Samuel Enderby & Sons was a

whaling Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

and sealing company based in London, England, founded circa 1775 by

Samuel Enderby Samuel Enderby (17 January 171919 September 1797) was an English whale oil merchant, significant in the history of whaling in the United Kingdom. In the 18th century, he founded Samuel Enderby & Sons, a prominent shipping, whaling, and sealing co ...

(1717–1797).K.M. Dallas, 'Enderby, Samuel (1756-1829)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 1, Melbourne University Press, 1966, p. 357.
/ref> The company was significant in the history of

whaling in the United Kingdom Commercial whaling in Britain began late in the 16th century and continued after the 1801 formation of the United Kingdom and intermittently until the middle of the 20th century. The trade was broadly divided into two branches. The northern fisher ...

, not least for encouraging their captains to combine exploration with their business activities, and sponsored several of the earliest expeditions to the

subantarctic The sub-Antarctic zone is a region in the Southern Hemisphere, located immediately north of the Antarctic region. This translates roughly to a latitude of between 46° and 60° south of the Equator. The subantarctic region includes many islands ...

Southern Ocean The Southern Ocean, also known as the Antarctic Ocean, comprises the southernmost waters of the World Ocean, generally taken to be south of 60° S latitude and encircling Antarctica. With a size of , it is regarded as the second-small ...

and

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

itself.

History of the company: 1773–1800

Enderby had acquired at least one ship, ''Almsbury'', c. 1768, renamed ''Rockingham'', that he used as a trader. In 1773 Enderby began the Southern Fishery, a whaling firm with ships registered in London and Boston. All of the captains and harpooners were

American Loyalists Loyalists were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War, often referred to as Tories, Royalists or King's Men at the time. They were opposed by the Patriots, who supporte ...

. The vessels transported finished goods to the American colonies, and brought

whale oil Whale oil is oil obtained from the blubber of whales. Whale oil from the bowhead whale was sometimes known as train oil, which comes from the Dutch word ''traan'' ("tears, tear" or "drop"). Sperm oil, a special kind of oil obtained from the ...

from

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

to England. Some of Enderby's ships were reportedly chartered for the tea cargoes that were ultimately dumped into

Boston Harbor Boston Harbor is a natural harbor and estuary of Massachusetts Bay, and is located adjacent to the city of Boston, Massachusetts. It is home to the Port of Boston, a major shipping facility in the northeastern United States. History Since ...

during the

Boston Tea Party The Boston Tea Party was an American political and mercantile protest by the Sons of Liberty in Boston, Massachusetts, on December 16, 1773. The target was the Tea Act of May 10, 1773, which allowed the British East India Company to sell tea ...

incident. An embargo was placed on

exports from New England in 1775, as a result of the

American War of Independence The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. Enderby therefore elected to pursue the whaling trade in the South Atlantic. ''Rockingham'' embarked on her first

whale fishing Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution. It was practiced as an organized industry ...

voyage on 11 November 1775 when Captain Elihu L. Clark sailed her from Britain for the Brazil Banks. Samuel Enderby founded the Samuel Enderby & Sons company the following year. He and his business associates Alexander Champion and

John St Barbe John St Barbe (1742–1816) was a British naval officer. He later became a prominent English shipbroker and shipowner in London. His vessels were active in whaling, the transport of convicts, and in the slave trade. Background and career He wa ...

assembled a fleet of twelve whaling vessels on the

Greenwich Peninsula The Greenwich Peninsula is an area of Greenwich in South London, South East London, England. It is bounded on three sides by a loop of the River Thames, Thames, between the Isle of Dogs to the west and Silvertown to the east. To the south is the ...

, on the River Thames just downstream from the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London fr ...

.Green A, 150 Years Of Industry & Enterprise At Enderby's Wharf
/ref> By 1785, Samuel Enderby & Sons controlled seventeen ships engaged in this business. All were commanded by American Loyalists. That year, whales in the South Atlantic had become nearly extinct due to pressure from the whaling industry. The Enderby family therefore shifted its focus to the seas around New Zealand, with the

Bay of Islands The Bay of Islands is an area on the east coast of the Far North District of the North Island of New Zealand. It is one of the most popular fishing, sailing and tourist destinations in the country, and has been renowned internationally for its ...

as its main base of operations. In early 1786, the Enderby family lobbied the government for the right to go into the South Pacific (an area in which the

East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

had historically enjoyed a monopoly). The lobbying efforts were eventually successful, and on 1 September 1788, the 270 ton whaling vessel ''Amelia'', owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons and commanded by Captain James Shields, departed London. The ship went west around

Cape Horn Cape Horn ( es, Cabo de Hornos, ) is the southernmost headland of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile, and is located on the small Hornos Island. Although not the most southerly point of South America (which are the Diego Ramírez ...

into the Pacific Ocean to become the first ship of any nation to conduct whaling operations in the

