Bulletin from Johnny Cake Hill - New Bedford Whaling Museum

DISPATCH FROM DOWN UNDER: MICHAEL P. DYERREPORTS ON HIS FINDINGS AS THE U.S.A. GALLERYFELLOW, AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL MARITIMEMUSEUM. Just as Daniel Ricketson, author of The Historyof New Bedford (New Bedford, 1858), described the citizensof his community as “a maritime people like ourselves,”Charles Enderby, the English whaling entrepreneur, in 1847described whaling as “conducive to our national habits.”These statements resound as tenets of a historical perspectivefundamental to understanding the growth and development ofthe nations of Australia and the U.S.A.Both countries developed whaling industries when theywere English colonies, and both relied on the maritime tradesto build their economies as their hinterlands were opened.After the American Revolution, Great Britain could no longerrely upon importations of whale products directly into theLondon markets from the American colonies and began torely increasingly upon the products of its colonial Australianvessels. The first commercial cargo exported from NewSouth Wales in 1791 was sperm oil onboard the Britannia,and the first commercially manufactured products of theAmerican colonies were spermaceti candles. Arguably, thedevelopment of a whale fishery is the ultimate definition ofa maritime culture, and the ports of Sydney in New SouthWales and Hobart in Tasmania are testaments to that culturaldevelopment.Thomas Blythe, an oil dealer in London, wrote to thecolonists of Sydney in 1835, “The great sperm fishery isforever yours; and you who possess the best branch ofAustralian commerce may in time be the most distinguishedindividuals of your interesting colony.” He further predicted,quite accurately, “Your descendants may at a later periodbecome the legislators of an independent state that may dividewith the future republics of North America the considerationof the world.”LAGODA UPDATE: The final task in the first phase of theLagoda restoration was completed in December 2008 whenmaster rigger Marty Casey finished the decorative ropeworkon the new gangway. The new ladder is wider, longer, andmuch more stable. Welcome aboard!WHALING MUSEUM ON THE WEB: Curator ofPhotography Michael Lapides, together with project assistantKate Mello and intern Evan Price, have added to the WhalingMuseum’s presence on the Internet. Do you Flickr? Check outthe Whaling Museum’s page and links athttp://www.flickr.com/photos/nbwm/Bringing friends to see theLagoda this spring?Look over the Wikipedia article before youcome and astound them with a fact-filledguided tour.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagoda15