Black Hands, White Sails

This book is indeed a must read and should be made a prerequisite for all that read Moby Dick. I found this book to be a riveting account of whaling and the importance that people of color visited upon this industry. I was very much overcome with emotions with every turn of the page as I learned how many of my ancestors came to live in New Bedford, MA and what they must have endured.

This book is a must read for black historians, civil war historians, and whale experts, which I am. I was completely unaware of the presence and dynamics of the life of black whalers. The serious risks of whaling far outweighed the risks of abduction by slave patrollers or even a life burdened by segregation and discrimination. I was particularily interested in the use and abuse of whale ships in the Civil war. A stone fleet of 15 whaling ships from the North were loaded with stones and sunk in Charleston harbor in an attempt to block the harbor in 1861. The attempt failed because the waters were too deep. Sountherners then became hell bent on destroying whale boats. The Confederate steamer Alabama sunk over 70 whale boats during the war. The Shenandoah sunk 34 more after the war. Black heroes and self made men are hailed, as well as those who were cannibalized by hungry crew in desparate times. I couldn't put this book down.