This resource will ultimately contain brief biographies of more than 375 individuals who served as masters of whaling vessels sailing from the port of New London, Connecticut.
During the nineteenth century, New London was an active port in the American whaling industry. Vessels sailing from the city undertook long voyages to distant whaling grounds around the world, and the port supported a community of mariners, merchants, and shipowners connected to the trade. The masters of these vessels were responsible for navigating these voyages and directing the work of whaling crews at sea.
The biographies document the lives and careers of New London whaling captains and masters and may be useful to researchers interested in maritime history, genealogy, and the American whaling industry. In maritime records the individual in command of a vessel was formally designated the master, although the term captain was commonly used in everyday language. Both terms appear in historical sources and are used here interchangeably.
Information used in the biographies was drawn from published works, genealogical records, newspaper accounts, and maritime databases including the American Offshore Whaling Voyages database, the Connecticut Ship Database, and the New London Crew Lists. Many of these sources, including Alexander Starbuck’s History of the American Whale Fishery, remain standard references in the study of American whaling.
Background on the development of this compilation and the compiler’s research process can be found in the Foreword.