Yankee Whalermen

The New England whalemen of the 18th and 19th-century American sperm-whale fishery, sailing chiefly from Nantucket and New Bedford. At its 1850s peak the fishery ran more than 700 vessels and made New Bedford the richest city per capita in the United States. The 1841 whaleship Charles W. Morgan, the last surviving wooden whaler, is preserved afloat at Mystic Seaport Museum in Connecticut. The trade is memorialized at the New Bedford Whaling Museum and supplied the world’s scrimshaw and much of its lamp oil and spermaceti.