Consolidated Logbook Data

The database of logbook entries includes information from 1,381 logbooks from American offshore whaling voyages between 1784 and 1920. These data were extracted from the original whaling logbooks during three separate scientific research projects, one conducted by Lt. Cmdr Matthew Fontaine Maury in the 1850s, the second conducted by Charles Haskins Townsend in the 1930s, and the third conducted by a team from the Census of Marine Life project (CoML, www.coml.org) led by Tim Denis Smith between 2000 and 2010. The Maury and Townsend data were assembled by the CoML team from archival sources. Logbook data for ten British Southern voyages was transcribed by Dale Chatwin and added to the consolidated data in 2024.

Information about the content and structure of the database is available in the Database Description and the Column Definitions, Code Tables and Usage Notes. We plan on updating the database annually. You are encouraged to submit additions and corrections through the submission form.

Small subsets of the data may be printed or downloaded directly from the table below. Read The Data Viewer Interface for instructions. For research purposes, the complete database may be downloaded for processing on your local computer.