Preparing For A 19th Century Whaling Voyage

You’re standing on the quay in Sag Harbor before a whaling ship named ‘’The Montaukette”. You’re graced with a fine 19th-century name of “Samuel R. Butt”. You are one of three mates on board for the next voyage. The captain is Abraham Cooper hailing from East Hampton. The ship owners are twin brothers Isaiah and Isaiah Sylvester from Shelter Island who ironically married the almost beautiful twin sisters, Felicity and Felicity Floyd from Mastic. You just can’t make this stuff up.

It’s 1855 and your job is to outfit the ship for a three-year voyage around Cape Horn to the Pacific whaling grounds. First, you inspect all the whaling equipment on board from the previous voyage. Do you have an ample supply of long harpoons to engage the whales and shorter lances to dispatch them once they tire? If they need sharpening, you see it gets done. During the long voyage, there are facilities on board to keep them sharp. You check the long-handled blubber cutting knives, hooks, forks, and mincing knives used to cut the thick blubber into “Blubber wheels” so they can be rendered down to oil in giant iron cauldrons secured to the main deck. These are called “Try Pots’’ and you make sure they are not cracked. You, Mr. Butt, make sure there is an adequate supply of all important tools. Without them whales caught cannot be processed. In addition, make sure there is an adequate supply of hammers, awls, axes, hand saws of various sizes, knives, various wooden dowels for quick fixes of hull leaks, barrels of various size nails and large clench pins for major repairs. Remember to take extra spars in case of damage in a storm. Also, stow extra wood blanks and stores of coal to keep the fires under the cauldrons burning.
Now you turn your attention to all the barrels needed. They are made by a barrel “Cooper” to hold processed whale oil. The largest holds 165 gallons of whale oil each. Your ship needs 400 pre-assembled plus unassembled parts on board to make an additional 1,400 barrels when the initial ones are filled. Smaller barrels are made to fit tighter areas below decks. Every ship has a cooper on board to care for, seal, and make additional barrels. Barrels could hold extra sails, and other equipment until they needed to be filled with oil. This frees up space below at the beginning of the voyage.
Smaller casks store foods that do not spoil quickly. You load up on salted pork, beef, and salt tack biscuits in addition to purchasing stable greens such as broccoli, and cauliflower, which only last for the beginning of the voyage plus barrels of potatoes, rice, and dried beans. You provide pigs, ducks and chickens that will roam the deck for fresh meat that usually went only to the captain and mates. Don’t forget the lemons to prevent scurvy. Now, I don’t want to get accusatory Samuel, but when you dealt with provision suppliers did you add a “Vig “in it for yourself? Whoa! Calm down! Your reaction speaks for itself! Yeah, I know. Everybody does it!

The voyage foodstuffs would be augmented by fish caught. New provisions will be added in harbors of call all over the seas as foodstuffs get low. Fresh water is kept in barrels and replenished with rainwater or ports of call. There was a custom on whaling ships of a “Saturday Midnight, all you can eat buffet” like those you find on giganotosaurus cruise ships today. This cruise ship tradition began copying this tradition of the whaling ships of yesteryear. Who knew? The cook would put out a luscious giant smorgasbord. If the ship was near the Arctic, he’d carve giant ice mermaids and polar bears with endless rum pouring down into white crystal grog goblets. Oh Yeah, Samuel, don’t forget the rum.
Your next task is to look over the sails. The myth of whaling ships having majestic white sails is just that, a myth. Owners of whaling ships were notoriously cheap, and sails were heavily patched and filthy from the smoke of the whale blubber rendering process. The ship must carry raw canvas to repair and even sew new sails on deck during the voyage. Heavy needles, strong waxed string, and large shears are a must. Make sure the crude medical kit on board has every size saw to cut off legs, arms, fingers, ears, noses and even heads which is about all that could be done at sea in 1855.
Captain Cooper finally boards to check preparations. He looks around disappointingly and calls Butt. “Frankly Butt you seem a bit tardy in getting everything together. We’re sailing in 4 days. Get your butt in gear, Samuel Butt or I’ll kick your Butt!!! (This is how the term “Kicking Butt” started)
Make sure the captain’s stateroom is looked to and his bedding, plates, flatware, table cloths, and napkins are in good order and the night lamps functioning. Have the crew stone down the decks. (Cleaned by rubbing flat stones on the deck) Check the rat lines up the mast and have different widths of rope cordage on board and barrels of tar to coat the riggings. Are anchor chains in order and a spare in the hold?
“Is all in order now, Mr. Butt.?” Aye Captain! The crew is boarding with their gear and hammocks Sir!” “Fine Mr. Butt. Tomorrow, we sail!” So, Samuel, tonight is your last night with Mrs. Butt and all the little Butts at home. Tomorrow you’ll sail away for three or more years. Perhaps, while you’re away, additional Butts will be born. Isn’t that a happy thought?
Morning arrives, and you kiss Mrs. Butt and all the little butts goodbye.
When arriving at the Sag Harbor Quay, Captain Cooper is already on deck and the crew you acquired mill about looking like sleep-deprived vampires. Yep! This is going to be a bountiful voyage. The minister asks for silence and prays for the safety of “Montaukette” bringing a hush over the crowd. The last four ships this minister prayed over never returned. The captain grumbled lowly “Damn it, Samuel, of all the ministers in Sag Harbor, you get this guy?”
”Montaukette’’ moves on the outgoing tide! Sails are raised and filled with wind. She passes the Montauk Lighthouse. The crew is homesick or seasick already. The captain moves portside, looks over the gunnel and turns gray. He moves to the starboard, looks over the side and turns white. Standing erect he screams “Samuel! Get your Butt over here! Samuel runs while wondering what is wrong. The captain is now purple. He puts his anger-distorted mug in Butt’s face and blurts out “Samuel Butt! Where in the &(@# are the 6 whaling boats that are supposed to be hanging on the davits?
Samuel, you’re screwed-really, really screwed. Weren’t you having them cotton-corked, tarred, and painted at Bell’s Boatyard? Bell told you weeks ago they were done, and your crew should come by and row them to the “Montaukette”. The captain spins the ship around as the entire crew slams into the gunnels. Butt has a tangible feeling he isn’t getting back on the ship when Captain Cooper picks up his whaling boats and lifts them on the davits and waits for the next outgoing tide. You know you’re getting your butt kicked right down the gang blank.
So that’s what it’s like to provision a whaling ship in Sag Harbor in 1855.
Postscript- Want to know the fortunes of Samuel Butt after his humiliation.? For a while Butt was jobless. His wife was extremely pissed he wouldn’t be away for three years. So was Vice President Jonah Whimpo of the Sag Harbor Whalemen’s Bank. Samuel was never allowed to step on another ship on the east end of Long Island. Finally, he took his mother’s butter biscuit recipe and opened a bakery shop called “Butt’s Better Buns, Butter Biscuits and Bunt Cakes”. After 170 years it still operates next door to the beautifully restored American Hotel on Main Street, operated by the descendants of Samuel and Felicity Butt and probably Jonah Whimpo. There are no recorded DNA tests as of this writing.