Thar bloweth the greate fyshe

As Christmas break was creeping up and looking for some side entertainment, I thought I would revisit the classic tale Moby Dick. Call me Ishmael or perhaps Crazy. Yes, crazy for sure. Sometimes my brain and imagination run wild and a few Google searches later I had ordered a few whale boats and crew from Eureka Miniatures USA and also found an older back issue of Wargames Illustrated #99 which had a small set of rules written by Chris Peers. The rules have been expanded a bit by the Houston Beer & Pretzel Wargame Club. Follow the link and you can find both their version and Chris Peer's version from WI on their page.

Living in New England, home to some of the most well known whaling fleets from Nantucket, New Bedford, New London and Stonington, which are all within a one-three hour drive from my home, my brain just said this is some local history I could explore through gaming. Stonington and New Bedford are only 66.42 nautical miles apart (123km or 76mi), just to give you an idea of just how close the major fleets were to each other. Stonington and New London being the closest to me. New London, known as The Whaling City, was home to the largest fleet outside of New Bedford during the 1840's. Connecticut's whaling heritage dates back to the 1600's. Both Stonington and New London profited greatly from the whaling industry's oil production and each even had their own banks that were born of the whale fleet.

The industry even had the first and only newspaper devoted to whaling. The Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchant's Transcript was published in New Bedford.

So I plan on continuing my research into this period of New England history. As for the game, it went well for my first time out. I plan to get a few more games in and perhaps flush out a few house rules as well for it. It plays pretty solid on it's own including solo. I think this is due to the random and unpredictable actions of the whale. So a bit of a quick post mainly to show off the models I completed over the Christmas holiday. Below is a quick look at my first voyage from the log book of my whaler the Forgiven.

The captain and crew of the Forgiven have set sail out of Stonington, Connecticut on their first cruise in search of the great Leviathans to fill her hold full of oil and their pockets flush of cash whatever their take may be. 

Most often the first sign of a whale is spotting the gulls. A reward of "10 pounds of tobacco would be taken by the first man to spot a right whale on a voyage", according to Frank T. Bullen, First Mate, in his book 'The Cruise of the Catchalot'.

Sailors must be cautious that the hunters do not become the hunted.

Crews paddle out in the small whaleboats once their prey has been spotted.

"Go get them boys" said the captain. "I have three tuitions for children in university, a mortgage, 401k contributions, not to mention health insurance to pay."

Each whaleboat is directed by one of the mates. (Note: the boats come with paddles as well, just haven't decided if I am going to mount them of it would be easier to leave them off for game play.

Our best harpooner is an islander. He steps up to the bow as the prepares to come at the great mammal from the starboard side. 

It looks as though they are out of luck as the creature senses them and dives.

In a flash he is back as he breaches the surface in a great commotion.

Our islander strikes with a powerful blow of his harpoon. The great whale soon takes them on a Nantucket sleigh ride.

Unfortunately the beast has crashed the small craft to bits sending the crew into the deep blue.

Swimming for their lives the sailors hope for another morning.

Today the sea has won.