head just forward of the fore-chains; he gave us such an appalling and tremendous jar, as nearly threw us all on our faces." While the men on board struggled to set pumps-which they knew was wasted ef-

fort-the whale struck again and finished off the ship. "My God, Mr. Chase, what is the matter?" Captain George Pollard, Jr., said when his boat, which had been too far off to see the attack, came up to the wreck of the ship. "We have been stove by a whale," the mate answered. The unimaginable had happened; now began an adventure of classic proportions for the twenty seaman suddenly afloat in three frail boats in one of the most remote parts of the Pacifie. The adventure, which is one of the world's great triumphs of survival, has been recorded in an account of stunning vividness, First Mate Owen Chase's Narrative ofthe Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-ship Essex, of Nantuchet. The Chase Narrative was until the early 1980s the sole primary source of the Essex story; the discov ery at that time of an account by Thomas Nickerson, one of the Essex crewmen, and its publication as The wss of the Ship "Essex"

Sw1h by a Whale and the Ordeal of the Crew in Open Boats added a second and, as it happens, very complementary source. (The Chase Nar rative is in Thomas Farel Heffeman's Stove by a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex, pub

Captain Owen Chase.

lished by the University Press of New En gland; the Nickerson diary, edited by Helen Winslow Chase and Edouard A. Stackpole, is published by the Nantucket Historical Asso ciation.) The actors in the Essex drama were the ship's captain, George Pollard,Jr., First Mate Chase, Second Mate Matthew P. Joy, and a complement of seamen bringing the total on board to twenty-one, one of whom would leave the ship in the South American port of Tecamus before the disaster. Both Captain

Pollard and First Mate Chase had served on the Essex on an 1817 cruise, each in lower positions. The officers and crew of the 238ton ship were as typical a Nantucket collec tion as could be imagined-they were not the Pequod's "Anacharsis Clootz deputation" as Melville called his fictional crew in chapter 27 of Moby-Dick. For an account of the cruise before the whale's attack we tum to the Nickerson diary. Owen Chase says little about those days, and Nickerson, relative to Chase, says less about the sufferings of the crew after the wreck. The accounts beg to be read together. With engaging detail and in a witty tone, Nickerson describes not merely shipboard events but the life of the Essex's people in port. We hear, in dialogue that Melville would have loved-and possibly bor rowed-Captain Pollard dressing down the crew for complaining about the shipboard food. And we read of Captain Pollard's hunting trip ashore in Tecamus with another whaling captain; three hours into the bush the two captains began to hear a loud, dismal, unexplained howling, which brought both of them to a stop but neither would admit his fear . With evident amusement Nickerson recounts their face-saving complaint of the heat as an excuse for turning back and adds that it was later discovered that the sound came from a harmless bird the size of a hum mingbird. The survivors' lives after the shipwreck, however, are the big story. What were they to do, where head? The Marquesas Islands would probably be the choice today and after them the Tuamotu archi pelago, but those places were omi nous in the 1820s with stories of cannibalism and just plain native hostility accepted as true in the ab sence of any extensive explorers' reports. The decision was to head south to 25 or 26 degrees south latitude, pick up the variable winds, and head for the coast of South America. Having taken as much from the sinking Essex as they could to supply the boats, the survi vors started out, seven in each of two boats and six in the other. Bread and water were severely rationed (a pound and three ounces of bread and a half-pint of water per day) and were to become even more stringently allotted as the days passed until rations seemed almost microscopic. Some tortoises picked up by the ship earlier were carried and when killed were regarded as a feast. Small clams

Now began the harshest part of the trip. On January 10, Second Mate Matthew Joy died and was given a sea burial. Before long the desperate survivors would look upon the dead in a different light and instead of burial the dying could look forward to becoming part of the diet of their companions. Probably more than any other detail of the Essex sur vival, the cannibalism, was that which oc curred when the four men in Captain Pollard's boat decided not to wait forthe next death but to draw lots to see who would be shot for food for the others. The lot fell on the captain's cousin, young Owen Coffin, who was shot by Charles Ramsdell, who had drawn the executioner's lot. The misfortunes of the men NARRATIVE in the boats multiplied. They or TRI: missed Easter Island, passing to ,111�1 l: TR.\OllOlNAllY \\"O n1snu:��1:,.1, the south of it. The three boats separated, first Owen Chase's SHJP\VRECK from the other twoand then Cap 01 rui,; tain Pollard's from the third, which was lost without a trace. One can judge the state of body ()f and mind of the men left in the boats from a description of their NANTCC'KET; rescue contained in a report of '1"Hllll \\AS ATT.\lKED \,O Jt'iA.LL\· Vt:Sll'IOlEJl 8\ ..\ l.lRGI Commodore Charles Goodwin Ridgely, the U.S. officerwho came SPERl\IACE'rI-\VHALE, to their assistance when they were 1:-, TB£ P.\CIFIC OCJ,;A;'li; brought ashore in Valparaiso: \\'JTlt "They were ninety-two days in AN ACCOU 'T the boat &:. were in a most wretched state, they were unable to move when found sucking the U� PARALLELED SUFFERING .• bones of their dead Mess mates, OF TIIE CAPTAIN ANO CREW which they were loth to part with." Owen Chase, Benjamin I • THE \'EARS 1819 & 1020. Lawrence, and Thomas Nickerson were rescued February 18 by the BY brig Indian, Captain William Cro OWEN CHASE, zier of London. On r=ebruary 23 O} N.t.llTUCllltT, FIRST MAT& 011' SAID V.E!U:L, Captain Pollard and Charles Ramsdell were rescued by the .1\'EW-l'ORK: Nantucket ship Dauphin, Captain Pl'BLISIJED EY w. n. GILLEY, 92 nno.t.DWA\' Zimri Coffin. Word of the three , J, S1.T111et'a 1 Print "'r, men left on the island was relayed 1821. to Captain Thomas Raine of the Surry, which was about to sail for Australia.and Captain Raine man aged to rescue all three despite his having been directed to Ducie, companions suddenly and loudly called out, the wrong island. Eight of the twenty men on 'there is land!' It was Henderson Island (which the Essex were lefl"to tell the tale. the men in the boats mistakenly assumed to In annotations made in a copy of Owen be the nearby Ducie Island), one of the Pitcairn Chase's Narrative, which he had acquired Island group. Here the survivors found, al shortly before writing Moby-Dick, Melville though not without a good deal of searching, tells us when he learned the tale for the first water. The food found on the island, how time. "When I was on board the shipAcushnet ever, was not extensive and, except for three of Fairhaven, on the passage to the Pacific men who chose to stay, the survivors deter cruising-grounds, among other matters of mined to set out again for the coast of South forecastle conversation at times was the story America. This they did on December 27. of the Essex." This was during Melville's serfound clinging to the outside of the boat provided one meal; the men who were over board collecting them were so weak that they could not get back in the boat by their own power but had to be pulled in by their com panions. When the men attempted to catch rainwater in a sail they found it as salty as seawater from the salt that had dried in the sail. Nature seemed to be mocking their ef forts. On December 20, after a month in the boats, "while we were sitting dispirited, si lent, and dejected, in our boats, one of our

