Exploitation Of Whales
by Holly Blumenshine
Before 1000 A.D. the Eskimos of Alaska developed a whalingculture. Not until 700 hundred years later the Yankee WhalingIndustry brought changes. New England whalemen began to aboardtheir ships with tryworks (rendering pots). These tryworks areused to render oil from Whale's blubber.
A tryworks (rendering pot) used
to get oil from whale blubber
(Photo taken from the Anchorage Museum of History and Art)
In 1835 the first whaleship cruised around Kodiak Island findingWhales in the Gulf of Alaska. By 1847 whale ships have been throughthe entire Pacific Ocean except the Bering Sea.
In 1848 Captain Thomas Roys decided to go north through BeringStrait because he has noted that Federick William Beechey hadreported seeing large numbers of Whales in Bering Sea. When CaptainThomas Roys reached the Bering Strait someday in July, he andhis crew began to take Bowhead Whales. In one month they had filledtheir ship with 1,000 barrels of oil (1 barrel=31.5 gallon) andsailed to Honolulu.
Hunters cutting up a whale after a successful hunt
(Scanned photo from the archives of the
Anchorage Museum of History and Art)
In Hawaii Captain Thomas Roys wrote to a Newspaper Editor SamuelDamon telling him the vast number of Whales he saw in Bering Sea.The news of Captain Roys discovery touched of an oil rush to BeringStrait. In 1949 more than 70 ships sailed to Bering Strait andit grew more larger. In 1851 over 200 vessels were operating inthe waters of Bering Strait. In 1852 the season was poor and in1853-1854 was disastrous, they thought Bering Strait was outof whales.
In 1855-1857 whaling ships went to Okhotsk Sea to hunt Right andBowhead whales, but it quickly declined. In 1857 the ships beganto return back to Bering strait.
Until then the Industry collapsed half a century and the majorityof the North Pacific fleet went annually to Bering Strait and productivewaters.