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Families
on Whalers
A
seagoing male society: Whaling was a male occupation
that separated men and boys from their families for years.
The excitement of the chase and the work of processing
whales filled relatively few hours. Routine chores and
carving scrimshaw from whalebone and teeth were not enough
to prevent loneliness and boredom.
Mrs. Russell takes to the high seas: Families shared
the loneliness of the whalemen. In 1822, Mary Hayden Russell,
wife of Capt. Joseph Russell, and their young son, Charles,
became the first family known to have joined a whaling
voyage. Other families soon followed suit. A scholar has
identified several hundred seagoing wives. Many preferred
the discomforts of life at sea to years of separation.
Hen frigates: Although crewmen referred to a ship
that carried a woman as a "hen frigate," they were often
glad to have one aboard. On the Bark Powhatan, Caroline
Mayhew cared for eight hands who fell ill with smallpox
and navigated when her husband became sick. Mrs. Nathaniel
Jernagan helped the crew put out a shipboard fire, while
other wives were valued for spotting whales or calming
their husbands.
A narrow world: Other than calling out "There she
blows, " a wife was not allowed to participate in whaling.
Most women cooked, sewed, washed clothes, educated their
children, wrote diaries, or read. Others used music to
fill the long hours.
Fleas and cockroaches, seasickness and mutiny:
Whaling wives fought cockroaches and fleas, and often
suffered seasickness during violent storms. A few found
the crew unpleasant, while others experienced the dangers
of a mutiny aboard ship.
"The Gam," 1926 oil on canvas by Clifford W. Ashley.
Gamming: Gamming was a diversion for a wife, as
well as the captain and crew. When whalers met at sea,
the crews exchanged visits. The captain's wife was lowered
from ship to whaleboat in a gamming chair and rowed to
the other ship for a festive social occasion, visiting
with the other captain's wife.
Refuges: During the mid-nineteenth century, the
wives of missionaries, merchants, and whalers formed a
community of American women in Hawaii. A captain's family
might stop in Hawaii while his vessel went to the Arctic.
Later, some familes wintered in the Arctic (go to Arctic
Whaling for more information).
Babies: Wives sometimes stopped over in the Azores,
on a Pacific island, or in a South American port, to give
birth to babies conceived on the high seas. Other babies
were born at sea.
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