[WHALING]. WILBUR, Captain Charles Henry. Approx. 100 pieces, 1864-1877, including stamped envelopes, bills and receipts, business cards and letters spanning the young Princeton villager's first sea voyage (on board the Young Phoenix in 1864) and unfinished letters written shortly before his mysterious death in Chile. Wilbur's life was one of the most adventurous a young man could have and he writes candidly. In one long letter in 1868, to a future brother-in-law, he gives the strange details of a mutinous steward stabbing the cook, the 2nd mate, the 1st mate and then the Captain, all over how coffee should be served. "The counsoul later had an iron collar made for the Chinaman and chained him down in the ship's hold to be taken to the states for tryal, that is if he lives to get there...." With episodes like the preceding and the utter isolation of a working whaler (Wilbur mentions one six-month stretch at sea without seeing another ship or land) rendered vividly, this lot is a remarkable document of 14 years in the rigorous life of an American whaleman at the height of the industry in America. Provenance: Sotheby's, Johnson sale, 3rd session, part IV, 12/17/83, lot 427.