Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words
Wednesday, July 28th {1857}
The fog has been less today but the wind has increased; it is cloudy and looks like a storm. Even with two shawls on, I find it too cold to be on deck; the ladies cabin is kept too much shut up . . . I considered it proof that I am a good sailor, when I said “I will go on the house-top and look at the weather this morning” instead of “on deck.” Mother Carey’s chickens {storm petrels} were seen yesterday and a brig was seen today.
Maria and the young woman she was chaperoning, Prudence, were on their way to Europe – England to start – onboard the steamer Arabia. Maria had battled seasickness at the start of the journey and had now found her sea legs though knew enough to stay out of the overly warm and airless ladies cabin where the closeness would likely make her seasickness return. (As my Father would say- keep your eyes on the horizon – and get fresh air!)
But what, say you, is a Mother Carey’s Chicken and who is Mother Carey? In a nutshell, Mother Carey is the cruel and punishing sea (storms) and the chickens are, as noted, storm petrels, which are supposed to be the ghosts of sailors who were lost at sea. English seamen believed storm petrels were harbingers of storms – pushed out in front of them. There is quite a bit of literature surrounding Mother Carey – and she is included in Moby-Dick. And apparently, she is also believed to be the wife of Davy Jones. (Do you know here his house is in ʼSconset?)
JNLF
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