There were a couple of weeks this semester where I neglected to write any blog posts, leaving me to write most of them within the last month or so. I have realised that I never gave any sort of project update, as many of my more recent blog posts have instead been about a project that I did last semester. When we were first set to choose our project topics this semester, I knew I wanted to explore a subject that touched on maritime history and travel. Whaling kind of came out of the blue – it was a last-minute topic that I came up with when I was brainstorming. When I was in high school, I did a project on whales for my marine biology class but focused more on the biology aspects and did not really look at the industry itself. Growing up in Massachusetts, whale insignia is quite prevalent, especially due to the popular (and very middle-class) brand, Vineyard Vines, whose logo is a whale. Vineyard Vines was created by a pair of brothers from Martha’s Vineyard, another hotspot for whaling during the industry’s height. However, the brand has no deeper connections to the industry itself, and it seems like the brothers who started the company are simply profiting off the popularity of whale image, without any regard for its historical connections.
The only prior knowledge that I had on the industry was fringe information – not much more than knowing it existed, along with basic knowledge about Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. However, since engaging with material, both scholarship and whaleship logs and journals, I am surprised that teaching about the industry is not commonplace. Perhaps living in Cambridge is too far removed from the industry’s more crucial locations like New Bedford and Nantucket. I have never been to either location, both at one point the crux of New England whaling, but I have no doubt that the industry is probably more well known in those areas, as both sport their own museum dedicated to the industry, holding extensive archival collections.
I have really enjoyed getting to engage with 19th century whaling, as I have gotten the opportunity to read about a subject that had always existed on the periphery, and had always been one of those things I always hoped to get around to “eventually”. Much like the Spanish Flu, which had considerable impact on Massachusetts, I have been surprised that the topic of whaling in New England is not widely circulated in the state. It is easy to brush over or neglect topics that have not had direct impact on oneself or where one lives, but in this case, the whaling industry had a tremendous impact on the state, the effects of which are still seen now. Nantucket, as well as Martha’s Vineyard, are known for being extremely wealthy – popular summer destinations for those who can afford. Most of this wealth stems from the island’s early successes with whaling in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Many of Massachusetts’s coastal towns can be described in this same manner.
It has been quite an eye-opening experience being able to engage with the concept of identity among the whalers in New England, the South Pacific, and around Alaska. I have found it fascinating to read about how extensive the network of the industry was. In New England, it had close ties to slavery as many slaves would escape North and join a whaling ship, either as refugees or as hired workers. In the South Pacific, considerable reliance was placed on Maori tribes and other local populations for trade for the sustaining of voyages. The Arctic had similar relationships, but also had the unique practice of “trade fairs”, where indigenous groups and traders from all over would gather together and barter. The dependency on minorities has not surprised me, but nevertheless it is quite interesting how when thinking of general assumptions and associations with the industry, more attention is directed to the white whalers or European whalers. In Moby Dick, although Melville does stress the multi-ethnic crew of Ishmael, the whole epic journey of the Pequod has had such a tremendous impact on the history of literature, that attention is taken away from the authenticity of the journey. Although many of the events and things that Melville alludes to do come from some basis of fact, much of what he has written is so overly dramatised, including characters whose characteristics and stereotypes have been so overly emphasised, that I would argue that reading the novel does not mean the reader has any greater knowledge of the industry over someone who has not. What Melville does offer is an insight to how people during the 19th century perceived the industry, and in this sense it makes for a helpful resource, as the image that Melville depicts was perpetuated by Nantucket and the island’s efforts to market a particular vibe.
I hope in my essay I can engage with all three of my contact zones to a reasonable extent. I am worried that I have chosen too many, and that I should cut it down to two. Whether or not I keep all three, I am very thankful to have chosen this topic, as although it was slow starting, I have found it to be very enjoyable so far.