Elizabeth "Betsey" Morse Morey (1810-93)
Elizabeth "Betsey" Morse Morey, wife of Captain Israel Morey (1812-60), kept a journal aboard the whaleship Phoenix during a voyage from July 20, 1853, to August 13, 1855. Phoenix crossed the Atlantic Ocean, rounded Cape Horn, and hunted for whales in the Pacific Ocean and later the Sea of Okhotsk. A kind, curious woman with a poetic nature, Elizabeth displayed a fascination with the diverse flora and fauna encountered during the voyage, and the changing beauties of the sea. She felt a special sympathy for the whales captured by the crew, and wrote tributes and invented colorful names for many of them, including "Mercy," "Buster," "Napoleon Bonaparte," "Josephine," "Sea Queen of Russia," "The Race Horse," and "Queen Elizabeth." Elizabeth Morey lived at 1 Somerset Lane.

The embroidered narrative depicts a whaling scene with three whaleboats dispatched on the hunt and the mothership Phoenix on the horizon, the images surrounded by Elizabeth Morey's description of the whale she calls "Mercy."