Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
By 1789 Dunkirk had 14 whaling ships sailing to Brazil, Walvis Bay, and other areas of the South Atlantic to hunt sperm and right whales. In 1790 Rotch sent the first French whalers into the Pacific. The majority of the French whaling ships were lost during the Anglo-French War (1793-1802).
Spermaceti was especially valuable, and as sperm whaling voyages were several years long, the whaling ships were equipped for all eventualities. There have also been vessels which combined chasing and processing, such as the bottlenose whalers of the late 19th and early 20th century, and catcher/factory ships of the modern era.
The whaling industry spread throughout the world and became very profitable in terms of trade and resources. Some regions of the world's oceans, along the animals' migration routes, had a particularly dense whale population and became targets for large concentrations of whaling ships, and the industry continued to grow well into the 20th century.
Whaling steamer Kodiak and crew, undated photo by John Nathan Cobb. Ships continued to overwinter at Herschel into the 20th century, but by that time they focused more on trading with the natives than on whaling. By 1909 there were only three whaleships left in the Arctic fleet, [36] with the last bowhead being killed commercially in 1921. [36]
Essex. (whaleship) Essex was an American whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, which was launched in 1799. On November 20, 1820, while at sea in the southern Pacific Ocean under the command of Captain George Pollard Jr., the ship was attacked and sunk by a sperm whale. About 2,000 nautical miles (3,700 km) from the coast of South America ...
The Nisshin Maru (日新丸) was the primary vessel [5] of the Japanese whaling fleet and was the world's only whaler factory ship. [6] It was the research base ship for the Institute of Cetacean Research for 2002 to 2007. [7] It had a tonnage of 8,145 GT and is the largest member and flagship of the five-ship whaling fleet, headed by leader ...
A third annal says three Basque ships were whaling from Strandir in 1608, while another source says that a Spanish Basque ship was whaling around Strandir in 1613 – which would be consistent with an illustration on an early 18th-century map that says: "Anno 1613 by de Biscayers beseylt." The ship was directed to a suitable harbor in ...
Nantucket shipbuilding began in the late 1700s and culminated in the construction of notable whaling ships during the early 19th century. Shipbuilding was predominantly sited at Brant Point. Whaling ship construction concluded in 1838. Whaleship Essex, original sketch by Thomas Nickerson.