Just search – Whaling History

If you’re not sure where to begin, use the Search box in the banner at the top of any page. Enter a person’s name, a vessel name, a year, or any other words of interest and click the ‘magnifying glass’ icon. This site Search function knows about all of the databases and all of the web pages on the Whaling History website. It will return any results it finds from each one in a separate tab.

Information about using the Search function will appear below your search results. View the Search documentation here → (when you get there, click on the “View search help” button.)

Data map

The data map below shows the entities represented in the databases and the main connections among them to help you visualize what is going on in your search results. Click on the data map to view or print a PDF version.

Search strategies

"Historical records" and "precision searching" do not go together. The original documents were written by hand, often based on oral information from crew members who might or might not have been literate. The documents were copied, by hand, at least once in the 19th century, stored in non-ideal conditions for at least a hundred years, sometimes photographed for microfilm or microfiche, transcribed one or more times in the 20th century, and digitally processed and reformatted at least twice in the 21st century.

You can try the "I feel lucky" strategy and search for the person or vessel or place name exactly the way you know it. Even if you get a hit, you are likely to be missing related information that is spelled or organized a little differently.

Instead, try to narrow down the search results based on what you know is least likely to be corrupted, then browse nearby. For instance, rather than searching for James F. Smith, search for James Smith and browse the results.