Rescue of three crew members on Henderson's Island. Depicted from an old woodcut.

vice on his first whaler; the Acushnet had left It's an engrossing reading of the "most im Fairhaven injanuary 1841 and Melville was pressive man." to be aboard it until he jumped ship in the If anyone doubts how intensely taken Marquesas in July 1842. Melville's annota Melville was with the stories he was borrow tions continue with an erroneous account of ing from the Essex people, he can consider his seeing Owen Chase on board a ship the Melville's reaction to another ship stove by a Acushnet had gammed-it's unclear who it whale. Moby-Dick was published in England was that he had mistaken for Chase-and October 18, 1851, and in the United States then an account of another gam, very likely November 14, 1851, and the New Bedford with the whaler Lima: "In the forecastle I ship Ann Alexander was sunk by a whale; made the acquaintance of a fine lad of sixteen Melville got word of the event around No or thereabouts, a son of Owen Chase. I ques vember 8 and wrote: " ... Crash! comes Moby tioned him concerning his father's adventure; Dick himself ...&: reminds me of the last year and when I left his ship to return again the next morning (for the two vessels were to sail in company for a few days) he went to his chest and handed me a complete copy (same edition as this one) of the Narrative. . . . The reading of this wondrous story upon the landless sea,&: close to the very latitude of the very lati tude of the shipwreck had a surpris ing effect upon me." Indeed it must have. When, in 1852, Melville finally visited Nan tucket, he met Captain Pollard, whom he called quite simply, "the most impressive man, tho' wholly unassuming, even humble-that I ever encountered." In his long narra tive poem, Clare/, Melville uses the character Nehemiah as hook on which to hang Pollard's story (and includes the story of the wreck of the ship on which Pollard had his next command); Melville analyzes the Pollard character as a kind of benign Ahab, confident in the power of his own will and in God's support of it. Skeletons in the cave on Henderson's Island.

or two. It is really &: truly a surprising coincidence-to say the least. I make no doubt it is Moby Dick himself, for there is no account of his capture after the sad fate of the Pequod about fourteen years ago.-Ye Gods! what a Commentator is this Ann Alexander whale.What he has to say is short &: pithy &: very much to the point. I won der if my evil art has raised this monster." Well, grant that it did. Moby-Dick has raised enough monsters in the minds of its more philosophical readers to make the emergence of a real flesh and blood leviathan tame work.But Owen Chase's whale was first; it raised all the mon sters; it was a consciousness raising whale, an assertive, whale's rights, affirmative-ac t ion whale. It w a s even Promethean. In some "Far Side " world where annual conferences on the literature of the sea are attended by whales and sharks and por poises, the question of whether the Essex whale was hubristic is probably perennial. Even humans-who can't understand these things--can wonder. Thomas Fare/ Heffernan, author of Stove By A Whale, Owen Chase and the Essex, is a Professor of English at Adelphi University in

Garden City, New York and chainnan of the Melville Society Centennial Committee.

•

I WE COULDN'T DO IT WITHOUT YOU... I Antiques Show Volunteers Excel

hose words barely begin to convey our gratitude for the work Georgi.a Gosnell has done for the NHA AntiquesShow over the last six months. At this stage it seems that we broke all records for the August Antiques Show. We don't have all of the figures in hand at the moment (bills have a habi.t of appearing weeks after the event!) But we estimate that the show netted approximately $50,000! We'll gi.ve you the final figure in the next i.ssue of Historic Nantucket. In the early spring, Georgia began work as chairperson of the show from her home in Rochester, NY. She spent long hours devising and implementing strategies to increase the revenue generated by this major August fundrai.si.ng event. By June, Georgi.a had re cruited an excellent committee that capably and enthusiastically went about planning all the different components of the Fourteenth Annual Antiques Show. Georgia's perseverance, optimism, and sheer hard work were an inspiration to all of us at the NHA. Everyone on the staff enjoyed working closely with her and hope that she found her summer job rewarding! We also wish her a quiet and relaxing remainder of the summer she sacrificed. Everymemberofthe AntiquesShow com mittee gave up precious Nantucket vacation time to make our public fund-raiser a re sounding success. We thank all of those listed.

