Captain Ahab wasn’t the only one who went under in the whale oil business. Portsmouth, New Hampshire tried and failed to be like New Boston. Well known local businessmen invested. There was some success, and then the venture sank like a stone.
You don’t hear much about the great whaling days of Portsmouth – and for good reason. The industry formed and popped like a dot-com bubble. If not for the discovery of a whaling journal a few years back, and a book by maritime writer Kenneth Martin, you would not hear anything at all. Martin’s book "Heavy Weather and Hard Luck" surprised most local historians who had blinked and missed this intriguing chapter. In his detailed volume "They Came to Fish" historian Ray Brighton had covered the topic in only a few sentences. Turns out there was much more to the story.
Times were tough in Portsmouth in the early 1800s. Despite lucrative bouts of privateering, the city’s sea trading industry largely collapsed after the War of 1812, never to return. The economy just would not catch fire, but the buildings did, literally. After the downtown burned, many of its young people moved away.
So when some clever fellow suggested turning Portsmouth into a whaling community, it sounded like a good idea. Local craftsmen had certainly built some fine whaling ships for the burgeoning industry in nearby New Bedford, Salem and Nantucket, Massachusetts. Whale oil, cooked from the blubber of giant sea mammals, was the ultimate modern fuel. Whale oil for lamps was selling at 23 cents a gallon (about $5 today) and a whaling ship could return with thousands of gallons. Sperm oil, used as an industrial lubricant, brought in nearly four times the price. Long before concern of endangered species, whales were easy enough to catch and still plentiful. All one had to do was find them. If other ports had hundreds of whaling ships, why couldn't Portsmouth have a few?
Mother Courage May 16 - 17, 2008 Our mainstage season wraps up in May with the Senior Youth Repertory Company production of Bertolt Brecht’s epic masterpiece Mother Courage and Her Children. Through Brecht’s stark vision, the play relentlessly questions the distinctions between war, bu...
Remembering Oney Judge May 17, 2008 PORTSMOUTH -- In commemoration of the Bicentennial Anniversary Year that ended the legal U.S. Atlantic Slave Trade and Annual Spring Symposium From Saturday, May 17, 2008 - 9 am to 1 pm -
Keynote: Cheryl LaRoche describing him life at Presid...
Books & Blooms Sale May 17, 2008 BRENTWOOD -- Our Annual Books & Blooms Sale is scheduled for Saturday, May 17th from 9 - 11:30 am! Come to the Mary Bartlett Library, 22 Dalton Road in Brentwood, to purchase lots of books for little money - and purchase great plants at great prices. Pl...
Lighthouse Cruise May 17, 2008 Lighthouse cruise from Portsmouth aboard the Thomas Laighton, sponsored by the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company. This cruise will leave from the Isles of Shoals Steamship Company dock at 315 Market Street in Portsmouth, across from the Sheraton Harbors...
American Lighthouse Foundation Annual Dinner May 17, 2008 Portsmouth Elks Lodge, 500 Jones Ave., Portsmouth, NH. Buffet dinner featuring garden salad, baked stuffed haddock, chicken breast with fruit glaze, roast beef, and more. The featured speaker at the dinner will be Chris Mills, author, former lighthous...
2nd Portsmouth Peace Treaty Commemorative Concert May 17, 2008 Seacoast Wind Ensemble presents “Peace & The Presidency: Music for Washington, Lincoln & Theodore Roosevelt” featuring Aaron Copeland's "Lincoln Portrait" narrated by Phillips Exeter Chaplain Robert Thompson. At The Music Hall. In 1905, diplo...
Free Gaelic Football Clinic May 18, 2008 Gaelic Football is a FUN, fast moving high scoring game that incorporates the skills used in playing soccer and basketball.
When- Sunday, May 18th, 2008
Where- Stevens Field-Stratham, NH
Ages- 5-12-Boys & Girls
Cost- FREE!!
Prior Expe...
Mother Courage and Her Children May 18, 2008 Our mainstage season wraps up in May with the Senior Youth Repertory Company production of Bertolt Brecht’s epic masterpiece Mother Courage and Her Children. Through Brecht’s stark vision, the play relentlessly questions the distinctions between war, bu...
4 Walls 1 Roof Meeting May 19, 2008 Join the new "seacoast chapter" of 4 Walls 1 Roof, a network of women business owners and professionals who collaborate on a variety of marketing initiatives for our respective businesses. Members offer services or products for home owners, fr...
Greenability Lecture & Soup May 19, 2008 EXETER -- Blue Moon Natural Foods, 8 Clifford Street, Exeter, celebrates its thirteenth year with “an intergenerational green initiative” that includes three different cooking series running through May. The anniversary schedule of events promoting h...