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Whale 1800's Whaling Ship Soapine Soap Victorian Advertising Trade Card

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Boats and boating--Equipment and supplies

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Source: New York Public Library, New Bedford Free Public Library

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This 1905 photo shows a whaling ship surrounded by several dead whales in Spitsbergen, Norway. (Image credit: Hulton Archive/Getty)

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MMS 42: The History Of Commercial Whaling And The “Forgotten Whale”

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This week Chris Parsons interviews Sally Mizroch and world expert on the sei whale. Sei whales were heavily hit by whaling and her research indicates that many stocks have never really recovered. But this whale is largely overlooked by marine conservation groups. Sally talks about the history of ind…

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In early 1841, at age 21, Herman Melville shipped out on a voyage to the Pacific Ocean aboard the whaler Acushnet. He deserted in the Marquesas Islands after only 18 months and then served briefly on other ships. His time at sea supplied the background for his novel Moby-Dick, or The Whale, publishe…

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Life onboard a Whaleship - New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park (U.S. National Park Service)

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The world of the ship was isolated, highly structured, racially integrated, and, by the mid-1800s, increasingly populated by captains’ wives and children who joined on longer voyages. Though the sea is traditionally understood as romantic landscape, whaling was not a romantic business. In the earli…

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Whale Chart, 1851

By 1851, overfishing had decimated whale populations in the Atlantic Ocean. Most whalers moved to the Pacific and Indian oceans. Ships traveled north and south with the seasons, following the large whale populations on their annual migrations.

This chart was produced by oceanographer Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury for the U.S. Navy. It showed whale populations in the world's major seas and oceans and aided hundreds of whalers in finding their prey.

Cast-Iron Whale, late 1800s

This one-sided sperm whale probably served as a shop sign or decoration. Cast into the back are the words " BAKER NEW BEDFORD. " In the 1878 city directory for New Bedford, Massachusetts, the only Baker was Ansol Baker, a machinist.

New Bedford Whaling Bark Alice Knowles, about 1878

Whaleships were floating factories and warehouses. The top view of the deck plan shows the try works, a pair of big iron kettles where the whale blubber was boiled into oil. The lower view shows how the full barrels of whale oil were stowed below deck. Pieces of barrels, ready to be put together, were stored in the bow.

Oil Casks, New Bedford, Massachusetts, late 1800s

Barrels of whale oil made movement around the busy wharves at New Bedford almost impossible.

New England Whale Ship, about 1850

This model shows the typical outfit and gear for a deepwater whaling ship of the mid-1800s, when the industry was at its peak.

Pacific Steam Whaler Orca, 1882

The bark-rigged steam whaler Orca was constructed for the western whaling grounds. The steamship included all the latest innovations, although it still carried a full suit of sails for backup. The Orca was built heavily to operate around the northern icepack, but it was among a whale ship fleet caught in the ice and abandoned off Point Barrow, Alaska, in 1897.

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American whaling flourished from the late 1700s through the mid-1800s. Hundreds of ships left American ports, hunting the planet's largest living creatures. Commercial whaling began in the Atlantic, but as whale populations declined, the chase spread to the Pacific and Arctic oceans.

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Down to the Sea in Ships (Whales Were Slaughtered For Their Oil) movie clip

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Essex Gam: The Tragedy of a Whaleship Stove by a Whale, Nantucket Whaling Museum