Nantucket is an island about 30 miles (48 km) south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government in the state of Massachusetts. Nantucket is the southeasternmost town in both Massachusetts and the New England region.
The Phoenix Islands, or Rawaki, are a group of eight atolls and two submerged coral reefs that lie east of the Gilbert Islands and west of the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean, north of Samoa. They are part of the Republic of Kiribati. Their combined land area is 28 square kilometres (11 sq mi). The only island of any commercial importance is Canton Island. The other islands are Enderbury, Rawaki, Manra, Birnie, McKean, Nikumaroro, and Orona.
Owen Chase was first mate of the whaler Essex, which sank in the Pacific Ocean on November 20, 1820, after being rammed by a sperm whale. Soon after his return to Nantucket, Chase wrote an account of the shipwreck and the attempts of the crew to reach land in small boats. The book, Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex, was published in 1821 and would inspire Herman Melville to write Moby-Dick.
The Nantucket was a 350-ton whaler built in Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1837. First master, David N. Edwards, 1837-40, then: George Washington Gardner, 1841–45; Benjamin C. Gardner, 1845–50; Richard C. Gibbs 1850-54 ; Richard C. Gibbs (1855–59).
Joan Druett is a New Zealand historian and novelist, specialising in maritime history and crime fiction.
The Starbuck family were prominent in the history of whaling in the United States, based in Nantucket, Massachusetts, from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries. Some members of the family gained wider exposure due to their discovery of various islands in the Pacific Ocean.
The Gardner family were a group of whalers operating out of Nantucket, Massachusetts, from the 17th to 19th centuries. Some members of the family gained wider exposure due to their discovery of various islands in the Pacific Ocean. By marriage, they were related to the Coffins, another Nantucket whaling family.
Ganges, was a whaleship from Nantucket, Massachusetts, launched in 1809 in Massachusetts, that operated in the Pacific Ocean from 1815 to 1853. It was probably the vessel reported to have found Gardner Island in the Phoenix group. Although Barzillai Folger, the master of the ship during its voyage of 1835-39, is sometimes credited with being the first to discover the right whales of the Northwest coast, the Frenchman Narcisse Chaudiere, in Gange, preceded Folger. Chaudiere cruised on this ground during the summer of 1835, while Folger didn't leave port until October 26 of the same year.
Commercial whaling in the United States dates to the 17th century in New England. The industry peaked in 1846–1852, and New Bedford, Massachusetts, sent out its last whaler, the John R. Mantra, in 1927. The Whaling industry was engaged with the production of three different raw materials: whale oil, spermaceti oil, and whalebone. Whale oil was the result of "trying-out" whale blubber by heating in water. It was a primary lubricant for machinery, whose expansion through the Industrial Revolution depended upon before the development of petroleum-based lubricants in the second half of the 19th century. Once the prized blubber and spermaceti had been extracted from the whale, the remaining majority of the carcass was discarded.
Nantucket shipbuilding began in the late 1700s and culminated in the construction of notable whaling ships during the early 19th century. Shipbuilding was predominantly sited at Brant Point. Whaling ship construction concluded in 1838.
The whaler Globe, of Nantucket, Massachusetts, was launched in 1815. She made three whaling voyages and then in 1824, on her fourth, her crew mutinied, killing their officers. Eventually most of the mutineers were killed or captured and the vessel herself was back in Nantucket in her owners' hands. She continued to whale until about 1828. She was broken up circa 1830.
Tristram Coffin was an immigrant to Massachusetts from England. In 1659 he led a group of investors that bought Nantucket from Thomas Mayhew for thirty pounds and two beaver hats. He became a prominent citizen of the settlement. A great number of his descendants became prominent in North American society, and many were involved in the later history of Nantucket during and after its heyday as a whaling center. Almost all notable Americans with roots in Nantucket are descended from Tristram Coffin, although Benjamin Franklin was an exception.
Micajah Coffin was an American mariner, trader in the whaling industry and politician who served as a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
Renown was launched in 1794 at New Bedford, Massachusetts. She made four voyages from Nantucket as a whaler. In 1813, while she was on her fifth American whaling voyage, she became the first American whaler that British whalers captured in the South Seas. She was sold in London and under the name Adam became first a London-based transport and then a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She made four whaling voyages and was wrecked in 1825 at the outset of her fifth British whaling voyage.
Zenas Coffin was an American mariner and one of the wealthiest whale oil merchants and largest shipowners of his time in Nantucket, Massachusetts.
Venus was launched at Deptford in 1788 and made 15 voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. Of 812 whalers in the British southern whale fishery database for which there was data, she had the fifth highest number of whaling voyages. She was last listed in 1823.
L'Aigle was launched in France in 1801, 1802, or 1803. The British Royal Navy captured her in 1809. From 1810 to 1817, she was a West Indiaman. From 1817 L'Aigle made four complete voyages as a whaler in the British Southern Whale fishery. On her third whaling voyage, she carried King Kamehameha II of Hawaii and Queen Kamāmalu with a number of their retainers and Hawaiian notables to England. She was lost on 6 March 1830 on her fifth whaling voyage.
Thames was a Spanish vessel launched in 1804, almost certainly under a different name, and captured circa 1805. She became a whaler, making eight whaling voyages between 1805 and 1826. Although the registers carried Thames for some years after her return from her eighth voyage, there is no evidence that she ever sailed again.
Transit was launched at Bristol in 1817 and immediately registered at Bristol. Initially she sailed to the Baltic and the Mediterranean. In 1820 she made the first of two voyages as a whaler in the southern whale fishery. She was condemned at Manila circa 1825 during her second whaling voyage.
Grand Sachem was launched at Newburyport, Massachusetts in 1801. She was registered at Bideford in 1803, but until 1815 sailed from Milford Haven. Between approximately 1803 and 1822, she made eight voyages as a whaler in the British southern whale fishery. She was last listed in 1822 and was broken up in 1826.
