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4. Port Armstrong and the US Whaling Company
written by Dale Vinnedge; in Alaska's Whaling Coast, Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014), 41-58
In 1850, commercial whaling ships entered the Bering Sea for the first time. There, they found the summer grounds of bowhead whales, as well as local Inuit people who had been whaling the Alaskan coast for 2,000 years. Within a few years, almost the entire Pacific fleet came north each June to find a path through...
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written by Dale Vinnedge; in Alaska's Whaling Coast, Images of America (Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2014), 41-58
Description
In 1850, commercial whaling ships entered the Bering Sea for the first time. There, they found the summer grounds of bowhead whales, as well as local Inuit people who had been whaling the Alaskan coast for 2,000 years. Within a few years, almost the entire Pacific fleet came north each June to find a path through the melting ice, and the Inuit way of whaling—in fact, their entire livelihood—would be forever changed. Baleen was worth nearly $5...
In 1850, commercial whaling ships entered the Bering Sea for the first time. There, they found the summer grounds of bowhead whales, as well as local Inuit people who had been whaling the Alaskan coast for 2,000 years. Within a few years, almost the entire Pacific fleet came north each June to find a path through the melting ice, and the Inuit way of whaling—in fact, their entire livelihood—would be forever changed. Baleen was worth nearly $5 a pound. But the new trading posts brought guns, alcohol, and disease. In 1905, a new type of whaling using modern steel whale-catchers and harpoon cannons appeared along the Alaskan coast. Yet the Inuit and Inupiat continue whaling today from approximately 15 small towns scattered along the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Strait. Whaling for these people is a life-or-death proposition in a land considered uninhabitable by many, for without the whale, whole villages probably could not survive as they have for centuries.
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Field of Study
American History
Content Type
Book
Author / Creator
Dale Vinnedge
Date Published / Released
2014
Publisher
Arcadia Publishing
Series
Images of America
Topic / Theme
Whaling, Seaports, Maritime commerce
Copyright Message
Copyright © 2013 by Dale Vinnedge
Organization Discussed
U.S. Whaling Company, Sitka, AK
Organization
U.S. Whaling Company, Sitka, AK, Arcadia Publishing
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