Whaling: A Timeline

[under construction]

13^th Century	French Basques hunting whales in Bay of Biscayne
16^th Century	Dutch engaged in whale hunting in North Sea
1650s	English settlers in Easthampton, Southampton and Sag Harbor, Long Island, engage in close-to-shore whale hunting.
1680s	Plymouth becomes an active whaling center
1690s	Fishermen on Nantucket commence their whaling
1712	Christopher Hussey, a Nantucketer, captured, killed and processed a spermaceti whale
1720s	Nantucket becomes the leading colonial American whaling center; Stonington and new London, Connecticut, other centers
1726	Nantucket boats took 86 whales
1731	Boston merchant Thomas Hancock becomes middleman for sale of whale oil to English
1750	American whaleships begin to be equipped with tryworks for processing whale blubber at sea. Permits more extended cruises southward
1750	The oil from head of spermaceti whale recognized for its value in making candles; led some whalers to specialize in sperm whales.
1751	Manufacture of spermaceti candles begun by Obadiah Brown, of Providence. Newport another candle making center; Aaron Lopeez involved
1754	Robert Treat Paine shipped on a whaling voyage aboard the sloop Seaflower
1763	Attempt by Newport, Providence and Boston merchants to corner the colonial market for sperm oil.
1768-72	Sale of whale oil accounted for 53% of all sterling earned by direct exports to Great Britain from the northern colonies
1770	Nantucket accounted for > 100 whaling vessels
1785	First American whaling vessel enters the Pacific whaling grounds
1821	Narrative of Shipwreck of Whaleship Essex, published by its captain, Owen Chase
1841	21-year old New Yorker, Herman Melville, ships aboard the whaleship Acushnet
1846	Peak year for American whaling industry: 735 vessels (80% of world’s); 70,000 employed; $70,000,000 in property; 10, 000 whales caught
1846	J. Ross Browne, Etchings of a Whaling Cruise
1851	Herman Melville published, Moby-Dick, or, The Whale
1859	Petroleum discovered in Pennsylvania; a byproduct, kerosene, quickly replaces whale oil as lantern fuel.
1865	Confederate raider Shenandoah captured and destroyed 11 New England whaling vessels in the Bering Straits
1878	Alexander Starbuck, History of the American Whale Fishery, 2 vols.