Sailors Scrimshaw Whalebone and Sperm Whale Tooth Walking Cane

Period: 1800-1900

Origin: Anglo American

Medium: Whalebone, Tortoiseshell and Whaletooth

Literature: Charles Murphy, third mate on a whaling ship wrote a poem about a whaling voyage of the years 1820 to 1823. Entitled ‘A Journal of a Whaling Voyage on board ship Dauphin of Nantucket’ he expressed in two short stanzas the anticipation every crew member felt regarding their long voyage home…..

‘And having fitted well our ship
To pass Cape Horn again,
Each man then fore and aft the ship,
Scrimshawing did begin.
Then knitting-sheaths and jagging-knives
Were cut in every form,
And other trinkets for the girls,
As presents from Cape Horn.’