: The Whaling Industry ofNew England Illustrated on State Bank Notes

This is an unusual vignette appearing on the above note and enlarged vignette, below. There are no reports of it being used on notes of any otherbank. One can easily see the potential danger whalers had when trying toharpoon an animal as large as a Right Whale. A whaleboat was designedto be very narrow and usually had six crew members, five to row and oneto steer. The foremost rower doubled as the lancer. This image is notablein that we can see the diversity of the crew. People came from many countries to New England to work in the whaling trade. Also notable is theview of the ice shelf in the background. Ice shelves are more numerousin the South Sea of the Pacific, and the whale ships would often spend ayear or more hunting in that area. There were also whaling ports on theNew England coast that exclusively outfitted their ships for long stays inthe southern Pacific or South Sea. On Nantucket Island the Pacific Bank(appropriately named) catered to those ships and seamen who traveledto those far seas.

is a traditional hail used by the ship's lookout fromhigh above the deck of a whaling ship of the mid 1800s in the crow'snest, when first sighting their elusive prey. Whaling was a major industryin the New England states during the 19th century. The industrial revolution spawned new precision machinery that needed vast quantities of lubricants made from spermaceti, (naturally occurring oil found in the headof some whales) and other oil refined by rendering of the blubber tissueof the same animal. Such was industry's importance that New Bedford,Massachusetts became the largest whaling port in New England and for abrief period, the richest city in the world. Nantucket, Provincetown, andothers along the coastline of New England were also quite busy produc-ing natural products from some of the largest animals the world has everknown. By 1860 the New England states could boast a fleet of over 500whaling ships. Then, with the growing use of petroleum in the later 1800sand its use as a lubricant the whaling industry slowly diminished. Unableto compete in supplying lubricants for machinery, by the start of the 20thcentury the New England whaling industry slowly came to a stop.

During the heady 19th century, many seaside villages grew into townsand later cities, as commerce followed the population. Where there iscommerce and a growing population there will be a need for bankingservices. Not surprisingly, many new banks were founded to service thelocal communities. At this same time, the U.S. government had not yetbegun to issue paper money to compliment the coinage issues. As such,these banks were given permission by their home states to issue papermoney if they wished. Some of these banks placed vignettes of whalingscenes on their banknotes so to demonstrate their connection with theindustry now so prevalent in these areas. Various images of seaports, theseacoast, shipbuilding, whaling, as well as fishing started to be seen inthe vignettes on many of the colorful banknote issues from banks in theseseaside towns. A truly multi-ethnic industry, whaling ships employedpeople from Portugal, the Azores, and Cape Verde, Blacks from NewEngland and the Caribbean, as well as Native Americans to name a few.This is evident on many of the highly detailed images on these banknotes.The whales most coveted in New England and Canadian waters were theRight Whales, so named because they were the whales to hunt forbaleen, oil and blubber. These Right or Whales are so calledbecause of the hairy filter sieves that hung from their upper jaws that aided the filtering out of small fish and crustaceans (shrimp, krill, etc) takenin big gulps of sea water. This animal also had a double blow hole, theeffect of which would be evident when they exhale, or blow, wet stale airappearing as a double spout of wet mist.

One of the largest whales is the Sperm Whale. Although not particularly plentiful this animal may be found in oceans throughout the world and in somewhatabundant numbers off the island of Nantucket. This is the type of whale thatthe story, Moby Dick was about. Moby Dick was a white Sperm Whale! TheSperm Whale was so called because of the resemblance of the oil in its head toseminal fluid.

The vignette of this note will show a whaleboat approaching very close to theside of the surfaced Sperm Whale while the crew member with the harpoon orlance is about to drive his weapon into the beast! The Nantucket Whale hunters developed a specialty for hunting Sperm Whales as is illustrated on thisbanknote!

For more information on the New England Numismatic Association, see:
https://www.nenacoin.org/