Join the Mattapoisett Historical Society on Thursday, November 20 at 7:00 pm for a lecture with Helen Hiller Frink, author of Oil, Ice and Bone Arctic Whaler Nathaniel Ransom. Helen Hiller Frink is descended from two Mattapoisett whaling families, but only recently began researching their history. She earned a bachelor’s degree in English from the University of New Hampshire, and master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Chicago. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles and four books, two of them town histories. In Oil, Ice and Bone, Frink tells the story of Mattapoisett’s own Nathaniel Ransom who survived the worst whaling disaster in the history of the New England fleet, when captains and crew abandoned thirty-three vessels, trapped and crushed by drifting ice, off the Alaskan coast. Ransom’s eyewitness account of his four voyages depicts in rich detail whaling’s brutal slaughter and sudden losses. This engrossing story opens a window on the life of an ordinary whale man during the heyday of the Arctic bowhead hunt. The lecture is free; donations encouraged. The Mattapoisett Historical Society is located at 5 Church Street. For more information, please call 508-758-2844 or visit www.mattapoisetthistoricalsociety.org.