Series consists of the whaling journal of Captain Benjamin James Forster, of the ship ANSEL GIBBS out of New Bedford, Massachusetts. (Date of creation of transcription from the original handwritten journal unknown). This journal describes a voyage to Hudson Bay, whales caught, the terrible ice conditions and the names of other vessels that accompanied them on their voyage through Hudson Strait.
The journal is not a daily one and only has entries for those days when something out of the ordinary happened such as the catching of their first whale in Hudson Bay 8 August 1864 or the entry for 5 June 1864 in which the difficult passage of Hudson Strait is described in detail as well as incidents such as the suicide of a crewman of the MILLWOOD "who jumped off the yardarms, cause severity of her captain" and the staving in of various ships by the ice. On 12 September 1864 "they came into winter quarters [Marble Island] with the schooner CORNELIA, schooner GLACIER, bark ORGGTAFT, schooner ALLEN F., one hundred and twenty men in our fleet".
The winter entries note their contacts with the Inuit such as the entry for 23 January 1865 "Eight natives came with one dog, brought skins and mittens cummings and deer skin stockings. Left in a day or two". Sticks that the Inuit left in the snow after their religious ceremonies being picked up by crewmen as souvenirs and walrus and caribou hunts to provide meat for starving crewmen are mentioned. Meat was purchased from the Inuit when available. Thermometer readings such as the "59 degree (Fahrenheit) below zero reading of 7 March 1865, when the mercury froze, the coldest day of the winter." are mentioned periodically.
