Halcyon House, Garden City, New York, 2nd edition 1942
Includes 111 glossy pages of photographs, sketches and paintings. Many colour plates. Originally published in 1926, just 2 years after the loss of the last square-rigged whaler, this book offers a detailed first-hand account of the whaling industry in its waning days. The name Clifford Ashley is synonymous with whaling at the turn-of-the-last century. Not only was Mr. Ashley a prolific writer, he was an accomplished photographer and a well-listed professional artist. He was also an avid collector of whaling memorabilia at a time before such collecting was not yet in vogue. He was one of the first to privately own and document the existence of the earliest dated American scrimshaw – that of Frederick Myrick on the whaleship Susan. Other books contain Ashley’s work, but this stands out as his masterpiece....