Transcript

Panel 1 [Barzillai shouts over his shoulder with a snarling expression]

BARZILLAI:
Clew up main and brace aback, Mr. Mathews! Starboard watch, line the boats!

Panel 2 [Barzillai steps up to Ezra, the flurry of activity behind them as men start to prep the whale boats]

BARZILLAI:
Join me in the water, Mr. Carter. I want to see what you’re made of.

EZRA:
Aye.

Panel 3 [Ezra turns, shouting across the deck with a decisive expression.]

EZRA:
Waist and forward boat crews! Shoes off, stand ready to lower!

Panel 4[Close up shot of some men pulling off their shoes by the bulwarks]

Panel 5 [Josué grins, slinging an arm across the shoulders of a bewildered Lawrence, pulling him over to the boats]

JOSUÉ:
Come on, Manner, time for a baptism!
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Page 103
Posted on May 17, 2023 by Silas
I'm putting...tremendous personal pressure on myself with these whaleboat scenes...I so desperately want to capture the spirit of the thing. We'll see if I succeed.

4 thoughts on “Page 103”

  1. Oldarmourer

    Probably better than any other comic.
    Especially since I don’t remember ever seeing another 18th century whaling comic 😉

    1. SJ

      Hahah thank you for your faith in me!

  2. leslie

    shoes off?? i didn’t know that was something whalers did! why? my guess is maybe in case you fall in the water, you’re more likely to be able to keep your head up treading water with no shoes, but I’m not sure if that’s the reason

    1. SJ

      It wasn’t so much a thing in colder climes, but in the sperm whale fishery whalers would often lower barefoot/in socks because there was the notion that the sound/vibration of boots on the bottom of the boat would scare off whales.

      Granted…I am contradicting the quiet by having speeches given in the boat in the next coming pages for the sake of Narrative Interest, but…once a boat was close to a whale it was a largely silent affair.

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