A ledger book (8.5†x 13â€) with marbled boards and leather spine with 46 pages of inked Ms. text, covering the period from July 11, 1831 with the entry “At 2 A.M. got under way below the light…†to March 27, 1832, all written in the same hand. Each entry begins with the date, weather and wind direction and ends with latitude and longitude of the ship. The Ms. text between covers the events of the day, such as whale sightings and kills, lowering boats to chase whales that dived and escaped, landing to take on provisions such as “400 tortoises†. Many of the entries that detail whale kills are marked with a whale stamp, or more frequently with a hand drawn whale in ink or several whales as the log would describe. The last entry writes of some ship loosing either 150 barrels of oil from a broken line. Log makes mention of meeting several other named whalers encountered during this voyage. The hand writing is not the best but was able to read most without too much effort, and further study could read more of this important log book. On both the front and rear paste-downs there is a list of whaling ships and the tonnage of oil each took in, listing 95 different named ship, many with patriotic names such as “America, Franklin, Enterprise, Monticello†and others. Other names reflect the business, such as “Pacific, Harvest, Navigation, Marine, Arctic.†Still others place names such as “Nantucket, Ohio, Massachusetts, & Lancaster†. Many others use mythological names such as “Mars, Jupiter, Phoenix, Hercules, & Minerva.†Lady and personal names are also common. While this log is likely written by the Captain, there are at least two names with “Capt.†before it and am not sure which of these was Captain of the Equator during this voyage, but further research could bring this to light as well without much difficulty. There are 17 whale stamps and drawings in the log, all with a number such as such as “17, 15, 18†or “65bls., 75bls.†next to or under each. In addition each whale has two initials above, likely the seaman who first struck the whale. Several accounts of lowering for whales, but the whales dived and escaped. Like all whaling journals, this one is makes a fascinating read, and typical of this period. The Nantucket ship “Equator†was one of the first whaling ships to visit the Hawaiian Islands, under the command of Elisha Folger.

Moderate wear to boards, several pages cut from rear, but based on the text they were likely blank, Very Good.