History of arctic whaling and author's experiences as photographer with the Southern Whaling and Sealing Co. in Falkland Islands Dependencies, 1923-25.

History of arctic whaling and author's experiences as photographer with the Southern Whaling and Sealing Co. in Falkland Islands Dependencies, 1923-25.

It’s almost impossible to imagine spending eight months at sea “without once putting foot on land.” But that’s exactly what whalers experienced when playing the dangerous “game of chance,” hunting down leviathans for oil and bone—all for a “lay,” or share, of the vessel’s spoils. A Game of Chance is the first comprehensive, in-depth study of British North American South Seas whaling. Author Andrea Kirkpatrick takes readers on a series of fascinating and sometimes fantastical journeys as she chronicles in great detail the story of a largely forgotten industry that operated out of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick ports from the 1760s to 1850. Kirkpatrick plumbed the depths of myriad logbooks and journals to piece together the often-murky tales of an astonishing number of ships. In this treatise covering a century of whaling, she shares details such as ownership, tonnage, voyages, captains’ pedigrees, and names of crewmen, including nascent whaler Herman Melville, author of Moby-Dick. Hoping for “greasy luck,” the men who manned these ships found both camaraderie and competition as they hunted the world’s whaling grounds from Cape Horn to Kamchatka, many circumnavigating the globe during their careers. They battled squalls and high seas, scurvy and venereal disease, heartbreak and homesickness—and sometimes each other. Many never returned home, their bodies committed to the deep or buried on foreign land. Written in two parts—landward and seaward—Kirkpatrick’s clear prose and adoption of whaling lingua franca brings this high-risk venture to the fore with authenticity, newly revealed facts, and remarkable stories of adventure.

Originally published as an award-winning article in the North Carolina Historical Review, this fascinating study traces the history of whaling in the state from the seventeenth century until World War I. Includes a number of colorful accounts of local whaling around Shackleford Banks in the latter half of the nineteenth century and a vivid description of the catch of the "Mayflower," North Carolina's best-known whale.

Wherein are discussed the first whalemen of whom we have record; the growth of the European whaling industry, and of its offspring, the American whaling industry; primitive whaling among the savages of North America; the various manners and means of taking whales in all parts of the world and in all time of its history; the extraordinary adventures and mishaps that have befallen whalemen the seas over; the economic and social conditions that led to the rise of whaling and hastened its decline; and, in conclusion, the present state of the once flourishing and lucrative industry.

A Los Angeles Times Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007 A Boston Globe Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007 Amazon.com Editors pick as one of the 10 best history books of 2007 Winner of the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History, given by the North American Society for Oceanic History "The best history of American whaling to come along in a generation." —Nathaniel Philbrick The epic history of the "iron men in wooden boats" who built an industrial empire through the pursuit of whales. "To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme," Herman Melville proclaimed, and this absorbing history demonstrates that few things can capture the sheer danger and desperation of men on the deep sea as dramatically as whaling. Eric Jay Dolin begins his vivid narrative with Captain John Smith's botched whaling expedition to the New World in 1614. He then chronicles the rise of a burgeoning industry—from its brutal struggles during the Revolutionary period to its golden age in the mid-1800s when a fleet of more than 700 ships hunted the seas and American whale oil lit the world, to its decline as the twentieth century dawned. This sweeping social and economic history provides rich and often fantastic accounts of the men themselves, who mutinied, murdered, rioted, deserted, drank, scrimshawed, and recorded their experiences in journals and memoirs. Containing a wealth of naturalistic detail on whales, Leviathan is the most original and stirring history of American whaling in many decades.