. A crewman, Archelus Hammond of

Nantucket Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

, killed the first

sperm whale The sperm whale or cachalot (''Physeter macrocephalus'') is the largest of the toothed whales and the largest toothed predator. It is the only living member of the genus ''Physeter'' and one of three extant species in the sperm whale famil ...

there off the coast of

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

on 3 March 1789. ''Amelia'' returned to London on 12 March 1790 with a cargo of 139 tons of sperm oil.The Quarterly Review, Volume 63, London:John Murray, 1839, page 321
The ''Amelia'' voyage marked the beginning of a new era for the company—one in which many great voyages of oceanographic and geographic exploration were accomplished, but which would ultimately prove to be a drain on company profits. By 1791, the company owned or leased 68 whaling ships operating in the subantarctic region and the Southern Ocean. Whaling vessels owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons were part of the

Third Fleet The United States Third Fleet is one of the numbered fleets in the United States Navy. Third Fleet's area of responsibility includes approximately fifty million square miles of the eastern and northern Pacific Ocean areas including the Bering ...

taking convicts to

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

in 1791. These vessels included , '' William and Ann'', , , and . Captain

Eber Bunker Eber Bunker (1761–1836) was a sea captain and pastoralist, and he was born on 7 March 1761 at Plymouth, Massachusetts. He commanded one of the first vessels to go whaling and sealing off the coast of Australia. His parents were James Bunker a ...

, the enterprising American captain of ''William and Ann'', not wanting to return to England with an empty vessel, became the first to hunt whales in New Zealand waters in December 1791. From this time forward, Enderby's ships , ''Britannia'', and made frequent whaling voyages from

Port Jackson Port Jackson, consisting of the waters of Sydney Harbour, Middle Harbour, North Harbour and the Lane Cove and Parramatta Rivers, is the ria or natural harbour of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The harbour is an inlet of the Tasman Sea (p ...

. Over the next decade the area became more attractive as the East India Company’s monopoly on fishing in South Pacific waters was progressively lifted, and Governor

Phillip Parker King Rear Admiral Phillip Parker King, FRS, RN (13 December 1791 – 26 February 1856) was an early explorer of the Australian and Patagonian coasts. Early life and education King was born on Norfolk Island, to Philip Gidley King and Anna Jo ...

of New South Wales (Phillip Parker King's father Philip Gidley King was governor of NSW) worked to attract the whaling industry. From January 1793 to November 1794, Enderby sent to survey whaling grounds in the southeastern Pacific, under the command of Lieutenant

James Colnett James Colnett (1753 – 1 September 1806) was an officer of the British Royal Navy, an explorer, and a maritime fur trader. He served under James Cook during Cook's second voyage of exploration. Later he led two private trading expeditions that ...

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

. Colnett surveyed the Galapagos Islands on this expedition. Samuel Enderby died in 1797, leaving the company to his three sons, Charles,

Samuel Samuel ''Šəmūʾēl'', Tiberian: ''Šămūʾēl''; ar, شموئيل or صموئيل '; el, Σαμουήλ ''Samouḗl''; la, Samūēl is a figure who, in the narratives of the Hebrew Bible, plays a key role in the transition from the bibl ...

, and George.

History of the company: 1800–1854

By 1801, Governor Phillip King of New South Wales reported six ships engaging in the whaling industry off the northeast coast of New Zealand, and in 1802 he declared that whaling was established in that area. On 18 August 1806, Captain

Abraham Bristow Abraham Bristow (c1771-1846) was a British mariner, sealer and whaler. In August 1806 he discovered the Auckland Islands. Life and early maritime career Bristow was baptised 22 March 1771 at Begbroke, Oxfordshire; the fifth child and third so ...

, commander of ''Ocean'', a whaling ship owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons, discovered the

Auckland Islands The Auckland Islands (Māori: ''Motu Maha'' "Many islands" or ''Maungahuka'' "Snowy mountains") are an archipelago of New Zealand, lying south of the South Island. The main Auckland Island, occupying , is surrounded by smaller Adams Island, ...

archipelago An archipelago ( ), sometimes called an island group or island chain, is a chain, cluster, or collection of islands, or sometimes a sea containing a small number of scattered islands. Examples of archipelagos include: the Indonesian Archi ...

in the Southern Ocean, south of

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. Finding them uninhabited, he named them "Lord Auckland's" after his father's friend

William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, PC (Ire), FRS (3 April 174528 May 1814) was a British diplomat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1793. Early life A member of the influential Eden family, Auckland was a younger son ...

. Bristow returned on in 1807 in order to claim the

for England. On 3 August 1819, the whaling vessel , owned by Samuel Enderby & Sons and commanded by Captain

Frederick Coffin Frederick D. Coffin (January 16, 1943 – July 31, 2003) was an American film actor, singer, songwriter, and musician. Early life Coffin was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943 to actress Winifred Deforest Coffin and writer Dean Coffin, and was ...

