This is John Batchelor. Conversation with the author, Eric J. Dolan, his new book Left for Debt.

This is the economics of sealing, 1812, 1815, early America.

Sealing in the Falkland Islands, not inhabited it by anyone at this moment, cross-claimed before and after, but seals, elephant seals, regular seals,

the seal furs, very, very sought after, not only in London, in New York, but also in China.

Here's the economics of sealing before maroon, shipwrecked, adventure, the war of 1812.

More of this tonight.

Valentine Barnard is 63 years old at the time, a veteran sealing captain and mariner.

They're both from Hudson, New York, and they relocated to New York City shortly before this voyage. He is a very advanced

age to be on a voyage like this and he actually has two hernias and he's sort of held together

by multiple trusses. But the reason he's on the voyage is that his son asked him to come along

because the idea was that you go down to the Falklands, you seal for the better

part of a year. If you're able to collect a lot of seal skins, half of the crew would stay on the

Falklands, continued sealing. The Nenina, this 73-foot brig, would go north, back to New York,

take all the skins that they've gotten so far, offload them in

New York, they'd be sent to China and the lesser quality ones would be sent to England probably.

And then the ship would return to the Falklands to pick up the men who had continued sealing,

gathered more seal skins, and then they'd head around Cape Horn up to China. So Valentine was picked specifically

to go down with the ship, not do any sealing because he's too old and a little bit infirm,

but once the ship was ready to return loaded with cargo to New York, he would be the master

mariner, the captain that would sail Nannina back to New York,

leaving his son and about half of the men on the Falklands to continue sealing.