Whaling

Abstract

Skeleton of Whale in NC State Museum of Natural History, no date (c.1930's). Barden Collection, North Carolina State Archives, call #: N_53_16_4683, Raleigh, NC. [2]Whaling began as a shore-based activity on the North Carolina coast as early as 1666. With the eventual depletion of whale populations off their immediate coast, New Englanders soon made the transition to pelagic (open-sea) whaling, a change that foreshadowed their rise to international domination of the industry during the so-called golden age of whaling in the mid-nineteenth century. North Carolinians, however, continued shorebased forms of whaling with little interruption until 1916, when the last reported capture occurred near Cape Lookout [3]. Pelagic whale ships from New England continued to visit the North Carolina coast, pursuing sperm and right whales in the "Hatteras [4] ground" near the edge of the Gulf Stream.