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A Chronology of Eastern Arctic Whaling

Chronology
Date	Event
1009 or 1200	The first Arctic whalers, called by archeologists the Thule people, are guessed to have migrated eastward from Alaska. The Thule are the ancestors of the Inuit.
1540s	European whaling activities begin off the Labrador coast in the Strait of Belle Isle. For half a century, the Basques dominate whaling activities until the depletion of the whales in that area. They supply England, Spain and France with whale oil. (Ross: 1993)
1600s	Whalers (mainly Dutch with some British, Danish, French and German) move east into the Greenland Sea and the Spitsbergen area. The Dutch rapidly become dominant in the Spitsbergen whale fishery. England's Muscovy Company obtains a royal charter in 1613, giving them a monopoly over Spitsbergen whaling that they can never implement due to the presence of Dutch whalers. By the mid-1600s, the British whaling industry is in decline. By the late 1600s, the Dutch are sending some 12,000 to 18,000 men each summer, aboard as many as 300 ships. (Ross: 1993)
1670	The Company of Adventurers of England Tradeing into Hudson's Bay is established. The Crown of England cedes to this new venture an immense territory called Rupert's Land, which includes all the land draining into the Hudson Bay. By extrapolation, this includes the west coast of Baffin Island, not mapped at the time.
1690	Whaling activities begin at Nantucket Island, Massachusetts.
1700s	The Davis Strait fishery along the coast of Greenland is dominated by Dutch whaling ships, even while other European nations and New England are also involved.µ Eventually, Dutch whalers reach Baffin Island via a narrow 200 mile wide passage through Lancaster Sound. (Ross: 1993)
1731	The swivel gun is introduced on whaling ships in England.
1765-1772	Without much success, the Hudson's Bay Company carries out whaling activities in the Marble Island area on the west coast of Hudson Bay. (Ross: 1973)
From 1750	The British government begins augmenting whale fishing subsidies, due to an increasing demand for whale oil from the growing textile industry and the lighting of cities. From 1750, Dutch whaling declines, due in part to the blockade of Dutch ports by the British Navy during the Seven Years' War. The importance of British whaling increases. (Ross:1993)
1750	American whalers install tryworks on their ships to process the blubber at sea.
1702-1802	Thousands of voyages are made to the Greenland whaling grounds by mostly Dutch and British ships.
1775-1783	The American Revolution. The British blockade of New England ports paralyzes the whaling industry during the war.
1788	In 1788, a little ship of 169 tons, the Robert, sets out for the whale hunt from Peterhead, Scotland. This is the first attempt at the whale hunt by a Peterhead ship.
1802	The Dutch stop whaling.
1802	By 1802, whalers have taken more than half of the total whale catch of the whole whaling period in the Eastern Arctic.
1812-1815	The Anglo-American war of 1812. The British blockade of New England ports paralyzes the whaling industry during the war.
1818	The John Ross expedition in search of the Northwest Passage, aboard the Isabella and Alexander, reaches Lancaster Sound but stops there. Ross inaccurately reports a chain of mountains blocking access to the sound. Ross loses all credibility with the British Admiralty after this decision, but he has nevertheless shown the way to Pond Inlet for the British whalers.
1819-1820	Whaling ships reach the west side of Baffin Bay.
1820	Before 1820, whales are hunted on the East side of Davis Strait and Baffin Bay, along the Greenland coast. After 1820, a new whaling routine is established to follow the whale stock: a counter-clockwise circuit of Baffin Bay and Davis Strait, with a final stop at Durban Island. Seventy-five percent of the catch taken in the Davis Strait whale fishery is killed between 1820 and 1840 (Ross 1993: 538).
1830	Some 91 British ships sail to the Arctic whaling grounds in this year, 19 of which are crushed by ice.
1840	Inulluapik, an Inuk from Cumberland Sound, spends the winter in Aberdeen, Scotland with Captain William Penny. On return to the Eastern Arctic, Inulluapik guides Penny's ship the Bon Accord into Cumberland Sound, the first time a whaling ship enters this area.
1845	Sir John Franklin sails the ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror to the Arctic. The expedition is caught in the ice near King William Island, and all hands perish. Dozens of search expeditions are subsequently organized, stimulated by the zeal of Lady Franklin, Sir John's widow.
1845	By 1845, the New London, Connecticut, whaling industry is at its height. All together, there are more than 700 American vessels engaged in the whale fishery.
1848	The exploding harpoon is invented.
1848	In Cumberland Sound, the whaling harbour Naujaqtalik is home to 160 Inuit.
1850	The Peterhead whaling industry is at its height
1850-1870	The jute industry enjoys a rapid expansion in Dundee. Whale oil is an essential component in softening jute fiber. The price of whale oil reaches a high of £50 a ton.
1850	William Penny commands a search expedition for Sir John Franklin and takes two ships into Lancaster Sound and Barrow Strait, where they winter with other ships looking for Franklin.
1851	The American ship McLellan leaves a group of men behind to winter in Cumberland Sound. These are the first American whalers to deliberately winter in the Arctic. At this point the Inuit relationship with whalers begins in earnest.
1853	In 1853, a cholera epidemic kills one third of the Inuit living at Naujaqtalik Harbour in Cumberland Sound.
1857	Moravian missionary Matthias Warmow is the first missionary to visit Cumberland Sound. He spends the winter at Kekerten with Scottish captain William Penny, his wife Margaret, and their son.
1859	The Narwhal is the first steam-powered whaler ever built. She is built in Dundee and is also rigged with sails. While American whalers continue whaling with sailed ships, Scottish whalers rapidly install steam engines on all their vessels.
