h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Blues Shark
First off, what a superb Guide Entry - well done!

Next, do you know the Mountain song "Nantucket Sleighride"? I've looked at the backthread to Peer Review etc, and there's no mention of it. Not quite so auspicious an offspring as "Moby Dick", but let me tell you more.

The song's been a long-time favourite of mine, since days of youth some 25 years ago. Haunting and strange, it's very different in character from most of Mountain's milieu. I had no idea what it was about, though I'd picked up obvious references to whales and to the sea. There's also an enigmatic dedication by way of a subtitle : "To Owen Coffin".

On a whim yesterday evening, I set out to find its lyrics, and what, if anything, it was about. It's about the Essex, of course.

After a night preoccupied with the harrowing story, I got up early this morning with an idea of starting an Entry about this (from the context of a favourite song's dark origins). Very soon, I found I was on ground you've already covered.

I guess you know the term "Nantucket Sleighride" itself. It's a colloquialism, referring to being dragged along in the boat by a just-harpooned whale. A very dramatic image.

The lyrics still have some mysteries. If you're interested to take a look, a Google search on 'Nantucket Sleighride lyrics coffin' will take you straight to a piece with a brief story and a lyrics link. (I'll post more if helpful. I'm never sure about just pasting in hyperlinks to convos, as Moderators sometimes seem to jump on them)

I'll go try find out more for myself, but I don't yet know who "little Robin-Marie" was, for example. A young sibling of Owen Coffin, maybe? There's a reference too, to someone sharpening a harpoon - a name not in your crew-list? I'm unsure - again, I'll go check.

If you're moved to hear the song itself, it's recommended. I'll try find a link for that too. (Completely unrelated fact, but it's middle-eight was also lifted by ITN as the signature tune of Weekend World).

Once again, great piece
P.
(I finally got to see Miyazaki's 'Princess Mononoke' too, but that belongs to another Conversation!)

Post-script to the above :
After a quick Google-trek, I now know that Starbuck (as per the harpoon-sharpener) was another prominent Nantucket family, intermarried with the Coffins. (You don't give all 21 crew-names; I guess there was a Starbuck on board)
Also, I've realised that several of the crew were black (hence the 'black man, playing his tune')
I still don't know who Robin-Marie was.
I wonder if the song is supposed to come over like a 'postcard' message describing life on board before the wreck (though, of course, they couldn't send messages back home). Or maybe it's supposed to be a delerium-induced reverie?
I like the way that Papallardi/Collins seemingly just left it up to an interested listener to find out what the song was about. There are no real clues here, not even to the meaning of the title. (Perhaps there wwas more info on the original album-sleeve, but in these CD-re-release times, such nuances are lost)
It makes one wonder how many more of these "accessories of life", like favourite songs, have deeper significance than you'll ever know.
This story is going to haunt me a while yet, but unfortunately work beckons first...
P.

Hmm, I shall go and look. Thanks for taking the time to post all this stuff, it's very interesting.

There was no Starbuck on board the Essex, but Starbuck was the first mate on the ill fated Pequod in 'Moby Dick'. I guess it was too good a chance to miss if you're writing a song.

Robin-Marie I'm no more familiar with than yourself, but it rings a vague bell somewhere. She *may* even have been Ahab's wife, who is mentioned only once in the entirety of the book, I think.

Hi Blues Shark

I just finished reading Nathaniel Philbrick's "In the Heart of the Sea". As you probably know, it was published in 2000 and reflects Nickerson's account (discovered in a notebook c 1981) of the Essex story.

Have you read it yourself? Nickerson's version differs in some ways from Chase's. According to Nickerson, Pollard favoured striking west for Tahiti immediately following the wreck, but lost out to the stronger-willed Chase and Joy and their (retrospectively ironic) fears of cannibalism. Had Pollard prevailed, they might all have survived, since Tahiti and the Society Islands had already had first use as provisioning stations by whalers and were in widespread use in support of the Offshore Ground within a few months of the disaster. Pollard had been similarly overruled, too, when he originally proposed to return home following the knockdown only a few days out of Nantucket.

