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COLD SPRING HARBOR, NY 

​Events & exhibits
​for all ages, all year!

When You Celebrate July 4, Thank a Whaler

6/29/2018

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Black and white photo of Mulford FarmhouseMulford Farmhouse is one of the oldest in Suffolk County.
Before George Washington, Paul Revere, and Alexander Hamilton, the first – and feistiest! - patriots were none other than Long Island whalers.

The first colonists were English Puritans who arrived to the east end in 1640. At the time, the area was considered an extension of Connecticut and New England – seen as remote and separate from the Dutch-ruled western end of Lange Eylant.  These pioneers were initially farmers, but they quickly became seasonal entrepreneurs after they noticed their enormous marine neighbors spouting by their shores: blubber-rich Right whales.

Whaling companies were launched during the winter months, hunting whales in rowboats on frigid beaches with the labor of local Native Americans. In large iron trypots on the sand, whaling crews stewed blubber until it melted into liquid gold - whale oil.  Whale oil was used chiefly for illumination (and later in time, for a variety of manufacturing purposes). Oil even served as a currency; local schoolteachers were paid in whale oil. For the next twenty years, colonists worked to perfect this trade. Whaling quickly became part of community life, with required whale-spotting shifts from able-bodied men. School even let out from December to April so children could help spot and process whales. Oil was shipped to New England rather than New Amsterdam to avoid Dutch taxes.

This trade route was suddenly halted when new commerce rules were set in place by England. The entire Long Island was now a part of New York. All goods were to be exported through New York City. The whale was a “royal fish,” from which the crown demanded a twenty to fifty percent tax. East-enders were horrified.   

The battle between whalers and England began.  Whalers were outraged at taxation without representation – foreshadowing the defiant Boston Tea Party a century later. Whalers rebelled by turning Long Island into a smuggler’s haven, avoiding taxes by continuing to ship their oil to Boston or New London. 

A string of upset New York governors tried to enforce the tax – generally unsuccessfully. When the Duke of York investigated how many whales were caught in the past 6 years – and what his share was – he found no records had been kept. Lord Cornbury, a later New York Governor, whined that “the illegal trade” was still carrying on between Long Island and New England.

With colonists’ protests falling on deaf ears, the towns of East Hampton, Southampton, and Southold bypassed the Governor of New York and submitted a petition to the court of England to be made a free corporation or continue under Connecticut rule. Their detailed list of complaints is similar to the tune of complaints in the Declaration of Independence. Their plea was denied.

Their solution? Ignore the whale tax anyway.

Colonists continued to smuggle the majority of oil to New England. New York merchants themselves were also flouting the law, which required all international trade to go through England. Instead, they traded directly with the West Indies, exchanging whale oil for rum, sugar, and cocoa.

Taking international trade into their own hands, New Yorkers who felt particularly courageous loaded up their ships and sailed with their goods to Madagascar, where there was an anarchist colony of none other than – pirates! Doing business with pirates was highly profitable, since it was all tax free.  An inspector noted that in 1695, Long Island “was a receptacle for pirates and the people generally a lawless and unruly set.”

Whalers continued to protest. One of the pluckiest whalers who objected to the tax was Samuel Mulford of East Hampton, who lived from 1644-1725. He was a bold and somewhat quirky fellow. He championed the cause of the whalers, himself a financially successful owner of a whaling company of 24 men. Elected as a representative to New York Assembly in 1683, he was expelled from the assembly twice for his outspoken demands; colonists simply re-elected him and sent him back. When he sailed to London to protest the whale oil tax, he sewed fishhooks in his pockets to deter pickpockets during his long wait outside Buckingham Palace.

Ultimately, the Crown eased taxation. Mulford didn’t get to see this victory, as this announcement came five years after his death. Encouragingly, various acts were passed by the British Parliament to support the lucrative whaling industry, but colonists’ frustrations towards their relationship with England never really went away. During the Revolutionary war, which brought whaling to a standstill, locals repurposed whaleboats for guerilla warfare against British efforts.

After American won its independence, a new era opened for whaling. In 1785, the Lucy left Sag Harbor to whale offshore Brazil; she returned with an unprecedented 360 barrels of whale oil. Americans took notice. To encourage trade, George Washington then authorized the first lighthouse in New York State to be built, the Montauk Lighthouse. The hundreds of whaleships that followed the Lucy would have sailed home from their global voyages directed by this lighthouse - illuminated by none other than whale oil.


