Whale Chart by M.F. Maury A.M. Liet. U.S. Navy. (Preliminary sketch) Series F. Constructed by Lts. Leigh Herndon & Fleming & Pd. Midn. Jackson. Published at the National Observatory by Authority of Commo. L. Warrington Chief of bureau of Ordnance & Hydrography 1851.

• Main Author: Maury, Matthew Fontaine, 1806-1873
• Format: Map
• Language: unknown
• Published: Hydrographic Office of the US Navy 1851
• Subjects: Data Visualization; Fishing; Greenland; Newfoundland
• Online Access: https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~352133~90119371; https://media.davidrumsey.com/MediaManager/srvr?mediafile=/Size4/RUMSEY~8~1/205/15606000.jpg

Later reissue in circa 1960. "The pathfinder of the seas Electrotyped map. Twentieth century example of Maury's chart, first printed in 1851, here with 'H.O. Miscel. No. 8514', 'Price 50 cents', lower right. The chart shows the distribution of actual whale catches on a global scale, compiled from data extending back to 1830, initially gathered using old whaling log books, but soon Maury was requesting that whalers send in reports of their voyages on forms he had specially prepared for the purpose. At an international oceanographic meeting in Brussels in 1853, Maury persuaded other maritime nations to adopt his methods. His painstaking work was only partly superseded once steamships replaced sailing vessels. Maury's Whale Chart, centred on the Pacific Ocean, was of enormous benefit to America's deep-ocean whaling industry at its peak. The map directly addresses the industry's concerns over a depleted stock of traditional whales in traditional hunting grounds. Initially, a shore-based activity, the gradual decline in the coastal population of right and sperm whales, in the first decades of the eighteenth century, around Cape Cod and Nantucket, led the whalers farther out to sea and northward into whaling grounds off Newfoundland, the St. Lawrence River and farther north, even into the Straits of Belle Isle along the coast of Labrador and the Davis Straits west of Greenland. Once larger, two-masted schooners replaced smaller sloops, the whalers were able to pursue sperm whales throughout the North and South Atlantic, as far as the coast of Guinea in Africa, and of Brazil in South America. By 1774, the Colonial American whale fleet operated about 360 vessels out of 15 New England and New York ports. The American Revolution, and the War of 1812, had devastating effects on the American whaling industry. The ships of His Majesty's Naval service blockaded American ports, and interfered with the whaling ships at sea: capturing and destroying them, pressing their sailors into service. Then, huge duties were applied to ...