Rites and Passages
The Experience of American Whaling, 1830–1870

Uses the personal testimony of over 200 American whalemen to illuminate the social history of deepwater sailing in the mid-1800s.

Margaret S. Creighton (Author)

9780521484480, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 25 August 1995

252 pages, 34 b/w illus. 19 tables
23.3 x 15.4 x 1.5 cm, 0.347 kg

"Rites and Passages: The Experience of American Whaling, 1830-1870, Creighton takes the historiography of American Whaling well beyond its traditional boundaries to investigate issues as subtle and affective as gender identity, masculinity and femininity, the influence of race and class, and the rites of passage from adolescence into manhood. With this book, the ongoing conversation about the import and effect of American whaling has been advanced and updated significantly. Even the most casual student of whaling should have this intriguing book on his or her self." Glenn S. Gordinier, The Mariner's Museum Journal

This book contributes to what has recently been called a 'new social history of seafaring'. This new maritime history places sailors themselves at the center, not the periphery, of the maritime past, and explores ways that the history of the sea and the history of the shore have intersected. It differs from traditional accounts which celebrate exotic trades, powerful merchants, maritime technologies, and military exploits. Drawn on the evidence of nearly two hundred ship logs and sailors' diaries, Rites and Passages examines American whalemen at the height of the whaling industry in the 1800s and argues that whaling life and culture was shaped by both the American mainland and by the exigencies of ocean life. Unlike other published accounts of seafaring, this work brings gender into the maritime equation, not only with a discussion of the ways that women figured in this male world, but also with an examination of the ways that seafaring served as a rite of passage into manhood.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Archives and collections
Introduction: the passing of Nathaniel Robinson
1. The evolution of the American whale fishery, 1650–1900
2. 'Tis advertised in Boston': the shaping of a ship's crew
3. 'Wondrous tales of the mighty deep': whaling life and labor
4. The 'old man': the sea captain's split personality
5. Crossing the line: Fraternity in the forecastle
6. The attack of the Daniel: whalemen ashore
7. Sailors
sweethearts, and wives: gender and sex in the deepwater workplace
8. Afterword
Appendixes
Index.

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]