More: Learn about Long Island whaleboats used in the Revolution ►​
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Learn More
  • Visit The Whaling Museum in Cold Spring Harbor (Open 11-5pm Daily in the Summer)
  • Visit Mulford’s Farm at the East Hampton Historical Society  http://www.easthamptonhistory.org/museums.php
  • More reading: She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea by Joan Druett; North Atlantic Right Whales: From Hunted Leviathan to Conservation Icon by David W. Laist;  Southampton: Images of America by Mary Cumming​
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Celebrating the Fourth of July -- on a Whaleship

7/3/2017

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By Nomi Dayan, Executive Director

While most people today visit the Whaling Museum while on vacation or during the weekend, there was no vacation or days off for a whaler.

Work was paramount for whaling crews. However, a whaler might look forward to the three holidays for which there was a chance of observance while at sea: the Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, and Christmas (with Thanksgiving being considered the most important of holiday at the time).

Captains dictated if and how a holiday was observed. If there were instruments on board, nationalistic music was played and sung. Some crews engaged in whaleboat races for sport. If the Captain was feeling generous, a special meal might be extended to even the lowest-ranking crew members.

Culinary celebrations gave welcome respite from a monotonous and dreary diet of food which was often infested or spoiled. On a holiday, whalers might enjoy sea pies, a kind of pot pie which sometimes contained dolphin meat, or lobscouse, a stew of salted meat, onions, and sea biscuits. Dessert might be mincemeat pie, which consisted of chopped meat, suet, raisins, apples, and spices, dandyfunk, a baked mass of hard tack crackers and molasses, or duff, a boiled pudding.

Robert Weir aboard the Clara Bell journaled about a distinct feast on July 4th. He wrote how the crew fired salutes and enjoyed “coconuts, roast pig, minced pie, soft tack, ginger cake, pepper sauce, Molasses, pepper, rice, and pickles – quite extensive for a sailor.” 

Aside from the chance of a special treat, July 4th - as with other holidays at sea - was likely to be a disappointment for those hoping for a break from work. Whaler William B. Whitecar Jr. recalled that when a crew member protested spinning yarn on the fourth of July, the commanding mate’s answer was “Yes – it is fourth of July at home, but not here.”

Many logbooks, official records of daily activity on whaleships, do not document any festivities on this date, instead solely focusing on catching whales. The logbook of the Lafayette off the coast of Peru recorded July 4, 1843 only as an unfruitful day: “So ended this Fourth of July pursuing whales.”

Women who joined their captain-husbands at sea often noted the marked lack of observance of July 4th. Eliza Williams, who sailed with Captain Thomas Williams on the Florida from Massachusetts to the North Pacific and birthed two children during the voyage, wrote in her journal in 1859 in the Shantar Sea: "July 4th… some of the boats, it seems see aplenty of Whales, and once in a while are lucky enough to take one, but not often.  Our boats lost two of their Men and that was not all … It doesn't seem much like the Fourth of July, up here."  

A few years later, she recorded in 1861: "July 4th. Today is Independence.  Oh how I would like to be at home and enjoy this day with family and friends.  We cannot celebrate it here with any degree of pleasure. Just after dinner, we spoke the bark Monmouth [Cold Spring Harbor ship], Capt. Ormsby...He reported the loss of the clipper ship Polar Star, Capt. Wood, Master. Capt. Ormsby also told us that the Alice Frazier is lost..."

Mary C. Lawrence also described July 4th as being subdued while aboard the Addison with her husband Captain Samuel Lawrence, having sailed from Massachusetts to the Pacific and Arctic during 1856-1860: "The Fourth of July today and the Sabbath.  How different our situation from our friends at home! A gale of wind with ice and land to avoid. The ice probably would be a refreshing sight to them.  Probably the celebration, if there is any to come off, will take place tomorrow.  We had a turkey stuffed and roasted with wild ducks, which are very plenty here. Perhaps tomorrow we may get a whale..."

In 1861, her journal followed the same theme: “July 4.  Minnie [daughter] arose early this morning and hoisted our flag, which was all the celebration we could boast of, as we did not get that whale that we hoped to.  A beautiful day, which I improved by washing, after waiting ten days for a clear day."

