This collection contains records of crew members who left the port of New Bedford on whaling voyages from 1807 to the end of whaling in 1927. Records typically include the name of the crew member, residence, the year and place of departure of whaling, the name of the vessel, their age, rank, and description of their physical appearance<br><br>One of the commodities whaling produced was whale oil, which provided fuel for lighting and lubrication for the gears of the industrial revolution until it was replaced by petroleum products in the mid-nineteenth century. In the United States, the whaling industry ranked ninth in overall value to the economy at its height in the mid 1840s.<br><br>The records in this collection were made public by the New Bedford Whaling Museum.
