Remarks on Board Ship Mary in 1840. Manuscript whale logbook of Silvester Dennison Stacy (1818 - 1850). Various locations at sea, out of New Bedford, Massachusetts: 9 April 1840 - 3 April 1842. 98 pages, 13 x 8 inches. Original marbled boards. First page detached, with damp stains and spotting throughout. Inscribed identification to "Silverster D. Stacy" to the back pastedown. With stamped illustrations of whales, ships, and fish throughout, as well as several hand-drawn whale tails.

An exceptional, visually rich, and highly descriptive manuscript logbook capturing two from a multi-year global whaling voyage through the Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans. Kept by crew member Silvester D. Stacy aboard the New Bedford ship Mary under the command of Captain Thomas J. Corey, this journal provides a comprehensive, daily record of maritime life, navigation, and the grueling mechanics of the 19th-century whaling industry.

Stacy’s entries meticulously document weather conditions, daily coordinates (latitude and longitude), encounters with other vessels, and the step-by-step processing of the catch, from the initial strike to cutting, boiling, and stowing the oil. The manuscript is heavily augmented by original, hand-carved stamps and drawings, offering a striking visual census of the crew's successes at sea.

Early entries reflect the tense anticipation of a crew hunting for their first elusive whale, and at one point, Stacy even remarks, "Dul times about, and no Whales to be caught." On May 10, 1840, Captain Corey addressed the crew after speaking with another New Bedford vessel active in New Zealand waters, and their successes further fuel his crew’s desires for their own catch. Stacy records: "The first part of these 24 hours bright airs and cal[m]; at 3 p.m. Master Spoke [of] the ship John Adams of New Bedford 12 months out with 1 hundred bbls [barrels] of sperm oil [from] a Boyling out 2 whales ship steering to the Northern. We haven't seen a sine [sic] of a whale yet but I hope Monday morn that they will begin to show themselves."

This entry is flanked by two crisp impressions of ship stamps. The crew's patience was rewarded six days later on May 16, when Stacy enthusiastically records their first victory: "[We] saw several finbacks and Blackfish, better part saw a sperm whale, lowered the Boats, struck and killed." Accompanied by a bold whale stamp, the entry details Stacy's immediate assignment to "cutting," the processing of the blubber into smaller pieces, called "horse pieces," to be boiled in the ship's kettles.

The journal captures the inherent dangers of navigating East Indian waters. On July 12, 1840, while transiting the Lombok Straits en route to the Port of Ampenam in Indonesia, the crew braced for a hostile encounter: "[We] saw a small boat which [is] called a Malay's Praugh [Prau] and got reddy for action [sic]. Every man had a lance or a spade or some other instrument of war."

Though the vessel, a traditional outrigger craft frequently associated with Malayan piracy, passed without incident, the entry underscores the constant vigilance required of Pacific mariners. Beyond regional threats, the physical dangers of the hunt are starkly illustrated in an entry from May 14, 1841. After striking and killing two sperm whales, a chaotic malfunction with the starboard boat resulted in the ship's Mate being seriously injured, though the crew still managed to successfully try out 65 barrels of oil that day.

By the autumn of 1841, the Mary reached the lucrative whaling grounds off the coast of "New Holland" (Australia), where the crew enjoyed tremendous success. On October 17, 1841, Stacy records a double victory: “Saw three Whales, loward [the boats], and the waist boat struck and killed one and the starboard boat struck and caught."

Throughout November 1841, Stacy documents a grueling regime of "boiling... and stowing oil" as the ship's hold filled. To sustain operations, Captain Corey is recorded as purchasing a new trypot, the cast-iron cauldron used for melting blubber into oil, for the ship's deck. While operating in Australian waters, the Mary frequently crossed paths with fellow global wanderers from their home port, including the John Adams, the George, the Water Witch, and the Montpelier.

While focusing primarily on highly prized sperm whales, Stacy consistently notes interactions with other whale species, marking sightings with specialized iconography. On January 2, 1841, he records "a school of killers" (orcas), illustrated with hand-drawn whale tails—a phenomenon noted again the following April. On September 25, 1841, in the Indian Ocean, the crew targeted two "black whales,” lowering the boats to successfully strike and kill both, an event Stacy commemorates with his characteristic carved stamps.

Silvester Dennison Stacey was born in Plainfield, Connecticut, to Ann and Silvester Stacey, a mariner. Though his name appears variably in the historical record as "Sylvester" or by his middle name, "Dennison," the younger Stacey proudly followed his father to sea, according to the U.S. Index of Whaling Crew Lists. Stacey first shipped out in 1833 at just sixteen years of age, and on this initial voyage he ultimately deserted his vessel, the Eagle, at the northwestern Peruvian seaport of Paita. Undeterred, Stacey later returned to the waves, completing the voyage documented here aboard the Mary, before signing onto the William Thompson in 1846, where he was discharged at the end of the voyage, at which time he married Adeline Pettis on May 28, 1846.

While the 1850 Federal Census still enumerates him as a sailor in the "Water Transportation" industry, his seafaring career was cut short by his untimely death on December 23 of that same year. In an interesting final chapter to Stacey's story, census records suggest that by 1857, his widow, Adeline, had remarried Stacey’s older brother, Stephen, who had eschewed the family's maritime tradition to work as a house carpenter.

A quintessential, beautifully illustrated record of New Bedford's golden age of whaling, offering unmatched insight into early Pacific maritime trade and industrial whaling history.