In the pages that follow, the story of commercial whaling in the western Arctic is told by a scholar intimately acquainted with the terrain--not only as it can be found in the historical records or at archaeological sites, but from lone experience on the shores and waters where the great adventure was played out. His book is written with such mastery and vigor that we confidently greet it as the finest history yet written on any aspect of American whaling.

One of The New York Times Book Review's 10 Best Books of the Year National Bestseller Longlisted for the Man Booker Prize Winner of the RSL Encore Award Finalist for the Los Angeles Book Prize A New York Times and Wall Street Journal Bestseller Named a Best Book of the Year by Chicago Tribune, The Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, New Statesman, Publishers Weekly, and Chicago Public Library Behold the man: stinking, drunk, and brutal. Henry Drax is a harpooner on the Volunteer, a Yorkshire whaler bound for the rich hunting waters of the arctic circle. Also aboard for the first time is Patrick Sumner, an ex-army surgeon with a shattered reputation, no money, and no better option than to sail as the ship's medic on this violent, filthy, and ill-fated voyage. In India, during the Siege of Delhi, Sumner thought he had experienced the depths to which man can stoop. He had hoped to find temporary respite on the Volunteer, but rest proves impossible with Drax on board. The discovery of something evil in the hold rouses Sumner to action. And as the confrontation between the two men plays out amid the freezing darkness of an arctic winter, the fateful question arises: who will survive until spring? With savage, unstoppable momentum and the blackest wit, Ian McGuire's The North Water weaves a superlative story of humanity under the most extreme conditions.

Describes Scotland's 150-year involvement in Arctic bowhead whaling using previously unpublished research from port records and newspaper accounts.

Oral histories of the 100 years of British and American whaling off the east coast of Canada and in Hudson Bay, as experienced by the native people who fed, clothed, and hunted with the whalers. Illustrated with modern drawings (some in color), and photographs from the period. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Narrative of voyage from Dundee to Davis Strait, 1884.

In 1871, an entire fleet of whaling ships was caught in an Arctic ice storm and destroyed. Though few lives were lost, the damage would forever shape one of America's most distinctive commodities: oil.

History of trade, ships and seaman to 1914.