Original watercolor drawing depicting a three-masted ship flying a pennant "BR" on the main mast, surrounded by whales being hunted by men in four whaleboats. Two whales are shown with flags atop them, signifying that they have been killed--the flag was used by whalers to find their way back to the body in order to bring it to the ship for cutting-in. A fifth whaleboat remains on the ship. Some whales have harpoons in them and are spouting brown as opposed to white; injured whales were known to spout blood. Care has been taken in representing the shadows on the sails and the gradient in the sky from brighter blue at top to pale at the horizon. The upper margin is much larger than any of the others, and on it is hand-written the following text:
"July 4th 1834 on the [??] in Longe. 176 West on board ship Benjamin Rush."
The line of longitude 176 West passes through the Arctic Ocean, the Pacific Ocean, and the Southern Ocean.
