Whales and whaling

[Spars]

Oh thanks.
What's the title?

The Great War: The British Campaign in France and Flanders. Doyle was 55 in 1914 and tried to enlist. That didn't work.

 

[Roger Pellett]

The last Nautical Research Guild Conference that was held was in New Bedford MA. These conferences always ended with dinner and a speaker. That year the speaker was a lady from a local historic society ( further details escape me). She gave a fascinating talk about the multi cultural and multi racial whaling industry that resulted in the New Bedford melting pot that exists to this day.

Along the same line, this weekend’s Wall Street Journal reviewed a new book about the “seafaring Underground Railroad.” The South’s very long coastline and especially the use of slave labor as stevedores provided opportunities for escape that were often easier than the more famous overland routes. Once these African Americans had escaped, seafaring, particularly whaling gave them employment out of reach of slave catchers.

Roger

 

[Spars]

The last Nautical Research Guild Conference that was held was in New Bedford MA. These conferences always ended with dinner and a speaker. That year the speaker was a lady from a local historic society ( further details escape me). She gave a fascinating talk about the multi cultural and multi racial whaling industry that resulted in the New Bedford melting pot that exists to this day.

Along the same line, this weekend’s Wall Street Journal reviewed a new book about the “seafaring Underground Railroad.” The South’s very long coastline and especially the use of slave labor as stevedores provided opportunities for escape that were often easier than the more famous overland routes. Once these African Americans had escaped, seafaring, particularly whaling gave them employment out of reach of slave catchers.

Roger

F rom your comment Whalong captains cared about what a seaman could do not his hieght, weight, etc.

 

[Roger Pellett]

The book is Freedom Ship by Marcus Rediker. I haven’t read and it’s not in my library. From the review, it looks interesting.

A but further afield but I have read that the ultimate escape for escaped slaves was Canada. Slavery was illegal in the states of the Old Northwest, and Northern Ohio in particular was highly Abolitionist. But, after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act it was legal for slave catchers to kidnap escaped slaves in these areas and to return them back into slavery.

Escape to Canada was across Lake Erie or the Detroit River. Schooner captains were often willing to either smuggle escaped slaves across the lake or to hire them as crews.

Roger

 

[Spars]

The book is Freedom Ship by Marcus Rediker. I haven’t read and it’s not in my library. From the review, it looks interesting.

A but further afield but I have read that the ultimate escape for escaped slaves was Canada. Slavery was illegal in the states of the Old Northwest, and Northern Ohio in particular was highly Abolitionist. But, after the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act it was legal for slave catchers to kidnap escaped slaves in these areas and to return them back into slavery.

Escape to Canada was across Lake Erie or the Detroit River. Schooner captains were often willing to either smuggle escaped slaves across the lake or to hire them as crews.

Roger

Freedom Ship sounds interesting. It interests me that the resixdents of every seceeded state sent at least one regiment to the union Army.