Whaling in New York (cont'd)

>Ron May, Inc. >Well George, now you have an interesting conundrum. There always remains the possibility that the Basque whalers came south into "American" waters in search of whales, but no one has dug into the Basque archives to know for sure. As well, the early 18th century whalers in New England did not invent their trade. British and Dutch whaling companies probably hunted off New England long before the Massachusetts industry, but again the old archives have not been exhausted. Suffice to say that American whaling hands from European ships settled in New England and generations of their offspring created a culture of whaling that has become famous today. But to test for a Basque or Dutch connection to those early Americans would be quite a research job. Strangely, the methods and strategies did not differ that much until the development of the bomb lance around 1850. Oh, and by the way, bomb lances went out of fashion by the end of the 19th century, but a whale dissected off the Pacific Coast by fisheries people yielded fragments of a bomb lance in the 1950s and the San Diego Natural History Museum folks pondered if this was due to great age or if people were still using that technology in the mid 20th century?

George, There are several good sources on the global history of whaling. For a recent review: Reeves, R.R. and Smith T.D. 2003 "A Taxonomy of World Whaling: Operations, Eras and Data Sources" Northeast Fisheries Science Center Reference Document 03-12 A somewhat older collection of papers: International Whaling Commission 1967 Report of the International Whaling Commission (Special Issue) 10 And for a southern hemisphere perspective: Lawrence, S. and Staniforth, M. (eds) 1998 The Archaeology of Whaling in Southern Australia and New Zealand. Australasian Society for Historical Archaeology Special Publication No 10. We are currently working on further 19th century shore whaling sites in New Zealand Ian Associate Professor Ian W.G. Smith Department of Anthropology, University of Otago PO Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand ph 64-3-479-8752 fx 64-3-479-9095

ian.smith@stonebow.otago.ac.nz www.otago.ac.nz/anthropology Thanks, I feel odd having left out the Sag Harbor, which has a museum on Long Island and once an important whaling port too, where by the way, John Steinbeck eventually settled down. I'm not sure how this ties into "native rights" with the Shinnecock reservation, and the other historically present and past dwellers that were involved in the whaling industry too. One record has a great loss of the Shinnecock trying to save those drowning from a ship wrecking off the coast, which, before the US Life Saving Stations, were known for rescuing many from the pounding surf and riptide. The US Commerce Dept. used to advertise their "Pow-wow" around the US Labor Day and many native peoples from all over came and sold their handicrafts. There's also a lawsuit over a proposed casino in Hampton Bays, NY which alleges their lands were taken illegally in 1859. >Ron May, Inc. Looking through my notes on the Basque whaling industry, I see they began hunting whales in the 11th to 12th century in their own Bay of Biscayne. Right whales were their targets. When they depleted whale populations, they expanded their searches for better grounds. One source showed town seals from A.D. 1351 with whale boats and harpooners. They apparently reached Canada around 1540 in search of cod fish and set up organized whaling stations by 1550. Basque archives reveal a navigator named Martin de Hoyarsabal, who mapped Canadian waters. Of particular interest for George is the fact they also shipped on with Dutch and British whalers in the 17th and 18th centuries, which might explain the whaling towns of New England. The thing is, I do not think the Canadian scholars bothered themselves with the question of whether Basque fishermen and whalers explored or hunted as far south as New England. The answer might lie in the Basque archives.