| Summary: | Until the present day, whaling and sealing in the nineteenth century have hardly received attention in Dutch maritime historiography. During the two preceding centuries (seventeenth and eighteenth) whaling had developed into a prominent maritime industry. Various major external and internal problems, however, contributed to its rapid decline during the second half of the eighteenth century. After the Napoleonic Era (1795-1815), increasing numbers of Dutch entrepreneurs resumed whaling – both to the Arctic and to the South Seas (Indian and Pacific oceans). So far, no research was conducted as to the very nature and scope of the maritime industries, the socio-economic background of the people involved – be it as investors or crew – or to the profitability of whaling and sealing. This thesis, written in English and based on extensive research into hitherto unexplored archival sources and secondary literature fills many of the gaps in our understanding of how whaling and sealing were organised in the Netherlands; scope, technique, whaling grounds, investments en revenues, numbers of ships and origin of the crewmen are being discussed and placed within a broad, international context. LEI Universiteit Leiden Fonds Directie der Oostersche Handel en Reederijen Stichting Vaderlandsch Fonds ter Aanmoediging van ’s-Lands Zeedienst Stichting Admiraal van Kinsbergen Colonial and Global History
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