Here is a selection of books that offer excellent firsthand accounts of whalecraft, its usage, and life in the whaling industry. This list is not comprehensive, and more titles will be added periodically. If you have any recommendations for books that should be included, please let us know. Aldrich, H. L. Arctic, Alaska and Siberia, Chicago and New York: Rand, McNally & Co., 1889.
Ashley, Clifford W., The Yankee Whaler, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926.
Barker, George,Thrilling Adventures of the Whaler Alcyone, Peabody, Mass, 1916.
Barron, William,Old Whaling Days, The Hull Press, Hull, 1895.
Beale, Thomas,The Natural History of the Sperm Whale, London, 1839.
Beane, J.F., From Forecastle to Cabin, New York, 1905.
Bennett, F. D., Narrative of a Whaling Voyage Round the Globe, London, 1840.
Bodfish, H. H., Chasing the Bowhead, Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936.
Brown, James Templeman, The Whale Fishery and Its Appliances. Washington: Government Printing Offfice, 1883.
Browne, J. Ross. Etchings of a Whaling Cruise, with Notes on a Sojourn on the Island of Zanzibar, New York: Harper & Brothers, 1846.
Bullen, Frank T. The Cruise of the "Cachalot" Round the World After Sperm Whales. London: Smith, Elder& Co., 1899.
Burns, W. N. A Year with a Whaler, New York, 1923.
Cheever, Henry T. The Whale and His Captors, New York, 1850.
Christison, Robert. "On the Capture of Whales by Means of Poison," The New Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, n.s., vol xii, no. 1, July, 1860.
Church, Albert Cook. Whale Ships and Whaling, New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1938.
Cook, John A. Pursuing the Whale, Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926.
Davis, William M. Nimrod of the Sea; or, The American Whaleman. New York, Harper & Brothers, 1874.
Delano, Reuben. Wanderings and Adventures of Reuben Delano, Being a Narrative of Twelve Years Life in a Whale Ship! Boston: Redding and Company, 1846.
Dewhurst, H. W. Natural History of the Order Cetacea ..., London, 1834.
Dow, George Francis. Whale Ships and Whaling: A Pictorial History of Whaling During Three Centuries. Salem, Mass.: Marine Research Society, 1925.
Dulles, F. R. Lowered Boats - A Chronical of American Whaling, New York, 1933.
Ellis, Richard. Men and Whales. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
Faulkner, J. P. Eighteen Months on a Greenland Whaler, New York, 1878.
Ferguson, R. Harpooner, Philadelphia, 1936.
Ferguson, R. Arctic Harpooner, Philadelphia, 1938.
Goode, George Brown, et al. The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States. Sec. V, vol. ii. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887.
Greener, William. The Science of Gunnery, as Applied to the Use and Construction of Fire Arms. London: Longman & Company, n.d.
Hammond, T. W. On Board a Whaler, New York, 1901.
Haven, S. F. Narrative of a Voyage to Spitzbergen in the Year 1613 ..., Am. Ant. Soc., 1860.
Hawes, C. B. Whaling, New York, 1924.
Hazen, Jacob A. Five Years Before the Mast. 3rd ed. Philadelphia: Willis P. Hazard, 1854.
Hegarty, Reginald B. Addendum to "Starbuck" and "Whaling Masters." New Bedford: New Bedford Free Public Library, 1964.
Hegarty, Reginald B. Returns of Whaling Vessels from American Ports, New Bedford, 1959.
Hohman, Elmo P. The American Whaleman. New York: Longmans, Green and Company, 1928.
Holmes, Lewis. The Arctic Whaleman; or, Winter in the Arctic Ocean. Boston, Wentworth & Company, 1857.
Hopkins, William John. She Blows! And Sparm at That!, Boston and New York, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1922.
Jardine, William. Natural History of the Ordinary Cetacea, or Whales, Edinburgh, 1837.
Jenkins, J. T. A History of the Whale Fisheries, London: H. F. & G. Witherby, 1921.
Jenkins, T. H. Bark Kathleen Sunk by a Whale, New Bedford, 1902.
[Jones, George]. Life and Adventure in the South Pacific, New York, 1861.
Kingston, W.H.G. the South Sea whaler, London, 1882.
Leslie, jameson, & Murray. Narrative, Polar Seas & Regions, New York, 1831.
Lindsay, D. M. A Voyage to the Arctic in the Whaler Aurora, Boston, 1911.
Macy, Obed. History of Nantucket, Boston, 1835.
Macy, William H. There She Blows! Or, The Log of the Arethusa, Boston: Lee & Shepard, 1877.
Markham, A. H. A Whaling Cruise to Baffin's Bay and the Gulf of Boothia, London, 1875.
Millet, Samuel. A Whaling Voyage in the Bark Willis, Boston, 1924.
Murdock, Henry C. The Murdock Whaling Voyages, New Bedford: Reynolds Printing, 1938.
Nordhoff, Charles. Whaling and Fishing, Cincinnati: Moore, Wilstach, Keys & Co., 1856.
Olmstead, F. A. Incidents of a Whaling Voyage, 1841, rept. 1969.
Paddack, Wm. C. Life on the Ocean, Cambridge, 1893.
Pease, Z. W. The Catalpa Expedition, New Bedford, 1897.
Rand, Edward A. Up North in a Whaler, New York, 1889.
Robbins, C. H. The Gam, Salem, Mass. 1913.
Robotti, F. D. Whaling and Old Salem, Salem, mass. 1950.
Samuels, S. From forecastle to Cabin, New York, 1887.
Schmitt, Frederick P. Mark Well the Whale!, port washington, N.Y., 1971.
Schmitt, Frederick P. Thomas Welcome Roys, Univ. of Va. Press, 1980.
Scammon, Charles M. The Marine Mammals of the North-western Coast of North America. 1874, reprint ed., Riverside CA: Manessier, 1969.
Scoresby, William. An Account of the Arctic Regions, with a History and Description of the Northern Whale-Fishery. 2 vols. Edinburgh, 1820. Reprint, New York: Augustus M. Kelley, 1969.
Scoresby, William, Jr. Journal of a Voyage to the Northern Whale Fishery, Edinburgh, 1823.
Spears, John R. "The Log of the Bark Emily as Kept by L. R. Hale, Third Mate - 1857-60," Harper's Monthly Magazine, vol. 107, 1903.
Spears, John R. The Story of the New England Whalers, New York, 1910.
Stackpole, E. The Sea Hunters, New York, 1953.
Starbuck, Alexander. History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the Year 1876. Waltham, Mass.: Published by the Author, 1878.
Taylor, Nathaniel W. Life on a Whaler, New london, 1929.
Thomes, W.H. The Whaleman's Adventures in the Sandwich Islands and California, Boston, 1872.
Tilton, George Fred. Cap'n. George Fred, Garden City, NY, 1929.
Tower, Walter S. A History of the American Whale Fishery, Philadelphia: University of Philadelphia, 1907.
Tripp, William H. There Goes Flukes, New Bedford: Reynolds Printing, 1938.
Verrill, A. H. The Real Story of the Whaler, New York, 1916.
Villiers, A.J. Whaling in the Frozen South, Indianapolis, 1925.
Villiers, A.J. Whalers of the Midnight Sun, New York, 1934.
Whitecar, William B. Four Years Aboard the Whaleship. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Company, 1860.
W.P.A. Whaling Masters. New Bedford: Old Dartmouth Historical Society Whaling Museum, 1938.
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