Antiques Show Committee

Honorary Chairpersons: Hon. and Mrs. William B. Macomber Chairperson, Mrs. Thomas Gosnell Committee: Mrs. David Li.lly Mrs. David H. Barlow Mrs. Holly McGowan Ms. Li.nda Bellevue Ms. Amy Mclaughlin Mr. & Mrs. Max N. Berry Mr. Joseph j. Mclaughlin Mr. & Mrs. Earle M. Craig,Jr. Mrs. Ian Murray Mrs. Christine Devine Mrs. Charles Noblit Mr. and Mrs. John W. Eckman Mr. & Mrs. David Ogden Ms.Jeanette Theroux Garneau Mrs. Henry O'Netll Mr. Paul Gi.bian Mrs. Robert Pa1tcrson Mr. j. Edward Gillum,Jr. Ms. Li.sa A. Penn Mrs. John Gi.rvi.n Mrs. Arthur Reade Mr. & Mrs. Elliot W. Gumaer,Jr. Mrs. Thomas Rhodes Mrs. Donald Harleman Mrs. Charles G. The baud Mrs. Lee Holmes Mrs. Gordon Smith Ms. Mi.mi Huber Mr. & Mrs. Richard Tucker Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Jacobsen Ms. Susan Warner Mrs. Jane Lamb Mrs. Charles Webb Mrs. Cynthia Lenhart A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO MR. WENDELL GARRETT The NHA and the Antiques Show com mittee wi.sh to thank Mr. Wendell Garrett of Sotheby's for saving the August 9 slide pre sentation at the eleventh hour. Mr. Clement Conger, who was scheduled to give the slide presentation, became i.ll at the last minute. At his request, Mr. Garrett agreed to come to

(left) Dedicated chairperson for the Antiques Show, Mrs. Georgia Gosnell, taking time out from her tasks at the Tucker's Benefactors Party. (right) Mr. Wendell Garrett giving a fascinating slide presentation of Americana pieces at the Nantucket Yacht Club. Photos: Rick Blair

Nantucket as his replace meIll. We were very fortunate that a person of Mr. Garrett's caliber was able to be found at such short notice. His slide prescntat10n of Americana was excellent and left everyone impressed with his vast knowledge of Ameri can culture, history, and antiques

"Missing" Logbook of Whaler Joseph C. Chase Acquired

The "missing link" in the Nantucket Historical Association's complete his tory of whaler Joseph C. Chase, his log as master of the ship Clarkson, has been recently donated by the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association. Born on the island in 1810, Chase's whaling career spanned over

twenty-five years and Eric McKechnie, head of the Friend's acquisition committee, de scribed the recently purchased logbook as "an invaluable addition to our understanding of the whaling industry on Nantucket." The Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association was formed in 1986 and has been

acquiring objects of historic importance to the island for the NHA since that time. It is their continued generosity that preserves im portant aspects of Nantucket's history for islanders and visitors to appreciate.

Senior Projects This spring three very energetic and enthusiastic students from Gar rison Forest School in Baltimore came to do their independent senior project at the Nantucket Historical Association. Christa Riepe, Tiffany Morton, and Jennifer Lankford jumped in feet first, assisting various members of the staff in vital areas. From landscaping at Greater Light, to packing pieces in the collections to mass mailings to our member ship, the three students were invalu able during their stay. Tiffany, Christa, and Jennifer hard at work 011 one of the N HA's major mailing efforts late this spring.

By Diane Ucci

Generous Quaker Gesture The porch at the Quaker Meetinghouse has been in need of repair for quite some time and this summer those repairs were com pleted by Rick Morcom, Assistant Curator of Structures for the Historical Association. While the work was being done some inter ested members oft he Society of Friends ap proached the NHA about making a contribu tion toward the reconstruction of the porch. Shortly after, we received a generous dona tion from the Society, as well as an individual contribution from Evelyn Danforth. Every little bit helps the NHA preserve our island's history!

Beman Donation Thanks to Mimi Beman, owner of Mitchell's Book Corner and member of the Friends of the Nantucket Historical Associa-

The newly restored porch at the Quaker Meetinghouse completed with help from the Friends. Photo by Rick Morcom

tion, this issue of Historic Nantucket contains an additional four pages of Melville material. Mimi has been an enthusiastic supporter of the NHA and served on the Executive Com mittee, the Trustees, and is currently on the Editorial Board. Mimi's input has been very

important to the Association, and in particu lar to our quarterly publication. She is a Melville enthusiast, and because of her gener osity we were able to offer more space in this issue to the contributing Melville authors and scholars.

In Recognition of Our Committed Supporters

FRIENDS OF THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION

Mr.John W. Eckman - President Mrs. Dwight E. Beman - Treasurer Mr. D. Eric McKechnie, Chair - Acquisitions Mr. & Mrs. Joel Anapol Mr.& Mrs. Dwight E. Beman Mr.& Mrs. Max N. Berry Mr. Charles C. Butt Mr. & Mrs. Robert L. Champion Mr.& Mrs. Earle M. Craig, Jr. Mr. & Mrs. John W. Eckman Mr.& Mrs. Thomas Gosnell Mr. & Mrs. Seymour G. Mandell Mr. & Mrs D. Eric McKechnie Mr.& Mrs. Richard L. Menschel Mr. & Mrs. H. Flint Ranney Mr. & Mrs. Robert M. Rosenthal Mr.& Mrs. John K. Whitney Mr.& Mrs. John S. Winter Mr. Bracebridge H. Young.Jr. The Friends of the Nantucket Historical Association was formed in 1986. Its purpose is to acquire, through a pooling of financial resources and coordinated effort, significant historic artifacts, permitting the NHA to better record and portray the island's history. Recent acquisiÂ tions of the Friends can be viewed in the exhibition of the newly reopened Peter Foulger Museum, or in the Whaling Museum's recently renovated Scrimshaw Room.

