Celebrating Christmas on a Whaleship (or Not)

By Nomi Dayan

If you showed a whaler a picture of a contemporary American family celebrating Christmas, he likely would have no idea what holiday he was looking at. Many of the familiar traditions we associate with Christmas today are relatively new.  Christmas trees, a rosy-cheeked Santa Claus, and even the seasonal spirit of generosity only took hold in the mid-to-late 1800s.  Yet as modern yuletide customs took shape during the Victorian era, Christmas was a different story for whalers at sea.

The Captain decided if and how the day was observed. Eldred Fysh was one of the lucky whalers. He wrote aboard English ship Coronet in 1837: “This being Christmas day, there was no work done and the Capt. gave the men the means of making themselves as comfortable as they could do."
​
William Morris Davis aboard the Chelsea (1834-36) of Connecticut was left disheartened. “I wish the world a merry Christmas, but there is no use in wishing a merry Christmas to that unfortunate race, generally known and vulgarly called Blubber Hunters. They have not wherewith to make a merry Christmas. This with us is plain Friday, only that occasionally someone bawls out, ‘I wish you a merry Christmas.’” 

---

Whaleship Splendid

​A more intimate view of Christmas at sea can be found in the diaries of whaling wives. Many remark celebrating Christmas with a special meal (a delight which may not have extended to the lower-ranked crew members). Eliza Edwards, who sailed from Honolulu on the Splendid of Cold Spring Harbor with her husband Eli, the first mate, wrote: “I don’t believe if you were home on Christmas and I at sea that you had any better dinner than I did. We had roast turkey just as tender and nice as it could be besides vegetables, oyster stew, and mince pie.”

---

Annie Ricketson

​Annie Ricketson spent several years aboard the whaleship A. R. Tucker. She must have found herself quite bored on Christmas 1871, because all she wrote for that day was, “This is Christmas Morning. Last Christmas, Husband and I were home and we enjoyed ourselves very much.” The next year she found the day just as unremarkable: “Dec 25. The past two days have been very quiet, seen nothing.” The highlight of the day was wishing others Merry Christmas. “This morning before I was up the boy tip toed down the stairs and wished me a Merry Christmas...Mr. Bourne came and looked down the stairs and wished me. But I wished Mr. Harris and Mr. Vanderhoop. But the cook got a head of me. He looked down the sky light just as I sat down to breakfast and wished me. They all seemed very anxious to wish me first.” Nostalgically, she ends her entry, “I suppose they are having nice times at home now, wish I was there to enjoy it with them.” Christmas the following year was not much more exciting for Annie. “Nothing…worth writing about. But cannot pass Christmas by and not have something to write about. This morning I gave Daniel a present of a Cigar holder that I got him in St. Helena. He was very much pleased with it for he had been wanting one for a long time.” It was then back to work as usual: “Raised whales his forenoon – saw them jump out of water once, but it was so rugged saw nothing more of them. We thought we were going to have a nice Christmas present.” 

---

Ambrotype of Minnie Lawrence, Sandwich Islands, date unknown

The captain’s children, if present, expected full stockings, even if at sea.  When Clara Ryder on the N. D. Chase told her young son there was no chimney for Santa Claus aboard a ship, he thought “he should come down the stove pipe into the galley.”

Mary Chipman Lawrence, who sailed with her young daughter Minnie on the whaler Addison, described four Christmases during her life at sea, each where she was careful to fill her daughter’s stocking:

• ​December 25, 1856: “Christmas. It seems to me very much as if it had come in July, instead of December. We generally associate Christmas with cold weather. Minnie hung up her stocking last night. She was fearful that she would get nothing in it, as we could not go to the store, but she succeeded as well for eatables as if she had been home. We had quite a Christmas dinner: roast chickens, stuffed; potatoes, turnips, onions, stewed cranberries, pickled beets and cucumbers, and a plum duff. For tea I had a tin of preserved grape opened and cut a loaf of fruitcake.”
• December 25, 1857: “Christmas Day reminds us of home and friends. Minnie wished to hang up her stocking as usual, and as I had a tin of candies which her grandpa put up for her, Santa Claus managed to fill it very well.” Work did not stop on Christmas, for on the same day, Mary added, “In the afternoon, we were cheered by the sign of a right whale; lowered the boats…We heard the welcome sound of ‘There blows’!”
• December 25, 1858: “Minnie hung up her stocking as usual last night and was fortunate in finding it quite well filled with the usual supply of candies, nuts, oranges, also a book and transparent slate from me, and $2.50 gold piece from her papa. A few days ago Mr. Forsyth, our mate, gave her a very pretty little spyglass which she said she would call her Christmas present too.”
• December 25, 1859: “Minnie awoke bright and early this morning to examine the contents of her stocking. With Captain Willard’s presents she was very much pleased. Her father made her a pair of ivory candlesticks with little candles of the same material, which are very cunning, and I presented her with a book.”

One whaling family came up with a creative theater idea in Christmas 1870. Captain Allen’s children on board the Merlin designed a panorama out of a long piece of canvas wound on two rollers to show a “movie” at sea to the crew. To complete the theatrical experience, the children made tickets, gave one to each crew member, and passed out candy and lemonade at intermission.

Some whaling wives enjoyed making Christmas surprises for crew members. Mary Stickney on the whaler Cicero in 1881 journaled how she sent the Steward to get the cabin boy’s stockings and secretly fill them with “candy, peanuts, coconuts, and a calico shirt” she had sewed.
​
One Christmas celebration at sea was planned a year in advance among three whaling families who agreed to meet at the tiny Norfolk Island east of Australia on December 25, 1856. And met they did, dining together on board one of the ships. Seventy five years later, three of those children shared the memory again in Nantucket – this time on dry land.
​
Nomi Dayan is the Executive Director of The Whaling Museum & Education Center of Cold Spring Harbor.      

---

Upcoming December 2019 Events:

• Holiday Craft Extravaganza. Saturday, December 7, 11-2 pm. Get into the holiday spirit and join us for a family-friendly party full of art-making! Create traditional folk crafts: dip a candle, carve a scrimshaw box, and glitter up a tussy-mussy. Enjoy cookies + cocoa.
• Sea Glass Ornament Workshop. Sunday, December 15, 12-1 pm. Enter the magical world of glass. See 19th century glass bottles from our collection and design a sea glass ornament. Open to adults + kids.
• Menorah Workshop. Sunday, December 15, 2-3 pm. Dive into the world of oil, from whale oil to olive oil! See historic whale oil lamps, and create a Whale Menorah to light up your home. Open to adults + kids (younger kids with adult help).
• Build-a-Boat Workshop. Friday, December 27, 12-3 pm. Adults and kids can design and build a unique wooden vessel from a variety of wooden materials and hot glue guns. Bring imagination! Children with adult supervision.
• Crafternoons. Saturday-Monday, December 28-30, 12-3 pm. ​Visit our new exhibits for artistic inspiration and explore your creative side in our self-serve workshop as you design and create crafts to take home.
• New Year's Eve Bash 4 Kids! Tuesday, December 31, 11 am -12 pm. Ring in the New Year with an artsy kid-friendly celebration! Create a time capsule, noisemaker and other crafts. Enjoy hot cocoa and cookies as we count down to noon!

Details: cshwhalingmuseum.org/events