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Whaling and history

It all started a loooong time ago, and many countries have been involved in whaling.

Whaling in what is now the United States dates from the first colonial settlements in New York and New England, but had no commercial importance before 1712 (Whaling & History page 55).

Japanese Antartic whaling began in the 1933-34 with the voyage of "Tonan Maru" (Whaling & History page 170). The Germans were active in the mid 30's with the "Jan Wellem" as the first factory ship (Whaling & History page 131).

In 1610 the British began whaling off Spitzbergen. The Dutch followed suit in 1612. Other nations such as Germany and Denmark/Norway were not slow to send their wessels north to the teeming whaling grounds. Around the year 1650 a whole fleet of several hundred ships cruised in Arctic waters.

American whaling

In the early days of colonization whaling along the eastern seaboard of America was confined to coastal waters, but by the end of the 18th century stocks were so depleted that ships had to go further afield to the north and south Atlantic. By the turn of the century Nantucket and New Bedford in particular were the great centers of the whaling enterprise that culminated in the 1840's.

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