Where can I learn about the American whaling industry? What would a ship’s master have in his chest? What would the dying words of a pirate be? And can anyone help me to tell the flags of the Union and Orient shipping lines apart?
State Library Victoria members can access hundreds of databases from home (if your home is in Victoria). That’s millions of articles, magazines, archives, ebooks, videos, songs, audiobooks and more, available through the catalogue anytime. We’re taking a closer look at new and/or interesting databases as well as hidden gems from our collections. Read on for top picks and tips from Librarians.
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Today we’re looking at AM Digital database Life at Sea: Seafaring in the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1600-1900.
What makes this database so great?
Voyage through the 17th and 18th centuries and discover what life was like during the Golden Age of Sail with a fascinating collection of artefacts, diaries, memoirs and artwork from those who experienced the open waters first hand. Life at Sea brings together material from maritime archives and heritage collections in England and the United States, and lets us follow along with their journeys.
Some highlights
Like with all AM Digital databases, the strength of Life at Sea lies in its rich primary sources, which have been arranged into Visual Galleries by theme to allow for easy browsing. Learn about warfare, shipwrecks, whaling, or discipline onboard a ship, before relaxing with some seascapes and 18th century wellbeing advice.

You can also look at the Thematic Guides to help you browse the less visual parts of the collection.
Everyday life at sea
The Life at Sea database includes a fantastic collection of journals of people who were aboard ships, such as naval seamen, merchants, captains, travellers, or crew’s family members – including some with significant artistic talent who illustrated their diaries for us along with their written observations. This is an extremely useful resource for gaining an eye-witness account of a time before the vacation happy-snap was available to all and readily posted to social media.
Here, Alfred Withers has painted the dining room of his 1857 voyage aboard the James Baines from Liverpool to Melbourne, complete with rich purple tablecloths, red unholstered bench seating, and trimmings gilded in gold. It looks like an image that would be at home on a travel influencer’s blog, and yet Alfred seems more interested in the specifics, titling the below illustration “The Dining, leading to the Ladies Saloon. 35 feet long, 15 wide”

But for most, the trip was a little less resplendent. In 1812, reverend Edward Mangin included this detailed painting of his lodgings aboard the HMS Gloucester: a simple room with a stool, a little table large enough for a candle, a small chest, and a washbasin, all arranged around his bed which hangs from the ceiling to minimise the effects of the ship’s movements.

A similar image of sleeping quarters is shown in Robert Barnfield’s diary of his journey from London to Auckland on the Northumberland in 1883-1884, albeit slightly more cramped with two extra people in the room. In the tilted ink drawing of his cabin below we can feel the heave of the waters as he recounts his dream from the night previous: “a very uneasy kind of sleep though and accompanied with the most uncomfortable dreams, in which I saw the ‘Northumberland’ capsize and everybody on board drowned with the exception of myself.”1

Women at sea
Elizabeth Hornby was the daughter of Rear-Admiral Sir Phipps Hornby, and kept an illustrated journal of her father’s time as Commander-in-Chief from 1847-1851. This diary shows a young woman’s perspective of sea life and travelling more broadly, and tends to focus on scenes that might be otherwise ignored by male diarists, including the depiction of other women. Below she draws an excellent map of Coquimbo, Chile, above a party scene with several women present on board their moored ship.

Elsewhere we find a less visual but no less entertaining loose-leaf travel diary kept from 1843-1844 by an anonymous woman leaving Boston on a holiday. She describes her first foray into ship travel in great detail:
“The Boston spires, the State House, & Bunker Hill monument, one after another had faded away from sight in the dim distance. The sun set gloriously, between the faint outline of land, veiled by a thin bright cloud, soon followed by the new moon like one golden thread, affecting for a few minute on the edge of the horizon; and then came out the stars one by one on the darkening sky. All was so beautiful that I wished for my friends to enjoy it with me, but soon came a change. We were called to supper & I went as brave, & perhaps more confident, than any one, but I had began to have misgivings as to the effect eating must have upon me, for my head grew dizzy accompanied by a slight sensation of fainting.”2
Life ashore
Of course for most, the voyage was only a means to an end – the real journey was what happened when they left the ship. The British naval surgeon Dr E. H. Cree kept stunningly illustrated journals of his travels, including the countries that he visited. Below we can see his rendition of the lights of Singapore, on his way to a Chinese opera. The temple-like roof of the building is almost fully submerged in darkness, while the lanterns seem to truly be lit from within, jumping off the page.

Volume I of Cree’s diaries covers his 1837 posting to Egypt where he visits the Pyramids and the Sphinx – this would have been during the height of 19th century Egyptomania, with the Rosetta Stone being decyphered 15 years prior. This surely would have been an awe-inspiring vista both for Cree and his friends and family back home.

Pirates!
It wasn’t all albatrosses and cabin parties – pirates were, and still are, a real threat of the open waters, and a fascinating subject for anyone reading from the comfort of their own armchair. Why not read this “sermon preached to some miserable pirates” the day before they were executed, back in 1726:

…or the last words of one such pirate, Samuel Tully, who was executed in 1812:
“Therefore I resign myself to his gracious disposal, with my body to the earth from whence it came, and my spirit to the Lord who gave it: and may the Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on my poor soul. Amen”.3

…or for something a little more fun, how about this illustrated comic-book style story about a pirate ship?
Insignia, flags & emblems
Mercantile flags could be used to tell the various merchant lines apart as they crossed each other on the Atlantic and beyond. In this 1883 journal we can see an illustrated list of the flags as they were at the time. This can be used to help identify ships from old illustrations.

And here we get a hand-drawn compass dating all the way back to 1798:

Charting lives at sea
Something that sets Life at Sea apart from other databases is the interactive map function: Charting Lives at Sea. Here they have taken the the navigational data from several journals available in the collection, and plotted them on a map. You can read the text from the journal and understand exactly where that person would have been at the time – a very immersive way of learning even more about these rich primary sources.
Below we see Withers’ journey from Liverpool to Melbourne once more, but this time we can see the pages aligned with the path of the voyage. We can imagine the game of quoits all the more vividly now that we know we are just to the west of Cabo Verde:

Everyday objects at sea exhibition
The last fascinating highlight of the database that we’ll show today is the curated exhibition: ‘Everyday Objects at Sea’, which includes items from the collections of the National Maritime Museum and Mystic Seaport Museum. Choose to rummage through the sea chest of either a Master or a Seaman, and see for yourself what they would have carried with them on board. You might uncover a whaling ship captain’s blubber spade:
or this romantic coin engraved by a sailor, potentially meant for a sweetheart back home or met along the way, including the text “When this you see Remember me”:
We hope you’ve enjoyed voyaging through Life at Sea: Seafaring in the Anglo-American Maritime World, 1600-1900.
More to explore
Check out our latest databases on trial, and see a full list of all new and trial databases, by visiting our A-Z Databases page.
You might also be interested in:
References
- Barnfield, R, 1883-1884, from Diary by Robert Barnfield on a voyage from London to Auckland on board the clipper ship NORTHUMBERLAND. p.15. © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London. From Life at Sea database, AM Digital, viewed 13 Jan 2025.
- Anonymous travel diary,1843-1844. p.2. Material sourced from the Massachusetts Historical Society. From Life at Sea database, AM Digital, viewed 13 Jan 2025.
- The last words of S Tully: who was executed for piracy, at South Boston, 1812. Material sourced from the Massachusetts Historical Society. From Life at Sea database, AM Digital, viewed 13 Jan 2025.
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