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ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 47| October 2000
Whaling treasurers at the Library
Three whaling experts recently took the opportunity to consult the National Librarys set of the Whale Charts of the World. The charts were produced by the United States Navy in the early 1850s under the direction of Lt. Matthew Fontaine Maury. They were produced to assist whalemen locate their prey and were made available in exchange for information about the characteristics of the wind and currents in areas where they sailed. Using this information merchant captains were able to reduce sailing time between ports by avoiding areas like the Doldrums, i.e. areas not characterised by reliable winds.
The experts were:
Rhys Richards, a retired New Zealand diplomat, was most recently NZ High
Commissioner to the Solomons. His interests in the Pacific and whaling
relate to his extensive contact with the peoples of the Pacific. He has
authored many publications and his research into whale stocks using whale
charts produced by Townshend underpinned New Zealands support for
the creation of a South Pacific whale sanctuary at the recently held
International Whaling Commission (IWC) conference in Adelaide. Rhys
stopped by Canberra before heading off on a four-month visit to the former
whaling ports of Boston and New Bedford in the United States where he is
continuing his whaling research.
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Whaling experts Rhys Richards, Allen Mawer and Dale Chatwin in the Map Reading Room |
Allen Mawer, author of Ahabs Trade: the Saga of South Seas Whaling, wrote much of Ahabs Trade while working in the Petherick Room in the National Library. Ahabs Trade was launched at the National Library in October last year.
Dale Chatwin is probably better known to Gateways readers as a member of the Kinetica Advisory Board and former Chair of the ABN Standards Committee. His interest in whaling was prompted by study he undertook when working at the National Library in the late 1980s. Both of his theses on whaling are listed in Kinetica and are deposited in the National Library and Australian National Maritime Museum collections. His most recent activity related to whaling was a Petherick Room seminar presented jointly with Allen Mawer.
The National Library holds many resources in its map, print, microform
and pictorial collections which reveal patterns of whaling and whale
ecology through the 1800s and 1900s.
Roxanne Missingham
Please address any comments and enquiries to The Editor, Gateways: gateways@nla.gov.au