A three-quarter bow and starboard side view of a white-hulled whaleship navigating between icebergs in the Arctic. Three jagged mountainous icebergs are in the background. Penguins rest on small iceberg islands in the left and right foreground.
"Benjamin Russell made a number of water colors of whale ships in the Arctic cruising in search of their prey, as will be seen on other pages. The worst disaster befell a fleet of thirty-four whale ships that were caught in 1871 in the ice at Point Belcher, all being a total loss. A second misfortune occurred in Arctic waters in 1876 when twelve of a total of twenty vessels had to be abandoned.
In 1775 the captain of the whaler 'Greenland' came upon a vessel which had been frozen in the Arctic ice for thirteen years, with nothing but corpses remaining.
Arctic whaling was, of course, full of hazards, and not only American whaler but the English and other suffered many casualties."
See Allan Forbes, Whale Ships and Whaling Scenes as Portrayed by Benjamin Russell. Presenting Reproductions in Color of the Paintings of the Foremost Artist in That Field (Boston: Printed for the Second Bank-State Street Trust Co, 1955), 69.
