Introduction: British Arctic whaling

The first comprehensive review of Arctic whaling from British ports was by William Scoresby Jr., a whaling master, scholar and scientist, who wrote shortly after the industry reached its early 19th century peak (Scoresby Reference Scoresby1820). More recent histories by Jenkins (Reference Jenkins1921), Lubbock (Reference Lubbock1937) and, most notably, Jackson (Reference Jackson1978), quote Scoresby substantially for details of the early period, but provide more background information and chronicle the industry through its later 19th century decline.

Scoresby (Reference Scoresby1820: 2, 19) records the first English commercial attempt to catch whales in 1594, probably in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. By 1607, British whalers were working the so-called ‘Greenland ground’ (the sea area between the east Greenland coast and Norway, mostly around Spitsbergen (now part of the Svalbard archipelago), in competition with Dutch and other European nations. A small, poorly-recorded British industry persisted irregularly into the early 18th century. From 1733, stimulated by a government bounty of 20 shillings (£1) per ship ton, more ship owners ventured into Arctic whaling. From 1749, when the bounty was raised to 40 shillings (£2) per ton, the industry grew and flourished, involving many hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of men afloat and ashore. Its fortunes varied from year to year with varying climate, ice conditions, and fluctuating demands for its two main products, oil and baleen.

From Lloyd's Register of Shipping and the Register of the Society of Merchants, Ship-Owners and Underwriters, Jones (Reference Jones1996) extracted records of over 4600 whaling voyages to the Arctic from 26 British ports between 1746 and 1850. Both figures under-represent the industry overall, as many voyages were made before and after these dates, not all ships were included in these registers, and other ports are known to have been involved. Stonehouse (Reference Stonehouse2007) has calculated that, during its three centuries of existence, the British Arctic whaling industry made at least 6000 voyages from a total of 35 ports. Annual voyages were made either to the ‘Greenland ground’ (see above), or to ‘Davis Strait’, the area west of Greenland including Hudson Bay and Baffin Bay (Fig. 1). Up to the mid-19th century, whaleships left port between February and April, bound for one or the other, only very exceptionally switching destinations. They returned usually between July and November, according to their success on the whaling ground. From the mid 19th century onward the advent of auxiliary steam engines made it possible to visit both grounds in thesame season. From the 1840s seals became an increasingly important part of the catch for the British fleet, the voyage starting with a visit to the harp seal grounds off Jan Mayen before proceeding north for the whale hunt.

Fig. 1

The Greenland and Davis Strait whaling grounds lay respectively east and west of Greenland.

The main target species was the ‘Greenland whale’, ‘Greenland right whale’ or ‘bowhead’, Balaena mysticetus, which was abundant in both areas, forming a stock that was conspecific with, but geographically remote from, bowheads of the Bering Strait area. Also hunted were belugas Delphinapterus leucas, narwhals Monodon monoceros, northern bottlenose whales Hyperoodon ampullatus, walruses Odobenus rosmarus, and several species of seals. During the 17th and early 18th centuries the industry was dominated by Dutch, German, Basque, French and Danish whalers. Britons began to compete successfully from the mid 18th century onward, and were the last to leave the industry during the late 19th and early 20th centuries (Vaughan Reference Vaughan1986; see also annual entries in Holland Reference Holland1994). Fig. 2 is a contemporary painting of a typical whaling ship in action on the whaling ground.

Fig. 2

The Hull whaling ship Brunswick, painted in two aspects by John Ward in 1823. Hull Maritime Museum (by kind permission of the Director).

Whaling records

British whaling voyages may be traced from customs and port records, particularly from 1733 when the introduction of a government bounty required customs officers to scrutinise and record voyages in considerable detail. However, the spread of the industry over so many ports ensured that, with no central authority in control, these records became widely dispersed in national and local archives. Many have been lost due to neglect, lack of interest, and enemy action in both world wars. At an International workshop on historical whaling records in Sharon, Massachussets, USA in 1977, de Jong (Reference De Jong, Tillman and Donovan1983: 83) drew attention to the lack of a central source of British whaling data, noting that detailed statistical material is available for catches by Dutch and German whalers from the 1660s to the 19th century, but not from other European countries including Britain. This situation he found remarkable in view of ‘. . . the availability of much material in local archives, the general interest shown by the public in whales and whaling, and the diligence of a host of economic historians in their research of other industries.’ De Jong's comment was echoed 13 years later by Jones (Reference Jones1996: xxxi), who deplored particularly the absence of port studies. It is today reiterated by researchers seeking precise, statistically-valid information on the British Arctic whaling industry as a whole.

Of particular value among whaling records are the logbooks that were kept on board the ships, recording day-to-day events of each voyage. A logbook or formal record, maintained with several daily entries, usually by the master or mate, is likely to have been kept on every whaling voyage. From 1733, they were required to be kept to exacting specifications, with entries including noon positions, navigational details, weather, land features in sight, soundings, ice conditions, sightings of whales, lowerings of boats and catches, and numbers and identities of other ships seen. As few whaling ships carried meteorological instruments, atmospheric temperature and pressure records are rare. However, notes on wind direction and strength, incidence of storms, rain, snow, hail and rime formation, together with sea ice conditions, were usually recorded in detail at least once in every four-hour watch.

Journals, less formal records of voyages kept by masters, mates, surgeons and others on board, provide additional sources of information for particular voyages. Generally archived with logbooks, they are more personal, idiosyncratic and variable in quality. The most informative, for example those of William Scoresby Jr., are of particular interest in including all details to be found in logbooks, together with valuable afterthoughts on the voyages. Lesser journals, often by mates or surgeons, give interesting insights into life on board that are not included in the logbooks. Many were written expressly to describe tragic or dramatic events, particularly wintering by ships beset in the ice, some to be published as books or in newspapers or magazines.