NHA LIFE BENEFACTORS

Mrs. Loaine C. Arnold Mr. Michael S. Bachman Mr.& Mrs. Max N. Berry Mr. Charles C. Butt Mr. Bruce A. Courson Mr. & Mrs. Earle M. Craig, Jr. Mr. Jerry Daub Mrs. Paul H. Dujardin Mr. John W. Eckman Mr. Richard K. Earle Ms. Nancy Martin Evans Mr. Mark W. Fortenberry Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman Mr. Fred Gardner Mrs. Lee B. Gi.llespie Mr.& Mrs. James K. Glidden Mr.& Mrs. Richard]. Glidden Mr. & Mrs. Thomas Gosnell Mr.& Mrs. Hudson Holland,Jr. Mr. Kris Larsen Mr. Joseph]. McLaughlin Mr.& Mrs. David M. Ogden Mrs. EdgarV. Seeler Mr.& Mrs. H. Flint Ranney Mr.& Mrs. John K. Whitney Andrew E. Wise, M.D. Mr. Kenneth A. Wise Mrs. Jane D. Woodruff Mrs. Bracebridge H. Young Mr. Bracebridge H. Young.Jr. Those members who have supported the NHA with unsolicited contributions of $2,500 or greater.

THOMAS MACY ASSOCIATES

Mr. & Mrs. Max N. Berry Mrs. Edward W. Lombard Mrs. Evelyn E. Bromley Mr. & Mrs. Seymour G. Mandell Mr. Charles C. Butt Mr. & Mrs. Carl M. Mueller Mr. Earle M. Craig, Jr. Pacific National Bank Mr.John W. Eckman Nantucket Chamber of Commerce Mrs. H. Crowell Freeman Mr. & Mrs. H. Flint Ranney Mr. & Mrs. Bernard D. Grossman Mr. & Mrs. George A. Snell Mr. & Mrs. Amos B. Hostetter Mrs. Bracebridge H. Young Mr. Wynn Lee Mr. Roger A. Young Ms. Anne Silvers Lee Contributed $1,000 or more in response to the Annual Appeal, October 1990 - July 1991

The Nantucket Historical Association's members are each important to the Association and its commitment to preserve Nantucket's precious heritage. We wish to recognize those who have been particularly generous in their giving.

HADWEN CIRCLE Mr. & Mrs. Robert W. Bailey Mr.& Mrs. Richard l. Menschel Mrs. Deborah]. Bryan Mr. Joseph]. Mclaughlin Congdon& Coleman Insurance Agency Mr. Robert F. Mooney Ms. Nancy Martin Evans Nantucket Bank Mr.& Mrs. George B. Gibbons Mr.& Mrs. T. Peter Pappas Mr. Erwin Greenberg Mr. & Mrs. James S. Passman, Jr. Mr.& Mrs. Robert M. Haft Mr. & Mrs. Charles W. Phillips Mrs. H.J. Heinz Dr. & Mrs. Frederic W. Pullen II Mr. & Mrs. Arthur Jacobsen Mr. Richard F. Smith Mr. Louis C. Krauthoff Mr. John Sussek Mr.& Mrs. William R.j. Lothian Mr. Gleed Thompson Mr.& Mrs. John Lynch Mr. Joseph F. Welch Mrs. Earle R. MacAusland Mr. Bracebridge H. Young.Jr. Mr. & Mrs. William B. Macomber

CONTRIBUTORS Mr. & Mrs. John Akers Mr.& Mrs. Donald F. McCullough Mr.& Mrs. Stephen C. Barnett Mrs. Richardson T. Meniman Mr. John R. Bockstoce Mrs. Henry A. Murray Mr. & Mrs. Thomas R. Brome Mr. & Mrs. Morgan]. Murray Mrs. Martha A. Carr Mr.& Mrs. Scott Newquist Mr.& Mrs. Granville E. Conway Mr. Bruce A. Courson Mr. & Mrs. C. Hardy Oliver Mr. & Mrs. Alexander M. Craig Mr. John H. Davis Mr. & Mrs. Nelson Doubleday Mr. Daniel M. Reid Mr. & Mrs. James l. Dunlap Mr. David G. Smith Mrs. Edgar G. Feder Mr. & Mrs. Robert D. Smith Mr.John R.H. Fletcher

Ms. Susan K. Spring-Whistler Mr.& Mrs. William H. Hays Ill Mrs. Nina S. Hellman Mr. Keith Stevenson Mr.& Mrs. David S. Howe Mr.& Mrs. James M. Stewart Mrs. Sidney H. Killen Mr. & Mrs. Richard F. Tucker Mr. and Mrs. Robert B. Knutson Mr. & Mrs. Charles H. Lake Union Street Inn Mr. John C. Lathrop Mrs. John H. Wallace Mrs. Francis D. Lethbridge Mr. & Mrs. Paul A. Wolf.Jr. W.B. Marden Co. Mr. & Mrs.John S. Winter Ms. Melinda Martin Mrs. Joseph C. Woodle Mr. Joseph]. Mclaughlin Mr.&. Mrs. Robert C. W1ight

Contributed $250 to $499 in response to A1111ual Appeal, October, 1990 - July, 1991

Contributed $500 to $999 in response to the Annual Appeal, October, 1990 - July, 1991

We believe the above lists of significant donors to the NHA to be accurate for the period 1/90 through 7/91. We apologize for any inadvertent omissions. Please report disÂ crepancies to the Executive Director.

MUSEUM SUPPORT CENTER CAPITAL CAMPAIGN The Nantucket Historical Association wishes to recogÂ nize the extremely generous donations we have received to build and endow the Museum Support Center as Phase One of its 1991-1993 Capital Campaign. Pledge or Gifl of $300,000 or more Mrs. Thomas H. Gosnell

Pledge or Gift of $100,000 Lo $299,999

Pledge or Gifl of $50,000 Lo $99,999

Pledge or Gifl of $25,000 Lo $49,000

Pledge or Gift of $5,000 to $9,999

Friends of Lhe NHA

Mr. Charles C. Bull Mr. and Mrs. Max N. Berry Mr.&: Mrs. Hudson Holland,Jr.

