A RARE 19TH CENTURY NARWHAL SCRIMSHAW CARVED WITH A WHALING EXPEDITION

the Narwhal tusk (Monodon monceros) section carved with a scene of the Bark of Wanderer on a whaling expedition, with numerous men in small boats attacking a large whale, the ship and large icebergs beside, inscribed 'Bark of Wanderer New Bedford',

38cm in length.

Provenance: Purchased by the current owner from a private collection on the Island Orkney, where it had remained in the same family for generations, the family having long ties to the whaling industry.

This lot does not require an A10 as it is classed as worked. It does require a CITES permit to leave the UK.

It was reported in the Vineyard Gazette on Tuesday, August 26, 1924 that the Wanderer "the last of New Bedford’s once glorious fleet of square-rigged whaling vessels", was ship wrecked after sailing from New Bedford. She "came to a tragic end off Cuttyhunk island late Tuesday afternoon, when mountainous seas and a shrieking northeast gale drover her on to the jagged teeth of Middle Ground shoals. After seven men of her crew had been picked up by the Cuttyhunk life saving station, the other boat with eight men could not be located. The boat’s crew, it was afterwards learned, finally reached the Sow and Pigs lightship, from which they were taken off Wednesday morning by the life saving crew." Only a week earllier, The New York World, has written of the Wanderer as follows:

"The Last Whaler

A lifetime ago New Bedford whales were numbered by the hundreds. Now the old whaler Wanderer is fitting out for what may be the last whaling cruise from New Bedford. Two or three ships returned last year, but the ventures showed small profit. The price for whalebone and oil is low. Substitution ruined the market. Science has obviated the hazards and the expenses of whaling.

The Wanderer is a suitable name for the last whaler. In their time ships from New Bedford ranged from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Some sailed from New Bedford, rounded the Americas and hunted in Bering Sea and back again in their quest for the whale. It was a hardy, adventurous, uncertain and dangerous life the whalers led. In New Bedford memorial tablets record the names of whaling-men who failed to return to port. On the quays, in the streets and on the vessels sailing from New Bedford, Melville found inspiration for some of the great sea stories of all time. Fortunately New Bedford has preserved something of the romance of the industry in a unique whaling museum, a memorial to the sturdy men who hunted the leviathan."