Whale catches from 19th century shore stations in Western Australia (original) (raw)
Related papers
Gibbs, M. 2012 Whale catches from 19th century shore stations in Western Australia
This paper presents historical data from 19th century shore whaling stations along the Western Australian coast, complementing data already presented in an earlier 1985 analysis. In particular, catch records of the Castle Rock whaling station, Geographe Bay, Western Australia, for the period 1846–53 together with other contemporary records indicate that humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) comprised the majority of the colonial shore whalers’ catch. It is suggested that this could have been a result of a significant presence of American whale ships in the region in the early 1840s, which had presumably already reduced southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) numbers by the time these detailed colonial records were kept.
A bibliography of Australian whaling in the nineteenth century
International Journal of Maritime History, 2015
The bibliography deals with Australian pelagic and bay whaling in the nineteenth century. It starts with some general works on the subject, followed by entries on whaling in each of the colonies. It ends with a section on Australian whalers in New Zealand and another on scrimshaw. Most entries are for books, chapters in books or journal articles. Some unpublished items are also listed, such as university thesis and archaeological reports, as well as a few newspaper articles and web sites. Some important reference works, such as published lists of ship arrivals and departures for major whaling ports, are also included.
PloS one, 2014
Right whales (Eubalaena spp.) were the focus of worldwide whaling activities from the 16th to the 20th century. During the first part of the 19th century, the southern right whale (E. australis) was heavily exploited on whaling grounds around New Zealand (NZ) and east Australia (EA). Here we build upon previous estimates of the total catch of NZ and EA right whales by improving and combining estimates from four different fisheries. Two fisheries have previously been considered: shore-based whaling in bays and ship-based whaling offshore. These were both improved by comparison with primary sources and the American offshore whaling catch record was improved by using a sample of logbooks to produce a more accurate catch record in terms of location and species composition. Two fisheries had not been previously integrated into the NZ and EA catch series: ship-based whaling in bays and whaling in the 20th century. To investigate the previously unaddressed problem of offshore whalers opera...
The Technology of Whaling in Australian Waters in the 19th Century
Australian Journal of Historical Archaeology, 1983
This study ofthe technology ofthe whaling industry in 19th century Australia originated as a part ofa wider continuing research project into whaling in southern NS. W. It is necessary to be aware of the technology and the artifacts involved in order to understand the surviving artifacts of the industry, both in a museum and an archaeological context, to understand the technology of the sites being studied, and to understand the economic implications of the industry both locally and in the colony as a whole. Because shore-based and ship-based whaling were very closely linked in the 19th century, both in their commercial operation and in their technology, it is necessary to look at these two aspects of the industry in order to arrive at an overview of whaling techniques and artifacts. The fQllowing paper by Michael Pearson, Historian in the NS. W. National Parks and Wildlife Service, looks at this technology, its sources, and the hardware associated with it.
The primary aim of this thesis is to reconstruct the history of Aboriginal cultural associations with whales and whaling in southwest Victoria in the nineteenth century. Despite there being a considerable corpus of information about Aboriginal peoples and whaling in southeast South Australia and southern New South Wales, there is a relative poverty of information on southwest Victoria. One of the primary objectives of this thesis is to offer explanations for this absence of information. Through an analysis of the Convincing Ground massacre that is believed to have taken place in the early period of whaling at Portland Bay, it will be argued that the violence characterised by this event fundamentally transformed race relations at Portland to such an extent that Aboriginal people avoided interaction with whalers. The rationale for this research is twofold: first to contribute to the history of frontier relations in Victoria; second, to reconstruct from archival sources the cultural and economic associations between Victorian Aboriginal people and whalers.
