Abstract
UNDER this somewhat obscure title is hidden one of the most delightful naturalist log-books ever published. It dates from 1912 when Dr. R. C. Murphy followed his university course with a trip on the New Bedford whaling and sealing brig Daisy on a round trip in the South Atlantic to South Georgia and back. The journal was written for his wife and posted to her in instalments when opportunity occurred. The Daisy was mainly concerned with the slaughter of sea-elephants at the Bay of Isles, South Georgia, but also captured a few sperm whales. The diary treats chiefly of whales, penguins and albatrosses, but has many human touches and reflexions on whalemen and others. It is a lively book, and at the time of writing must have contained much about the life of the southern ocean and its islands that was fresh and unknown. If modern whaling, as well as several Antarctic expeditions, have made South Georgia and its animal life better known, Dr. Murphy's observations are so lively and exhaustive that their freshness and vivacity are unimpaired.
Logbook for Grace
Whaling Brig Daisy, 1912–1913. By Robert Cushman Murphy. Pp. xiii + 290. (London : Robert Hale, Ltd., 1948.) 15s. net.
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B., R. Logbook for Grace. Nature 164, 337 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/164337d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/164337d0
