Cornucopia: The Leviathan’s Gift
The Leviathan’s Gift
By Kate Chamberlin
I stood in the attic window of my great-grandmother’s weather-beaten saltbox home over-looking Friday Harbor, San Juan Island. The calm ferry ride through the Puget Sound from Anacortes, WA, USA bode well for my visit. During the short voyage, I marveled at how graceful the pod of Harbor Porpoise was, playfully gliding alongside with the confidence of creatures who knew they were blessed and cherished, secure in the lineage dating back Millenia. Even a curious little otter popped his head up to watch us pass.
From this third-story window, I could look out to the dull grey-green ocean with frothy lace ebbing and flowing, teasing the sand and pebble strewn beach. When I put my eye to the large free-standing telescope, that had kept vigil from this window for possibly, decades of decades, and turned the knurled knob, I spied a lone whale spouting farther out from shore. How magnificent the leviathan appeared. I recalled a variety of the tales handed down by generations of whalers in my family and could feel the emotion they must have felt as I watched in awe as the whale slid below the surface. It’s huge fluke seemed to wave to me: hasta luego, Chica.
Bookshelves flanked the small alcove that housed the “widow’s window” and telescope. I perused a few of the many titles that helped my ancestors while away the long hours waiting for the whalers to return. There was a mixture of old and not so old tomes. I noted “A New Voyage Around the World” by William Dampier (1697); “A Romance of Perfume Lands or the Search for Capt. Jacob Cole”, F. S. Clifford(1881); and stacks of magazines about oceans, fishing, and whaling.
Perhaps, some of the family tales were blends of facts and fiction. I would have a lot of time to parse the stories as I rehabilitate this old family home.
For more than three weeks, from the dusty attic to the dank stone foundation, I sorted through old cobweb ensnarled wooden boxes, spidery new cardboard boxes, cleaned a plethora of fly specked relics and artifacts collected throughout the generations, and sunk deeper and deeper into despair. It would take more time and resources than I have to renovate this old house.
I wanted to establish a Whale Museum where the mission is to promote stewardship of whales and the Salish Sea ecosystem through education and research.
That night, the wind freshened. A fierce storm tossed a 4200 ton, 300-feet long ferry boat around like a child’s plastic, toy boat. I felt like that ferry boat, tossed around, battered, and at the mercy of the elements.
To distract myself, I passed the night ensconced in one of the comfy, over-stuffed lounge chairs in front of the bookshelves. I immersed myself in Melville’s “Moby Dick” (1851). One passage recounted how Stubb, one of the mates of the Pequod, fools the captain of the French whaler Rose-bud into abandoning the corpse of a sperm whale found floating in the sea. His plan was to recover the corpse himself in hopes that it contains ambergris. His hope proves well founded, and the Pequod’s crew recovers a valuable quantity of the liquid gold that was essential in making expensive perfumes.
I had to chuckle when I read how ironic it was that “fine ladies and gentlemen should regale themselves with an essence found in the inglorious bowels of a sick whale.
The next afternoon I took a break and wandered down to the beach to cool my tired feet in the salt water and wiggle my toes into the cool, grainy sand. The high winds had strewn flotsam and jetsam onto the normally pristine beach. Two dogs along the debris line caught my attention. They were very interested in something left by the receding tide. Among the odd flit-flop, plastic six-pack rings, algae, and foam, I saw several solid, waxy, blobs of dull grey. I wondered if these were the amber gist I’d read about in “Moby Dick”, that would have been produced in the digestive system of sperm whales. It had a marine, fecal odor, but, if this was what I thought it might be, it would acquire a sweet, earthy scent as it aged.
I gathered all the blobs up, knowing the price I’d get for them would more than finance my dream of a Whale Museum.
Later, looking through the telescope in the attic, I spied a leviathan breach, spout a taller than usual plume of water, and slip beneath the surface. I have no doubt its fluke waved to me: Buena Suerta, Chica!
I whispered my thanks and vowed that the first floor of my museum would have a souvenir shop, an educational movie loop about whales, and many hands-on bones and relics for visitors to touch. The second floor would have the intact, ancient skeleton of a whale suspended from the ceiling, ancient mariners’ journals, sailor’s genealogy trees, maps, and explanations galore. Visitors would be invited to the third floor library to do research, listen to audible loops of whale songs, and stand at the widow’s window to view the ocean through the telescope. If they were lucky, they’d catch a glimpse of my venerable benefactor, the leviathan.
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Definition of Salish. 1 : a group of American Indian peoples of British Columbia and the northwestern U.S. 2 : the family of languages spoken by the Salish peoples.
I have taken the liberty of embellishing the Whale Museum that is already located at Friday Harbor.
