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(These terms derive from the Basque word "txalupa", used to name the whaling boats that were widely utilized during the golden era of Basque whaling in Labrador in the 16th century.) The whale was harpooned and lanced to death and either towed to the stern of the ship or to the shore at low tide, where men with long knives would flense (cut up ...
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]
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.
Whaling is the hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16th century, it had become the principal industry in the Basque coastal regions of Spain and ...
British vessels went on to make around 2,500 voyages whaling and sealing voyages to the South Seas between 1775 and 1859. [44] These voyages were made by over 930 vessels owned by 300 principal shipowners. [44] Some of these vessels in the South Atlantic also engaged in clandestine trading on the coast of Brazil. [45]
1st whaling voyage (1815–1818): On this voyage she became the first vessel to return with 2000 barrels of oil. Globe sailed from Nantucket on 4 October 1815, bound for the Pacific. She returned on 1 January 1818 with 1890 barrels of sperm oil and 125 barrels of whale oil.
It was also definitionally a long haul—if ships were at sea for 18 months, that was an incredibly short trip, and it wasn’t uncommon for voyages to last a decade or longer.
Commercial whaling in the United States was the center of the world whaling industry during the 18th and 19th centuries and was most responsible for the severe depletion of a number of whale species. New Bedford, Massachusetts and Nantucket Island were the primary whaling centers in the 19th century. In 1857, New Bedford had 329 registered ...