Mystic Seaport
Follow-Up Project


For this project, you will read the story of Captain Edward Penniman who lived in Eastham on Cape Cod in Massachusetts in the 19th century.  You will find these pages at a web site titled "The Penniman House: A Whaling Story."  You may find the questions at the bottom of each page helpful, but you do not have to answer them.

Your Assignment
Your OBJECTIVE: you will understand the following...
 Based on your research from the web page "The Penniman House: A Whaling Story," compose FIVE journal entries by Captain Penniman.  Use the links below from the web site to create your journal entries.  Do NOT copy and paste any text.  Use your own words for your journal entries.
Getting Started
Short Biography of Captain Penniman
Map of Cape Cod
Whaling Destinations
The Whaling Industry in Southeastern Massachusetts
The Penniman Family on Whaling Expeditions
The Crew of the Ship
Description of Captain Penniman's Home in Eastham
Pictures   Pictures   Scrimshaw
Extra Excellent Links

Possible TOPICS for your journal entries are...
  • Information about New Bedford, the ship's point of departure
  • Information about the kind of men who signed on for whaling expeditions
  • Information about regions to which whaling ships traveled
  • Information about how the crew spends its day waiting for whale sightings
  • Information about a whale chase and kill
Each journal entry will be at least 150 words.  Download and save the file
to begin your journal entries by right-clicking here.  Open this file in MS Word.

Rubric: Excellent projects will...
  • include only original writing, with nothing copied and pasted from the web
  • meet the minimum of at least five entries
  • include many historical facts appropriate to the time and place of the written pieces
  • show correct grammar, usage, and mechanics


Click here to return to the American History Academy page.