[Illustration: A WHALE BITING A BOAT IN TWO.] THE ARCTIC WHALEMAN; OR, WINTER IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN: BEING A NARRATIVE OF THE WRECK OF THE WHALE SHIP CITIZEN, OF NEW BEDFORD, IN THE ARCTIC OCEAN, LAT. 68 deg. 10' N., LON. 180 deg. W., SEPT. 25, 1852, COMMANDED BY THOMAS HOWES NORTON, OF EDGARTOWN, AND THE SUBSEQUENT SUFFERINGS OF HER OFFICERS AND CREW DURING NINE MONTHS AMONG THE NATIVES. TOGETHER WITH A BRIEF HISTORY OF WHALING. BY REV. LEWIS HOLMES. BOSTON: WENTWORTH & COMPANY, 86 WASHINGTON STREET. 1857. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by WENTWORTH & COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. STEREOTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. TO WHALEMEN, IN WHOSE EMPLOYMENT, DARING ADVENTURES, AND MANY DEPRIVATIONS, THE AUTHOR FEELS A DEEP INTEREST, This Volume IS MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED. PREFACE. Of all classes of fishermen, the whaleman takes the precedence. This front position will be readily conceded to him, whether we consider the stupendous object of his pursuit, or the vast extent of waters over which he roams to secure his prey, or the dangers and perils peculiar to his avocation, or the immense pecuniary outlay with which the enterprise is carried on. Some of the reasons which induced the author to present to the public this narrative containing an account of the wreck of the whale ship _Citizen_, and the subsequent exposure and sufferings of her officers and crew in the Arctic Ocean, are the following:-- 1. The instance has never been recorded in the history of marine disaster, in which a ship's company, consisting of _thirty-three_ persons, lived so many months among the natives in so high a latitude. 2. Being cast helpless and almost destitute upon such a desolate coast, they had to depend principally upon the kindness and generosity of the natives for protection, food, and clothing. 3. Considering the unfavorable and forbidding circumstances of their condition, in living as the natives lived, and their travels in the depths of winter from one settlement to another in order to avoid starvation, it is remarkable that so many of them, with so little sickness, should be rescued the following year. A plain statement of these facts the author felt was due to his fellow-townsmen, and would probably be of some considerable interest to all classes of readers, and therefore meriting a permanent record with the varied experience of whalemen. The limited time the author spent with Captain Norton,[A] who was then preparing for sea, from whom he received the leading facts in the narrative, after it was concluded to give it to the public, is his only apology for not introducing more extended particulars.