Art and Accounting in the Age of Whaling | Hakai Magazine

Hand-carved stamps helped whalers keep track of their catches and assess the success of their voyages.

Share Article body copy “Can you see anything?” Henry Carter was asked in 1923 as he peered into King Tutankhamun’s tomb. “Yes,” he replied, “wonderful things.” This column explores other wonderful things—intriguing artifacts or technologies that give insight into coastal cultures. Henry Clay Murdock’s entry in the logbook of the whaling ship Nassau on June 14, 1852, began, predictably, with the weather. It was foggy and the visibility was poor that morning near the Gulf of Anadyr in the Arctic, but still a cry came out from atop the masthead: whales ahead. The deck erupted in activity, and th

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