38Talk:

Humpback whales are catalogued and named, affectionately, based on their "fluke prints". I spent a little time this evening trying to identify the humpback whales from my voyage leg, July 11. The whale which was photographed in that gorgeous image flukes up aligned with the whaleboat was Pepper.

The whale that swam very close to the port side, playing the part of the Loch Ness monster in some photos, and that inspired a "Holy Cow!" from me (which made it into a couple of the videos) was Shuffleboard.

I've read that Pepper is a famous old whale, named in 1976 immediately after Salt. Pepper was probably born in 1973 or earlier back when the Morgan was still stuck in a bank of gravel. Or to put it another way, Pepper was first seen and named before the halfway mark in the Charles W. Morgan's 73-year residence at Mystic Seaport.

I'm sure someone else has done this whale identification process so please correct me if I've got it wrong. 

Frank Reed