Whaling from King's Lynn

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The Maritime Collections of King's Lynn Museums

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Introduction

The Maritime collections of King's Lynn Museums reflect the importance of Lynn as a port from Medieval times to the present. The collections began in the 1840s when many of the donations to the museum were curiosities from far flung regions abroad, often brought home by Lynn-based travellers and explorers.

In Medieval times Lynn was an important Hanseatic League trading partner, with merchants from all over Europe coming to Lynn to sell timber, furs, cloth, wine and luxury goods, and purchase wool and grain. The archaeology collections feature trading items associated with Lynn's medieval maritime trade, including fragments of woollen cloth and lead cloth seals. A wooden bench end circa 1410 from Lynn's St. Nicholas's Church features a fine carving of a two-masted medieval ship. However most of the maritime collections in the museum date from the 18th and 19th centuries.

Whaling was an important industry in Lynn between 1760 and 1830, with ships sailing for Greenland every March and returning with their catch in August. The venture, although dangerous, proved very profitable. The whales were cut up at sea and back in Lynn the blubber was boiled to make oil for lighting, and the whalebone used in women’s corsets and for umbrella ribs.

Examples of whaling harpoons, blubber pans and baleen, used for corset stays are in the collections, along with the accoutrements found on board ship such as a painted sea chest, ship's surgeon's tool kit with amputation saws, and ship's biscuit complete with weevil holes! Other items show how the seamen coped with long monotonous hours at sea by making scrimshaw (carved and decorated ivory) and wooden dolls.

The maritime collections also feature items associated with historical figures from West Norfolk, including Lord Horatio Nelson, Captain George Manby, and Thomas Baines. The Nelson collection includes some handwritten letters and memorabilia produced as souvenirs at the time of his funeral. Captain Manby (1765-1854) was the inventor of the 'Manby Mortar', designed to fire a line to wrecked ships off shore to allow the rescue of the crew. One of his prototype mortars in displayed in the collection, along with Manby's dress sword.

Thomas Baines (1820-1875) was an artist-explorer from Lynn who travelled extensively in southern Africa and northern Australia in the 1840s to 1860s, including an expedition up the Zambezi with David Livingstone. On his return visits to Lynn he donated to the museum many of his art works depicting these hitherto unknown regions, as well as natural history specimens and ethnographical items collected on the way.

The fine art collections reflect Lynn's position commanding the Wash and the inland navigation to the Fenland towns. The River Great Ouse and the Wash are frequent subjects in paintings by Victorian and 20th century artists such as Henry Baines (1823-1894), George Laidman (1872-1954), and Walter Dexter (1876-1958). Henry Baines, brother of Thomas, features particularly strongly in the art collections with his oil paintings showing the quayside in Lynn with its sailing ships, the fishing fleet, and storms in the Wash. Hundreds of his drawings and sketches show ships at sea as well as fishermen mending nets on the quayside.

The museum photographic archives of nearly 10,000 images also reflect the importance of Lynn's maritime history in the late Victorian and early 20th century. The quayside and docks feature heavily in the photographic collection, which is currently being digitised to allow easy on-line access.

Comments

Posted:Aug 10, 2009 3:18:10 AM GMT

most interesting. Thank you. Please can you tell me whether or not in, say, 1830 ANY whaling was being carried out in or around Kings Lynn?

Chris Coggin pccoggin@bigpond.com

Posted:Aug 14, 2009 3:23:24 PM GMT

Chris, Thank you for your enquiry. We don't have any specific information about when the last whaling ships sailed from Lynn. St Margaret’s Church in King’s Lynn was apparently illuminated using whale oils until 1839, so presumably some whaling was still going on up to then, although not necessarily from Lynn. Answering your question would require research. You might try the King's Lynn Library's newspaper archive and early Directories such as White's (tel 01553 772568). The Norfolk Record Office would also be worth contacting: Norfolk Record Office The Archive Centre Martineau Lane Norwich NR1 2DQ Telephone: 01603 222599 Fax: 01603 761885 E-mail: norfrec@norfolk.gov.uk and you should also contact Trues Yard Fishing Heritage Museum, North Street, King's Lynn info@truesyard.co.uk who might be able to assist. Yours sincerely, Tim Thorpe Curator King's Lynn Museums,

Tim Thorpe King's Lynn Museums

Posted:Oct 3, 2009 3:56:08 PM GMT

This was very interesting especially since we live in Congham and there is evidence of the whaling work having been carried out here too. However one of the questions on my sons local knowledge badge at cubs is Find out where was the headquarters of Kings Lynn Whaling Fleet, we seem to be really struggling with this and would really appreciate some help. Thanks Ruth Gadsbey

Ruth Gadsbey Congham, Kings Lynn

Posted:Oct 7, 2009 11:38:07 AM GMT

Ruth, Thank you for your enquiry. There was no 'headquarters' of the fleet as such, but the 'Greenland Fishery' inn on Bridge Street was a popular meeting place for whaling fleet sailors and the nearby Blubberhouse Creek was where whale blubber was boiled down into oil. Yours sincerely, Tim.

