Whaling disaster of 1871

The whaling disaster of 1871 was an incident off the northern Alaskan coast in which a fleet of 33 American whaling ships were trapped in the Arctic ice in September 1871 and were subsequently abandoned and lost. It dealt a serious blow to the American whaling industry, already in decline.

By the 1870s, in the waning years of the whaling industry, the whaling fleet made annual voyages to the Arctic in search of bowhead whales. The “Arctic grounds” from the Bering Strait to Point Barrow had been hunted for 20 years since the spring and summer Bowhead whale population in the Arctic was discovered by Captain Thomas Welcome Roys, who sailed the New Bedford whaling ship Superior past the Bering Strait in late July 1848. By the end of August, the Superior had caught 11 Bowheads yielding 1,600 barrels of oil. The equivalent catch of three years sailing in only two months was enabled by the population's large layer of insulating blubber from months feeding in the cold Arctic waters.

The 1871 whaling season

In late June 1871, forty whaleships passed north through Bering Strait, hunting bowhead whales.

The 1868 – 1870 Arctic whaling seasons had been very profitable, with good catches and excellent weather starting in March and extending into September.  Whales could be struck from the Bering Strait up to the northernmost ground at Point Barrow.

The spring and summer of 1871 had been dominated by northeasterly winds that pushed ice floes towards the Alaskan coast. The fleet did not clear the Bering Strait until late June.

In mid-June the surviving crew of the whaleship Japan out of Melbourne, Victoria, which had been wrecked and repaired the previous year, were rescued from the Siberian coast and distributed among the fleet. Lewis Kennedy, seaman, of the Japan died on board the Henry Taber.

Bad luck struck early in the voyage.  The New Bedford whaler Oriole struck an ice floe before the fleet crossed the Bering Strait.  It was grounded on the Siberian shore and hove down for inspection.  The damage was too great to repair, and the ship had to be abandoned. Captain Dexter of the Emily Morgan bought the wreck for $1,300 for salvage.

The final months of the fleet are summarized from the Captain's Logs:

The month of July was marked by blocking ice.  While continuing to wait for the ice to clear, there was good whaling and taking of many walruses. In early August:  Light winds were reported.  Finally, a large channel of ice extending 5 miles offshore developed.  The fleet pushed north. Whaling was still successful. August 11: Strong northwest winds.  The channel narrowed to a mile from shore.  Whaling was still good. August 13: The wind was reported as light but still from the northwest.  Whaling was still good. August 14: A wind shift to a light Northeast wind.  It persisted for three days. August 17: The 33 ships were still pinned near the shore. They were about 70 miles south of Point Barrow, with light northeast winds that continued for many days. Eskimo traders met with some of the ship Captains and told them they were not going to have similar conditions to 1870 and the ice would be pushed against them. August 28: The Elizabeth Swift was the lead whaler. The fleet was still slowly pushing north. August 29: A switch to southwest winds, driving ice floes back towards shore. the Monticello was isolated from the others due to the ice. It was grounded but refloated with help from other ship crews. August 30: A snowstorm was reported by the northernmost ships, and the fleet became more strung-out – over 50 miles from Wainwright inlet to Point Franklin. Sep 1: A strong southwest breeze. The Roman was struck by a floe while cutting-in to a bowhead.  The ship sank fast, and the crew escaped in the whaleboats, a distance of about 20 miles, to other whaleships to the south. Sept 2: at 1 AM the Comet was crushed by incoming ice and was lost. The crew was dispersed among the surrounding ships. Captain Knowles of the George Howland purchased salvage rights for $13.  There was no change in weather until Sep 8. Sept 8: A southwest blowing gale sent the whalers closer to the shore. The Elizabeth Swift was grounded and subsequently freed, and the Awashonks was crushed and lost. Sept 9: There was an attempt to lighten the two smallest whalers. The 270 ton Kohala and the 149 ton Victoria attempted to escape back to the Bering Strait but failed when both ships grounded. Sep 11: Three whaleboats from the Florida reached the southmost seven whaleships and notified them of an impending evacuation from the ships north of them. One whaleboat was sent back to the stranded fleet with a message that the ships would wait for the evacuees. The seven southern ships cleared the ice the next day and escaped South. Sept 12: With dwindling supplies and little prospect of rescue for as long as 11 months, the whaleship Captains gathered on the Florida to sign a “compact document” to explain their decision to abandon the fleet with its high value stores. “We, the undersigned, masters of whaleships now lying at Point Belcher, after holding a meeting concerning our dreadful situation, have all come to the conclusion that our ships cannot be got out this year, and there being no harbor that we can get our vessels into, and not having provisions enough to feed our crews to exceed three months, and being in a barren country, where there is neither food nor fuel to be obtained, we feel ourselves under the painful necessity of abandoning our vessels, and trying to work our way south with our boats, and, if possible, get on board of ships that south of the ice.”

Sept 14: Abandonment of the fleet

The vessels were still spread out in a long line, some south of Point Franklin. The ships were in groups of three to five, separated by ice, but within sight of other ships. The signal of abandonment was to strike the American flag. On the morning of September 14, each of the ships struck their flag, and the 1,219 people aboard the ships evacuated in small whaleboats with a supply of provisions, The journey of of ocean and ice took two days. They were brought to safety by the seven ships which had escaped the ice to the south. Amazingly, there were no casualties. It was widely reported and accepted that a single crew member stayed on the Massachusetts through that winter, but his identity has been lost to history.

The seven whalers that escaped took the following number of rescued whale men: the Europa (280), the Arctic (250), the Progress (221), the Lagoda (195), the Daniel Webster (113), the Midas (100), and the Chance (96). They were forced to dump their catch and most of their equipment overboard to make room for passengers on the return trip to Honolulu.

