Managed to squeeze one more page in at the expense of my back!! I was hoping to finish this chapter for this month’s update (there are 2 more pages left) but alas! Til next time!

I’ve also written a historical context blog post about scrimshaw to accompany this page. You can read it : here! :

↓ Transcript
Panel 1 [Closer shot of Adelaide looking towards Lawrence, speaking conspiratorially, but with a sense of humor]

ADELAIDE:
You were wise to bring an amusement. I imagine many men are less accustomed to weathering monotony than women. I tell you, a day in the home feels like it holds forty hours sometimes.

Panel 2 [Same shot, but she’s angling her head to the side, grinning with her eyes closed in a self-satisfied way as she mimes pulling a thread.]

ADELAIDE:
But, I can mend a wound just as I mend a dress.

LAWRENCE:

Impressive.

Panel 3[Adelaide turns slightly to face amidships and Lawrence follows her gaze. In the foreground, Joseph and Josué are eating on the main hatch. Joseph kicks away a large pig trying to stick its snout on his plate. Josué is laughing slightly.]

ADELAIDE:
It’s curious…whalers eventually become quite domestic out here during the doldrums, if the gifts they bring home are any testament to that.

JOSEPH: Tchht! Get! Damned pigs...When're we makin' this one into a pie?

Panel 4 [A panel on a black ground showing a variety of items as Adelaide's voice comes off screen. There's an intricately carved bust reading 'beloved forget me not', clothespins and needles, a needle case with a whaling scene etched on the side, a pie crimper shaped like a hippocampus, and a yarn swift]

ADELAIDE:
They whittle away the hours making their sweethearts valentines out of the jaws of leviathans.

Panel 5 [Small panel of Lawrence looking contemplative, Adelaide glancing over at him]

LAWRENCE:
What a bizarre world this is, mid-ocean.

ADELAIDE:
Indeed. But they’re all so accustomed to it that our land feels stranger to them.