Current version February 2022 - Previous Academia version April 2021 - Updates findings from a 30 plus year study of log books, journals and other sources documenting traditional British and American sperm whaling in the 1800s to the north of Australia including Indonesian and New Guinea waters. Charts over 1450 sperm whale sightings. The data comprises 970 British sightings extracted from the logs of 14 British whaling voyages covering the period 1820 to 1850 and 481 American sightings from a slightly later period. What’s New in this version? Key differences are the addition of another 74 British sightings, and an ability to track American voyages and compare them to the Brtitish voyage tracks. Introduction of View Map functionality on the Whaling History website facilitates this. Voyage tracks allow us to determine ‘where whaleships went over time and where they sighted whales’ so confirming patterns of deployment. The main outcome of this is the finding that American vessels overwhelmingly approached Indonesia from the south-west. This was previously not obvious. Voyage tracks also show that the majority of early American voyages were forays to the south of Sumatra, Sumba and to the west of Timor rather than being voyages into the Indonesian Archipelago. American voyages through the Indonesian Archipelago did not become commonplace until the mid-1840s. In previous versions of the Paper I also wondered whether whaling vessels identified as sailing north-west from New Zealand (presumably the American Whaling Fleet?) or north from Australia (the Colonial Whaling Fleet?) undertook whaling around New Guinea and the Solomons? The evidence in American voyage tracks reveal that some American whaling vessels did sail east across the south of Australia and then north between the east coast of Australia and New Zealand from the 1840s. These vessels did undertake some whaling to the east of the Solomon Islands before continuing their voyages into the Northern Pacific. Finally, the original study findings continue to be reaffirmed. This is, that the British and American fleets whaling to the north-west of Australia, in Indonesian and in New Guinea waters deployed differently. Essentially, the Americans transited Indonesian waters whereas British vessels remained within the Indonesian Archipelago, moving from whaling ground to whaling ground. Remaining within the Archipelago meant that the British needed to reprovision locally. The key reprovisioning ports were Kupang on Timor, Kema on North Sulawesi and to a lesser extent Ternate in the Molucca [Maluku Islands].
[Previous Academia version September 2020] - This paper further updates findings from a thirty plus year study of log books, journals and other sources documenting traditional British and American sperm whaling in the 1800s to the north of Australia. It charts nearly 1400 sperm whale sightings drawn from across an area encompassing the ocean to the North-West of Australia (north of 20 degrees south); Indonesian waters as far as 10 degrees north with an extension into the South China Sea as far as 15 degrees north; and waters across the north and to the east of New Guinea as far as the Northern Solomon Islands (155 degrees east). It does not include the waters to the east of the Philippines nor the area more than 5 degrees north of the equator above New Guinea. The data comprises 850 British sightings extracted from the logs of 13 British whaling voyages covering the period 1820 to 1850 (collected by the author and abstracted in Appendix A) and 481 American sightings from a slightly later period (1833 to 1873). The American data is drawn from 50 logs in the American Offshore Whaling Logbook database hosted on www.whalinghistory.org/av/logs/aowl/. Sightings include strikes and captures and in the great majority are sightings of more than one sperm whale. What’s New in this version? The main difference between this version and the September 2020 version on academia.edu is the addition of data from four more British voyages. This has nearly doubled the number of British sightings. The decision taken in the September 2020 Version to extend the area of study to encompass 92-143E, 9N-14S and so include a similar range to another recent Indonesian study, A Treasure from the Past, is further justified as two of the newly added voyages are in the extended area i.e. the South China Sea. The opportunity has also been taken to update the Monthly Tables (see Tables 2a and 2b) detailing ‘Where and When’ sperm whales were found in Indonesian and New Guinea waters by the British and American fleets. Given no modern sperm whaling appears to have been undertaken in the twentieth century it is reasoned that the information in these Tables can act as proxies for ‘where and when’ sperm whales might be found. The original study findings continue to be reaffirmed. This is, that the British and American fleets whaling to the north-west of Australia, in Indonesian and in New Guinea waters deployed differently. Essentially, the Americans transited Indonesian waters whereas many British vessels remained in the area moving from whaling ground to whaling ground. Remaining in the area meant that the British needed to refresh locally. The key reprovisioning ports were Kupang on Timor and Kema on North Sulawesi.