Peter Kurtz > Quotes

“with a peripheral overview of the hunt and cutting-in process, are necessary here as we discuss the ship's newfound success at striking whales. The Badger's conversion from merchant ship to whaleship required several significant alterations to her frame.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“hopeful immigrants to new continents. And they sometimes functioned as weapons of war. Some of these ships were built to serve as merchant vessels, and others were built to work as whalers. Frequently merchant ships were converted into whaleships and entered a much stranger, more dangerous world. Only a few, like the William Badger, managed to function as merchantmen, whalers, and naval vessels during the American Civil War. Many books have been written about the nautical world of the nineteenth century. Most of the best of these were written long”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“The most interesting whaling journals read like diaries, and they were kept not only by the first mate but by anyone onboard ship: greenhand, officer,”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“On December 7, somewhere between Mauritius and Madagascar, the Badger spoke the ship Leonidas of Fairhaven. Howes Norris, the sadistic captain who inspired the 1841 mutiny on the Sharon, had earlier commanded the Leonidas. 11. In the 1850s, “Santianna” was a popular call-and-response sea shanty about Mexican general Santa Anna. The Badger's crew apparently”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“The William Badger sailed—then merely floated—for thirty-seven years. She started life as a merchantman in the lucrative “cotton triangle”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Almost two hundred whaleships visited the small island”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Pohnpei, also known as Ponape, was called Ascension Island in 1856.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Edward D. Morgan. More important, he was the husband of Welles's favorite”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“The Earl of Bellomont's prediction that the Piscataqua region would prosper if it invested in building battleships bore fruit. Several more British warships were constructed on the Piscataqua River, as well as on the island known as Rising Castle. And after 1776, the river would produce hundreds of naval vessels—delivered not to England but to the new country of America.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“to an understanding of that dizzying period, are dated and/or serve primarily as reference works. Obed Macy and Alexander Starbuck were two of the earliest nonfiction writers to explore the profession of whaling. Macy wrote”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“In 1828, the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo, became prime minister of the United Kingdom. In South America, Uruguay gained national independence. Japan suffered its second-worst natural disaster in 1828, when the Siebold Typhoon killed ten thousand people. On May 26, 1828, in Nuremburg, Germany, a mysterious child named Kaspar Hauser made headlines when he appeared out of nowhere, walking the streets in a daze. In the United States, Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams in one of the bitterest presidential elections in American history. Jackson's candidacy established a new political party: the Democratic Party.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Whaling in America (2007), which views the whaling profession through a modern lens and thoroughly explores the socioeconomic aspects of whaling. Like Melville, Dolan doesn't ignore the biology of the mammal itself. In the literature of the Civil”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Other notable books on whaling—despite their age and antiquated writing style—include Alpheus Hyatt Verrill's The Real Story of the Whaler: Whaling Past”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Many books have been written about the nautical world of the nineteenth century. Most of the best of these were written long ago and, although crucial to an understanding of that dizzying period, are dated and/or serve primarily as reference works.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“floated—for thirty-seven years. She started life as a merchantman in the lucrative “cotton triangle” between New England, the southern cotton ports, and Europe. She was later sold and converted into a whaleship. During her last years she served as a floating commissary in the Union navy's blockade of”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“The state of New Hampshire boasts a mere eighteen miles of Atlantic Ocean coastline. The Piscataqua River separates the state's southeastern corner from Maine and empties into the Atlantic. On the southwestern corner of this juncture of river and ocean is Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The smaller town of Kittery, Maine, is on the opposite side of the river. The port of Piscataqua is deep, and it never freezes in winter, making it an ideal location for maritime vocations such as fishing, sea trade, and shipbuilding. Four years before the founding of Jamestown, Virginia, in 1603, Martin Pring of England first discovered the natural virtues of Piscataqua