#basuralindo

[terrible-eel]

My boyfriend's job post blows up and he shows me the 42k notes and in this chipper voice goes "And no death threats! Nothing!"

[focsle]

I've seen you answer a few asks about whaling history before, so hopefully I'm not offbase asking you questions out of the blue? But anyway, how did people bathe (or keep clean if not by bathing) during long sea voyages?

Not off base at all! Out of the blue whaling history questions are some of my fav asks to receive; I find them thrilling. I can’t help but write an essay every time.

It was particularly hard to keep clean on a whaler, and whalemen were often disparaged by those in other maritime professions. In 1839, naval Lieutenant Charles Wilkes said of the crew of the whaleship America, 

“I have seldom seen at sea a more uncombed and dirty set of mariners than his crew.“

J.E. Haviland of the Baltic, 1856, complained of besmirching his journal pages with the grime that he was unable to scrub off his hands after tarring the rigging, self consciously saying:

“My hands + clothes would look beautiful for a ladies Parlor. I see they even collor the paper but I cannot get the tar out. The Old Man says he intends to have me tar down the rigging a few days before we get in New Bedford so that I shall not forget too soon that I have been a sailor.”

General ships’ work  such as tarring could be messy, but a whaler’s work was even messier. When trying out blubber it was futile to attempt maintaining any semblance of cleanliness during the process. William Abbe of the Atkins Adams, 1859, said that during boiling, a watch would turn in to their bunks a few hours rest, merely ‘after wiping off your bare body with oakum to take off the thickest of the oil”.

But the gore and oil wasn’t forever. After the particular job was done the ship would be meticulously cleaned, and the whalers would tend to themselves too. As Herman Melville wrote,

“The crew themselves proceed to their own ablutions; shift themselves from top to toe; and finally issue to the immaculate deck, fresh and all aglow, as bridegrooms new-leaped from out the daintiest Holland. Now, with elated step, they pace the planks in twos and threes, and humorously discourse of parlors, sofas, carpets, and fine cambrics; propose to mat the deck; think of having hanging to the top; object not to taking tea by moonlight on the piazza of the forecastle. To hint to such musked mariners of oil, and bone, and blubber, were little short of audacity. They know not the thing you distantly allude to. Away, and bring us napkins!”

Haviland expressed gratitude in getting a chance to get clean after all the work of boiling blubber was done:

“I feel much better to day I have given myself a good wash + a clean shave + got in all clean clothes. You would not have known your own son if you could have seen him yesterday. I was nearly black with smoke + dirt. (with shame) I say it was the accumulation of 2 months dirt + 4 months beard. Everything looks as clean + bright as it did before we took the whale”

Being able to bathe was such a highlight that Abbe titled one of his journal pages “Washing myself!!” With TWO exclamation points!

“I write with pride in my fastidious journal that this morning I washed my face + hands with castile soap + fresh water — when shall I do the like again? When shall I write the pleasant and comfortable fact that I have shaved? The future and fair weather only can tell.”

The ship’s slop chest—its general store—had toiletries for sale, often at a very high premium. Whaling account books show men buying pounds of oil soap for their own personal stores. The fresh water was often rainwater collected for this purpose, rather than the casks set aside for drinking.

“This has been a rather squally day,” wrote Mary Lawrence, whaling wife who accompanied her husband on his ship Addison in the 1850s. “Considerable rain has fallen, and everybody on deck is using an abundant supply of rainwater for washing purposes.” She also added, though this is speaking of laundry rather than bathing, “Having stopped up the scuppers, the use the whole deck for one grand washtub.”

They’d use the sea, too. John Martin of the Lucy Ann, wrote of bathing via rain and sea whilst near the equator on January 24th, 1842.

“Towards noon the rain came down in torrents. The weather being sultry the watch on deck shipped off their shirts to it. John the boat steerer went entirely naked with the exception of a handkerchief tied around his privates. In the afternoon it cleared away, when I asked permission from the Captain for the crew to take a bathe over the side. He said we might do it if we rigged a studding sail over the side, which was soon done & all hands that could swim were to be seen jumping from different parts of the ship. Some went out to the end of the flying jib boom & jumped off there. Even the dog was thrown overboard & got his share of washing. I like bathing at sea but for one thing, and that is sharks. I always have a fear that one might be hovering about and give one a nip before he was aware of it.”

It was challenging for whalers to keep clean by nature of the job, but man when they were able to they really seemed to revel in it. For many of them it was more than just a bath; it was a symbolic return to a home they were long away from, or to the man they perceived themselves to be back on shore, or of a society that they felt cut off from in their line of work.

If you’re interested I also wrote a thing about doing laundry on whaleships too, yonder!

[yaoiconnoisseur]

35, 56, 68 for the 30+ ask game

YAAAAY thank you for the ask :D

35. Aisle at the grocery store you never bother walking down?

The candy/sweets and chips/snacks aisles. I don't really snack throughout the day and don't like sweets that much, so those aisles are pointless for me to walk through.

56. Favorite low-effort meal that you make?

Beef bulgogi, hands down; no competition. It's super easy. The hardest part is waiting for your beef to finish marinading.

Here's the recipe if you're interested:

Ingredients 1 LBS beef (buy it pre-sliced or slice it yourself) 2.5 Tbsp soy sauce 2.5 Tbsp oyster sauce 2.5 Tbsp sugar 2.5 Tbsp granulated sugar 2.5 Tbsp mirin 2 Tbsp minced garlic 2 Tbsp sesame oil Combine sauces and seasonings in a bowl. Mix them together. Add beef to the bowl. Make sure your beef is completely covered in the marinade. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Place the bowl in the refrigerator and allow the beef to marinade for at least 30 minutes. (the longer, the better imo) Heat a pan (it doesnt matter what kind; both normal and nonstick pans work) to medium heat and add about a tablespoon of neutral oil (or coconut oil) to it. Cook the beef until it's done. If you have sliced your beef thinly (bulgogi style) it should maybe take about 10 minutes tops for the beef to cook If you don't have an Asian market by you that sells your beef sliced thinly, ask your butcher (or whoever is working the meat counter) to slice your beef into ⅛ inch (3.2 mm) thick slices... Or just cut the meat yourself. I just make rice in the rice cooker to go with it, but you should do whatever you feel like doing.

68. Are your garbage bags scented or unscented?

We normally buy unscented, but we recently started buying a bag size up from what we usually buy (20 Gal bags to 30 Gal) and our grocery store doesn't have 30 gallon garbage bags in anything other than scented. I've avoided scented bags in the past because their scent has always been obnoxiously strong, but these one's aren't. I guess garbage bag manufacturers realized that we just want odor neutralization--not a bag that smells like artificial flower smell and waste lol

Here's the list of questions for this prompt if you'd like to ask me something

[focsle]

After like two years following you and telling myself I'll read it when I have a minute, I FINALLY had a minute and started reading your comic, and holy shit it's INCREDIBLE already! I especially love the way you have the haunting speaking through the grains of wood, that's just so fricken cool, I've never seen that concept before and I'm enthralled!

Thank you so much for reading! I’m really glad you’re enjoying it too!

I had the idea of replicating the sensation of hearing disembodied voices by working them into background elements years before I started gtw but didn’t have a story to try it in. Just had it bouncing around in the back of my head waiting for the day I could use it. So I was thrilled to get the opportunity in gtw. Pleased to hear they’re effective!