From the late 1600s—when Nantucketers first gleaned the prized oil from small whales that washed ashore—into the next two centuries —when Nantucket whaleships would traverse the oceans of the world on their legendary three-, four-, and five-year voyages in search of “greasy luck”—the pursuit of whales and their lucrative by-products became the primary business of Nantucket and the basis of its economy. From the mid-1700s to the late 1830s, Nantucket was the whaling capital of the world. As Melville wrote in Moby-Dick: “Thus have these . . . Nantucketers overrun and conquered the watery world like so many Alexanders.” This topic explores this wide and varied subject of Nantucket whaling from then until now.
- William Owen: Holokahiki
A holokahiki is a Hawaiian mariner who has journeyed to distant lands. William Owen was one of many Native Hawaiians...More Read more from William Owen: Holokahiki - Notes about Cape Verdeans on Nantucket
Whaling Between the 1790s and the 1850s, outward-bound Nantucket whaleships stopped at the Cape Verde Islands to provision and recruit...More Read more from Notes about Cape Verdeans on Nantucket - Who was Helen Marshall?
Young Helen Marshall (1851–1939) joined her family aboard the 1856–61 voyage of the whaling bark Aurora. Helen’s father, Joseph Marshall...More Read more from Who was Helen Marshall? - Azubah Bearse Handy Cash aboard the Ship Columbia
Azubah Bearse Handy Cash (1820-94), the wife of successful whaling master, William Cash, accompanied her husband on the 1805-53 cruise...More Read more from Azubah Bearse Handy Cash aboard the Ship Columbia - What is an “underground moon”?
In the days before modern weather forecasting, Nantucketers anticipated bad weather around the time of an underground moon. The Inquirer...More Read more from What is an “underground moon”? - What on-shore industries did the whaling industry require?
Looking at Nantucket’s picturesque harbor, it is hard to imagine what Nantucket’s harbor looked like during the heyday of whaling....More Read more from What on-shore industries did the whaling industry require? - What were the camels?
The camels were a sort of floating dry dock devised to lift heavily laden whaleships up and over the sandbar...More Read more from What were the camels? - When did Nantucketers begin whaling?
Beginning with the English settlement, the “faraway land,” as Nantucket is translated, developed into a community of small farmers and...More Read more from When did Nantucketers begin whaling? - Who lived in the Canacka Boarding House?
The Canacka Boarding House served transient seamen from the Pacific Islands while they were on Nantucket. It was located somewhere...More Read more from Who lived in the Canacka Boarding House? - Who was Long Tom Coffin?
Long Tom Coffin is a character in James Fenimore Cooper’s 1824 novel The Pilot. The novel was published ten years...More Read more from Who was Long Tom Coffin? - Who was Whale Oil Gus?
Augustus Eliot Folger was born to whaling captain Henry B. Folger and Sarah (Swain) Folger on February 10, 1852, in...More Read more from Who was Whale Oil Gus? - Why did Nantucketers stop whaling?
Many factors combined to end island whaling. Nantucket was the nation’s leading whaling port until the mid-1830s, when New Bedford...More Read more from Why did Nantucketers stop whaling? - William Owen: Holokahiki
A holokahiki is a Hawaiian mariner who has journeyed to distant lands. William Owen was one of many Native Hawaiians...More Read more from William Owen: Holokahiki - You can run but you can’t hide (in France), Part 9 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: William Rotch dispatched his son Benjamin to Dunkirk to begin relocating the family...More Read more from You can run but you can’t hide (in France), Part 9 of 13 - Identifying the ship Eliza of Nantucket
Many Nantucket vessels made sealing voyages to the southeastern and southwestern coasts of South America between 1793 and 1821, with...More Read more from Identifying the ship Eliza of Nantucket - “No step between being clear, and death,” Part 6 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: Unfortunately for Nantucket and for Rotch, troubles with Massachusetts were only beginning. The...More Read more from “No step between being clear, and death,” Part 6 of 13 - “Very Like a Whale” Editions of Moby-Dick
Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick originally appeared in 1851 to little fanfare and even less renown. With a drab, darkish, dreary cover,...More Read more from “Very Like a Whale” Editions of Moby-Dick - “My Yale College and My Harvard”: The Writing of Herman Melville’s Sea Works
A WHALE-SHIP WAS MY YALE COLLEGE and my Harvard,” Herman Melville writes in Moby-Dick (ch. 24). Of course, it wasn’t...More Read more from “My Yale College and My Harvard”: The Writing of Herman Melville’s Sea Works - A different kind of sunken treasure, Part 4 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: Little did anyone know in 1773 that the Rotches’ entanglement in Revolutionary politics...More Read more from A different kind of sunken treasure, Part 4 of 13 - A Most Accomplished Captain
