Temporary record

Correspondence of Elihu Russell, Captain of the New Bedford whaling ships, the Johanna (1844-45) and the Emma (1847), and his wife Phebe. Russell's whaling voyages of 1844-47 were not particularly successful. He frequently complains of not seeing any whales in the South Atlantic, though his luck picks up somewhat as the cruise enters the Indian Ocean. Russell's letters provide a little detail on whaling operations and less on the specifics of ship-board life, but record the numbers of whales sighted and taken and the amount of oil rendered. Other letters include requests by seamen to sign on to a whaler, and a series of chatty personal letters to Phebe Russell from her cousins the Wrights

M-2678j

Subjects

Whaling--Massachusetts
Maxfield, Charles P.

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