Mr. & Mrs. H. Flinl Ranney Mrs. Edgar V. Seeler

Osceola Foundalion Trustees: Mrs. C. Marshall Beale Mrs. C. Hardy Oliver Mrs. Barbara Beinecke Mr. Waller Beinecke, Ill

Pledge or Gifl of $10,000 to $24,999 Mr.&: Mrs.John W. Eckman Mr.&: Mrs. Joseph F. Welch

Gift of $1,000 to $4,999 Mr. Earle M. Craig,Jr. Mrs. Bracebridge H. Young Mr. Roger A. Young

Gifl of $250 lo $999 Mr.&: Mrs. John F. Akers Mr. &: Mrs. W.S. Archibald Mr. Bruce B. Bates Mrs. C. Marshall Beale Mr. &: Mrs. Roberl H. Bolling Mrs. Manha A. Carr Congdon&: Coleman Ins. Agency Mr.John W. Eckman Mrs. Edgar G. Feder Mr. Joseph Starbuck Freeman CDR Maurice E. Gibbs Mr. Walter Hayes Mr.&: Mrs. William H. Hays, Ill

Mr. & Mrs. David S. Howe Mr. &: Mrs Roberl B. Knulson Mr. & Mrs. William B. Macomber Mr.Joseph]. Mclaughlin Mr. Edwin E. Meader Mr. Paul Mellon Mr. Leeds Milchell Mr. & Mrs. Norman Lac Olsen Mr. & Mrs. H. Flinl Ranney Ms. Karen C. Schwenk Mr. & Mrs. Robert M. Scotl Mr. &: Mrs. Roberl B. Shellerly Mr. & Mrs. James M. Slewarl

We believe Lhe above !isled donor record to be accurate through August 31, 1991. Please reporl any discrepancies for update in future issues. If you want more information on this imporlant effort Lo correct the serious problems of collection preservation and slorage, contact the Executive Director. To conlribute to this significant endeavor send in the enclosed pledge card and help preserve your island's history.

Melville's voracious reading habits were the source of details, information, and stories that he used throughout his work. Three books he consumed fueled his fascination with Nantucket and contributed to his writing of Mo by-Dick

"A Fine, Boisterous Something": Nantucket in Moby-Dick By Mary K. Bercaw

or my mind was made up lo sail in 110 other than a Nanrucket craft, because there was a fine, boisterous something about everything connected with that famous old is land, which amazingly pleased me. (Moby-Dich, ch. 2) Ishmael,in Herman Melville's Moby-Dick,

exulted in them, and became fiercely angry with them. The books he owned were filled with notes and jottings done with slashing pen marks and furious periods. Mel'lille rarely simply read anything. Three of the books Melville consumed were Obed Macy's The History of Nantuchet (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, and Co., 1835), Jo seph C. Hart's Miriam Coffin, or the Whale Fisherman (New York: Harper & Brother's, 1835),and William Lay and Cyrus M. Hussey's

is determined to sail out of Nantucket on his first whaling voyage-despite having to spend two long, cold days in New Bedford and despite having to share a bed with a stranger (a heathen harpooneer who is out selling embalmed heads!) before he can catch the packet schooner to the island. Yet Melville himself shipped on board the whaleship Acushnet out of Fairhaven,not Nantucket. In fact, Melville did not visit Nantucket until 1852, six months after Moby-Didi was published. So how did he know enough about Nantucket to write a whole chapter in Moby Dickabout it? How did he know about the "fine, boisterous something" connected with the island? "I have swam through li braries," Melville wrote (Moby Dick, ch.32). Melville's vora cious reading habits were the source of details, information, and stories that he used throughout his writings. He consumed books and was con sumed by them. And as he read books, he argued with them, "Dangers of the Whale Fishery," from Scoresby's Account of the Arctic Regions, 1820. laughed and cried over them,

A Narrative of the Mutiny, on Board the Ship Globe, of Nantuchet, in the Pacific Ocean, Jan. 1824 (New London, Connecticut: Lay & Hussey,1828). These,along with a pamphlet on Samuel Comstock,the leader of the bloody mutiny on the whaleship Globe, comprise the bulk of Melville's Nantucket sources. The most important Nantucket source, Owen Chase's Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwrech of the Whale-Ship Essex,of Nantuchet (New York: Gilley, 1821), is discussed in Thomas Fare! Heffernan's article in this issue. Melville calls Obed Macy the "worthy Obed" and holds him "accountable" for an item which "may seem unwar rantable": "It may seem unwarrantable to couple in any respect the mast-head standers of the land with those of the sea; but that in truth it is not so, is plainly evinced by an item for which Obed Macy, the sole historian of Nantucket, stands account able." (Moby-Dick, ch. 35) Here Melville pokes fun at Macy-just as he pokes fun at another major source for Moby Dick, William Scoresby'sAnAc

count o f the Arctic Regions (1820). Throughout Moby-Dick,

Melville attributes his informa tion from Scoresby to fictional authors with such names as Captain Sleet, an Esquimau doctor called Zogranda, a fa-

