Search help

Limiting your search
The dropdown menus beside the Search button will limit your search to a single database or single entity (masters, vessels...) You can use either dropdown separately or both together.
Multiple words
The search engine treats multiple words as if they were combined with AND. For example, if you enter 
Morgan Charles
you will find any records that contain both 
Morgan
AND 
Charles
, in any order.
Stemming
Words you enter are automatically treated as 'stems', that is, as if there were a wildcard at the end. So, if you enter 
whal
you will find records containing 
whale
, 
whaleboat
, 
whalers
, or 
whaling
. This also works with dates. Entering 
183
will match all years in the 1830s.
Exact match
To match an exact phrase, enclose in quotation marks, for instance, 
"Charles W. Morgan"
Case-insensitive
Searches are not case-sensitive.
Punctuation
Punctuation marks are anathema. If you want to search for something that includes punctuation, enclose your search in quotation marks.

Search Results

  • Results tabs: Click on any tab Voyage (52) to display a table of results.
  • Full records are available: Click on the icon at the left edge of any search result to view the full record.
  • Sort by columns: Click on any column heading (Destination△▽) to sort results by that column. Click again to reverse the sort order.

Share Whaling Resources

  • Every item in the databases has a Whaling Resource Identifier (WRI).
  • Click on the "Click to copy…" button below any WRI to copy its URL to your Clipboard.
  • Share in email, X, Facebook, WordPress… by pasting from your Clipboard (ctrl-P or cmd-P).

Code tables and Column definitions

For each database there is a page with values for codes and abbreviations used in the tables as well as definitions and usage information for each database column. Find it through the Databases entry in the main menu.

Advanced search: Data Viewers

Researchers who want more sophisticated data management capabilities should explore the Data Viewers available for each database. Data Viewers are listed under the Databases main menu entry. There is also a Getting Started page that explains how to use all Data Viewer features: The Data Viewer Interface.

  • Search within individual columns or combine searches in multiple columns
  • Sort by any column or by multiple columns
  • View or hide columns, and access every column available in the data
  • Select a set of records for copying or printing
  • Download a set of records to the desktop

Data Downloads

Data files and supporting material for most databases are available for download from the Download Whaling History Data page.