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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 Library’s 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 Zealand’s 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.

Whaling experts

Whaling experts Rhys Richards, Allen Mawer and Dale Chatwin in the Map Reading Room

Allen Mawer, author of Ahab’s Trade: the Saga of South Seas Whaling, wrote much of Ahab’s Trade while working in the Petherick Room in the National Library. Ahab’s 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

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