Valerie Petrillo - Sailors, Whalers, Fantastic Sea Voyages. An Activity Guide to North American Sailing Life

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Petrillo, Valerie.

Sailors, whalers, fantastic sea voyages : an activity guide to North American sailing life / Valerie Petrillo. 1st ed.

v. cm.

Includes bibliographical references

Contents: A sailors life for me Shadow box ship Dandyfunk Sea chanteys International signal flags Make a sailors tattoo Be a lookout Make a sea chest Collect fresh rainwater Heave ho! Make a ships anchor Make a squeezebox Dance the sailors hornpipe Bean soup Make a ditty box King Neptunes visit There she blows! The whalers Whaleboat and gear Plum duff Iceberg! Scrimshaw Walking stick Keeping the logbook and making a whale stamp The sea traders Make a sewing palm Eight bells and all is well Lobscouce Seaweed pictures Silk Make a Chinese plate Chinese tea Make a birds nest Lighthouses Morse code signal game Marlinspike Land ho! Foreign ports Make a Maori grass skirt English pedlar doll Inuit mask Tangrams Soapstone carving Make a Chinese junk Dragon boats Baked banana Flower garland Noa, a Hawaiian game Kimo, picking up stones Feather cape Sailors Valentine Homeward bound: American seaport towns New England fish chowder Furl a sail Make a wharf Make a barrel Boston baked beans Fox and geese Ropewalk game Dominoes Make a figurehead Jack straws Wampanoag clam. Casserole Old Maid

ISBN 1-55652-475-7 1. Seafaring lifeStudy and teachingActivity programsJuvenileliterature. 2. Seafaring lifeUnited States Study and teachingActivity programsJuvenile literature. [1. Seafaring life.] I. Title.

G540.P48 2003 910.4 5dc21

2002153646

Cover design: Joan Sommers Design
Cover photos: Oil painting on canvas by Montague Dawson, privately owned; black and white photograph, left, Men at rail of bark Alice, ca. 1900, Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT; and color image, right, Circa Art Image no. 725537, Getty Images.
Interior design: Rattray Design
Interior illustration: Laura DArgo and Valerie Petrillo

2003 by Valerie Petrillo
All rights reserved

First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 1-55652-475-7
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1

With love to my home crew: to Hank, my patient, encouraging husband, who now knows more about whaling than the Red Sox (well, almost). To my kids who lived with harpoons in the kitchen, lobscouse for supper, icebergs in the freezer, and a shortage of clean towels. Love and thanks to Mike, who offered artistic help and guidance; Nick, who cheerfully kid-tested the activities; and Noelle, the other writer in the family, who always liked Moms stories best. And, finally, to my sister Norma, who listens and makes me laugh.

A Sailors Life for Me!

There She Blows! The Whalers

The Sea Traders

Land Ho! Foreign Ports

Homeward Bound: American Seaport Towns

T hanks to editor Cynthia Sherry for giving me this wonderful opportunity. Im especially grateful to my project editor, Lisa Rosenthal, who shared my enthusiasm for the subject and helped me develop and elevate the manuscript into a strong and engaging book. Many thanks to Chicago Review Press publisher Linda Matthews, who carefully reviewed the pages and nurtured the progress of the book; Gerilee Hundt, managing editor, who put together a great team to bring the book to life; Meg Cox, a meticulous copyeditor; and Allison Felus, editorial assistant, who worked on the book in all stages of the production process.

I would like to express my appreciation for the lovely artwork and design of the book. Thank you to Laura A. DArgo for her delightful illustrations, Scott Rattray of Rattray Design who created the layout of the book, Joan Sommers of Joan Sommers Design for designing the magnificent cover, and Michael Petrillo for his artistic help in the step-by-step instructions.

Many thanks to Heather Shanks and Carolle Morini at the Peabody Essex Museum and Dana Costanza from the Marthas Vineyard Historical Society. Thanks also to Peter Kerner and his nautical sense for checking parts of the manuscript for authenticity.

Id also like to offer my thanks and appreciation to all the maritime museums and volunteers in our country who work hard to allow us to step back to the days of clipper ships and harpoons.

Special thanks to our wonderful big extended family, who have been incredibly supportive, as well as encouraging in my writing all these years, and finally to my late parents, Hermione and Charles Mearsto Dad who could make anything with a piece of wood and a few nails, and to Mom, whose stories of the past made history come alive.

4,000 years ago

Native Americans catch whales that wash ashore and use canoes to capture whales along the shallow coastline.

1620

Mayflower lands at Plymouth Rock. Settlers hunt whales right from shore.

1750

Tryworks first used onboard a whaleship.

1784

The Empress of China enters the anchorage of Whampoa to trade with the Chinese.

1793

Pacific whaling begins when the Rebecca rounds Cape Horn to deliver a full cargo of sperm whale oil home to New Bedford.

1640

First organized whale fishery, Long Island, New York.

1712

Sperm whaling begins off the coast of Massachusetts.

1776

America declares independence from England. British blockade colonial ports during the Revolutionary War and bring whaling to a halt.

1802

First steamboat launched in England.

1808

Congress outlaws American participation in the African slave trade.

1818

The first American packet ship, James Monroe of the Black Ball line, sails from New York to Liverpool.

1845

The Rainbow, the first American clipper ship, is launched.

1856

Harpoon gun is invented.