Date of Award

1993

Degree Type

Major Paper

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Marine Affairs

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to document the rise and fall of the New Bedford whaling industry-which was, in effect, the American whaling industry-through the pages of the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript. This analysis will proceed int he following ways. First, this study will detail the origins of the American whaling industry and it development up to the first issue of the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript on March 17, 1843. Whaling developed in colonial American because many of thos first settlers previously worked in the English and Dutch whaling fleets. This section also will include a history of New Bedford and its emergence as the world's leading whaling port. Second, this study will place the appearance of the Whalemen's Shipping List and merchants' Transcript in the context of the development of the American business press. Third, this study will examine the coverage by the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript of the later years of whaling's Golden Age. Finally, this study will examine the fall of the New Bedford and American whaling industry through the pages of the Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript.

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