Gioia Dimock - Whaling in Massachusetts

IMAGES
of America

WHALING IN
MASSACHUSETTS

This is a partial view of a work called A Chart of the Whale Coast of New England c. 1810 by New Bedford marine artist Clifford Warren Ashley (18811947). The mural measures 6 feet high by 16 feet wide and details the coast of New England, including the north shore, Cape Cod, the Connecticut River, and the islands of Marthas Vineyard and Nantucket. Ashleyan artist, illustrator, and author known for his works centered on the whaling industrypainted the mural in 1919. (Mattapoisett Historical Society.)

ON THE COVER: The tryworks of the bark Kathleen are clearly visible as the ship sits at dock in New Bedford. Tryworks, which were used to process whale blubber into oil (commonly called trying out), made it possible for ships to take longer voyages. The crew would boil blubber in the great iron pots and then store the oil in barrels below desk. The Kathleen was stove in by a whale in 1902. (Millicent Library.)

IMAGES
of America

WHALING IN
MASSACHUSETTS

Gioia Dimock

Copyright 2017 by Gioia Dimock
ISBN 978-1-4671-1622-0
Ebook ISBN 9781439660003

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015952562

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This book is dedicated with love to my nieces, Sarah McNamara, for her early work at saving the whales, and her sister, Rebecca McNamara (19892000), who wrote this poem:

The ocean big and blue

The whales jump out

While the boats go through

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The history of whaling in Massachusetts has been preserved and protected by many and is constantly being updated with new information and photographs as they come to light. I am grateful to all who take part in the preservation of this body of knowledge.

I have to thank, in particular, Jabez Howland House curator Judith McAlister for her constant and unfailing support. This book would not have been completed without her. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Bourne Archives director Jean Campbell, Bourne Archives volunteer Jan Finton (for her incredible discovery), and the historical community of Bourne in general; they are all actively supportive of a wide range of projects related to historical preservation.

Many people have contributed to this book, and foremost among them are Deborah Charpentier, archivist for the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, and Albert Benac, curator of art for the town of Fairhaven. Both have added important elements to the stories presented in this book. I also want to thank Mark Procknik, of the New Bedford Whaling Museum, for his invaluable help with research. There are many more who helped along the way: Gerald Rooney (of the Whitfield-Manjiro Society), the Nantucket Whaling Museum, the Mashpee historical community and the Wampanoag tribe, the Wareham Historical Society, the Mattapoisett Historical Society, the Eastham Historical Society, the Falmouth Historical Society, the Bourne Historical Society, and Nye Lubricants, Inc., of Fairhaven. Thanks also go to Sara Miller at Arcadia Publishing and to Dr. John Miller for his eagle-eyed editing.

I also want to thank my editor at Arcadia Publishing, Caitrin Cunningham, who prodded, poked, and pushed to get this book done. Her patience won the day.

INTRODUCTION

Whaling in Massachusetts began with local Native American tribes. They harvested whales by herding them from the ocean into shallow waters, causing them to beach themselves. This, along with the opportune finding of a beached whale, was how whaling began in the area. In the records of Plymouth Colony, Gov. William Bradford writes of seeing many whales frolicking as the Mayflower arrived in Cape Cod Bay after the Pilgrims Atlantic crossing as they reached what is now Provincetown. This abundance of whales continued for many years and was instrumental in creating the industry that sprang up along the coastline of Massachusetts.

As shore whaling progressed in the colony of Massachusetts after the arrival of the Pilgrims in 1620, the natives and Europeans would wait in small huts on the beach to watch for pods of whales just offshore and then alert groups of waiting men, who would rush to the beaches and man small double-ended whale boats to pursue them. Once the whales had been harpooned and killed, they were towed to shore for processing. The blubber was stripped off and melted down into oil in great iron pots on the shore, and as much of the whale as possible was used and harvested not only for oil but also for food. The whale bones and baleen were also used in the manufacturing of many products.

This type of whaling eventually led to ships pursuing whales during small voyages that lasted for weeks, and then months, when whalers could catch more by being out among the pods as they were sighted migrating through or feeding in the waters off Massachusetts. By the late 1700s, these journeys had become longer as the presence of offshore whales decreased, and the ships became larger and better prepared to process the leviathans at sea. Ship owners, backers, and financiers began to see the immense profits available to them from this newly emerging enterprise and bought ships and hired captains, then sent them off to sea to fill their holds with oil and whalebone.

At this point, the ships were equipped with all necessary tools for the processing of whales at sea and provisioned for voyages that could take years to fill the ship to capacity. The double-ended whaleboats were hung onboard, and there were great iron pots, called tryworks, that were built into the ship along with brick ovens for boiling down the blubber. Barrels were brought along and used to store the oil below decks, with differentiation between the boiled oil from blubber (the fat just inside the skin of the whale) and the sperm oil (taken from the head case of the sperm whale). This sperm oil, which was of a finer quality and already in liquid form, became known for making the best candles and lamp oil that was less smoky. It was also used for the lubrication of small instruments like watches or sewing machines. Oil companies, such as Nyes Oil Refinery in Fairhaven, processed the sperm oil into the finest grades of oil for use on delicate machinery. The Nye oil company is now known as Nye Lubricants, Inc., and is still in business today; however, it no longer uses the oil from whales, instead using refined petroleum.

The whaling business was built upon the knowledge and experience of the local Native Americans and commenced in earnest on the Island of Nantucket when locals invited Wampanoag tribal member Ichabod Paddock to come to the island to teach them how to hunt whales. Another Massachusetts town, New Bedford, became known for its whaling fleet along with the town of Fairhaven located across the harbor. Fairhaven started as a whaling port but became known as a port for outfitting, rigging, and provisioning the ships that sailed the seas. This townalong with Falmouth, Monument (now Bourne), Mattapoisett, Gloucester, Essex, Provincetown, Marblehead, Boston, and many others along the coasttook part in the industry in different ways, from shipbuilding to provisioning. The complementary industries that arose around the booming whaling industry included shipbuilders, coopers who made the barrels to store oil, sailmakers and rope-makers, the insurance and financial people on shore who handled the money, and the shipowners who financed the long journeys and reaped the biggest profits.