Melville's words are based on the follow mous authority on smells named Fogo Von Ellis: no surviving volume owned byMelville, ing passage in Macy: Slack, and Professor Dr. Snodhead of the no library slip, no sales receipt. "To enable them to discover whales at a Obed Macy's History of Nantucket is a College of Santa Claus and St. Potts. Macy distance from the land, a large considerable to points evidence external The case. similar gets off lightly with only the epithet "worthy" being given to him. And worthy is a good Melville's acquiring the book only after Moby spar was erected, and cleats fixed to them, by epithet, for certainly Macy is not boisterous. Dick was finished. Yet there is internal evi which the whalemen could climb to the top, Melville's surviving copy of Macy was dence that he had access to another copy and there keep a good look out for their given to him on January 7, 1852, by Thomas during composition. Melville writes in "The game." (History of Nantucket, p.31) Macy-months after Moby-Dick was pub Mast-head" chapter: Melville added only the fowl image in the "The worthy Obed tells us, that in the lished. Yet it would seem that Melville had readMacy before he wrote Moby-Dick. Melville early times of the whale fishery, ere ships clause. The preceding illustratesMelville's acqui prefaces Moby-Dick with eighty "Extracts," were regularly launched in pursuit of the quotations about whales and whaling. "sup game, the people of that island erected lofty sition of information from his sources, what plied by a sub-sub-Iibrarian." He quotesMacy spars along the sea-coast, to which the look Charles Roberts Anderson, who discovered in his fifty-third Extract; however, further outs ascended by means of nailed cleats.some the source, calls "his lowliest fact-grubbings" (Melville in the South Seas I 19391. p.31). But investigation reveals that his quotation exists thing as fowls go upstairs in a hen-house." also transformed his sources. Macy Melville verbatim in j. Ross Browne's Etchings of a (Moby-Dick,ch.35) wrote of the Nantucketers Whaling Cruise (1846) on wtth quiet pride and dig p.518. Since we know for cernity: tain that Melville read "The sea, to mariners Browne's book before writing 1s but a highway generally, Moby-Dick (he reviewed it in ,I A over which they travel to the Literary World in 1847). foreign markets; but to the the appearance of that par1t 1s his field of labor, whaler ticularMacy quote in the "Exhome of his busi the is it tracts" still does not prove that OF THE ness. I he Nantucket Melville had readMacy at that whaleman, when with his point. family, 1s but a visiter [sic[ What proof is there, then, ON BOAI\D THE there. He touches at foreign thatMelville read Macy while ports merely to procure re he was composing Moby cruits 10 enable him to pros Dick? This question leads lit OF NANTUCKET, ecute his voyage; he touches erary scholarship into the at home merely long enough realm of detective work. Be Jlf THB to prepare for a new voyage. cause of Melville's greatness PACIFIC OCEAN, JAK. 1824• as a writer. scholars have been He is in the bosom of his very interested in his compo family weeks, on the bosom .AlfD TH£ sitional process. Melville char of the ocean years." JOURNAL acteristically appropriated (History of Nantucket, into his own works blocks of p.2 l9) • or writing from other works Melv1lle, a magician of BESI DENCE OF TWO YEA.RS whose origin is so clear that words, transformed this pas the source-hunter can iden sage into what Anderson ON THB tify not only Melville's source calls "an interlude of sheer but also the very edition he poetry" (Melville in the South used. The "fingerprints" by Seas, p.3 l): WITH OB IIU'ATIO S ON THE IUlfN'ERI Al'U> which scholars make such "And thus have these naCV6TOMS OP THE Jl'fBABITA!fTS. identifications with confi ked Nantucketers, these sea dence include peculiar word hermits, issuing from their ing, errors in titles or dates, BY WILLIAM LAY, OF SAYBROOK, CONN. AND ant-hill in the sea, overrun CYRUS M. HUSSEY, OF NANTUCKET. and misspellings thatMelville and conquered the watery The 0017 SurriYors from tbe Massac, e of th• Ship',· Com copied without changing. world like so many pany b:, lbl' Natives. With such fingerprints, Alexanders.... Let America Harrison Hayford was able to add Mexico to Texas, and NEW.LO�DON identify the 1833 Harper edi pile Cuba upon Canada; let tion of Wil liam Eil is's ,nusuo. n. WM. LAv. no C. M. Hussn. the English overswarm all Polynesian Researches as the India, and hang out their major source for Melville's banner from the sun; blazing 1Si8; second book Omoo. Hayford two th irds o f this based his identification on interraqueous globe are the ternal evidence (evidence Nantucketer's. For the sea is found within Melville's writhis; he owns it, as Emperors ing); there is no external eviown empires; other seamen dence ofMelville's having used having but a right of way

NARRATIVE MUTIHY,

QllllJP 9lL<&lDll�

MULGRAVE ISLANDS;

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Cutting into a sperm whale. From Etching of a Whaling Cruise,]. Ross Browne, 1850. through it. Merchant ships are but extension bridges; armed ones but floating forts; even pirates and privateers, though following the sea as highwaymen the road, they but plunder other ships, other fragments of the land like themselves, without seeking to draw their living from the bottomless deep itself. The Nantucketer, he alone resides and riots on the sea; he alone, in Bible language, goes down to it in ships; to and fro ploughing it as his own special plantation. There is his home; there lies his business, which a Noah's flood would not interrupt, though it overwhelmed all the millions in China. He lives on the sea .... For years he knows not the land; so that when he :omes to it at last, it smells like another world, more strangely than the moon would to an Earthsman." (Moby-Dick, ch.14) Part of Melville's transformation of his source lies in his use of the language of the KingJames Bible, especially Psalm 107. Melville's"Nantucket" chapter, nonethe less, is not only lyrical; it is also very funny. Melville tells us that there is more sand on the island of Nantucket "than you would use in twenty years as a substitute for blotting pa per." He goes on, with exaggeration after exaggeration:" ...that pieces of wood in Nan tucket are carried about like bits of the true cross in Rome; that people there plant toad stools before their houses, to get under the