Benjamin Worth (1767–1848) worked at sea from 1783 to 1824—sailing nearly 880,000 miles on at least 21 voyages across 41...More Read more from A Most Accomplished Captain - A Sounding Lead on a Distant Reef, Captain Pollard’s Lessons Learned
One of the more ironic and emotionally charged artifacts to be discovered at a shipwreck site is a sounding lead,...More Read more from A Sounding Lead on a Distant Reef, Captain Pollard’s Lessons Learned - Adams’s revenge, Part 13 of 13
View all articles in this series William Rotch had hoped and expected for a quiet retirement upon his return to...More Read more from Adams’s revenge, Part 13 of 13 - America’s first trade war: bad for business, Part 8 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: Great Britain punished the victorious rebels by passing the Alien Duty immediately after...More Read more from America’s first trade war: bad for business, Part 8 of 13 - At What Cost? Mariners Lost at Sea
Only Ishmael survived the voyage of the Pequod, his shipmates perishing from Ahab’s maniacal pursuit of the white whale. To...More Read more from At What Cost? Mariners Lost at Sea - Before the Rockefellers, there were the Rotches, Part 1 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: Three generations of Rotches dominated Nantucket’s politics, economy, and society. The rise of...More Read more from Before the Rockefellers, there were the Rotches, Part 1 of 13 - Besides going whaling, what else did Nantucketers do?
Back on the island, the economy was centered on the whale fishery, with ropewalks, cooperages, blacksmith and boatbuilding shops, ship...More Read more from Besides going whaling, what else did Nantucketers do? - Biographical Sketch of Joseph W. Plasket
Joseph William Plasket (June 2, 1775–April 19, 1827) was a master mariner who resided for most of his life in...More Read more from Biographical Sketch of Joseph W. Plasket - Lost and Found in Papahanaumokuakea Marine Nantucket Monument: The Possible Wreck Site of the Nantucket Whaleship Two Brothers
Many are familiar with the fate of the Nantucket whaleship Essex, stove by a whale in the Pacific Ocean and...More Read more from Lost and Found in Papahanaumokuakea Marine Nantucket Monument: The Possible Wreck Site of the Nantucket Whaleship Two Brothers - Can you ever go home again?, Part 11 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: William Rotch returned to Nantucket in 1794, hoping to resume his business and...More Read more from Can you ever go home again?, Part 11 of 13 - Cannibalism and “Custom of the Sea”
Life at sea occasionally ended in tragedy. When vessels foundered in the age of sail, and crews found themselves in...More Read more from Cannibalism and “Custom of the Sea” - For those who fail at business…there’s always politics, Part 2 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: Like the commodity markets today, the price of both spermaceti and oil fluctuated...More Read more from For those who fail at business…there’s always politics, Part 2 of 13 - Nantucket’s Long Island Connection
What did James Loper and Ichabod Paddock contribute to the development of the Nantucket whaling industry? Very little! In the...More Read more from Nantucket’s Long Island Connection - Harpoons
Harpoons were not intended to kill a whale, but to attach a line by implanting the harpoon’s barbed head into...More Read more from Harpoons - Native Hawaiian Whalers in Nantucket, 1820-60
The manuscript collections in the Nantucket Historical Association Research Library contain a rich history of the more than three hundred...More Read more from Native Hawaiian Whalers in Nantucket, 1820-60 - Herman Melville and Nantucket
Herman Melville wrote his classic novel Moby-Dick (1851) without having visited the island of Nantucket. The island and its whaling...More Read more from Herman Melville and Nantucket - Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and the NHA’s Whaling Logs: Some Comparisons
In 1998, the NHA initiated a project to index the Nantucket whaling logs held in its archives and to make...More Read more from Herman Melville’s Moby-Dick and the NHA’s Whaling Logs: Some Comparisons - How did businesses cater to crewmembers of whaleships when they were ashore?
Just as Melville in Moby-Dick describes boarding houses for seamen ashore, Nantucket provided short-term lodgings. Having left the sea, Captain...More Read more from How did businesses cater to crewmembers of whaleships when they were ashore? - How does the crew of Melville’s Pequod compare to the typical crew of a Nantucket whaleship?
Just as aboard the fictional Pequod, the crews of Nantucket whaleships were multiethnic. On the outside wall of the Nantucket...More Read more from How does the crew of Melville’s Pequod compare to the typical crew of a Nantucket whaleship? - How has music been used at sea?