Martha Brown of Orient, Long Island, who had been dropped in Hawaii to give birth while her husband and crew continued onward to hunt whales, described her feelings of isolation. She addressed her husband in her journal on July 4th: “Yes the 4 of July has agane passed, and how think you, love, I have spent the day? Not as I did the last in your society, with our Dear little Ella [daughter left at home], but alone. Yes, truly alone. … My thoughts have been far from here today.”

There is great irony in considering how the very workers who powered America’s signature industry could not in reality celebrate its iconic national holiday. On the day when citizens on land joined feasts illuminated by whale candles and enjoyed parades wearing clothing stiffened by whalebone and fabric produced on machinery lubricated by whale oil, the very workers who produced these products were kept working, their eyes focused on catching the next whale.

Bibliography
  • Brown, Martha Smith Brewer.  She Went A-Whaling: The Journal of Martha Smith Brewer Brown from Orient, Long Island, New York, Around the World on the Whaling Ship Lucy Ann, 1847- 1849. Transcribed and edited by Anne MacKay; with a foreword by Joan Druett. Orient, NY: Oysterponds Historical Society, 1993.
  • The Captain's Best Mate, The Journal of Mary Chipman Lawrence on the Whaler Addison, 1856-1860. Stanton Garner, editor; 1966 by Brown University.
  • Oliver, Sandra. Saltwater Foodways. Mystic, Connecticut, Mystic Seaport Museum: 1995.
  • Robert Weir Papers. Manuscripts Collection 245. G. W. Blunt White Library, Mystic Seaport
  • Whitecar, William B. Four years aboard the whaleship: Embracing cruises in the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, and Antarctic oceans, in the years 1855, '6, '7, '8, '9. J.B. Lippincott & Company: 1864
  • Williams, Harold.  Whaling Wife: Being Eliza Williams’ Own Journal of Her Thirty-Eight Month Voyage with Her Husband, Master of the Ship Florida, from New Bedford to Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk in Pursuit of the Great Whales in American Heritage, Vol. 15, No. 4, June 1964, p. 64-79. http://www.americanheritage.com/content/whaling-wife

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Patriotic-themed scrimshaw from the collection of The Whaling Museum.


Maritime History in the Kitchen:

​
Plum Duff Recipe for July 4th

On July 4th, 1857, Mary Lawrence enjoyed dinner at sea followed by “a boiled pudding, or duff as we call it.”
 
The word “duff” originates from the northern English/Scottish form of “dough.” Boiled or steamed puddings were popular in the 1800’s and a treat on American vessels. Plain duff was sometimes served on Sundays, but plum duff was reserved for holidays.
 
John Perkins, who sailed on the Tiger in 1845, relished duff: “At noon we had duff for the first time which I believe all sailors think to be the greatest feast possible.” The dish may have been an acquired taste for others; Charles Abbey, a seaman on the Intrepid in 1859, wrote, “It is simply flour and water with dried apples mixed in and the whole boiled down hard and heavy as lead in a canvas bag… Two months ago I would have turned from it in disgust but now I am glad enough to eat it.”
 
This recipe is based on the writings of Clifford Ashley, who sailed from New Bedford on the whaling bark Sunbeam in 1904, and adapted by Sandra Oliver in Saltwater Foodways. Note that cooks likely did not include sugar in duff intended for low-ranking crew.
 
Ingredients

2 c  flour                                      ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar  
inch of salt
¼ c melted shortening            
¼ c sugar
2/3 c raisins (dried apples were also historically used)
2/3 c water
1 pudding bag or cloth

Optional: Cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and ground cloves. (Frederick Harlow Harlow stated aboard the Akbar in 1875: “Too much spice and wine is not good for sailors. It is liable to ruin one’s appetite.”)
 
Directions
Set a large pot of water on and heat to boiling. Sift together dry ingredients. Stir in melted shortening, sugar, and raisins. Wet the pudding bag or cloth in the boiling water, and dust it liberally with flour. Add the water to the dough and mix well; the dough should be fairly thick, but not stiff. Turn into the pudding bag, tie the bag leaving room for the duff to expand. Or put in a greased pudding mold. Put the duff in the boiling water, suspending it by tying it to a spoon if necessary to keep it from touching the bottom of the pot.  If in a bag, boil for four hours; steam for five hours if in a mold.  When done, turn it out of the cloth onto a serving dish. Let it stand a moment to set up. Duff has a gummy exterior and cake-like interior. Slice it and serve drizzled with molasses.

​Serves 12
​
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