Cape Cod Shore Whaling: America's First Whalemen

by John Braginton-Smith, Duncan Oliver

Overview

While Nantucket has long enjoyed an illustrious position in America's whaling history, Cape Cod's contribution to the industry is relatively unknown. Yet, it was a Cape Codder who taught the Nantucketers how to hunt whales. In Cape Cod Shore Whaling, authors Duncan Oliver and John Braginton-Smith uncover Cape Cod's integral role in shaping whalefishery, which began along the Cape's sandy shores and evolved into the far-flung whaling expeditions that drove Nantucket's economy into the nineteenth century. Drawing on rare documents never before published, whaling journals, and diaries, Oliver and Braginton-Smith recreate a bygone age when men fought one another for rights to the sea.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781596294295
Publisher:	Arcadia Publishing SC
Publication date:	03/28/2008
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.75(h) x 0.31(d)

About the Author

Duncan Oliver retired to Yarmouth in 2000. He was previously involved in the research and writing of historical books on the town of Easton, MA. He has co-authored two other publications and had articles featured in Cape Cod Life magazine. He also led other members from the Historical Society of Old Yarmouth in writing a monthly page about Yarmouth's history in the Yarmouth Register. Mr. Oliver is currently the vice-president of The Historical Society of Old Yarmouth.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements     9
Introduction     11
Whales: Objects of the Search     19
Techniques of Hunting Whales     23
A Chronological Look at Shore Whaling     43
Decline of Shore Whaling and Rise of Blackfisheries     75
Indians and Shore Whaling     87
Jacobus Loper and Ichabod Paddock     93
Notes     99
Bibliography     111
Index     121