In Melville’s Moby-Dick the character Pip’s principal function is to provide music for the crew of the doomed ship with...More Read more from How has music been used at sea? - Of Melville, Tortoises, and the Galapagos
The Galápagos Islands were a world ravaged by whalemen. One such whaleman was Herman Melville, who wrote of the islands...More Read more from Of Melville, Tortoises, and the Galapagos - Patriotism…and false flags?, Part 7 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: Though both American and British officials believed he secretly supported the other side,...More Read more from Patriotism…and false flags?, Part 7 of 13 - Pie Crimper
Pie crimper, nineteenth century Unknown maker Ivory, ebony, tortoiseshell, brass Gift of Robert M. Waggaman 1991.101.202 Pie crimpers are devices...More Read more from Pie Crimper - Post-script: Jefferson’s accusations and Adams’s Revenge, Part 12 of 13
View all articles in this series John Hancock was not the only “founding father” with whom the Rotches tangled. While...More Read more from Post-script: Jefferson’s accusations and Adams’s Revenge, Part 12 of 13 - Rotch Counting House and Pacific Club
Dear Libby, I am researching Massachusetts courthouses. Do your records show who built the 1772 Nantucket Courthouse at Water Street...More Read more from Rotch Counting House and Pacific Club - Ships of the Boston Tea Party: Eleanor, Beaver, and Dartmouth
The Boston Tea Party was the culmination of a series of events that steadily aroused the ire of colonists who...More Read more from Ships of the Boston Tea Party: Eleanor, Beaver, and Dartmouth - Shipwrecks
Shipwrecks sometimes ruined whaling careers. For George Pollard, Nantucket whaler and captain of the Essex, the proverbial lightning struck twice....More Read more from Shipwrecks - Short Lays on Greasy Voyages: Whaling and Venture Capital
Jonas Peter Akins teaches at Choate Rosemary Hall in Connecticut and, with Professor Tom Nicholas, is the author of the...More Read more from Short Lays on Greasy Voyages: Whaling and Venture Capital - The Earliest Picture of the Essex Disaster
The gruesome fate of the Nantucket whaleship Essex forms the core of the most dramatic episode in American whaling....More Read more from The Earliest Picture of the Essex Disaster - The Falkland gambit, Part 5 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: The onset of war between Britain and the American colonies devastated Nantucket’s economy....More Read more from The Falkland gambit, Part 5 of 13 - The Second Voyage of Charles Ramsdell
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2021 issue of Historic Nantucket. Charles Ramsdell is remembered in Nantucket history as...More Read more from The Second Voyage of Charles Ramsdell - The Spermaceti Candle Factory Industry in American Economic History
Recording of the The Spermaceti Candle Factory Industry in American Economic History lecuture given at the Oil, Business & Blubber...More Read more from The Spermaceti Candle Factory Industry in American Economic History - The Tea Party: bad for business, Part 3 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: Their journeys began with little fanfare. After selling their whale oil in London,...More Read more from The Tea Party: bad for business, Part 3 of 13 - The Unemployable Herman Melville
After all this time, we are still learning a little more about Herman Melville’s decision to sign on a whaleship...More Read more from The Unemployable Herman Melville - Thomas Nickerson’s Account of the Wreck of the Two Brothers
After surviving the harrowing ordeal of the whaleship Essex, Captain George Pollard Jr. returned to Nantucket aboard the whaleship Two...More Read more from Thomas Nickerson’s Account of the Wreck of the Two Brothers - Threats to North Atlantic Right Whales
Recording of the North Atlantic Right Whales: On the Path to Extinction lecture held at the Whaling Museum on Thursday, August 30,...More Read more from Threats to North Atlantic Right Whales - Were there Pacific Islanders on Nantucket?
Herman Melville writes of Pacific Islanders like Queequeg on the streets of New Bedford during the whaling era. Were there...More Read more from Were there Pacific Islanders on Nantucket? - Whaler, traitor, coward…spy?, Part 10 of 13
View all articles in this series Summary: As the war grew closer, the Rotches decided they could no longer risk...More Read more from Whaler, traitor, coward…spy?, Part 10 of 13 - Whaling Crew Diversity
Melville gave his Pequod a diverse crew, mentioning 44 men from the U.S., northern and southern Europe, South America, Iceland,...More Read more from Whaling Crew Diversity - What did James Loper and Ichabod Paddock contribute to the development of the Nantucket whaling industry?
Very little. In the summer of 1672 the town offered two grants to off-islanders to contribute their special skills to...More Read more from What did James Loper and Ichabod Paddock contribute to the development of the Nantucket whaling industry? - What is “eye dialect”?
In newspapers and books, particularly in the 1800s, this was a way of approximating in print nonstandard pronunciation of English....More Read more from What is “eye dialect”?