Whales and Wiener Dogs

The Voyage Of The Pequod

…if you’re planning to do exactly what I’m doing while you’re there:

1. Arrive in time to see some people read some Moby Dick, then
2. Check out the New Bedford Whaling Museum
3. Visit the Seamen’s Bethel
4. Late lunch/early dinner at Antonio’s
5. Pre-reading libations and perhaps some playoff tackle football (somewhere near the whaling museum…there’s this place we went last year, but I can’t recall what it’s called).
6. Read at the Moby Dick-A-Thon (830PM)
7. Dinner at No Problemo
8. Watch the Capital Radio rock show at No Problemo (around 11PM).
9. Mohegan Sun

Look familiar?

I thought so...

It seems that Christy at Superheroes and Princesses published her own account of a trip to the New Bedford Whaling Museum only days after I published my own masterpiece.

While Christy’s review is wrapped in an actual graphic design and features pictures of her adorable children, my review has the advantage of being totally awesome.

I would also like to add that, unlike her children, I was not given the opportunity by museum staff to learn how to raise a ship’s sails, therefore there are no pictures of me in any type of “action.”

Also, when I went to the New Bedford Whaling Museum, I went alone, therefore there was no one there to take my picture, even if I had been in “action.” (Although I guess there was that one guy that did take that one picture after he saw me failing repeatedly to get the shot I was after by setting my camera’s timer)

• Northwest Alaska village lands first whale in 72 years. The village, Point Lay, has been given a quota of exactly ONE whale by the IWC
• Australia hasn’t given up on reforming the IWC and ending commercial whaling for good
• Apparently a visit by a woman from Kazakhstan is worth a mention in the local New Bedford paper, but not when I spend a full day there spending money and writing about the place
• Panama’s got no love for whaling, and they are going to make that know at the upcoming IWC meeting
• Mystic Seaport is going to have a Moby Dick-a-thon on July 31, which means it’s possible my wife could go into labor while I’m there.

For a good chunk of the 19th century, New Bedford, Massachusetts was one of the most diverse, prosperous, and progressive cities in the United States. But now, a hundred years later, long after the demise of the American Whaling Industry, New Bedford is reduced to advertising that it’s a place where “parking is free on the weekend.” But who cares, right? Industries come, and industries go. Just ask Iceland, which is ironically trying to dig its way out of economic ruin, by what? That’s right…Whaling!

I, for one, visit New Bedford a handful of times per year. It’s a great place to spend a few hours, especially if you love maritime history and Herman Melville (which I do and do).

But, first things first. Food. A diet coke, a pint of beer, a stuffed quahog, and a plate or Portuguese beef stew set me back less than 13 bucks at Antonio’s. I can sum Antonio’s up as follows: It tastes good. There’s usually some cute Portuguese girls working there at the bar and/or the pick up window. I ate there at noon and didn’t need to eat again until after 10PM. And my meal cost 13 bucks, alcohol included.

Breakfast of champions...and this is the "lunch portion" (quahog, not pictured)

Second things second…I don’t want to sound arrogant or anything, but I don’t often learn new stuff at whaling museums anymore. But today…I learned something. The scientific name for blue whales is Balaenoptera musculus…and, as it turns out, musculus can be interpreted as meaning “muscular” from the latin, but it can also be be interpreted as “tiny mouse,” and it’s commonly believed that this double-entendre was intentional on the part of the man who gave the name, Carl Linnaeus.

And third things third…I “Stubbed” my toe in front of the Seaman’s Bethel. No shit. It cracked me up…

Anyhoo…first stop post-food…the Seaman’s Bethel.

The Seamen's Bethel - New Bedford, Mass...as featured in Moby Dick

The Seamen’s Bethel, built between 1831 and 1832, served as the inspiration for Melville’s famous Chapel, Pulpit, and Sermon chapters of Moby Dick. I accept at face value that Melville sat in the pew below when he visited the very same building in 1840. Otherwise, why would it say that it was his pew?

Herman Melville's pew at the Seamen's Bethel (great font, btw)

The bow-shaped pulpit was something that Melville imagined, and was only installed in 1961, after the Gregory Peck version of Moby Dick brought a new influx of Moby Dick-interested visitors to New Bedford.

