American Offshore Whaling Voyages: A Database
----------------------------------------------
Updated through 2/18/2026

An interactive data viewer for this database is available on the Whaling History website.
https://whalinghistory.org/av/voyages/

The database description is available on the Whaling History website.
https://whalinghistory.org/av/voyages/about/


Credits

An earlier version of this database (Lund, Judith N., Elizabeth A. Josephson, Randall R. Reeves and Tim D. Smith. “American Offshore Whaling Voyages: a database.”) is available at https://nmdl.org.


Creative Commons License

American Offshore Whaling Voyages: A Database by New Bedford Whaling Museum, Nantucket Historical Association, and Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://whalinghistory.org/contact/.


Preferred citation

American Offshore Whaling Voyages: A Database, https://whalinghistory.org, New Bedford Whaling Museum, Nantucket Historical Association, and Mystic Seaport Museum, Inc.


Formats

This download package includes the database as tab-delimited text. The tab-delimited text file has column names in the first row. It is UTF-8 encoded with Unix line endings between records and no line breaks embedded within any data. 


Additions & corrections

Users who have facts to add or who discover errors in the database are encouraged to submit them. We plan to update the online database annually. https://whalinghistory.org/participate/corrections/


Columns

voyageID
voyageRank
voyageName
port
sailingFrom
ground
yearOut
dayOut
yearIn
dayIn
returnCode
agentID
agent
bone
sperm
oil
customsDistrict
logbookExists
aowlLink
crewListLink
source
masterID
master
fate
birth
birthLocation
death
deathLocation
wife
wifeToSea
vitalRecordsSource
laterOccupation
vesselID
vessel
rig
tonnage
builtPlace
builtDate
end
dennisWood
logbookScan


Column Definitions & Code Tables are available on the Whaling History website.
https://whalinghistory.org/av/voyages/columns/
