British Whalers in the Pacihc: the Discover~ ot the G/edstanes by Dr. Hans Van Tilburg he histo ric whaling period encompasses a large pan of the maritime heritage of the Pacific Ocean, and so the discovery of an early nineteenth-century British whaling shipwreck, tentatively identified as the Gledstanes, can shed new light on the history and the archaeology of this trade. Frequently, it is the heyday ofAmerican whaling which is deservedly celebrated, thanks to a number of outstanding museums and research libraries, and the well-worn texts of the story of the whaleship Essex and the great American novel Moby-Dick. Nonetheless, decades earlier than the hundreds of those New England ships put to sea, many a whaling vessel and crew from the region around London and the Thames sought their whale oil far off in the Pacific. Whaling in the nineteenth century was most assuredly a competitive global pursuit. In 1788, shipowner Samuel Enderby's Emelia was the first British whaler to double Cape Horn, and from that point forward the British southern whaling trade grew until reaching its peak in the 1820s. Subsequently, despiteaslowdecline through the late 1850s, purpose-built ships and a focus on taking highly profitable sperm whales kept the British firms going. Actually, berween 1826 and 1840, some thirty new whaling ships were added to the southern Beet. In contrast to the rounded bluff bows of American whalers, some of these British vessels were relatively sharp-bowed designs. British shipowners were willing to sacrifice some of their carrying capacity for speed on long voyages to a distant ocean. Most of these ships went out to the Pacific in ballast, depending on whale oil for their sole profit. In 1827 the Cruikshank shipping firm had the whaler Gledstanes built in Leith, Scotland. At 428 tons, the ship was slightly larger than average British South Seas whalers of the 1820s, which usually fell berween 300-400 tons. The size of ships in the Pacific whaling Beet reflected the great distances sailed, the need to stay out for rwo to three years or more, and the economic return of cargo. The Gledstanes embarked on her first trip to the Pacific in November, 1831 , under the command of Captain John R. Browne. Judging from brief mention in reports from other ships, Captain Browne sai led south and then east, rounding the Cape of Good Hope, made his way across the Indian Ocean to 22
the only harbors in the Pacific with permanently established provisioning and repair facilities. By January 1835, Gledstaness holds were at last full with a very profitable 2,500 barrels of sperm whale oil and she plotted a course for London and home. 1 On the Gledstanes's second voyage, beginning on 29 October 1835 , Captain Browne sailed directly for the Japan Grounds, stopping only at the Bay of Islands. The Gledstanes fetched up in the Hawaiian Islands a year later and with only 300 barrels of oil. Browne likely recruited several native Hawaiian sailors at that time. Hawaiians played a critical role in replenishing whaling crews. In the 1830s observers had already noted the potential problem of so many native men leaving the islands, particularly given the tragic consequences of foreign diseases and depopulation. This practice continued to increase into the 1840s to the point where Hawaiian chiefs required posted bonds from ship captains, berween $300 and $5 00, to
A typical 19th-century British whaleship
Indonesia, and then cruised the waters south of Japan. From there the Gledstanes moved through Micronesia to New Zealand and arrived in the Bay of Islands in December, 1833. For many years, Honolulu, Lahaina, and the Bay oflslands in New Zealand were
Nineteenth-Century Whaling Grounds in the Pacific
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SEA HISTORY 127, SUMMER 2009