At the end of the 19th century, Dundee was Europe's premier Arctic whaling port. From humble beginnings in the 1750's this national industry had survived French and American wars, privateers, economic slumps, storms, heart-wrenching disasters and some amazing triumphs.From 1860 until the 1880's, Dundee built the most efficient Arctic vessels in the world. Despite being only a small city on the east coast of Scotland, as the 19th century closed, it was the most important Arctic whaling port in Europe.The Dundee Whaling Fleet gives an overview of Dundee's experience in Arctic whaling, including a valuable guide to every ship in the fleet with statistics, dates and a thumbnail history. It also gives sketches of the most prominent of the whaling masters, Dundee shipping companies and 350 of the tens of thousands of seamen who took the ships north.

This is a study of what was Britain's leading whaling port. Today, Dundee captains and the city's whaling fleet have a permanent place in the geography of the world. Cape Adams, Cape Milne, Artic Bay and Eclipse Sound recall an era when the city's stoutly built ships, manned by heroic adventurers, discovered new routes, made new friends, but seldom sailed far from danger. In Dundee itself, streets such as Whale Lane and Baffin Street serve as reminders of an era in which Dundee dominated the whaling grounds. Moreover, the Dundee fleet has excelled as polar exploration ships, providing vessels for Captain Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Admiral Byrd, leaving a permanent reminder of the city's historic role at Dundee Island, Antarctica. An appendix lists all the ships and their captains.

Dundee, City of Discovery, is known around the world for its innovation, its jute and music, and its vibrant culture. But the critical role of the city's whaling fleet and the wealth it generated for Dundee for more than a century is less well known. Ancestors in the Arctic is a remarkable collection of photographs from the McManus: Dundee's Art Gallery and Museum, and tells the story of Dundee whaling and the men who sailed the frozen Arctic seas. This was a brutal, dangerous business which required the hardiest of men, prepared to head out to sea in all weathers and in terrible conditions in search of the elusive mammal and in the hope of a profit from whalebone, skins and the whale oil which was essential for the city's jute mills and factories. And as they sailed the dangerous Arctic waters, the ship's captains became well known - including Captain William Adams, who sailed farther north than any other Dundee whaling master and Captain Harry MacKay of Terra Nova and rescuer of the trapped Discovery in 1903. More numerous were the crewmen, the hardworking Dundonians who rowed the whaleboats and manned the ships, and many of whose descendants still live in Dundee. Ancestors in the Arctic tells their remarkable stories as they sailed north, traded with the Inuit and hunted whales across forbidding freezing seas.

At the end of the 19th century, Dundee was Europe's premier Arctic whaling port. From humble beginnings in the 1750's this national industry had survived French and American wars, privateers, economic slumps, storms, heart-wrenching disasters and some amazing triumphs. From 1860 until the 1880's, Dundee built the most efficient Arctic vessels in the world. Despite being only a small city on the east coast of Scotland, as the 19th century closed, it was the most important Arctic whaling port in Europe. The Dundee Whaling Fleet gives an overview of Dundee's experience in Arctic whaling, including a valuable guide to every ship in the fleet with statistics, dates and a thumbnail history. It also gives sketches of the most prominent of the whaling masters, Dundee shipping companies and 350 of the tens of thousands of seamen who took the ships north.

This is a study of what was Britain's leading whaling port. Today, Dundee captains and the city's whaling fleet have a permanent place in the geography of the world. Cape Adams, Cape Milne, Artic Bay and Eclipse Sound recall an era when the city's stoutly built ships, manned by heroic adventurers, discovered new routes, made new friends, but seldom sailed far from danger. In Dundee itself, streets such as Whale Lane and Baffin Street serve as reminders of an era in which Dundee dominated the whaling grounds. Moreover, the Dundee fleet has excelled as polar exploration ships, providing vessels for Captain Scott, Ernest Shackleton and Admiral Byrd, leaving a permanent reminder of the city's historic role at Dundee Island, Antarctica. An appendix lists all the ships and their captains.

In late November, 1893, a humpback whale - as rare a sight in the North Sea then as it would be now - followed herring shoals into the Tay estuary, and travelled as far upstream as Dundee docks to linger in the home waters of the biggest whaling fleet in Britain, and one of the biggest in Europe. The whale became an instant celebrity, known simply as the Monster, but a handful of boats were launched to try and catch it. The hunt was farcical, protracted, and ultimately grotesque - the whale remained elusive for four weeks before towing six vessels out past the Bell Rock lighthouse. All the lines parted in building seas and the whale escaped, but it was mortally wounded and was found floating off Stonehaven on January 6, bristling with ironmongery. After a public auction was held for the corpse, the whale was hauled to Dundee. The public was charged sixpence or a shilling to see it, special trains were run from all over Angus, Perthshire and Fife, and for three shillings they could have their photograph taken sitting at a table inside the whale's propped open mouth. The whale was immortalised by the poetry of William McGonagall and went on tour by train on a specially built cradle to Aberdeen, Glasgow, Liverpool, Manchester, London and Edinburgh, before returning to Dundee. Its skeleton was presented to Dundee Museum, despite lucrative offers from big museums in London, Europe and America. The Winter Whale is a remarkable historical set piece, a product of its time, although even then public opinion was divided between glee and outrage, pro-whaler and pro-whale.