The End
***
Ambergris from the North Sea
Ambergris (/ˈæmbərɡriːs/ or /ˈæmbərɡrɪs/, Latin: ambra grisea, Old French: ambre gris), ambergrease, or grey amber, is a solid, waxy, flammable substance of a dull grey or blackish colour produced in the digestive system of sperm whales.[1] Freshly produced ambergris has a marine, fecal odor. However, it acquires a sweet, earthy scent as it ages, commonly likened to the fragrance of rubbing alcohol without the vaporous chemical astringency.[2]
Ambergris has been very highly valued by perfumers as a fixative that allows the scent to last much longer, although it has been mostly replaced by synthetic ambroxan.[3] Dogs are known to be attracted to the smell of ambergris and are therefore sometimes used by ambergris searchers.[4]
Ambergris has been mostly known for its use in creating perfume and fragrance much like musk. Perfumes can still be found with ambergris around the world.[16] It is collected from remains found at sea and on beaches, although its precursor originates from the sperm whale, which is a vulnerable species.[17]
Ambergris has historically been used in food and drink. A serving of eggs and ambergris was reportedly King Charles II of England’s favorite dish.[18] A recipe for Rum Shrub liqueur from the mid 19th century called for ambergris to be added to rum, almonds, cloves, cassia, and the peel of oranges in making a cocktail from The English and Australian Cookery Book.[19] It has been used as a flavoring agent in Turkish coffee[20] and in hot chocolate in 18th century Europe.[21] The substance is considered an aphrodisiac in some cultures.[7]
Ancient Egyptians burned ambergris as incense, while in modern Egypt ambergris is used for scenting cigarettes.[22] The ancient Chinese called the substance “dragon’s spittle fragrance”.[23] During the Black Death in Europe, people believed that carrying a ball of ambergris could help prevent them from getting the plague. This was because the fragrance covered the smell of the air which was believed to be a cause of plague.
During the Middle Ages, Europeans used ambergris as a medication for headaches, colds, epilepsy, and other ailments.[23]
In literature[edit]
In chapter 91 of Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick 32]
In “A Romance of Perfume Lands or the Search for Capt. Jacob Cole”, F. S. Clifford, October 1881, the last chapter concerns one of the novel’s characters discovering an area of a remote island which contains large amounts of ambergris. He hopes to use this knowledge to help make his fortune in the manufacture of perfumes.[33]
In Chapter 17 of William Dampier’s “A New Voyage Around the World” (1697), Dampier escapes to Nicobar Island for “a prospect of advancing a profitable trade for ambergris…and of gaining a considerable fortune…”
In “The Case of Smelly Nellie” from Encyclopedia Brown Tracks Them Down (1971), the case revolves around Bugs Meany and the Tigers stealing fifty pounds of ambergris from Smelly Nellie by claiming they found it on the ocean floor and rolling it onto the beach.
In film and TV[edit]
In the 1956 episode “Whale Gold” of the British television series The Buccaneers, a crew of eighteenth-century pirates led by Captain Dan Tempest (actor Robert Shaw) find large pieces of ambergris at sea and on a beach, discoveries that lead to quarrels and death due to “whale gold fever.”
The plot of The Avengers 1963 episode “Killer Whale” revolves around an ambergris smuggling operation.[34]
The 1969 book The Lost Ones by Ian Cameron, later made into Disney’s 1974 film The Island at the Top of the World depicts a dirigible trip to the ‘Whale Graveyard’ where they find so much ambergris that it becomes a point of contention.
In the Batman episode “Louie’s Lethal Lilac Time” (11 January 1968), Louie the Lilac steals a large piece of ambergris from Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson, to use in his illegal perfume factory.
In “The Sixth Voyage of Sinbad the Sailor” in “The Arabian Nights” by Sir Richard Burton, Sinbad finds vast quantities of Ambergris after being shipwrecked on an unknown island after setting sail from Bassorāh.
Season 5, Episode 10 of Tales from the Crypt is entitled “Forever Ambergris,” starring Roger Daltrey and Steve Buscemi.
In the 2001 film Hannibal, Hannibal Lecter sends Clarice Starling a letter which he writes while intentionally wearing a hand lotion containing ambergris, correctly assuming that this would lead her to discover his location in Florence, Italy, due to lotion utilizing ambergris being legal in only a few countries.
In the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, an adaptation of Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey Maturin Series, Carpenter’s Mate Joseph Nagle notes that the French privateer The Acheron would be “…loaded with gold and ambergris and all the gems of Araby”, indicating the relative rarity and considerable value of ambergris during the Age of Sail.
Ambergris plays a prominent role in the plot of the 2003 Futurama episode “Three Hundred Big Boys.”[35] The episode guest-stars Roseanne Barr, who appears as a hologram of herself, reading the dictionary definition of “ambergris.”[36]
In The 2007 film adaption of “Sweeney Todd”, Beadle Bamford claims he uses ambergris as a cologne.
In the 2014 episode “Ambergris” of the animated television program Bob’s Burgers, a lump of ambergris found on the beach plays an important role, as Louise, Tina, and Gene attempt to sell the ambergris illegally for $30,000.
The 2018 episode “Quartet” of Endeavour featured ambergris (“worth more than its weight in gold”) being used as a way to pay enemy agents during the Cold War.
The 2018 episode “Ambergris” of Parfum featured ambergris (“costs 50,000 euros per kilo”) being used as fragrance enhancer.
Salish | Definition of Salish by Merriam-Webster
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/SalishActions for this site
Definition of Salish. 1 : a group of American Indian peoples of British Columbia and the northwestern U.S. 2 : the family of languages spoken by the Salish peoples.
Salish | Definition of Salish at Dictionary.com
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/salishActions for this site
Salish definition, a member of any of various North American Indian peoples speaking a Salishan language. See more.