Beschreibung:

AN HISTORICALLY INTERESTING NANTUCKET WHALING CAPTAIN'S HUNTING KNIFE, CIRCA 1851 the 12½in. steel blade signed Arnachellum Salem with antler handle inscribed "WILLIAM PENN" / of NANTUCKET. / Capt. ISAAC B. HUSSEY, terminating with a decorative white metal pommel dated '1851' -- 18in. (46cm.) overall Isaac Hussey (1807-1852) seems to have been one of the more colourful American whaling captains. Born to a whaling family in Nantucket, he learnt quickly and was an experienced whaler himself by a young age - his first command at the age of 27 was the Phoenix, which left Nantucket July 1834 and returned February 1837 with an impressive 2345 tuns of sperm oil. From 1841-45 he commanded the Potomac during which voyage he visited Pitcairn Island; and the Planter 1847-1851 when he was mentioned in Herman Melville's diaries when they were both on Nukahiva Island in the Marquesas. In 1850, Hussey shot and killed a crew member during a mutiny at Kosrae. The crew of the Planter left Hussey in Micronesia and the first mate, Joseph Fisher sailed her home where Hussey was tried and acquitted in absentia of murder. Hussey meanwhile set sail for home in command of the San Francisco brig William Penn, but on November 4th off the Gilbert Islands, the crew mutinied, killing Hussey and the ship's cook. The knife blade is made by the famous Indian cutler Arnachellum Salem, Hussey presumably acquiring it in the east in that year. Hussey's portrait is in the collection of the Nantucket Historical Association.