A surviving logbook or journal thus becomes prime evidence, indeed perhaps the only first-hand evidence, that a particular voyage took place. Such details as courses followed, weather and ice conditions, both professional and social activities aboard, and notes on other vessels seen and identified, are of value in many fields of research. Following the 1977 International workshop, which concentrated on the evidence to be gained from whaling records (Savours Reference Savours1978), Sherman and others (Reference Sherman, Downey and Adams1986) compiled and published a world inventory of over 5000 whaling logbooks and journals held in some 83 public institutions worldwide. Of these, most are from 19th century American ships on 2 to 3 year long sperm-whale hunting voyages: only 189 concern British whaleships in Arctic waters. Since its publication, more British Arctic logbooks and journals have come to light, and it has proved possible to complete details missing from some of the Sherman entries. The tables below list over 250 logs, journals and published accounts that the authors have been able to locate: those catalogued by Sherman are identified by their Sherman serial number. Most are in the form of holographs or (more frequently) authenticated manuscript copies, in public archives where they are available for study. Many, but not all, have been microfilmed or photocopied, with copies circulated to other institutions.

Sherman's team did not attempt to distinguish logbooks from journals. In view of the important distinctions, notably in precision, between the contents of a formal logbook and a less formal journal, we have here attempted to indicate which is which. However, we have not been able to examine all listed items, and the difference is not always clear from descriptions available. We strongly advise scholars to whom this distinction matters to seek advice from the holding archivists.

The authors would be glad to be informed of any logbooks, journals or other contemporary accounts of British Arctic whaling voyages that are not listed here, or appear but are in any way misrepresented. A similar catalogue of Arctic naval and exploration logbooks, journals and publications from the same area and period is currently in preparation.

The tables

Table 1 lists logbooks, journals and published accounts of voyages to the Greenland whaling ground, in chronological order, then alphabetically by name of ship. Table 2 provides a similar listing for the Davis Strait ground. In the British Arctic whaling database website (www.hull.ac.uk/baw) these data appear reordered alphabetically by ship, master, port or repository, and numerically by year and Sherman number. Table 3 spells out the acronyms and abbreviations used in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1.

Logs, journals and published accounts of voyages to the Greenland whaling ground, 1613–1907.

Table 2.

Logs, journals and published accounts of voyages to the Davis Strait whaling ground, 1774–1913.

Table 3.

Acronyms and abbreviations used in Tables 1 and 2.

Early 17th century British Arctic whaling began exclusively on the Greenland ground, mostly close to the west coast of Spitsbergen, and many whalers continued operations south and west of the archipelago throughout the whole whaling period. From the mid 18th century, when over-hunting produced a marked decline in numbers of whales on the Greenland ground, British ships followed those of the Netherlands and other European states into Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. This involved longer voyages and more difficult ice conditions, but at least in the early days the whales tended to be fatter and more plentiful. For a discussion of these alternatives see Scoresby (Reference Scoresby1820: 382–392). Overall, and particularly from the 1790s onward, more voyages were made to Davis Strait than to the Greenland ground. This is reflected in Tables 1 and 2: most early accounts are from Greenland whaling voyages, most later ones from Davis Strait. The single early (1774) whaling journal from Davis Strait is a fortuitous recent discovery in a stored family Bible (Barrigan and others 2007), providing hope that more of these rare and informative documents are still to be found.

Table 3 lists acronyms of the institutions in which originals and copies of logs and journals are held. While all are public institutions, generally concerned with providing facilities for scholarship, it is not implied that all logs and journals listed, or copies thereof, are available on demand. Researchers are advised always to make a direct enquiry to the repository indicated.

Figure 3 shows the distribution in decades of the records listed in Tables 1 and 2 and all but the earliest entry (the log of Mathew to Greenland in 1613) are included within the decades shown. Up to 1820 most documents derive from Greenland voyages. Thereafter records from Davis Strait voyages predominate, those from 1850 onward reflecting the dominance of Scottish whalers during the late 19th century. Almost half the records (122) derive from the three decades 1810–1839. Of these, 58 are available for the period 1820–1829, allowing many useful comparisons to be made of conditions experienced on different ships in the same seasons, during a period of both climatic and economic instability when the British industry was in marked decline.

Fig. 3

Distribution by decades of documents listed in Tables 1 and 2.

Contemporary value of whaling logs and journals

Logbooks and unedited copies of journals are often difficult to read, and care is needed in interpreting some of the entries. For example many of the early ones use nautical time (12 hours in advance of civil or time ashore), magnetic rather than true bearings, and an unsurprising but sometimes puzzling plethora of archaic nautical terms. For an exemplary modern exposition of the skills of editing and interpreting see Jackson's (Reference Jackson2003) edition of whaling journals of William Scoresby Jr.

Beyond the essentials of position, courses and day-to-day activities, the contents of whaling logbooks and journals vary greatly. Many have already yielded valuable information on whaling grounds, whaling practices and the responses of whale stocks to over four centuries of persistent human predation: see for example individual papers in Tillman and Donovan (Reference Tillman and Donovan1983). Of particular present-day interest are the day-to-day entries of weather and ice conditions. Very few 18th or early 19th century whaling ships carried meteorological instruments (those of William Scoresby Jr. were notable exceptions), and their weather observations have in general been ignored by climate modellers for lack of numerical precision. However, all carried masters and mates with considerable experience of polar weather, especially of the winds and ice conditions that ultimately determined their movements and ability to hunt. Research is currently in progress showing that weather and ice observations from selected logs, validated by inter-log comparisons, provide reliable data in a key geographical area from which primary information is particularly lacking. For further information, and for suggested additions and amendments to these listings, see the British Arctic whaling database website cited above.