Whaling in Massachusetts

Whaling in Massachusetts
127 Pages
ISBN 9781467116220

Whaling is a subject that every child who grows up near the water in Massachusetts is intimately familiar with. The book ‘Moby Dick’, by Massachusetts author and former whaler Herman Melville, first spurred young and old alike to romanticize the industry as did the tales (true or not) of the old salts who spun their yarns about days gone by and the ones who got away.

New Bedford and Nantucket were the founding towns for the whaling industry but little known are the other Massachusetts towns that sent out whalers, built the ships and outfitted them. Essex, Mattapoisett, Falmouth and Woods Hole were shipbuilding communities, Fairhaven began as a whaling town but quickly took to outfitting whalers , Gloucester made the yellow slickers that were rubbed with whale oil to waterproof them, and Provincetown and Boston were major ports that sent out many ships.

Whalers from Massachusetts strove for riches and glory on the high seas and many people achieved their dreams through this industry. Strange tales grew from the many voyages that went into both charted and uncharted territory in the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic and Indian Oceans. Whaling in Massachusetts hopes to share the history of the industry and a few of those strange tales through historic photographs, maps, works of art and whaling logbooks.

Gioia Dimock

About Gioia Dimock (Cape Cod, Massachusetts Author)

Gioia Dimock

Gioia Dimock has worked as an archivist and consultant for the Bourne Town Archives and as a member of the Bourne Historical Commission for many years. She is also the author of Images of America: Bourne.

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