We are very pleased to welcome back Susan Lynn, one of our popular speakers, whose talk The Hunting of the Whale will cover the Tyne Whale Fishery which was in existence from 1752 to 1849.
During those 97 years there were 54 different ships involved, 13 of which were lost and a total of 453 voyages (300 to the Davis Straits and 153 to Greenland). The ships brought home a total of 2,830 whales and one live polar bear.
She will explain how whaling has been known since earliest times but the trade expanded rapidly in the 18thcentury with the industrial revolution giving rise to heavy demand for whale products. Oil from whale’s blubber was used to lubricate machinery, provide fule (fuel) for lamps and to make soap, paint, varnish, textiles, sails and rope.
This led to specially strengthened sailing ships heading north each spring to the ice filled arctic seas.
Perhaps the best known of the Tyneside whaling ships was the Lady Jane and she was involved in the fishing trade for 40 years before being destroyed by ice. The ship is the subject of a painting by Tyneside marine artist John Wilson Carmichael.
Susan is chair of the North Tyneside branch of the Northumberland and Durham Family History Society and is also a Newcastle City Guide. She gives a range of talks about the region’s heritage and at the Old Low Light has spoken about Dockwray Square and some of the people who lived there, the iconic dollies that are a well-known landmark in North Shields and the press gangs who terrorised maritime communities during the 18thand early 19th centuries.
She now lives in the Gateshead area, but her parents came from North Shields where her grandfather had a wharf.