keeping my mind off politics: last week i started transcribing a whaling-wife's journal for @ackhistory because i was writers-blocked and sad, and a bunch of others jumped in, and it's v cool to watch this melancholy woman's experiences at sea come alive fromthepage.com/nharl/ladies-l…
@ackhistory she is very devout and melancholy, and while the journal is mostly a ship's log, occasionally on Sundays she writes things like: "sabbath day reminds me of my home and friends...but I have one thing to comfort me God is present upon the Ocean as well as the land"
@ackhistory on sunday, july 24, 1853 she wrote: "my thoughts wander back to my far distant home and long to spend the holy Sabbath there; amidst the roaring of the sea my soul still turns her thoughts to thee." poor devout lonely eliza!
@ackhistory anyway if you feel bored and anxious and want to pitch in on this cool history project, you can sign up for an account and get 'scribin: fromthepage.com/nharl/ladies-l…
@ackhistory by the end of her journey (yes, I skipped ahead a bit), two years on the sea, Eliza seems to have become fascinated enough by whales to endeavor some pretty damn good sketching of bowheads & sperm whales encountered in the Okhotsk Sea, off the Kamchatka peninsula! @ackhistory 
