by Shannon Butler
Everyone gets excited when they hear mention of a whale spotted swimming up the Hudson River. It doesn’t happen that frequently since the river is a mix of freshwater and salty ocean water. The salt line generally moves between Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, depending on things like the seasons, weather, and snowmelt. So when you read a title like “Whaling in Poughkeepsie,” it makes one wonder: just how many whales did they catch around here? Well, none, actually.
In the 18th and early 19th centuries, whaling was a big business, and one could easily find several ships on the Atlantic and Pacific oceans from major ports all over the world. Whale oil was used for making soaps, paints, textiles, and fuel for lamplight, while whale bones were used in the fashion world for things like hoop skirts and corsets. The major ports in the U.S. that saw the most action, and therefore the most profit, were places like New Bedford and Nantucket, Massachusetts, and New London, Connecticut. Those places were also home to the most experienced sailors and whalers. The idea of a place like Poughkeepsie (where the economy was mainly focused on agricultural goods) becoming a major whaling port might seem like a long shot, but for a group of wealthy and extremely optimistic men, it was the future of Poughkeepsie’s flourishing industry.
Men like Matthew Vassar, James Hooker, Alexander Coffin, and Nathaniel Tallmadge were just some of the brains behind the creation of a whaling industry in Poughkeepsie. They were all part of what was referred to as the “Improvement Party,” or “the moving force in Poughkeepsie’s economic, social, and political life.” Essentially, this party of men (not an actual political party, by the way) wanted to improve Poughkeepsie in every way possible, from buildings to roads to new industries. Since whaling did so well in several of America’s major port cities, they saw no reason why it couldn’t succeed here. It should come as no surprise that these men also had the money to speculate on such endeavors.
Two different companies formed between 1832 and 1833: the Poughkeepsie Whaling Company and the Dutchess Whaling Company. Trained sea captains and sailors were imported from New Bedford and the first ship to be fitted and sent off in search of whales was “The Vermont,” which sailed in both the Atlantic and the Pacific for a few years before coming back in 1835 with $16,000 worth of oil. However, her captain had died under mysterious circumstances (sickness or murdered by a mutinous crew are apparently both possibilities). Another ship, “The Sirco,” was wrecked off the coast of Chile. Despite the occasional mishap (which happened with some frequency in a brutal business such as this), both companies appeared to be doing well by 1836, with about half a dozen ships out that returned large cargos, like “The New England,” which sent word all the way from Peru that “she had 1100 barrels of oil and expected a full cargo soon.”
However, this new and exciting endeavor did not last long. In 1837, the country saw a dramatic financial panic, and the price of whale oil went from 50 cents per gallon to 28 cents. Many local merchants even closed up their stores early in the evening in order to save on oil, furthering the lack of demand. Also, those who once had the ability to invest in this speculation now no longer had the confidence to do so. The Poughkeepsie Whaling Company was the first to falter, selling its ships and equipment in 1837 to the Dutchess Whaling Company, which managed to stay afloat for several years. Ultimately, though, the company began to sell off land in order to make ends meet. It proved challenging to pay off debts and the books got even tighter if a ship was wrecked. To wit, in 1842 the “Elbe” was wrecked near New Zealand, costing the company well over $25,000. That year appears to have been the end of the Dutchess Whaling Company, though several ships did not return from their hunts until 1845.
Check out this image from the Library of Congress which shows a hunt of Sperm Whales: https://www.loc.gov/item/2003654260/
Resources:
The History of the Whaling Industry in Poughkeepsie, NY 1830-1845 by Sandra Truxtun Smith, LH 639.2 S
The History of Poughkeepsie, by Edmund Platt, LH 974.733 P
https://research.mysticseaport.org/info/ib69-1/
Images:
01 – From a lithograph by E. Whitefield. This picture shows the old Whale Dock Buildings at the extreme left. – LH Collections
02 – Image on the site of the Whale Dock. The small building at right in the foreground was the blacksmith shop of the Whaling Company. – LH Collections
