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Examples
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Upon entering the place I found a number of young seamen gathered about a table, examining by a dim light divers specimens of skrimshander.
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Whale-bone, and other like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material, in their hours of ocean leisure.
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Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies 'busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and other like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material, in their hours of ocean leisure.
Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855
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Sag Harbor, you will come across lively sketches of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies 'busks wrought out of the Right Whale-bone, and other like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material, in their hours of ocean leisure.
Moby Dick, or, the whale Herman Melville 1855
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Throughout the Pacific, and also in Nantucket, and New Bedford, and Sag Harbor, you will come across lively sketches of whales and whaling-scenes, graven by the fishermen themselves on Sperm Whale-teeth, or ladies 'busks wrought out of the Right Whale - bone, and other like skrimshander articles, as the whalemen call the numerous little ingenious contrivances they elaborately carve out of the rough material, in their hours of ocean leisure.
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Upon entering the place I found a number of young seamen gathered about a table, examining by a dim light divers specimens of skrimshander.
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a table, examining by a dim light divers specimens of skrimshander.
Moby Dick: or, the White Whale Herman Melville 1855
yarb commented on the word skrimshander
Upon entering the place I found a number of young seamen gathered about a table, examining by a dim light divers specimens of skrimshander.
- Melville, Moby-Dick, ch. 3
July 23, 2008
yarb commented on the word skrimshander
More useful citation on busk.
July 25, 2008
grandpa27 commented on the word skrimshander
skrimshander the first sighting by me was in Melville's Moby Dick and referred to needle engraving on Sperm Whales teeth. I had always associated these carved objects with scrimshaw and scrimshander with the carver. It is clear from Moby Dick that Melville, a sailor who had served on whalers, had firsthand knowledge of the usage.
March 3, 2013