Whaling on Martha’s Vineyard: Join Shorewords host, Lesley Ewing, in conversation with Thomas Dresser, historian, author and tour guide, in a discussion about whaling on Martha’s Vineyard. Martha’s Vineyard experienced the full range of American whaling, from retrieval of whale meat from ‘drift’ or beached whales to the commercial exploitation of whale oil from the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans to provide lighting and function as a lubricant. Vineyarders were mates and officers aboard most of the New England whaling fleet and much of the early economy of the island came from whaling. Learn about the conditions on ship-board, the men and women who were on whaling ships, the eventual demise of whaling and ways that whaling remains part of the Martha’s Vineyard’s community.

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