Nicholson Whaling Collection Logbooks

The Nicholson Whaling Collection is one of the nation’s most important resources for whaling research. At the heart of the collection is the world’s second largest collection of whaling logbooks, recording more than 1,000 voyages. Within their pages, the logbooks hold records of whales captured and lost; accounts of shipwrecks, mutinies and other nautical misfortunes; poetry and paintings made by crew members in their spare time; and a wealth of data for researchers. The collection was donated to the Library in 1956 by Paul C. Nicholson, grandson of the founder of the Nicholson File Company, and it now includes more than 15,000 items, ranging from prints, photographs, scrimshaw and other artifacts to an extensive collection of manuscripts and account books. The earliest materials date from the 1700s and include a contract in which a Native American whaler agrees to be part of the crew of a 1723 whaling voyage. Hundreds of logbooks document the 19th-century high point of the whaling trade. This important collection continues to grow, thanks to an endowment provided by the Nicholson family
This collection is part of Providence Public Library Digital Collections, hosted by Providence Public Library.

Items in this collection

Journal of the Timor (Ship) out of Isle of Wight, England, mastered by John T. Parker and kept by Edward P. Stacy, on...

Journal of the Timor (Ship) out of Isle of Wight, England, mastered by John T. Parker and kept by Edward P. Stacy, on a whaling voyage between 1819 and 1820.

Providence Public Library

Journal of a South Atlantic whaling voyage that began March 2 1819 off the Isle of Wight, and ended February 9th 1820 off Gravesend. During this time the Timor caught thirty-four whales, mostly right whales with an occasional humpback, and stowed hundreds of barrels of oil. Most whales were caught while working out of Angra Pequena and Walvis Bays, off the coast of what is now Namibia, and in the waters northwest of South Africa. "Timor" also fished for a time with the English whale ship Emma, including an agreement between the two ships during the first two weeks in June not to lower for a whale unless she had a calf with her. At one point the two ships got in a dispute over a whale, and the Emma departed about a month later, with a full ship. Whales taken are represented by Edward Stacys drawings of whale flukes. Perry, who was a harpooner, goes into about the ships whalecraft and the preparations for whaling that took up the first three months of the voyage. Also described are encounters with Khoikhoi who are described in some detail, including a party sent off by a missionary to sell cattle to the whalemen in order to raise money for the mission.