In the Wake of Madness Quotes

“There was also the whalemen’s traditional social pursuit—the gam. Originally a Nantucket word which meant a group of whales, gam became applied to a group of whaleships that had gathered together to exchange gossip and news.”
― Joan Druett, In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

“While calling at American ports was dangerous, their wharves trawled by bounty hunters, whalers were bound for the Indian and Pacific Oceans, where there were no slave masters’ agents, and where desertion to the wider world was an option. So men like Johnson encouraged fugitive slaves to seek berths on the whalers of Fairhaven and New Bedford and were actively assisted by the antislavery Quaker shipowners, who had quickly established a tradition of employing black runaways as crew.”
― Joan Druett, In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

“Ezra Rothschild Johnson was one of a family of black activists who helped runaway slaves find refuge on the whalers of Fairhaven and New Bedford.”
― Joan Druett, In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

“A whaleman was not paid a wage but a “lay,” which was a share of the outcome of the voyage, calculated after the ship had arrived home. First, the oil was gauged, and then it was valued, according to the prevailing market. After that, the costs of the voyage, plus the owners’ half of the profits, were subtracted from the gross amount, and the remainder shared out according to the whalemen’s lays.”
― Joan Druett, In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

“Puritanical observers of the goings-on at Kororareka were horrified. Charles Wilkes, who visited the Bay of Islands with the U.S. Exploring Expedition in 1840, described a slum town made up of “about twenty houses, scarcely deserving the name, and many shanties, besides tents.”
― Joan Druett, In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon

“According to Clough’s letter to his father, Norris had known for some time that he would end up killing Babcock. Over the months of beating and kicking, Norris had raved that “he expected to go to Hell for him.” While the captain was flogging the young black man to death, however, he had boasted that “he need not be afraid of going to Hell” any more. Instead, “they would kick him out,” presumably because he was too evil even for that place. By this twisted logic, Norris reckoned he was ensured a happy hereafter.”
― Joan Druett, In the Wake of Madness: The Murderous Voyage of the Whaleship Sharon