shade in summer time; that one blade of grass makes an oasis, three blades in a day's walk a prairie"; and on. Melville finally ends: "But these extravaganzas only show that Nantucket is no Illinois" (Moby-Dick, ch.14). Melville had been to Illinois when he wrote this, but not Nantucket: what, therefore, inspired this excess of sand? Howard P. Vincent, in The Trying-Out of Moby-Dick (1949), suggests that Melville is "probably expatiating" (p.87) on some pas sages in Joseph C. Hart's Miriam Coffin: [T]he little sandy island of Nantucket peeps forth from the Atlantic Ocean. Isolated and alone amid a wide waste of waters, it presents to the stranger, at first view, a dreary and unpromising appearance. The scrapings of the great African Desert, were they poured into the sea, would not emerge above its level with an aspect of more unqualified aridity than does this American island. (Miriam Coffin, vol. 1, p. 32) Melville knew Hart's novel: he quotes from volume 2, chapter 10, of Miriam Coffin in Extract 75 of Moby-Dick. There are also several intriguing parallels between Moby Dick and Miriam Coffin, as Lean Howard first pointed out in"A Predecessor of Moby-Dick" (1934) and as Anderson discovered indepen dently. In Hart's chapter on whaling, the wha leship is named Grampus (as is Bulkington's in Moby-Dick), the first mate is

named Starbuck, and an Indian squaw proph esies doom. In Miriam Coffin.Judith Quary, a half-breed squaw, deciphers the future with tea-leaves. "I do not see it," said Harry [a sailor from the Grampus]; "it is but a mass of tea-leaves." "It concerns not you," said Judith ... "but it deeply concerns him who can most easily make it out." "But what of the whale?" de manded Thomas [Starbuck, mate of the Gram pus] . . . . "Seest thou not a small object projecting from its jaws?" saidJudith. "I do," answered Thomas; "it is the only thing that disfigures the outline of the whale." "It is the half-swallowed body of a man!" exclaimed Judith. (Miriam Coffin, vol. 2, p.113) And Starbuck does die in a whale's jaws. In Moby-Dick, Ishmael ships aboard the Pequod. He questions the part-owner, Peleg (another name which occurs in Miriam Cof fin!), about Captain Ahab's name. Peleg an swers: "Captain Ahab did not name himself. 'Twas a foolish, ignorant whim of his crazy, wid owed mother, who died when he was only a twelve month old. And yet the old squaw Tistig, at Gay-head, said that the name would somehow prove prophetic." (Moby-Dick, ch. 16) Tistig is neither a half-breed, as Judith Quary is, nor does she live on Nantucket, but

Representation of the ship Esk of Whitby, damaged by ice and almost full of water. From Scoresby's An Account of the Arctic Region, 1820. perhaps she is descended from Han's squaw nonetheless. Just as the biblical Ahab, wickedest king in the Bible, died fulfilling the prophecy that "dogs [shall] lick thy blood" (I Kings 21:19), so Captain Ahab's name proves prophetic: he is killed when a whaleline catches around his neck. The most striking parallel between Moby Dick and Miriam Coffin comes at the end of Hart's chapter 10. The enraged whale "of prodigious size" (Miriam Coffin, vol. 2, p. 148) turns on the Grampus and sinks her. All the men escape except Starbuck, who has already perished in the whale's jaws. Miriam Coffin is not the chief source for the ending of Moby-Dick, but it is an interesting one. It is not known where Melville perused Miriam Coffin. Did he read it in a library, did he borrow it from a friend, or did he once own a copy which has since been lost? Melville's acquisition of his third Nantucket source, Lay and Hussey's Narrative, is easier to document because the book itself still exists. Attached to the front flyleaf of Melville's copy is a letter of 9 January 1851 from Thomas Macy to T.G. Coffin stating that he was sending the volume "as a present to Judge Shaw." Thomas Macy added that "after the most dilligent [sic! search," he had "not succeeded in finding a copy of the loss of Ship Essex" (Owen Chase's Narrative). Evidently, as Merton M. Sealts, Jr., speculates in Melville's Reading (1988),

Judge Lemuel Shaw, Melville's father-in-law, was attempting to secure books about Nan tucket for Melville. Thomas Macy sent "a mutilated copy" of Owen Chase's Narrative, "the only copy that I have been able to pro cure," to Judge Shaw on 4 April 1851. Later, in January of 1852, Thomas Macy gave Melville a copy of Obed Macy's History of Nantucket (Melville's Reading, pp. 68-69). Thus, there is no question that Melville owned a copy of Lay and Hussey, but what did he do with it? Scholars have found that Melville made little use of Narrative in Moby Dich other than quoting it in Extract 64. But he was interested in the bloody mutiny on board the Nantucket whaleship Globe, for he devotes another extract, Extract 68, to the mutiny. Extract 68 is a quotation from Wil liam Comstock, the brother of Samuel Comstock, the chief mutineer on the Globe. The source of this quotation has puzzled scholars for years. William Comstock published a small book about his brother entitled The Life of Samuel Comstock, the Terrible Whaleman in 1840. It was republished in 1845 as The Life of Samuel Comstock, the Bloody Mutineer. It is interest ing, asF. DeWolfe Miller pointed out, that the passage Melville quotes in his Extract is iden tical in both editions, but "he cites a fact found only in the first-that the author was brother to the mutineer-but has the title of the

second" ("Another Chapter in the History of the Great White Whale" [1968]. p. 111). Other scholars have taken up this trouble some quest for the exact source of the Samuel Comstock quotation, but it is still unfinished. As can be seen from these examples, writ ings by Nantucket writers and about Nan tucket were important sources Melville used to complement his own experience as a basis for Moby-Dick. The island's romantic reputa tion as the fountainhead of Yankee whaling culture appealed to Melville more than the workaday appearance he may have remem bered from Fairhaven and New Bedford.

Mary K. Bercaw is on the staff at Williams College-Mystic Seaport Maritime Studies Pro gram and a Visiting Lecturer at Connecticut College. Although space requirements necessi tate omitting the footnotes and bibliogra phies of the Melville articles, the original and complete papers have been placed in the NHA Research Center for reference. Also available there is the outstanding Henry C. Coke Collection of important works by and about Herman Melville, in cluding first editions of his books, rare reprints, and other studies, many of which cannot be found elsewhere.