Nickerson also claims that Chase didn't take a chance to harpoon the whale, which was stunned alongside the stern of the Essex for a full minute after its first impact. Chase later explained this by saying he'd hesitated for fear it would revive and smash the nearby rudder, but he also anguished over his decision for many days subsequently.

Philbrick notes that the crew recovered hooks and line from the wreck, but never succeeded in catching anything using them. Apparently modern survival experts speculate that a better resort than cannibalism might have been using the early dead (notably Joy) as bait, to tempt sharks. They might also have taken time to slaughter and cook the large number of turtles they were carrying before leaving the wallowing but stable wreck, and taken the dried meat for food.

There's some fascinating stuff about later lives, too. I was amazed that Pollard was back at the helm of a long-tour whaler within a couple of months of his return to Nantucket in May 1822. And he later lost another ship, running it aground on a reef in mid-Pacific. Though no-one was lost this time, a second mishap finished his sea-going career.

Philbrick's analysis of the sociology is fascinating. Chase's single-mindedness, at first arguably a liability to the crew, eventually paid off through the best survival rate for the occupants of his boat. It's also striking that none of the blacks survived, those off-island whites who stayed on the boats also all died, but only three of the true Nantuckers died, and those only in the final three weeks.

I'm going to try find more sources, not so much about the Essex as out of interest in Nantucket and its social history. Remarkable people. Maybe the Globe and Comstock are worth an Entry too?

P.

At some point when I have the time, I was planning an entry on the history of the New England whaling industry. Like most of the other things I'm planning to do, it's still in planning.

Philbrick's book is a brilliant read. I read it first because i was fascinated by the true story behind Moby Dick, a particular favourite of mine. Although it's not mentioned in the piece, it's certainly mentioned in some of the conversations. I can't recommend it highly enough. I deliberately stayed away from some of the more contreversial angles of the book as I only had a limited length of article, and besides, Philbrick is entitled to enjoy the fruits of his labours rather than having me regurgitate them second hand, I think.

Hi Blues Shark
If you're interested to take a look, I finally wrote the entry I speculated about in the first post above.
Hopefully it won't cramp your style any when you do the History of New England Whaling. You really must.
See you
P.
(It's at A836822)

Hi Blues Shark
After writing an Entry on the Batavia Mutiny and getting it into the EG, I'm now quite keen something on doing Samuel Comstock and the Globe.
(Psycopaths at sea are fascinating, yeah?)
Anyway, I felt I needed your blessing because anything covering the history of Nantucket Whaling is your rightful territory.
What do you say? (Joint effort one option?)
Pin

...on doing something...
(You know what I mean)

Hey, the Batavia piece ids fascinating - I've been looking at the book recently published wondering whether to buy it. Your piece has encouraged me to do so. I hope that this in some way sounds like the praisde it is intended to be.

The Globe? Hmm, I know a few rough details, but not enough to contribute maningfully to a joint article.. Go for it, muy man. I want to see the final product already...

As for psycopaths at sea, i think MLR James had a point when he chose Moby Dick to encapsulate the human experience...

Hi Blues Shark

I've now read Heffernan's book on the Globe Mutiny. Hmmm...I'd expected Comstock to be even madder than Jeronimus. In fact he's a bit thinly drawn in this account, and dies rather too early to leave a convincing taste of megalomania.
Perhaps the Globe's notoriety has a little of the American need to top everyone else about it?
I'll have to think about this one. It'll need a certain amount of license...

Watch this Space, as they say.

Pin

(and I saw Spirited Away last weekend - yeah, wrong thread again, I know. But what a film that is! His images are beautiful. And I never saw anything coming from start to finish)

According to the liner notes for the re-release of the "Nantucket Sleighride" album on CD, Robin Marie was a friend of Mountain's drummer, Corky Laing, and songwriter/bassist Felix Pappalardi.

Starbuck is an allusion to the "Moby Dick" character.

The remainder of the song draws on a number of whaling images, and can't be taken as an accurate rendition of the Essex story.