J. Ross Browne, Etchings of a Whaling Cruise (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1846)

A green hand's account of a whaling voyage from New Bedford in 1842-43, the years of Richard B. Holbrook's voyage in the Hydaspe, with an appendix on the whale fishery and the abuses of the trade. Read 14 Oct 2026 in the Internet Archive's copy (University of California Libraries); its engravings "Life in the Forecastle" and "A Picture for Philanthropists" are in the Gallery.

• The shipping agent (p. 11): "a whaler is a place of refuge for the distressed and persecuted, a school for the dissipated, an asylum for the needy!"
• An old hand's warning (p. 13): "the fitters were all blood-suckers, the owners cheats, and the captains tyrants."
• The forecastle (p. 24): "The forecastle was black and slimy with filth, very small, and as hot as an oven. It was filled with a compound of foul air, smoke, sea-chests, soap-kegs, greasy pans, tainted meat, Portuguese ruffians, and sea-sick Americans."
• The fare (p. 28): "For breakfast we had an abominable compound of water, some molasses, and something dignified by the name of coffee, with hard biscuit and watery potatoes; for dinner pork, salt beef, and potatoes; and for supper, a repetition of the biscuit and potatoes."
• A kill (p. 121): "The sea was crimsoned with his blood."
• The whaleman's pay (p. 506): "if, after three years of incessant labor, he returns to the port from which he sailed with a few hundred dollars due him, he considers himself peculiarly fortunate. But how often does he return in debt or penniless!"