Tim Thorpe Curator, King's Lynn Museums

Posted:Apr 15, 2010 12:18:00 PM GMT

The factories for prossesing whale bones was at Narborough on the river nar which prompts me to ask, was the Narwhal hunted for this purpose. Brian

B Pain Kings Lynn

Posted:Jun 18, 2010 7:54:26 PM GMT

Mundesley fishermen

Do you have any lists of Mundesley herring boat owners and crew? Francis Warnes was a fisherman at his marriage in 1811 and Samuel Warnes a fisherman at his marriage in 1857

V East Leeds

Posted:Nov 13, 2011 2:05:22 AM GMT

Lynn whaling industry

As a member of the Natural History Museum in London but living in King's Lynn, I went recently on a members' visit to the Museum's storage depot in south London where they are storing the almost complete skeleton of a North Atlantic right whale which was unearthed in an archaeological dig in Greenwich, London, in 2010. I learned that there are several types and that they were called 'right whales' because they were easy to catch as they are surface feeders and they also float when they are dead. I wondered if any of this whale species was ever caught and brought back to King's Lynn to be processed here.

Judith Thursby KIng's Lynn, Norfolk

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The Maritime Collections of King's Lynn Museums

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Whaling from King's Lynn

The Whaling Industry in King’s Lynn

The Growth of the Industry
Maritime industries have been vital to King’s Lynn’s economy for hundreds of years. From the eighteenth century until the late nineteenth century whaling was one of the most lucrative maritime activities-and also one of the most dangerous.

The earliest recorded reference to whaling in King’s Lynn comes from Thomas Southwell’s notes on the Arctic whale trade, quoting Sir Hamon Le Strange he says ‘a sperm whale cast ashore in his manor in 1626 was cut up and disposed of by some that had bine (been) in Greenland, fishing for whales’.

There were heavy investments in whaling in King’s Lynn during the eighteenth century, in part due to the rich rewards, including a ‘40-shilling a ton’ bounty, which could be gained. An Act of 1771 also encouraged the industry as it stated that whaling ships didn’t have to pay duties on their catches. The same Act also protected members of whaling crews from ‘press gangs’ during the whaling season, which ran from March or April until August each year. The purpose of the press gangs was to force unwilling men to join the Royal Navy, which at the time was a very unpopular profession.

The Uses of Whale Products
Whaling became such a significant industry in part because its products were so versatile and useful. Whalebone was used to make chair backs, brush and whip handles, by butchers for chopping blocks and in dressmaking for stiffenings. The jawbones were used to strengthen the hulls of ships and also ground down to make fertilizer. Grease made from whale oil was used to lubricate machinery and the oil was also as an ingredient in soap making and for street lighting and early lamps. St Margaret’s Church in King’s Lynn was illuminated using whale oils until 1839. The multiple uses of whale meant that it was a potentially very rewarding industry.

The Dangers of Whaling
These financial, and personal, benefits encouraged local men to invest in the whaling industry in King’s Lynn. During the eighteenth century the Greenland Company was established and around this time several whaling ships sailed from the town, including the Experiment, the Bedford, the Archangel, the Fountain and the Eclipse.

However, the men who worked in the whaling industry faced many dangers; from the sea, ice, the whales themselves and perhaps more surprisingly other Arctic wildlife. For example in 1788 Captain Cook, of the Archangel, was almost killed by a bear in Greenland, and was only saved when a member of his crew shot the animal dead!

Whaling in King’s Lynn
Whaling made its mark on the town of King’s Lynn, although there is limited physical evidence left now. In 1775 the Old Blubber House was built at Blubberhouse Creek. Horses towed the ships up the Nar to this site where the blubber houses were. Unfortunately this building was demolished in the 1960s. A house built on Bridge Street in 1605 for John Atkin, who was a merchant and mayor in King’s Lynn, was used as a public house for sailors of the whaling industry from the latter part of the seventeenth century. This association gave the name, ‘The Greenland Fishery’, to the building.

The Decline of the Whaling Industry
During the nineteenth century the King’s Lynn whaling industry went into decline. This was due in part to the increase in popularity of gas lighting as well as competition from Hull, Grimsby and London and the abolition of the encouraging bounty in 1820.

King’s Lynn relied heavily on its maritime economy and for a time the whaling industry was a highly important, but very risky, trade which brought a great deal of prosperity to the town.