If you had to preach in this every week, wouldn't you be like, "Really? Really?"

To me, the cenotaphs are the highlights of the bethel. A cenotaph is a monument to honor a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere…like the bottom of the ocean perhaps?

Poor Cap'n Swain made an Ahab-esque exit from this world.

This isn't the most ironic way to die on a whaling voyage, but it's in the top two.

Next stop…The New Bedford Whaling Museum, of course.

It really is better than the one in Nantucket...(I think)

The New Bedford Whaling Museum is so awesome that it has random whale parts just laying about.

The jawbone of a sperm whale...

Baleen in the corner of the New Bedford Whaling Museum

The museum is currently featuring an exhibit of classic whaling prints. If my memory serves, it covers Dutch, British, French, American, and Japanese prints. The highlight is an installation called “The french are the lads…” which features the prints that Melville reviews positively in chapter 55 “Of the Monstrous Pictures of Whales.”

The French Are The Lads...

And in these astonishing centuries-old Japanese prints, it’s confirmed that the Japanese continue to employ traditional methods in their modern day whaling endeavors.

Traditional Japanese Whaling several hundred years ago

Modern Japanese Whaling (identical to above)

And they also had on display some Rockwell Kent-illustrated copies of Moby Dick.

Rockwell Kent-illustrated Moby Dick...Even through the glass, you can smell the communism in the drawings.

Um…what else? Well, I saw a genuine Susan’s Tooth.

A genuine Frederick Myrick.

Kids like whale bones. Everybody likes whale bones, when you think about it. They got whale bones.

Blue whale and right whale (bones)...I think. I know the big bones are of a blue whale

They have a 90-foot, half-scale model of the whaling bark Logoda.

The Whaling Bark Logoda - New Bedford Whaling Museum

And they have a whale wall mural with a cool Moby Dick in it.

That's me.

That's Herman Melville's great-great-grandson.

So…after I left the Whaling Museum, I more or less did about half the walking tour. I didn’t get down to some of the gardens, and I didn’t get over to the seaport area, which you can see from the museum actually.

The New Bedford, Massachusetts waterfront.

They’ve got this big visitors center, and I’m just going to be honest with you here…there really isn’t anything in it. Like maybe one or two things and a bookshop that’s more like a bookshelf. I’m not trying to talk you out of going in there or anything. They’ve got maps of the walking tour in there.

And, while I’m being honest, I’m not a HUGE fan of “The City that Lit the World” - a low-budget doc about New Bedford’s whaling past, i.e., I probably wouldn’t watch it a 3rd time.

There’s this “Dead Whale or a Stove Boat” statue.

New Bedford Whaling Tribute Statue

The Quaker values that dominated ruling-class New Bedford society in the 19th century stood in stark opposition to slavery, and New Bedford was a prominent home to abolitionists and freed and escaped slaves. Frederick Douglass lived in the house on the left in the pic below.

Frederick Douglass House, New Bedford, Mass. (left) - the house on the right is famous too, it housed some abolitionists and freed slaves.

I’ll leave you with these images. Myself, when I saw them, it was time to go. I have no idea honestly…

Double-you tee eff ?

I haven’t regretted not stealing a sign more since I didn’t steal the Lolita Bra Store sign down on the lower east side of Manhattan…(and now it’s gone, and I’m the only person that even remembers it).

I actually sort of needed this place to be open.

So, do yourself a favor and spend some time in New Bedford, Mass. one afternoon. The Whaling Museum is top notch. The city’s forgotten more history and relevance than 99.9% of this country ever had. And it’s got a few shops and a couple places to eat. And be sure to come back in January to watch me read at the Moby Dick-a-thon.

