List of American Whaling Ports, 1784-1928

With Number of Vessels and Voyages from Each, and Their Rank by Vessels and Voyages

We have been asked rather frequently about the importance of Mystic as a whaling port. It seems that because the last surviving whaling vessel, the ship Charles W. Morgan built in New Bedford in 1841, is part of the Museum, people tend to think that Mystic was one of the major American whaling ports. We have always said that Mystic was not a major whaling center without actually knowing just exactly where she ranked in comparison to other ports.

The purpose of this bulletin then is to compare Mystic with all of the 71 other ports from which whaling vessels sailed between 1784 and 1928. Reliable statistics for earlier years are not readily available. Hence, this bulletin is limited to these years. As will be seen below, Mystic ranked seventeenth in the number of vessels and fourteenth in number of voyages to put this another way, about one out of every 100 vessels sailed out of Mystic, or one out of every 120 voyages was made from here. Mystic’s small neighbor, Stonington, on the other hand, sent out one out of every 55 vessels and one out of every 70 voyages. This does not necessarily mean that Mystic was America’s fourteenth or seventeenth most important whaling port. Other factors which need to be measured to determine the rank of importance of the various ports include the aggregate tonnage of all the vessels sailing from the several ports, the amount of oil and bone returned in them and the value thereof.

One can readily understand that one port that had 10 ships which made 30 voyages of three duration should rank higher than another which had 10 schooners which also made 30 voyages but of much shorter duration. As this bulletin is set up, these two hypothetical ports would rank equally high. Depending upon their names, the less important one might even rank higher here because of the alphabetical listing of ports with equal numbers of vessels and voyages.

To determine the aggregate tonnage of all 72 ports with the total returns and the value thereof and to work out a satisfactory formula which would enable one to accurately rank the American whaling ports in the order of their importance would be quite difficult. It is hoped, however, that in spite of its obvious shortcomings the ranking attempted by this bulletin can serve as an indicator until these more complicated factors can be worked out.

If one were able, at this late date, to tabulate all the whaling voyages prior to 1784, there might possibly be some changes in the rank of some of the ports. Alexander Starbuck was unable to do this nearly a century ago when he prepared his History of the American Whale Fishery and it is unlikely that one could do it today with any degree of accuracy. It is safe to say, however, that the early activity was centered at Cape Cod, Nantucket and Long Island.

The following summary statistics seem to be worthy of note. Of the 72 ports from which whaling vessels sailed, 20 had only 1 vessel, 25 had between 2 and 10 vessels, 10 had between 11 and 25 vessels, 8 had between 26 and 50 vessels, 2 had between 51 and 100 vessels and 7 had over 100 vessels. Twelve ports had only 1 voyage, 28 had between 2 and 25 voyages, 19 had between 26 and 100 voyages, 6 had between 101 and 500 voyages, 5 had between 501 and 1000 voyages and 2 had over 1000 voyages. Hence, 7 ports, or 10% of the total, had about two-thirds of the vessels and three fourths of the voyages. The other 90% of the ports had only one third of the vessels and one-fourth of the voyages.

All of the statistical data contained in this list below have been taken from Alexander Starbuck, History of the American Whale Fishery, and Reginald B. Hegarty, Returns of Whaling Vessels Sailing From American Ports. Whatever errors either of these volumes may contain are, of course, included in this bulletin. It is widely known for example, that Starbuck failed to include some vessels which are known to have made whaling voyages and that he listed other vessels which never existed. Probably every major collection of whaling logbooks includes records of a couple of voyages which are not in Starbuck. Nevertheless, the number of errors is probably not large enough to have a significant effect upon the ranking that this bulletin attempts to establish.

Perhaps some statements of procedure are in order so that the reader will better understand this bulletin. The years listed under “Dates of Sailings” represent the earliest and latest date at which vessels sailed from the various ports. In many cases, especially during the 19th century, the last whaling vessel from a given port may well have returned from its voyage as much as three years from the date of sailing. In several cases, the last vessel to sail was wrecked or condemned in a foreign port. Hence, it never returned. For this reason it seemed logical that the final date in the list below should be the year of sailing rather than that of returning.

When two more ports had the same number of vessels or voyages, they have been ranked in alphabetical order. This, we realize: is rather an arbitrary arrangement but it seemed to be a valid one in view of the complications one would encounter in attempting to work out a formula which would make possible the true evaluation of a given port’s importance.

At the end of the list below the reader will note a total of 2718 vessels. This is not a completely accurate figure for the number of different vessels engaged in whaling, as numerous vessels sailed from more than one port and some from as many as three or four different ports. Since these vessels were counted under each port the total given below is somewhat larger than the actual number of American whaling vessels. If one were to deduct these duplications, the correct total would probably fall between 2150 and 2200 vessels.

In counting the number of vessels and voyages for each port, the index to Starbuck was used for all activity up to 1876. Hegarty was used after that date. Every effort was made not to count a vessel listed by Hegarty for a given port which had already been listed by Starbuck. We also did our best not to count a vessel more than once in Hegarty’s list.

