Whaling Companies In The 1800's

Back in the early to mid 1800’s whaling companies were somewhat small because they only had about fifty or sixty crewmembers out on the ships at once. However that was pretty big for the sizes of their vessels. The whaling companies were big enough to supply many places with whale oil for fuels and candle wax, and also medicine for a period of time. One of the crew owners also owned a candle factory so he would use the whale’s they caught for candle wax. These whaling companies weren’t just out on their ships in the ocean; they also had little businesses on land, which were typically one or two rooms in small buildings, Nichols stated, “There was one large room, a portion of which to the right as one entered was partitioned off so as to form …show more content…
Starting in the 1800’s when whale’s became the number one source of oil supplying to many outside companies and locals there were a big need for crew workers on these whale vessels. The roles that workers held during their travels on these ships were endless. Workers would work very long hours and some wouldn’t sleep for a few days because of the amount of work they had to do. Crewmembers on the vessels were split up into different jobs. Some workers would cook meals for the captains and crew as long as there was food available. Other workers were in charge of scouting for whales’ out in the ocean, which was a long and hard job because they could go for many days before even finding a whale. Once the scouters found a whale other workers would jump into smaller wooden boats that were man powered and try to catch up to the whales. If these workers were able to get to the whales then they had to kill them with spears and haul them back to the main ship. Workers would then cut up the whale’s to get blubber and other parts that were used to create the oil used for fuel and store the oil into barrels that was stored under the deck of the ship. After catching one whale and getting all cut up and stored away the search for more whales started all over …show more content…
They were given percentages of the money made from the whale’s they caught, which was pretty good being that the cost of living back then was low. On the other side they were away from their families for years at a time so they tried to make the best of their time on the ship. The workers were treated really well when they worked hard and delivered whale’s to the ship making the captains and other workers happy because they were getting paid for the catch. In a way they were paid fairly because they would make a certain percentage on the whale’s they caught and the oil they sold however, the captains and the higher up crewmembers were paid with a greater percentage because they were owners of the

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Whaling Companies In The 1800's

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