"Bluejackets in the Blubber Room" explores key events in US maritime history from the 1820s to the end of the Civil War through the biography of the sailing ship William Badger. Taking a biographical approach to his subject, Peter Kurtz describes three phases of the life of the William Badger, a sailing ship with a long and exemplary life on the sea: first as a merchant ship carrying raw materials and goods between New England, the US South, and Europe; second as a whaling ship; and finally as a supply ship providing coal and stores for the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron in Beaufort,...