1859	Colonel Edwin L. Drake discovers an oil well in Titusville, Pennsylvania. From now on, the use of whale oil as a lubricant will decrease and kerosene replaces whale oil for lighting.
1860	Two American whalers, the Syren Queen and the Northern Light, respectively commanded by Christopher and Edward Chapel, make a successful whaling trip into Hudson Bay, opening the door to American whaling in that area.
1860-1863	Charles Francis Hall travels to Cumberland Sound on the barque George Henry, under the command of Sidney O. Budington. From Cape Haven (called Singaijaq in Inuktitut) he travels to Frobisher Bay and explores the area. He finds artefacts that explorer Martin Frobisher had left behind nearly 300 years earlier. He is helped in his explorations by Ebierbing and Tookoolito, Koojoosee and Ugarng (Hall's spelling). He successfully adopts Inuit methods to survive in the Arctic.
1861-1865	The American Civil War. Dozens of New England whaling ships are destroyed in the war.
1864-1869	Charles Francis Hall makes a second voyage to the King William Island area in search of the remains of the Franklin expedition.
1865	Darting guns are introduced on American whalers.
1867	Missionary Edmund James Peck is first assigned to northern Quebec (Petite Rivière à la Baleine and then Fort George) where he learns Inuktitut. He teaches Christianity to the Inuit from a New Testament produced by Moravian missionaries and printed in the Labrador dialect.
1870	The Canadian government acquires Rupert's Land and ends the Hudson's Bay Company monopoly over that territory.
1871	Charles Francis Hall's makes his third and last expedition aboard the Polaris, in the company of Captains Budington and Tyson. This expedition is meant to conquer the North Pole. Hall dies during this voyage.
1871-1876	Forty-five New Bedford whaling ships are crushed by ice in the Arctic, which contributes to the decline of its whaling industry. By 1900, there are 16 textile mills in New Bedford; these replace the whaling sector.
1874	The American navy lieutenant William Augustus Mintzer applies to the British government for a grant of land for a mica mine, roughly 10 miles away from Blacklead Island.
1880s	The Canadian government conducts three expeditions to the North, led by Andrew R. Gordon on the Neptune in 1884, William Wakeham on the whaler Diana in 1897, and Albert Low on the Neptune in 1903.
1882	In New London, Connecticut, Johnnibo testifies for Captain Spicer in a court case concerning three stolen whales.
1883-84	Franz Boas arrives in the North. After his exploration of the South Baffin area, he publishes his famous monograph entitled The Central Eskimo.
1886-1903	Thomas Luce & Co., a US company based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, finances 36 whale-hunting expeditions in the Atlantic Ocean and Hudson Bay.
1889	George Comer makes the first of three annual voyages to the Arctic with Spicer on the schooner Era.
1890	The Windward is built. This is the last wooden whaler to be built in Peterhead, Scotland.
1892	The last whaling voyage from New London, Connecticut, is made to the Arctic.
1894	Steam whalers reach Herschel Island.
1894	Missionary Edmund James Peck travels to Cumberland Sound with Joseph C. Parker, and with the help of James Mutch he establishes a mission.
1895	George Comer sails as captain for the first time, aboard the Era, to Hudson Bay.
1895	Missionary Edmund James Peck leaves Cumberland Sound.
1897	Captain Spicer refers Franz Boas, the founding father of North American anthropology, to Captain Comer for the sharing of information and artefacts concerning the Inuit .
1897	Wakeham leads an expedition to the North. On Kekerten Island, he claims Canadian sovereignty over Baffin Island.
1897	Missionary Edmund James Peck returns to Cumberland Sound, with Bibles printed in syllabics, to set up a real mission. He preaches to southern Baffin Island Inuit until 1905.
1899	For a few years, Thomas Luce & Co. operates a whaling and trading station at Wager Bay, in Hudson Bay.
1880	Captain Spicer opens a whaling station on Iqaqtilik Island in the Hudson Strait, approximately 60 km west of present day Kimmirut. He calls his station Akuliak, which is at the southern tip of the island and is the site of an Inuit camp.
1901	The vessel Discovery is built in Dundee for the Robert Scott Antarctic explorations of 1901-1904. She is subsequently sold to the Hudson's Bay Company and sails in the Eastern Arctic.
1902	All but four members of the Southampton Island Sallirmiut are killed by a disease introduced by the Scottish whaling ship, the Active. Fifty-eight Sallirmiut die from the pathogen.
1903-1904	Geologist Albert Peter Low leads an important Canadian expedition in the eastern Arctic aboard the Neptune, in the company of scientists and members of the Northwest Mounted Police. This is Canada's first real initiative to assert sovereignty in the Arctic.
1905-1906	The whaling activities of Thomas Luce & Co. cease with the sale of the Era to the FN Monjo trading company.
1907-1908	The American Museum of Natural History has the largest arctic collection in the world. Most of it is acquired by Comer and Robert Peary.
1912	George Comer makes his last whaling voyage.
1913	George Comer participates in the Crocker Land Expedition to Greenland. He conducts archeological work while the expedition is stranded there for three years. The area he excavates is still called Comer's Midden.
1914	World War I marks the virtual end of all whaling activities. Whale oil is replaced by mineral oil, and baleen by plastic. After centuries of whaling, the world's whale populations are exhausted.
1920	The last Dundee whaler, the Essonian, sails to the Arctic under the command of Captain John C. Taylor. It burns up at Kekerten and the crew is rescued by the Albert.
1925	The first English-Inuktitut dictionary, written by missionary Edmund James Peck, is published posthumously.