My fav whaling logbook phenomenon is when their keeper opts NOT to use whale stamps and instead hand-draws very ornate whales to indicate when he sees them, but then as time goes on the whales get progressively shittier looking because that’s too much work. I know how it feels to get locked into an artistic bit later regretted, man.
E.g.
[ID: Detailed drawing of a sperm whale with shading, eyes, and a spout]
[ID: Wobblier drawing of a whale with no shading and no detailed features]
[ID: The vague blurry notion of a whale]
Maybe he kept encountering shittier whales
