While we have no record of the vessel's location in November 1859, we know from her logbook that just five weeks later she was catching sperm whales along the Equator south of Hawaii.
Each summer of the voyage the bark Gratitude worked in what is now called the Sea of Okhotsk, including the summer of 1859 when she was catching bowhead and right whales.
In the American Offshore Whaling Voyages database we find that the bark Gratitude sailed from New Bedford in August 1858 bound for the North Pacific. At the time this letter was written the vessel was just 15 months into a four-year voyage.
Sidney Case's handwriting was unclear as he asked his mother to send letters. “Please direct Honolulu Sandwich Island in care of Cpt Davey (Davis?).” In the American Offshore Whaling Voyages database we can see that the bark Gratitude made ten whaling voyages from 1831 until she was lost in 1865. This voyage was her ninth, and the first with William Davis, Jr. as master.
The crew list for the voyage was filed at the Customs House in New Bedford before Gratitude left port. Sidney Case was from East Hartford, explaining his mention of meeting "many men from Hartford." He had signed on at the age of 19 as a greenhand, or inexperienced sailor.