This is a copy of my DD-214, the document that signifies your discharge from the Armed Forces. It shows that, between 1967 and 1971, I served three years and nine months, two and one-half of which were at sea. It also shows that I made Shipfitter, Second Class – an E-5 government rating. What it […] More >>
Archives for May 2019
Newspaper Quiz
I’m swamped this week, but old friend Vince Golden of AAS has stepped in to fill the void with some fun quizzes. He writes, Below is a list of newspaper titles. Can your clever readers pick out the three titles that are fake? Sucker and Farmer’s Record (Pittsfield, IL) Widow’s Bite and Lincoln Advocate (Cleveland, […] More >>
Lagoda
Last Thursday and Friday I set up and exhibited at the Marine Antiques Show at the New Bedford Whaling Museum. The show kicks off the museum’s annual Scrimshaw Weekend, during which scrimshaw collectors from all over America gather to attend lectures, chew the fat, and brag about their acquisitions. Scrimshaw is expensive and you have […] More >>
It’s a Hard-Kock Life
Whaling Journal of William A. Washburn, Aboard Ship Benjamin Rush, 1849 – 1851; Bark Virginia 1851 – 1852. Folio, unpaginated. About 150 pages of manuscript entries. This journal, kept by 3rd mate William Washburn, is quite typical of a certain kind of career in the whale fishery. Washburn, from a small town in New York […] More >>