Pictorial Supplement 15

Photographs of Whaling Vessels

While American whaleships are hardly strangers to anyone, the obscure and unknown details of these craft probably far outweigh those that are definitely known. The smaller vessels of the Atlantic whale fishery, most of them brigs . and schooners, have been almost totally disregarded while the larger ships and barks are continually represented by a handful of highly publicized and not always typical examples. In similar fashion, the activities of these craft have been examined primarily in their more glamorous aspects, at the expense of a unified concept of the whaling industry as a whole. To rectify this problem pictorially is impossible, but it is hoped that from among the accompanying photographs whaling enthusiasts will find a few they have never before seen in print. THE AMERICAN NEPTUNE acknowledges its gratitude to The Whaling Museum, New Bedford, Massachusetts, from which the following photographs, unless credited otherwise, have been drawn.

Schooner William Wilson, 91.3 tons. Built at Plymouth, Mass., 1856; converted to whaling and registered at Marion, Mass., 1866; under New Bedford management, 1882;
condemned and broken up, 1889