Ironically, a Northeast gale arrived two weeks after the abandonment. Capt. Williams of the Monticello wrote that "If we had waited until this gale came, without doubt the greater part of the fleet would have been saved"

The total loss was valued at over $1,600,000 ($52.6 million in 2026 dollars). Twenty-two of the wrecked vessels were from the Port of New Bedford in Massachusetts. Except for the two that were salvaged in 1872, the rest were crushed in the ice, sank, or were stripped of wood by the local Inupiat. It is reported that the Concordia, George Howland, and the Thomas Dickason, owned by George (Jr.) and Matthew Howland brothers, were not insured and represented 1/3 of their fleet. There were about 200 American whaling ships and 20 British whaling ships in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans prior to this disaster.

Lost whaling vessels The lost vessels were as follows:

Vessel Homeport CaptainEverett S. Allen. Children of the Light. (Parnassus Imprints, 1983.)Est Vessel value Notes Awashonks New Bedford, MA Ariel Norton$58,000 Crushed in the ice on September 8, 1871. Concordia New Bedford, MA Robert Jones$75,000 Abandoned and lost. Wreck burned by Inuit. This ship was on its maiden voyage Contest New Bedford, MA Leander C. Owen$40,000 Abandoned and lost. Elizabeth Swift New Bedford, MA George W. Bliven$60,000 Abandoned and lost. Emily Morgan New Bedford, MA Benjamin Dexter$60,000 Abandoned and lost. Wreck later found ashore. Eugenia New Bedford, MA Daniel B. Nye$56,000 Abandoned and lost. Fanny New Bedford, MA Lewis W. Williams$58,000 Abandoned and lost. Gay Head New Bedford, MA William H. Kelley$40,000 Abandoned and lost. Wreck burned by Inuit. George New Bedford, MA Abraham Osborn$40,000 Abandoned and lost. George Howland New Bedford, MA James H. Knowles$43,000 Abandoned and lost. Henry Taber New Bedford, MA Timothy C. Packard$52,000 Abandoned and lost. John Wells New Bedford, MA Aaron Dean$40,000 Abandoned and lost. Massachusetts New Bedford, MA West Mitchell$46,000 Abandoned and wrecked. A lone sailor remained with the wreck through the winter. Minerva New Bedford, MA Hezekiah Allen$50,000 Abandoned. Discovered intact in 1872; manned and taken south. Navy New Bedford, MA George F. Bouldry$48,000 Abandoned and lost. Oliver Crocker New Bedford, MA James H. Fisher$48,000 Abandoned and lost. Reindeer New Bedford, MA B. F. Loveland$40,000 Abandoned and lost. Sunken wreck found in 1872. Roman New Bedford, MA Jared Jernegan$60,000 Crushed in the ice on September 1, 1871. Seneca New Bedford, MA Edmund Kelley$70,000 Abandoned and lost. Beached wreck found in 1872. Lost in a gale in the Pacific Ocean after being recovered. Thomas Dickason New Bedford, MA Valentine Lewis$50,000 Abandoned and lost. Wreck found in 1872. William Rotch Honolulu, HI Benjamin D. Whitney$43,000 Abandoned and lost. Monticello New London, CT Thomas W. Williams$45,000 Abandoned and lost. J.D. Thompson New London, CT Capt. Allen$45,000 Abandoned and lost. Carlotta San Francisco, CA E. Everett Smith $52,000 Abandoned and lost. Florida San Francisco, CA D. R. Fraser$51,000 Abandoned and lost. Wreck burned by Inuit. Victoria San Francisco, CA Capt. Redfield$30,000 Abandoned and lost. Comet Honolulu, HI Capt. J. Silva (possibly Joseph D Silva)$20,000 Crushed in the ice on September 2, 1871. Julian Honolulu, HI John Heppingstone$40,000 Abandoned and lost. Kohola Honolulu, HI Alexander Almy $20,000 Abandoned and lost. Wreck later found ashore. Paiea Honolulu, HICapt. Newbury$20,000 Abandoned and lost. Champion Edgartown, MA Henry Pease$40,000 Abandoned and lost. Wreck later found ashore. Mary Edgartown, MA Edward P. Herendeen$57,000 Abandoned and lost.

Salvage of 1872 After the news of the lost fleet, a number of Salvage companies sent ships to the Arctic in 1872 to recover what valuable whale oil and whalebone that they could.  The first company that reached the wrecks was the Florence, a San Francisco salvage ship from a company formed by Mr. Thomas Williams and Samual Merritt.  They found many of the wrecks, some of which were burned by the Inupiaq Eskimos.  They recovered two of the ships, the Minerva and the Seneca, and, along with the Florence, distributed the recovered whale oil and tons of whalebone.  Since only the Minerva was capable of sailing on its own, the Seneca was towed by the Florence.  Unfortunately, on the return to San Francisco, the Seneca was lost in a gale.  The value of the recovered cargo was $10,000, less than 1% of the total estimated cargo value of $1.6M.  

Decade of high losses In 1876, another disaster struck the Arctic Whaling fleet. Of the 20 ships entering the Bering Strait, 12 of them were lost in the same way. The Artic was lost in early July off Point Franklin. The Fleet entered the Bering Strait in July and pushed north in a narrow line near shore, while whaling around the ice floes through September. The fleet was evacuated in mid-September when the ice floes again held the ships fast to the coast, driven by northeasterly winds. The lost ships were: Artic, Onward, Java, Clara Bell, St. George, Cornelius Howland, Illinois, Josephine, Marengo and three Hawaiian whalers, The Desmona, W.A. Farnsworth, and William H. Allen