Whaling disaster of 1871
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.
In late June 1871, forty whaleships passed north through Bering Strait, hunting bowhead whales.
[2][3] The 1868 – 1870 Arctic whaling seasons had been very profitable, with good catches and excellent weather starting in March and extending into September.
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.
[1] The final months of the fleet are summarized from the Captain's Logs:[1][3] The vessels were still spread out in a long line, some 60 miles (97 km) south of Point Franklin.
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.
[9] 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).
[2][10] They were forced to dump their catch and most of their equipment overboard to make room for passengers on the return trip to Honolulu.
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.
[28][10] After having repairs done in Honolulu, the Chance departed two weeks later intending to proceed to Sydney via the New Zealand whaling ground.
In 1877, after intervention from the Earl of Derby, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, the process of putting the matter before the American Congress commenced.
[10] After a Report was ordered printed on 31 March 1880 by the U.S House of Representatives, Benjamin W. Harris, of Massachusetts introduced a bill in December 1881 for the relief of the owners, officers, and crew of the British bark Chance to the U.S. Congress; which was read a first and second time, referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and ordered to be printed.
[33] In 2015, NOAA funded a research expedition entitled "The Search for the Lost Whaling Fleets of the Western Arctic".
[34] One hundred forty-four years after the disaster, acoustic mapping of the ocean floor detected the wrecks of two whaleships that were "remarkably well preserved".
[35][36] Visualized details of anchors, fasteners, ballast, and the brick-lined try-pots positively identified them as 19th century whalers.
Dr. Barr was hopeful that expeditions by other marine archeologists could do a more complete survey of the wrecks sometime in the future, possibly even identifying them, but NOAA will likely not return to the area again.
