The Whaling Industry

Most Scottish ports, particularly on the east coast began whaling around the early 1750s. The blubber of the whales was made into oil and until the early 19th century it was used to light many city streets.

East coast ports in Scotland and England were the home of almost all Artic whalers. Along the Scottish east coast, Dundee, along with Peterhead and Aberdeen took the lead but many smallers ports also had vessels, including Montrose.

Whaling vessels were usually around 120 feet long (just about twice as long as a big whale that they hoped to catch). Prior to 1857 only sailing ships were used and manned by a crew of around 50. This was far more than were actually required to sail the vessel, but extra hands were needed while hunting the whales. Living condition for the ordinary seaman were very overcrowded.

In 1857, steam power was introduced to whalers as a trial. This was so successful that by the 1859 season the first custom-built steam whaler was in use by the Dundee fleet. The Tay was built in the town by Alexander Stephen and Sons. She was the first of a series of the new breed of artic whaling ships to be launched by the yard. These steam ships led the Dundee fleet to rise to supremacy in Scottish Whaling until the cessation of the industry.

Whaling ships were made of wood. This allowed them to withstand the pressures of the ice when steaming through or when trapped fast in the freezing ice. It is recorded that one ship from Dundee was so severely squeezed in the ice that her hatches were diamond shaped instead of square when she was eventually returned to port.

It was the prowess of Arctic whalers in ice conditions that led Captain Robert Scott to Dundee. He went to the same yard that had built all its whalers, to utilise the expertise of its workers in wooden ship construction. They build Discovery for his first Antartic expedition in 1901. He also used the old whaler Terra Nova for his second voyage in 1910.

Dundee had a growing jute spinning industry and this fuelled the demand for oil in the area. An extra voyage was also introduced before the key whaling season began in the 1950s. It was to Newfoundland to take part in the annual seal hunts. This kept profitability high for a number of years and, in some cases was a more lucrative business than whaling. Large numbers of seals were slaughtered as they gave birth on the extensive Labrador ice pack. Dundee ships alone caught over 1,000,000 young and adult seals during a ten-year period.

By the 1890s, Dundee was the only port still operating whalers. In 1892 company owners took the ambitious if not risky step of sending a whale expedition of four whalers to the Antarctic. Unfortunately this trip was unsuccessful and did nothing to revive the dying industry.

Arctic whaling came to a close in Scotland in 1912. Of the vessels that remained , two (active and Morning) were lost during a storm on the way to Russia during the First World War. Another Balaena was sold as a hulk early in 1920s. Eclipse was last seen in the White Sea being used for ice survey work for the Russian Government and Aptly Terra Nove, the last whaler to be built. Was the last to be lost, being sunk by a German U-boat in 1943.

"Originally built by T. Tunbull and Sons of Whitby as a sailing ship (a wooden barque), the "Maud" was bought by William Adams of Broughty Ferry in 1883 and converted into a whaling steamer in 1886. She measured 116.7 feet and had a gross tonnage of 298.

This photograph by Alexander Wilson shows the "Maud" in King William Dock, the central holding point of Dundee's harbour (the other docks were the Earl Grey to the west and the Victoria). The rear of the Customs House can be seen behind the storage sheds.

The "Maud" was a whaler and three successful voyages are recorded in the Dundee Yearbooks for 1889, 1890 and 1891. In 1892, she was wrecked at Coutts' Inlet, Davis Strait, a popular whaling area between Greenland and Baffin Island.

This whaling ship was among Dundee's last vessels. It was among several Dundee whalers belonging to Robert Kinnes which hunted the black whale during an Antarctic expedition in 1892.

The "Active" landed one whale and 400 seals, yielding half a ton of bone and 17 tons of oil, which were used for fashion use and heating / lighting respectively.

Shortly after its base was moved from Dundee to Leith, the Active was lost en route for Archangel in December 1915.