In April 1879, Nickerson’s last surviving crew member in the first mate’s boat, Benjamin Lawrence, died. All his life, Lawrence had kept the piece of twine he’d made while in the whaleboat. At some point it was passed on to Alexander Starbuck, the Nantucketer who had taken over Obed Macy’s role as the island’s historian. In 1914, Starbuck would donate the piece of twine, wound four times into a tiny coil and mounted in a frame, to the Nantucket Historical Association. Written within the circle of twine was the inscription “They were in the Boat 93 Days.”
