Skip to content

Chris Routledge

words and pictures

  • Home
  • Words
  • Pictures
  • About
  • Contact

Search Results for: scoresby

How Arctic Whalers Heard about Waterloo

June 18, 2015 ~ Chris Routledge

The 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo on June 18th 2015 is (understandably) getting a lot of coverage in the British press at the moment. For most British adults at the time, living in a state of war was all they knew, so the end of hostilities must have come as a great relief. It … Continue reading How Arctic Whalers Heard about Waterloo

Why Arctic Whalers Did Not Become Explorers

February 11, 2015February 11, 2015 ~ Chris Routledge

The forgotten history of Arctic whaling had something of a boost from the British Library in the form of a blog post by Philip Hatfield on the contribution of William Scoresby Jr. to the exploration of the Northwest Passage. Hatfield is a curator of the Lines in the Ice exhibition at the British Library and his … Continue reading Why Arctic Whalers Did Not Become Explorers

Sir John Franklin and the Hull Whalers

September 9, 2014September 10, 2014 ~ Chris Routledge

I don’t usually respond to news reports here, but I have to note that today the Canadian government announced the discovery of one of the two ships Sir John Franklin took to the Arctic in 1845, and which has been lost ever since. The discovery confirms Inuit oral histories of ships in the same area … Continue reading Sir John Franklin and the Hull Whalers

Shetland Sixareens and Arctic Whaleboats

July 29, 2013July 29, 2013 ~ Chris Routledge ~ 2 Comments

In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, whalers left their home ports in England and mainland Scotland in late February or March heading for the Arctic fishing grounds. Many of them stopped at Shetland, which is about a third of the way between ports such as Whitby and the edge of the ice where … Continue reading Shetland Sixareens and Arctic Whaleboats

Moby-Dick Lecture Series

April 18, 2013June 5, 2013 ~ Chris Routledge

Thanks to everyone who came along to my public lecture about William Scoresby Jr., Liverpool whaling and Arctic exploration yesterday. That was the first public airing for my Scoresby project other than the Letters to Elizabeth blog and it was good to put it out in front of an audience [Update June 5th, 2013: the … Continue reading Moby-Dick Lecture Series

How old is Liverpool’s Cain’s Brewery?

June 20, 2012August 12, 2012 ~ Chris Routledge

There seem to be three main, and sometimes overlapping, trends in the self-image of British brewers: the traditional, the modern, and the ill-advised. Of these, the older brewers usually go for the first. They like to be seen as brewers of traditional ales, and it helps to let everyone know just how long they have been … Continue reading How old is Liverpool’s Cain’s Brewery?

Liverpool in 1817

August 17, 2011 ~ Chris Routledge

Over at my Letters to Elizabeth blog, a short extract about how the streets of Liverpool were lit around the time that William Scoresby lived there.

Refraction: April 29th, 1811

April 29, 2011May 2, 2011 ~ Chris Routledge

The ‘fishery’ was both a dangerous place, and an uncertain one. On Monday April 29th both the Hope, and the Vigilant struck whales, and in the afternoon, as the wind fell, the sea began to freeze. Scoresby, for whom the problem of accurately deteermining longitude became a longstanding obsession, set about taking measurements, taking advantage … Continue reading Refraction: April 29th, 1811

Monday 11th March, 1811

March 11, 2011March 12, 2011 ~ Chris Routledge

In 1811 William Scoresby Jr. sailed to the Greenland sea in command of his own ship for the first time. He was 21 years old and had by then spent nine summers in the Arctic, first as apprentice to his father, and later as chief mate on the Resolution, his father’s ship. In 1806, the … Continue reading Monday 11th March, 1811

Sea Pie, Stale Beer, and a Catchup to Keep 20 Years

February 11, 2011February 11, 2011 ~ Chris Routledge

The question of food on board an Arctic whaler is a matter of some mystery. While there are accounts of the proceedings on board ship in the act of pursuing and catching whales, little is known about the lives of the whalers themselves. William Scoresby Jr. documents the provisions loaded onto a whale ship in … Continue reading Sea Pie, Stale Beer, and a Catchup to Keep 20 Years

Posts navigation

Older posts
Newer posts

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Search

RSS Photography at chrisroutledge.pictures

  • The Liverpool Collection
  • A review of Salt Moon by David Harsent and Simon Harsent (Guillemot Press, 2020)
  • October Sale: all prints and books 20% off with offer code OCTOBER
  • A photograph for the end of summer
  • Class of 2020

Indeterminate Land Limited Edition Book

Pre-order book
This limited edition, signed and numbered hardback book accompanies my exhibition Indeterminate Land, which will be at the Heaton Cooper Studio Archive Gallery October 10-November 3, 2019. More information about the exhibition and book is here.

Carousel

The result of an eight year collaboration, this limited edition book of poetry by Rebecca Goss, and photography by Chris Routledge is published by Guillemot Press.

Cains: The Story of Liverpool in a Pint

Cains Book
Listen to me reading from chapter 1 here. Find out more here.

The Voyage of the Whale Ship Esk in 1816

Buy a paperback here.

Ebooks are available across all the major platforms, or buy one in the format you prefer from Smashwords.

Fram: To the Ends of the Earth

Fram

To commemorate the centenary of Roald Amundsen reaching the South Pole, this illustrated essay tells the story of his ship, the Fram and her three polar voyages.

Download the free PDF, or buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk

Popular

  • About Simon Nash
  • Huts at Low Newton
  • About a Hut: The Long Arctic Night
  • Baffin of Liverpool: The Last Liverpool Whaler?
  • Imperial Good Companion Model T

RSS

  • RSS - Posts

Elsewhere

Photography

License images at Picfair

Ormskirk Baron Beer Reviews

Twitter

Moby Dick on the Mersey

Moby Dick on the Mersey