Rank by Vessels	Rank by Voyages	Name of Port	Dates of Sailings	Number Vessels	Number Voyages
53	61	Baltimore, Maryland	1833	1	1
54	62	Barnstable, Massachusetts	1846	1	1
32	29	Beverly, Massachusetts	1849-1873	7	33
8	12	Boston, Massachusetts	1784-1901	74	170
55	63	Braintree, Massachusetts	1786	1	1
19	19	Bristol, Rhode Island	1786, 1827-1846	24	79
38	33	Bridgeport, Connecticut	1833-1846	4	22
56	64	Bucksport, Maine	1841	1	1
57	65	Chilmark, Massachusetts	1848	1	1
28	26	Cold Spring, New York	1837-1857	9	38
20	21	Dartmouth, Massachusetts	1784-1878	24	65
36	43	Dorchester, Massachusetts	1833-1837	5	8
58	66	Duxbury, Massachusetts	1841	1	1
45	48	East Haddam, Connecticut	1794, 1836-1838	2	4
59	67	Edenton, North Carolina	1831	1	1
9	10	Edgartown, Massachusetts	1816-1894	59	178
7	7	Fairhaven, Massachusetts	1815-1876	115	534
22	22	Fall River, Massachusetts	1832-1860	20	60
26	23	Falmouth, Massachusetts	1820-1859	13	51
46	51	Freetown, Massachusetts	1841-1844	2	3
33	38	Gloucester, Massachusetts	1788-1794,1833-1853	7	11
23	17	Greenport, New York	1828-1857	18	90
60	46	Greenwich, Rhode Island	1807-1810	1	5
61	53	Groton, Connecticut	1866-1868	1	2
62	68	Hartford, Connecticut	1886	1	1
63	54	Hingham, Massachusetts	1785-1786	1	2
27	27	Holmes’ Hole, Massachusetts	1816-1862	12	35
18	24	Hudson, New York	1786-1841	25	50
34	28	Lynn, Massachusetts	1833-1853	7	35
47	55	Marblehead, Massachusetts	1822, 1833	2	2
21	15	Marion or Sippican, Massachusetts	1840-1885	21	98
10	9	Mattapoisett or Rochester, Massachusetts	1816-1864	50	198
17	14	Mystic, Connecticut	1832-1860	28	100
2	2	Nantucket, Massachusetts	1784-1869	364	1402
1	1	New Bedford, Massachusetts	1784-1927	806	4303
39	49	New Haven, Connecticut	1820-1822, 1858	4	4
3	5	New London, Connecticut	1784-1899	196	863
48	41	New Suffolk, New York	1838-1850	2	9
13	20	New York, New York	1792-1877	47	69
49	47	Newark, New Jersey	1835-1841	2	5
43	44	Newburgh, New York	1832-1837	3	7
30	35	Newburyport, Massachusetts	1785, 1833-1869	8	17
15	16	Newport, Rhode Island	1789, 1816-1856	39	93
40	42	Norwich, Connecticut	1800-1837, 1905-1909	4	9
31	31	Orleans, Massachusetts	1851-1861	8	28
64	69	Perth Amboy, New Jersey	1824	1	1
50	56	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1818-1824	2	2
25	25	Plymouth, Massachusetts	1785-1846	14	45
65	57	Portland, Maine	1834-1838	1	2
41	39	Portsmouth, New Hampshire	1832-1845	4	11
66	70	Portsmouth, Rhode Island	1827	1	1
35	34	Poughkeepsie, New York	1832-1841	7	18
24	30	Providence, Rhode Island	1789-1854	15	33
5	3	Provincetown, Massachusetts	1821-1920	161	902
67	71	Quincy, Massachusetts	1849	1	1
6	6	Sag Harbor, New York	1784-1871	116	574
16	18	Salem, Massachusetts	1818-1868	36	82
4	4	San Francisco, California	1851-1928	164	866
51	37	Sandwich, Massachusetts	1851-1862	2	12
44	40	Somerset, Massachusetts	1839-1848, 1912	3	10
68	52	Stamford, Connecticut	1907-1913	1	3
11	13	Stonington, Connecticut	1821-1891	50	167
69	58	Tisbury, Massachusetts	1867-1868	1	2
70	72	Tiverton, Rhode Island	1822	1	1
52	50	Truro, Massachusetts	1850-1852	2	4
29	32	Wareham, Massachusetts	1794-1857	9	27
12	11	Warren, Rhode Island	1821-1861	50	178
42	45	Wellfleet, Massachusetts	1785-1786, 1867	4	6
14	8	Westport, Massachusetts	1811-1879	45	263
37	36	Wilmington, Delaware	1834-1841	5	13
71	59	Wiscasset, Maine	1834-1848	1	2
72	60	Yarmouth, Massachusetts	1847-1849	1	2
		TOTALS		2,718	11,908

Schultz, Charles R., Mystic Seaport, G.W. Blunt White Library, 1969.