More news from the world of whales:

• The New Bedford Whaling Museum has a blog!
• The opposition in Australia is accusing the government of dropping it’s campaign promise to take Japan to international court over whaling. (ABC News)
• James Bond goes to the white house to say he hates whaling (Politico.com)

More news from the world of whales:

Disturbing?...Yes

Disturbing?...No

• Is Iceland as fucked up as North Korea yet? Signs point to yes! From whale watching boats, you’ll soon be able to see whales get killed. (AFP)
• Including the “naked chicks with no fur against fur” genre in a list of 11 more Disturbingly Creative Environmental Ads just seems lazy…or confused…or both.(WebEcoist)
• First quarter visits to the New Bedford Whaling Museum up 8 percent YTY (Boston Business Journal)

NY Times account of the Ann Alexander's sinking (NY Times, Nov. 5, 1851)

The sinking of the whaleship Essex at the hands (or head) of a sperm whale in 1820 has earned a level of immortality due to a number of factors; it was the inspiration for Moby Dick, as well as the subject of Nathaniel Philbrick’s In the Heart of the Sea (also soon to be a movie). The story of astonishing and incomprehensible hardship told by the survivors of the Essex featured cannibalism and the drawing of lots to determine a person to be sacrificed and eaten.

However, the Essex was not the only whaleship done in by a sperm whale. There was also the Ann Alexander, out of New Bedford, which was stove by a whale near the Galapagos Islands in 1851. While not quite as epic as the tale of the Essex, and not nearly as long, the last hunt of the Ann Alexander, much like the novel “Moby Dick,” manages to capture the greed, hubris, and just plain industry of America’s 19th century whaling exploits via its pursuit of a single sperm whale.

The story goes something like this: Captain John Deblois, skipper of the Ann Alexander, left New Bedford June 1, 1850, took 500 barrels in the Atlantic, then rounded the Horn in 1851. After provisioning in South America, the Ann Alexander headed west to the “Off Shore Ground” in August and resumed the hunt.

On August 20, the Ann Alexander dropped two boats, one of which harpooned a whale. After attempting to escape, the whale turned, and with jaws wide open, attacked and destroyed the whaleboat to which it was attached. Upon seeing this, the second boat, captained by Deblois, raced to the scene and saved all nine crew members.

At this point, a third ship - the “waste-boat” - was dropped and it set off to help, as there were now 18 men in a single boat. That boat holding 18 men was now at least six miles from the Ann Alexander. Think about that. Six freakin’ miles! Imagine if that was your job. How hard is the job you have now? Mine’s not that hard. I have satellite TV in my office and I go to work around 1030 or 11 (am).

But I digest…so, the waste-boat rows the six miles to meet the whaleboat, and, after discussing it a bit, they determine to set out in tandem to try again to kill the whale. This time, as soon as the whale saw the boats returning, he attacked again, this time destroying the waste-boat. Deblois plucked whalers from the water a second time and returned to the Ann Alexander.

Once back on board the relative safety of the larger vessel, the captain set out for the whale a third time, this time giving chase via the Ann Alexander. The crew caught up with the whale and lanced its head. After a bit more cat-and-mouse, the whale seemed to disappear under the waves for a spell, only to reappear moving on the ship at a speed of 15 knots. The whale rammed the boat, and the collision put a hole completely through the hull of the ship. The crew had no choice but to abandon ship.

After a day or so of salvaging the sinking vessel under harrowing conditions, the 22 crewman found themselves drifting in the Pacific with only a few days rations. Almost miraculously, they were saved on August 22nd by the whaleship Nantucket and taken to Paita, Peru.

And, in a case of supreme irony, Melville’s Moby Dick was released only a few days after news of the Ann Alexander broke. Said Melville:

Ye Gods! What a commentator is this Ann Alexander whale. What he has to say is short & pithy & very much to the point. I wonder if my evil art has raised this monster.

The Ann Alexander actually has a really terrible wikipedia entry. It’s only a few lines long, and it says that the “sinking of the ship may have contributed to the success of Herman Melville’s book Moby-Dick.” Here’s the thing, though, Moby Dick wasn’t successful, at least not in Melville’s lifetime…so if you’re the kind of person who likes contributing to wikipedia, get to work.

"Whaling City" writer-director Jay Burke in New Bedford (Don Cuddy/The Standard-Times)

Chip Hourihan, producer of the Oscar-nominated film “Frozen River,” and writer-director Jay Burke were recently in New Bedford to pitch their movie idea to the locals. According to the press on hand, the two found an “ocean of support” for their project about commercial fisherman (not whaling - at least as far as I can tell from the article).

Shooting in New Bedford is set for later this year.