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chained_bear commented on the word nantucket sleigh ride
"The boats were dispatched, a harpoon was hurled—successfully—and the whaleline went whizzing out until it was finally snubbed at the loggerhead, launching the boat and crew on the voyage's first 'Nantucket sleigh ride,' as it would come to be called."
--Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex, 52–53
May 1, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word nantucket sleigh ride
"Benjamin Briggs, who lived between the two largest whaling communities in the world, may have been reminded of what the whalers called a Nantucket sleigh ride. In the moments after a whale is harpooned, the beast instinctively swims away in an attempt to escape what is hurting him. With the harpoon tied to the boat, whalers are taken on a fast trip across choppy water, practically skimming over the waves. Briggs would have realized that, like whalers on a sleigh ride, he was in a dangerous situation."
—Brian Hicks, Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew (NY: Ballantine Books, 2004), 246
September 23, 2009