Save the Date! Thursday, 5 November 2020 • NY City Pickle Night Virtual Event

(left) The captain’s day cabin onboard HMS Victory dressed as a working space, displaying a new color scheme and dressing.

HMS Victory at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard; (below) Victory’s gun deck.

victory photos courtesy nmrn

This year marks the 215th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar and the 15th New York City Pickle Night. Those interested in the historical significance of the battle and the astonishing life of Admiral Lord Nelson are invited to attend this special occasion. The event is named for Her Majesty’s Schooner Pickle, the smallest British vessel at the Battle of Trafalgar, which carried the important news home to London of British victory and Nelson’s death. In a break from tradition, this year’s Pickle Night will be held online, where guests will receive an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of the world-famous HMS Victory and view the results of recent preservation efforts. This virtual visit to the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, England, will be filled with inspiring speakers and exciting surprises. Advance registration is required. Contact: SallyAFNMRN@ gmail.com; Ph. 212 840-1166. The American Friends of the National Museum of the Royal Navy is recognized as a tax-exempt organization.

WhalingHistory.org Scholars, teachers, students, family historians, and anyone interested in the subject can access a wealth of data about the historic whaling industry free of charge on www.whalinghistory.org, the world’s most comprehensive whaling history database. Launched in 2018 through a partnership between the New Bedford Whaling Museum and Mystic Seaport, the website combines information from many sources, including logbooks, journals, ship registers, newspapers, business papers, and custom house records. At its height in the 1840s, the American whaling industry ranked ninth in overall value to the economy; whaling industry documentation is extensive. Through the website, users can find and trace whaling voyages and ships to specific logbooks, as well as the crew lists aboard most of the voyages. All data is open to the public and its resources are downloadable for any researcher to use with other tools and systems. The site also includes links to learning resources related to whaling and whaling history, including projects users have completed using data from the site. For example, Mystic Seaport Museum for Educators shared an active (and interactive) map representing the journey of the whaler Neptune of New London, Connecticut, from October 1840 to April 1842. The data sets currently available are American Offshore Whaling Voyages, the British Southern Whale Fishery, British North American Whaling Voyages, French Whaling Voyages, and Scottish Arctic Whaling. SEA HISTORY 172, AUTUMN 2020 55