a whale. If we cannot get ourselves, it is a great satisfaction to know that others are not taking it in great quantities. . . . Oh, where shall whales be found?
Mrs. Lawrence recorded that her “sorrow found vent in tears,” until finally, “Eureka! Eureka! We have got a bowhead at last.” And then: “We have been eating bowhead meat for several days. . . . It is really good eating, far before salt pork in my estimation.”
In July 1859, when she learned that a few lucky ships had, just one month earlier, found a great pod of whales and scored an enormous windfall of oil off Cape Thaddeus, where the Addison had cruised so fruitlessly the year before, Mary Lawrence was sick with envy:
Imagine our feelings when we were told there had been a grand cut taken off Cape Thaddeus by a few ships in June, where thirty or forty ships were hanging about for weeks in the ice last season and not a whale to be seen. . . . The Mary and Susan took 1,600 barrels, the Eliza Adams 1,400, Nassau seven whales, Omega seven, Mary six, William C. Nye six. Those are all the ships we have heard of that were there. I never felt so heartsick in my life. . . . Why couldn’t we have been one of the number? Because it was not for us, I suppose.
In the late fall, when the weather turned cold off Siberia, Captain Williams turned the Florida east and sailed his ship across the entire Pacific Ocean for a winter’s whaling off the Mexican coast of Baja California. This was a seasonal migration for many whaleships, and the wide bays and lagoons north of Cabo San Lucas had all the social attractions of a riviera for whaling wives and families.
At Turtle Bay, the Williamses’ Florida shared an anchorage with four other ships, another Florida among them:
DECEMBER 9TH.
It has been a splendid day, and my Husband, Willie and I have been aboard of the Florida, to see Capt. Fish and Wife, and spent the day very pleasantly. They have a little Son with them, 6 years old. . . .
DECEMBER 23RD.
It has been a very fine day. My Husband, Willie and I have been aboard of the Florida and spent the day very pleasantly with Capt. Fish and his Wife. Captain Hempstead and his Wife were there. I like them very much. Mrs H. is a little, small Woman and quite pretty.
Cruising along this same coast two years earlier in the Addison , Mary Lawrence, her husband Samuel, and their eight-year-old daughter Minnie joined a picnic in progress:
Saw a tent with flags flying onshore; concluded they were having a picnic. Soon after we were anchored, a boat came off to us with an invitation to us to unite with them, which invitation we cordially accepted. On our arrival there we found Captain Willis, wife, and three children; Captain Weeks, wife and two children . . . Captain Ashley, wife and one child of the Reindeer; Captain May of the Dromo . . . and Captain Lawrence, wife, and one child of the Addison. Made ten captains, four ladies, and seven children. We could hardly realize that we were whaling. Had a nice chowder, coffee, cold ham, cake, bread, crackers, and cookies. We also roasted plenty of oysters.
Through the winter, Thomas, Eliza, and Willie socialized their way down the Mexican coast. Eliza was still ready to party on February 26: “I am going on board [the Cambria] to see Mrs Pease this evening.”
The next day—no mention of the approaching event appears in her journal—Eliza again gave birth. “We have had an addition to the Florida’s Crew in the form of a little Daughter,” she recorded, a full month later, as the ship rolled west again across the Pacific toward the Hawaiian Islands, “born on the 27th of February in Banderas Bay on the Coast of Mexico. She weighed 6-3/4 pounds, is now one month old and weighs 9 pounds. . . . Willie is much pleased with his little Sister.”
IN THE PROCESS OF SAILING up and down and across the length and breadth of the Pacific—in some cases entirely around the world through the Roaring
Mrs. Lawrence recorded that her “sorrow found vent in tears,” until finally, “Eureka! Eureka! We have got a bowhead at last.” And then: “We have been eating bowhead meat for several days. . . . It is really good eating, far before salt pork in my estimation.”
In July 1859, when she learned that a few lucky ships had, just one month earlier, found a great pod of whales and scored an enormous windfall of oil off Cape Thaddeus, where the Addison had cruised so fruitlessly the year before, Mary Lawrence was sick with envy:
Imagine our feelings when we were told there had been a grand cut taken off Cape Thaddeus by a few ships in June, where thirty or forty ships were hanging about for weeks in the ice last season and not a whale to be seen. . . . The Mary and Susan took 1,600 barrels, the Eliza Adams 1,400, Nassau seven whales, Omega seven, Mary six, William C. Nye six. Those are all the ships we have heard of that were there. I never felt so heartsick in my life. . . . Why couldn’t we have been one of the number? Because it was not for us, I suppose.
In the late fall, when the weather turned cold off Siberia, Captain Williams turned the Florida east and sailed his ship across the entire Pacific Ocean for a winter’s whaling off the Mexican coast of Baja California. This was a seasonal migration for many whaleships, and the wide bays and lagoons north of Cabo San Lucas had all the social attractions of a riviera for whaling wives and families.
At Turtle Bay, the Williamses’ Florida shared an anchorage with four other ships, another Florida among them:
DECEMBER 9TH.
It has been a splendid day, and my Husband, Willie and I have been aboard of the Florida, to see Capt. Fish and Wife, and spent the day very pleasantly. They have a little Son with them, 6 years old. . . .
DECEMBER 23RD.
It has been a very fine day. My Husband, Willie and I have been aboard of the Florida and spent the day very pleasantly with Capt. Fish and his Wife. Captain Hempstead and his Wife were there. I like them very much. Mrs H. is a little, small Woman and quite pretty.
Cruising along this same coast two years earlier in the Addison , Mary Lawrence, her husband Samuel, and their eight-year-old daughter Minnie joined a picnic in progress:
Saw a tent with flags flying onshore; concluded they were having a picnic. Soon after we were anchored, a boat came off to us with an invitation to us to unite with them, which invitation we cordially accepted. On our arrival there we found Captain Willis, wife, and three children; Captain Weeks, wife and two children . . . Captain Ashley, wife and one child of the Reindeer; Captain May of the Dromo . . . and Captain Lawrence, wife, and one child of the Addison. Made ten captains, four ladies, and seven children. We could hardly realize that we were whaling. Had a nice chowder, coffee, cold ham, cake, bread, crackers, and cookies. We also roasted plenty of oysters.
Through the winter, Thomas, Eliza, and Willie socialized their way down the Mexican coast. Eliza was still ready to party on February 26: “I am going on board [the Cambria] to see Mrs Pease this evening.”
The next day—no mention of the approaching event appears in her journal—Eliza again gave birth. “We have had an addition to the Florida’s Crew in the form of a little Daughter,” she recorded, a full month later, as the ship rolled west again across the Pacific toward the Hawaiian Islands, “born on the 27th of February in Banderas Bay on the Coast of Mexico. She weighed 6-3/4 pounds, is now one month old and weighs 9 pounds. . . . Willie is much pleased with his little Sister.”
IN THE PROCESS OF SAILING up and down and across the length and breadth of the Pacific—in some cases entirely around the world through the Roaring
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