Grand Ball Given by the Whales (1861) | Hacker News Reader

Grand Ball Given by the Whales (1861)

energyhistory.yale.edu

85 pointssirobg24 comments

Whale oil was a huge business back then. Oil lanterns were ubiquitous in businesses and in homes. Whalers were very well paid and doing a very physical and relatively dangerous job, sort like frackers now.

On that note, “Moby Dick” is a surprisingly detailed and accurate depiction of whalers’ day to day, I learned a lot.

There's a movie called "In the Heart of the Sea" which you should watch. It's about the same shipwreck of the Essex that Melville took inspiration from.

It's based on an excellent book, of the same title. The book delves into the social structure of Nantucket society and the whaleship crews, the personal backgrounds of many of the officers and men, and the details of the whaling business.

I don't remember if the film showed this, but the captain had to go home and tell his sister they ate her son, his nephew. It was second disastrous voyage, if I remember correctly, and it was the end of his career. No one would risk a whaling ship under him again.

Almost. Pollard captained the Two Brothers on his return…which promptly sank. Then he quit.

Owen Chase, Thomas Nickerson and others returned to sea multiple times.

Moby Dick is a great book, but it's a mistake to make 16-year-olds read it. I've heard of many people reading it 30 years later and really enjoying it.

It was the 5th largest industry in the US in the 1850s, the US had by far the most whaling ships of any nation.

I’ve always been a fan of anthropomorphic depictions of animals, and I have no idea why. The Far Side was always a favorite.

Minor aside: 4/20 - ahead of its time

The sad thing it took another 100 years to whaling to truly decline; afaik whaling peaked in 1960s so the grand ball was somewhat premature.

It's like an 1860s version of the Chick-fil-A cows holding signs that say, "Eat Mor Chikin"

"The Oil Wells of Our Native Land: May They Never Secede"

That's a good Civil War joke.

Could you explain?

This illustration was created shortly after the American Civil War began, a conflict that started when the South seceded.

Thanks! I think I have the context, but I don't get the joke

The oil wells were in Pennsylvania, which was on the Union side.

So the whales are saying: "May They Never Secede" talking about the wells, in reference to the confederacy whom already seceded. And they say this because obviously if the wells "seceded", humans would go back to whale hunting.

Do I understand it correctly now?

Yes.

it's a joke that has changed meaning over time. Pennsylvania had the oil wells at that time, although given that Standard Oil was founded in 1870 didn't think they were yet so important that one would pray for their success.

The South seceded, along with Texas.

Pennsylvania didn't secede so all good.

But later Pennsylvania didn't have any more oil worth mentioning, but Texas did.

From our viewpoint the joke operates on two levels, that of its time - let's hope Pennsylvania doesn't secede because then we're screwed! And that looking back - Texas did secede and they prayed for the states with the oil not to secede hah hah, irony.

The irony indicating somewhat that usefulness of a resource is time dependent.

160+ years later and still funny

As an aside, the illustration strongly remind me of the classic illustrations in the Alice in Wonderland book (published in 1865).

I wonder if it is the same artist or if it was a shared style at the time.

Probably just similar style. Most print illustration at this time were still using woodcuts, negative images carved out, stamped with ink and used in the printing press: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodcut

The cartoonist's name is not given. Does anyone know who created it?

The original issue of Vanity Fair (https://www.google.de/books/edition/Vanity_Fair/P-5NAQAAMAAJ...) doesn't name the author, but there is a monogram (HLS) on the bottom left corner. HLS seems to have been a regular contributor to Vanity Fair in that time.

It seems to have been Henry Louis Stephens (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Louis_Stephens) - time, magazine and the depiction of animals check out:

> Stephens was well known as a caricaturist, excelling especially in the humorous delineation of animals, and drew cartoons and sketches for The Cyclopedia of Wit and Humor (1858), a book edited by William Evans Burton, Vanity Fair (1859–63), Mrs. Grundy (1869), Punchline (1870), and other periodicals.

Here is another one of him: https://www.brandywine.org/sites/default/files/styles/body_f...

Interestingly, the whaling industry had been similar to the way venture capital works today. Tom Nicholas talks about this in his book, "VC: An American History" [0].

[0]: https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2019/10/01/today-ventur...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com