Oct 10, 2013 - Sale 2324

Sale 2324 - Lot 366

Price Realized: $ 2,500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500
(WHALING.) Manter, Henry. Manuscript commonplace book of songs and poems kept at sea by a Martha's Vineyard whaler. 35 songs on 44 pages (31 folio sheets), bound in old burlap. In modern folding case. Vp, July 1835 to April 1836
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Additional Details

Henry Manter (1816-1879) sailed on the New Bedford whaling ship Frances Henrietta in 1835. He inscribed the name of his sister Matilda on the front wrapper. Manter was part of the crew on the Frances Henrietta. The ship sailed under Captain Richard Luce on 23 April 1835 from New Bedford for the Brazil banks. She returned on 19 June 1836 with a full hold, complemented with a 200-barrel whale taken off Brazil (see Starbuck, page 314). We may ascertain that Manter began the volume soon after sailing and finished it just before returning home - all of it was written at sea. Manter remained in the whaling trade, becoming the captain of the Pocahontas for 1836 and 1844 sailings (see Whaling Masters, page 193).
The songs in this volume are presumably ones heard by Manter on the Frances Henrietta. 4 of the songs are credited to Charles C. Raboteau, others come from unknown sources, and some are credited by Manter to himself. Some appeared in print well before 1835, such as Cowper's "The Negro's Complaint": "Forced from home and all its pleasures / Afric's coast I left forlorn / To increase a stranger's treasures." Others appear to remain unpublished, including one titled "For the Journal" which begins "I dreamed I saw the sailor / While in his winding way / Without a chart or pilot / On life's tempestuous sea."