ITEMS OF INTEREST � llect·ons Inventory Gets a Boost The inventory of the NHA's collection re ceived a big boost the first week of September when the collections management computer software REGIS was installed. With this sys tem up and running the dreary process of checking past accession records can now be accomplished in a fraction of the time. This past year volunteers helped Curator of Col lections Mike Jehle and his assistant, Maureen Dwyer, inventory the scrimshaw and textile collections. With the advent of fall, Mike and

Maureen wi.ll once again need volunteers to help record information on the computer, inventory other parts of the collection, and pack objects in anticipation of moving the collection next spring lo the new Museum Support Center. We look forward to seeing the dedicated volunteers from this past year, such as Hildegarde Yan Lieu, Kim Corkran, and Nancy Pullen joined by some fresh new faces. Please call Mike or Maureen at 2281894 if you are interested.

Peter Foulger Museum Reopens

Pho10 by Gay! Michael

Following the Annual Meeting in July mem bers, trustees, and advisors headed to the newly reopened Peter Foulger fora reception. The reception was orchestrated by trustee Kim Corkran and catered by Colin Edgell as a gift to the NHA. The sixty guests enjoyed the exhibit mounted by Curator of Interpretation Bruce Courson, with the help of Assistant Curator of Collections, Maureen Dwyer. The exhibit consists of a collection of baskets, fu milure, paintings, children's toys and dolls, fire buckets, a selection to illustrate the his tory of lighting on the island, and an extensive arrowhead collection. Many of the pieces that are on exhibit at the Peter Foulger were ac quired and given by the Friends of the Nan lucket Historical Association.

Up & Comin Tuesday, October 1, 1991, 7:30 p.m., Whaling Museum "Antarctica - Reminiscences of a Nan tucketer." An illustrated lecture covering the period of early exploration through present day scientific research. Commander Maurice E. Gibbs, a native Nantucketer, Executive Director of the Nan tucket Historical Association. Saturday, October 12, 1991, Whaling Museum - time to be announced Bill Schustik, balladeer, singing sea chan ties, a benefit for the NHA's Museum Support Center. Sunday, October 13, 1991 11:lSa.m., Quaker Meeting House, Fair Street, Free to the public. Join us as we celebrate the one-hundred year anniversary of the last Meeting of the original Nantucket Society of Friends (the Quakers). Rellections by author and long time summer resident, Charles H. Carpenter. Tuesday, October 15, 1991, 7:30 p.m., Whaling Museum "A Cape Cod Sampler - An illustrated lecture of the history of samplers on Cape Cod and the Islands." Lynne M. Horton, Curator of History, the Sandwich Historical Society Glass Museum. Tuesday, October 29, 1991 7:30 p.m., Whaling Museum "A Century of Water Service on Nan tucket" David Worth, Company Manager of the Wannacomet Water Company. Tuesday, November 19, 7:30 p.m., Whal ing Museum "Folk Art. Has it come of age in the twentieth century?" - Carolyn Walsh

Members Summer Party Success! Our first Annual Members Summer Party welcomed over three-hundred members and their guests to 99 Main Street. Chairperson MiMi Congdon and volunteer committees coordinated the entire delicious and delight ful affair. The highlight of the evening was a raffle of the John Stobart framed print "New Bedford" donated by the artist to benefit the

Farewell to a Friend This summer the Historical Association, along with the entire community of Nantucket, mourned the loss of an active and loyal mem ber, Alexander Craig. Roy True, former Presi dent of the NHA, now Director of the Whaling Museum, said that Sandy was as close a friend

Historical Association. Rhoda Weinman, the raffle winner, graciously declined her prize where upon Raphael Osona commenced a lively auction of the print. After a few mo ments of intensive bidding, Mr. and Mrs. Bennjesser made the highest bid and happily At our most recent Annual Meeting a con carried off the Stobart. cerned member raised the issue of exposing the original lintel underneath the Whaling Museum facade. When the candle factory was turned into a museum the Federal facade was placed overthe brownstone to dress the build ing up a bit. While some repair work was being done nine years ago the lintel was as he'd ever had. "He was an enthusiastic photographed by an NHA staff member. The worker for what the Historical Association Historical Association is very much aware of stands for." Sandy was President of the Hospi the importance of this tangible piece of his tal Board while Roy served on it as well. His tory. The names of Hadwen and Barney may gentle wisdom and presence will be missed by be revealed again as a part of a total restora all who had the good fortune of knowing him. tion of the building in the future.

Hadwen & Barney

THE MUSEUM SHOP

With Herman Melville as our theme for the fall issue or Historic Nantucket, the Museum Shop continues to offer a wide selection or his publications. Highlighted is our Moby-Dich collection which ranges from the paperback to several hardÂ cover copies. Rockwell Kent's edition, with over two-hundred and seventy exquisite illustrations, is included in our library, along with other classics such as Billy Budd. Children are not forgotten with several versions or Moby-Dich appropriate for ages five and over. Soon after Moby Dick was published, Herman Melville made his first and only trip to Nantucket, which you read about in Susan Beegle's article in this issue. When Melville's book was first published it was poorly received; however, Nathaniel Hawthorne was among the first to recognize Melville's talents and encourÂ aged him to continue writing. While working as a customs officer in New York City, the author did the majority of his writing in complete obscurity. He died in 1891 and remained virtually unknown until the early twentieth century. Stop by and browse through the Museum Shop's Melville collection.

The Museum Shop Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-century Reproductions and Adaptations Featuring Fine China, Furniture, Brass, and Silver Adjacent to the Whaling Museum, Nantucket (508)-228-5785

Members of the Historical Association are entitled to a 10% discount upon presenting their membership card.