The monumental exhibition Hudson: A History of Whaling & Maritime Commerce is returning to the Hudson Area Library for the month of September and October.
To mark the return, the History Room at the Hudson Area Library presents Epistolary Drama: The Tale of Whaling, on Thursday, September 4, at 6:00 p.m. in the Community Room at the library.
Epistolary Drama will feature local actors reading heart-wrenching, impassioned, and occasionally amusing letters from crew, captains, wives, and heroes, and will be narrated by the character of Captain Edward A. Chapel, a longtime Hudsonian and whaler. In between the readings, a chorus and attendees will sing rousing songs and shanties about life at sea. The event was conceived by library trustees Miranda Barry and Gary Sheffer, using letters found during research for the library's exhibit about Hudson's whaling part.
The musical director for the performance is Alex Harvey, an expert on whaling songs who performs songs of the sea in a project he calls ShinBone Alley. At his performances, listeners learn to celebrate the haunting intercultural exchange of 18th- and 19th-century maritime music--whose elements traveled from the farthest reaches of the globe to be remade anew by sailors of every shade and shape in port and at sea. By teaching the audience to join in on most of the tunes, Harvey builds bridges over time.
"Whaling was challenging for both whalers and their families who stayed home," said Miranda Barry, scriptwriter and director of the event. "The letters and songs reveal hardship but also determination, skill, and humor. Thanks to talented actors and musicians, we can experience the realities of Hudson's whaling history."
Most of the letters to be featured in the September 4 performance were written by local residents, for example, Gilbert Jenkins, Jr., grandson of Thomas Jenkins, one of the original Proprietors. The young Jenkins was disillusioned by his first whaling experience, and, in 1833, he wrote to his brother from South America about his experiences on the ship America II:
Our 1st Mate is a mean, ill-bred man and he is disliked by the ship's company and I hope to have the pleasure of flogging him on our return home. . . ."
Whaling voyages out of Hudson often lasted three or more years, and whalers prized letters from their wives. Featured in the evening will be a charming ditty written by Carrie Hyde to her husband, George, who was on the whaling ship Napoleon from 1858 to 1862. This is the first stanza:
Husband, dear husband, come home to me now
Come home ere the springtime is through
The old blind cow has got a white calf
And our young lambs are bleating for you!
Between 1784 and 1845, there were forty-seven whaling voyages out of Hudson, some successful and some financially devastating. Such industries as shipbuilding, rope, sail, soap, and candle making arose along the wharves, and in 1795, ten years after its incorporation as a city, Hudson became a U.S. Port of Entry.
The exhibition Hudson: A History of Whaling & Maritime Commerce is the culmination of more than ten years of research and two years spent gathering digital facsimiles of historic documents specific to Hudson's whaling past. The remounting of the exhibition this fall will include newly discovered crew lists from Hudson ships.
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