August 1 - 2 1862

Ocean D. D. Baxter Master

Friday August 1st 1862

The terrible calm has ceased and again we have a breeze from the E & SE. This forenoon spoke1 the Bark Union again and got a piece of cotton cloth for a Boat sail. The Union has whipped us to pieces in sailing. Four sails in sight in sight. We Boiled the the Blackfish Blubber2 out and it turned up very near three Barrels.

Lat 36 14 N Long 43 15 W

Saturday August 2nd

We have had the wind from the S. Steering E by N and EN E three sails in sight. At 3pm went on board the French Ship Borneo of and for Marseilles from Martinique loaded with Sugar. she has got 842 casks of Sugar. My French had got so rusty that it was hard work for me to get it to work easy. however, I managed to get along after a fashion. 3

Capt Baxter has been giving Jeff Davis all kinds of of stuff to drink today. Such a Balsam of Copaiba4 & Spirits of Nitre5. Flax seed tea, Black fish oil and Rum & wormwood6 and to stop off he made him smell of the Hartshorn7. and that knocked Jeff higher than a kite8. Jeff says me sickey - brine-by-Me. Mucky - Mucky9. Meaning by & by he will be dead. but he might swallow a whole Blackfish and it would not kill the Nigger10.

Lat 37” 08 N Long 42 15 W

1 In historical maritime contexts, “speaking” a ship was the term for establishing communication with another vessel at sea. Before the invention of radio, this involved various visual methods: Flag signals, Hailing Trumpet, Signal Lamps

2 Historically, “black fish” (pilot whales) were hunted by whalers for their blubber, which was rendered into oil for use in lamps, soap, and margarine. The blubber of a single blackfish could yield up to thirty gallons of oil.

3 I am delighted to read that my ancestor John T Duntlin, like me, spoke some French.

4 Balsam of Copaiba - A resin from South America, widely used for: Venereal disease, Urinary infections, Sore throats, Lung complaints. It tasted horrible, and sailors despised it.

5 Spirits of Nitre was one of the standard medicines on whaleships. Used for fevers, colds, urinary problems, general stimulant.

6 Rum & Wormwood” Wormwood (Artemisia absinthium): Bitter tonic, Stomach stimulant, Key ingredient of absinthe, Sometimes used for seasickness. Mixing it with rum made it barely drinkable.

7 Hartshorn is spirits of ammonia used to revive a patient.

8 “Knocked Jeff higher than a kite” meaning the fumes overwhelmed Jeff and be became semi-delirious. This is exactly how people reacted to smelling salt in the 19th Century.

9 This is classic Pacific Pidgin English. me Sickey = I am sick; brine by me = soon I will; mucky-mucky from Hawaiian meaning dead. Duntlin’s interpretation fits “Meaning by & by he will be dead.”

10 “Nigger” was commonly used in whaling ship logs to refer to any non-white crewmen. It reflects the shipboard hierarchies of the time.