![]() ![]() The world-wide pursuit of the sperm whale drastically reduced their numbers. Sperm whaling became a specialty of the Nantucket whaling industry and was especially lucrative, just as it is described in the song. Ambergris, a waxy substance found in the intestines of the sperm whale, was, and still is, a precious commodity used to preserve scent in the perfume industry. Oil from the blubber of the sperm whale was of a higher quality than other whale oils and was used to make lamp oil, machine lubricants, and other products. Spermaceti, an oil containing wax harvested from the head of the sperm whale, was used to make clean burning candles, fine soaps, cosmetics, and, in liquid form, to make fuel for lamps. The sperm whales Gibbs sings of were the source of unusual substances with many uses. Also, more than one Nantucket whaling ship may have been the “good ship Henry” in the song. But Edward Wing Perry owned a shipping business in Nantucket in the 1850s and his brother William was a captain. I was not able to find the “Captain Edward Perry” of the song in records of Nantucket shipping. The song may have had some basis in fact, though there is not an exact match between the lyrics and historical records. But he says that he learned this song long before he went whaling: when he was a boy growing up on Nantucket. Gibbs was born in about 1851 and he did some whaling in his youth. The song clearly dates from whaling days. It is clear from the comments that the linguists were delighted at the chance to hear a song of New England whaling from someone who remembered the era. Miles Hanley is the interviewer, and the voice of another linguist, Marguerite Chappalaz, can be heard in the background. Gibbs of Nantucket, Massachusetts sings an untitled song about sperm whaling, recorded in 1934 by Miles Hanley and Robert Stone for the American Dialect Society research on New England dialects. In this recording, available via the link, James H. June eighth is World Oceans Day, and an opportunity to look at a few examples of folksongs that relate to the interconnection between humans and the sea from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. “ Cutting in a sperm whale.” Sailors cut a section of the head from a sperm whale in order to harvest spermaceti, a waxy oil, from the head cavity. ![]() Voices of Civil Rights Project collection.Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March.Charles Lafayette Todd and Robert Sonkin.Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series.
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