“THE PRINCE OF PESSIMISM” GOES A-WHALING
WITH A REVEALING LETTER FROM THE SHIP’S OWNER

A log from the golden age of American whaling, kept—unusually—by the ship’s captain, the notorious “Crazy Peirce,” the “Prince of the Pessimists,” including sixty whale and fluke stamps and offered, even more unusually, with a long, minutely detailed letter of instruction from the ship’s owner regarding the voyage. The logbook.....