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New database: Australian Colonial Whaling Ship Voyages

We are pleased to announce the availability of a database of Australian Colonial Whaling Ship Voyages from 1805 through 1898. The database lists the voyages made by the whaling vessels that were owned, registered or based in Australian ports. A few British whalers are also included, some due to the fact they were temporarily based in an Australian port and others because they were owned, or part-owned, by Australian residents although registered and based in Britain.

The database was built from six lists compiled by Mark Howard—The voyages; The fleet; The owners; The captains; The crewmen; and Where the Australian Whalers Went.

Learn more →

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British Southern whaling database updated, January 2025

The British Southern Whale Fishery voyage and crew datasets have been updated with 900 amended or new whale oil cargo entries. This represents almost one-third of all known British Southern voyages. The updates have been sourced from the ledgers of the London Gauger held at the London Metropolitan Archives. A Working Paper describing the nature of the Gauger’s records and related matters is available (see sidebar). The new data was extracted with the support of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and will hopefully assist in developing estimates for the historical population of the southern right whale.

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American, Scottish Arctic and British Southern whaling data updated

The American Offshore Whaling databases have been updated for 2024, to include more 18th century voyages and wives of whaling masters as well as many corrections and updates to existing voyage entries. Updates to the crew list database include more than 160 New Bedford crew lists and several hundred lists from the records of whaling owners and agents Aiken & Swift.

The Scottish Arctic Whaling database has been revised and corrected.

The British Southern Whale Fishery databases have been revised and updated with additional voyages, crew lists, and data corrections.

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Whaling Resource Identifiers

James F. Smith WRI page

Every entity record in the WhalingHistory.org databases has a unique Whaling Resource Identifier (WRI). Just as libraries assign each book a call number and museums refer to an object in their collection by an accession number, you can cite a whaling master, vessel, voyage, crew list, etc. from WhalingHistory.org by its WRI. Even better, the long form of that WRI can be used as a URL, enabling anyone anywhere on the Internet to link directly to that record.

  • The short form of a WRI consists of two letters (which identify the database and record type) followed by a string of digits. For example, James F. Smith’s short WRI is “AM4504”
  • The full form of that WRI adds “https://whalinghistory.org/wri/” before the short WRI to get https://whalinghistory.org/wri/AM4504
  • You can find and copy the full WRI for an entity by going to its page in WhalingHistory.org and choosing “Click to copy this Whaling Resource.”

James F. Smith WRI page

A WRI provides a unique permalink to any record in the databases. This allows us to:

  • Refer to a record unambiguously when discussing it or making corrections
  • Enrich catalog records with links to WhalingHistory.org
  • Cite the information in the record
  • Share in email, texts and social media
  • Link from papers, presentations, exhibits, wall labels, and other databases
  • Create QR codes and other gimmicky Internet stunts

QR code for AM4504