At Home and At Sea, cont.

The Lexington was at anchor off the small village of Russell in the Bay of Islands in New Zealand when Mrs. Brock encountered two other Nantucket whaling wives. They both were staying with Martha Ford, the wife of an English doctor there. No doubt inspired by those women, Mrs. Ford wrote a "tongue-in-cheek" poem celebrating the independence of whaling wives – and documenting the emotional tug-of-war between home and husband. Eliza carefully copied The Nantucket Girls Song in her journal.
"I have made up my mind now to be a sailor’s wife,
to have a purse full of money and a very easy life.
For a clever sailor Husband, is so seldom at his home,
that his Wife can spend the dollars, with a will that’s all her own.
Then I’ll haste to wed a sailor, and send him off to sea,
for a life of independence, is the pleasant life for me,
….when he says, “Good bye my love, I’m off across the sea
first I cry for his departure; then I laugh because I’m free….
For he’s a loving Husband though he leads a roving life
and well I know how good it is, to be a Sailor’s wife."

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New Bedford Whaling Museum