Chasing the Bowhead

Everyone who craves a thrilling tale of adventure will be completely satisfied with this account of whaling days beyond the Arctic Circle. Captain Hartson Bodfish was the first whaling-master to spend a winter in the Arctic in order to lengthen the season. His book is filled with anecdotes, all told with dry Yankee humor, about the rivalry of various crews, living conditions in winter camps, the Eskimos, and the kind of hunting that was at the same time good sport and potential wealth. He has rescued from obliviscence a period of human activity that will probably never be repeated. After intriguing the summer visitors at Martha’s Vineyard for many years, his stories are here set down with illustrations selected from his own large Store of photographs.

The first master of a whaling vessel to spend a winter in the North in order to lengthen the whaling season has here narrated his thrilling career in this now extinct industry. His book is filled with anecdotes, all told with dry Yankee humor, about the rivalry of various crews, living conditions in winter camps, the Eskimos, and the kind of hunting that was at the same time good sport and potential wealth.

An autobiographical account of his Arctic whaling voyages by Captain Hartson H. Bodfish, at the time one of the very few surviving master mariners who recalled when whalemen first ventured north of the Aleutian Islands "and risked their lives to discover whether white men could endure the terrible Arctic winter."