A Whale Of A Tale

When I started the blog, the intent was to average one post a week. As I have heard numerous friends with hobby blogs tell me, starting is easy, staying started is a little more difficult... 

My civvy job has been time consuming and this was added to by a four-day drill with my Brigade last weekend. Between normal staff officer things, the exercise we are using for staff training, and random events like a bear popping up in the barracks dumpster and a kamikaze fawn charging us during our morning run, it wasn't boring, just busy. 

But that's not the tale in the title that I speak of. 

In August I will finally (fingers crossed) begin my MS degree through SUNY Maritime College. The degree is in Naval and Maritime Studies and is very focused on history, literature, etc. 

My faculty advisor provided me a reading list and I purchased several books, including the one below. 

Dolin's book is about the overall history of whaling in America. And he states up front, there is no debate on the moral or ethical nature of whaling. It's just the facts, ma'am. The whaling industry is not something I've ever read about before, despite growing up in that area, and I am developing a whole new appreciation for how it impacted both the economic direction and social development of the English colonies in North America. 

The author does a wonderful job. His style is engaging and he doesn't overburden the reader with details or assumptions. The chapter he devotes to the sperm whale is fascinating. I did not realize how very little we know about whales in general and the sperm whale in particular. 

Concurrently, my good friend Mark N. had recently reported on a whaling game based on Moby-Dick at the HUZZAH! convention in Maine. You can read about it here:

My Brave Fusiliers!: Hunting Moby Dick or The Revenge of the Whale

I remember the original games done at Historicon years ago and I thought they were very clever, though I never did get to play in one. 

One thing I found interesting in Dolin's book, is that Moby-Dick was taken from an actual giant bull sperm whale from the Pacific, known as Mocha Dick. Named for the island where he was found, Mocha Dick was every bit the legend in real life that Moby-Dick was in fiction. 

As gamers, we sometimes may choose a period or scenario which may seem a bit on the edge or cause a raised eyebrow or two. But reading Leviathan, I think I now give the whale even odds when it comes to fighting the hairless monkeys in their little wooden boats. 

Anyway, more about gaming anon. I've got another test drive of one of my Historicon games tonight up in the wilds of Luzerne County. 

Hunting The Whale will have to wait for another time...