harbor. While on a scouting voyage in the ship Speedwell, Pring sailed approximately ten miles up the unexplored Piscataqua, where he discovered “goodly groves and woods replenished with tall oakes, beeches, pine-trees, firre-trees, hasels, and maples.”1 Following Pring, Samuel de Champlain, Captain John Smith, and Sir Ferdinando Gorges each sailed along the Maine-New Hampshire coastline and remarked on its abundance of timber and fish. The first account of Piscataqua harbor was given by Smith, that intrepid explorer, author, and cofounder of the Jamestown settlement, who assigned the name “New-England” to the northeast coastline in 1614. In May or June of that year, he landed near the Piscataqua, which he later described as “a safe harbour, with a rocky shore.”2 In 1623, three years after the Pilgrim founding of Plymouth, an English fishing and trading company headed by David Thomson established a saltworks and fishing station in what is now Rye, New Hampshire, just west of the Piscataqua River. English fishermen soon flocked to the Maine and New Hampshire coastline, eventually venturing inland to dry their nets, salt, and fish. They were particularly drawn to the large cod population around the Piscataqua, as in winter the cod-spawning grounds shifted from the cold offshore banks to the warmer waters along the coast.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“independence. Japan suffered its second-worst”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“lacked the sleek beauty and speed of the illustrious clipper ships that fascinate so many aficionados of pre-steam shipping lore. And since she never slithered”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“William Badger. The William Badger's biography also permits one to tap into unexplored corners of Civil War history. There have been enough”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“concentrating on just one. The William Badge was only one of hundreds of ships of her kind. They played a significant role in pre-Civil War maritime commerce, when cotton was still king. Many of them later traded bales of cotton for kegs of oil, their decks eventually mired in brine, blubber, and blood. But once the American Civil War started, only a few did not end up as so much kindling and metal scrap. The William Badger was one of them.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“disaster in 1828, when the Siebold Typhoon killed ten thousand people. On May 26, 1828, in Nuremburg, Germany, a mysterious child named Kaspar Hauser made headlines when he appeared out of nowhere, walking the streets in a daze. In the United States, Andrew Jackson defeated John Quincy Adams in one of the bitterest presidential”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“suck the life out of the South through amphibious assaults”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Letters to Parents, January 29, 1865, Gifford Papers; Cleveland Diary, January 29, 1865; Browning, Letters from a North Carolina Unionist, 259. Schofield was actually a brigadier general at the time of his visit to Beaufort.”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Only seventy-six miles west of Brunswick, on the Piscataqua River that separates Maine from New Hampshire, another player in the American Civil War began life in 1828. Unlike Joshua Chamberlain, however, the ship William Badger received no honors for her struggle to preserve”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Civil War, the largest contingent of blacks from the South. Of those whose nativity is known, about 35 percent were from the Chesapeake Bay region. Refugee camps behind Union lines and recruiting stations along the Carolina coast also provided the navy with many black recruits, but it was the rivers and inlets”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“In 1828, the Duke of Wellington, hero of Waterloo, became prime minister of the United Kingdom. In South America, Uruguay gained national independence. Japan suffered its second-worst natural disaster in 1828, when the Siebold Typhoon killed ten”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“tramp.” Merchant traders in the nineteenth century were generally separated into three classes: packets, regular traders, and tramps. Packets sailed for a specific line, such as the Black Ball Line or the steamship line Cunard. They delivered freight, mail, and passengers on an established route and within a fixed time frame. Because of their”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“So until the refinement of petroleum”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“Obed Macy and Alexander Starbuck were two of the earliest nonfiction writers to explore the profession of whaling. Macy wrote The History of Nantucket in 1835. It is, as the title suggests, a history”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865

“The board suggested that Stringham's Atlantic Blockading Squadron be divided in two, approximately at the state line of the Carolinas. This action would not only simplify and tighten command along the coast, it would also take into consideration the differing topography of the northern and southern sections of coastline. The northern section, known as the”
― Peter Kurtz, Bluejackets in the Blubber Room: A Biography of the William Badger, 1828-1865