Nantucket, Massachusetts Nantucket () is an island about south from Cape Cod. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and County of Nantucket, a combined county/town government that is part of the U.S. state of Massachuse ...

, visited the whaling grounds off

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. The ship returned to London on 21 April 1822 with a cargo of 346 tons of sperm oil. In 1830, after the death of their father,

Samuel Enderby Junior Samuel Enderby Junior (1755–1829) was a British whaling merchant, significant in the history of whaling in Australia. Family background His father, Samuel Enderby (1717–1797), founded the firm named after him in 1775, when he assembled a flee ...

(1756–1829), Samuel Enderby's grandsons,

Charles Charles is a masculine given name predominantly found in English language, English and French language, French speaking countries. It is from the French form ''Charles'' of the Proto-Germanic, Proto-Germanic name (in runic alphabet) or ''*k ...

and George Enderby, bought a site on the

Thames River The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...

which became known as

Enderby's Wharf Enderby's Wharf is a wharf and industrial site on the south bank of the Thames in Greenwich, London, associated with Telcon and other companies. It has a history of more than 150 years of production of submarine communication cables and associ ...

. This site became the new headquarters of the Messrs Enderby company. There they built a

ropewalk A ropewalk is a long straight narrow lane, or a covered pathway, where long strands of material are laid before being twisted into rope. Due to the length of some ropewalks, workers may use bicycles to get from one end to the other. Many ropew ...

and a factory, known as Enderby's Hemp Rope Works, for the production of sail canvas and rope from

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

and

flax Flax, also known as common flax or linseed, is a flowering plant, ''Linum usitatissimum'', in the family Linaceae. It is cultivated as a food and fiber crop in regions of the world with temperate climates. Textiles made from flax are known in ...

. From 1830-1833, Samuel Enderby & Sons sponsored the

Southern Ocean Expedition The Southern Ocean Expedition (1830–1833) was an expedition to Antarctica. Background In 1830, the English whaling company Samuel Enderby & Sons appointed John Biscoe master of the brig ''Tula'' and leader of an expedition to find new seal-hunti ...

as part of an effort to locate new sealing grounds in the Southern Ocean. This expedition, involved two company-owned vessels: the whaling

brig A brig is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: two masts which are both square rig, square-rigged. Brigs originated in the second half of the 18th century and were a common type of smaller merchant vessel or warship from then until the ...

''Tula'', and the cutter ''Lively''. The expedition, led by Captain

John Biscoe John Biscoe (28 April 1794 – 1843) was an English mariner and explorer who commanded the first expedition known to have sighted the areas named Enderby Land and Graham Land along the coast of Antarctica. The expedition also found a number of is ...

of the ''Tula'', was the third ever to

circumnavigate Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth. The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the Magel ...

the Antarctic continent. (Captain

James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...

being the first, and

Fabian von Bellingshausen Fabian Gottlieb Thaddeus von Bellingshausen (russian: Фадде́й Фадде́евич Беллинсга́узен, translit=Faddéy Faddéevich Bellinsgáuzen; – ) was a Russian naval officer, cartographer and explorer, who ultimately ...

being the second.) The expedition discovered and charted a large coastal land mass in

East Antarctica East Antarctica, also called Greater Antarctica, constitutes the majority (two-thirds) of the Antarctic continent, lying on the Indian Ocean side of the continent, separated from West Antarctica by the Transantarctic Mountains. It lies almost ...

which Biscoe named

Enderby Land Enderby Land is a projecting landmass of Antarctica. Its shore extends from Shinnan Glacier at about to William Scoresby Bay at , approximately of the earth's longitude. It was first documented in western and eastern literature in February 183 ...

. Biscoe also charted many other terrain features, including

Cape Ann Cape Ann is a rocky peninsula in northeastern Massachusetts, United States on the Atlantic Ocean. It is about northeast of Boston and marks the northern limit of Massachusetts Bay. Cape Ann includes the city of Gloucester and the towns of ...

Mount Biscoe Mount Biscoe is a distinctive black peak, the easternmost and largest of two ice-free rock massifs located 6 km south-west of Cape Ann on the coast of Enderby Land in Antarctica. About 700 m in height, it lies 7 km north-west of ...

Adelaide Island Adelaide Island is a large, mainly ice-covered island, long and wide, lying at the north side of Marguerite Bay off the west coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. The Ginger Islands lie off the southern end. Mount Bodys is the easternmost mount ...

, the

Biscoe Islands Biscoe Islands is a series of islands, of which the principal ones are Renaud, Lavoisier (named ''Serrano'' by Chile and ''Mitre'' by Argentina), Watkins, Krogh, Pickwick and Rabot, lying parallel to the west coast of Graham Land and extending ...

, and

Graham Land Graham Land is the portion of the Antarctic Peninsula that lies north of a line joining Cape Jeremy and Cape Agassiz. This description of Graham Land is consistent with the 1964 agreement between the British Antarctic Place-names Committee and ...

. Despite the loss of several men to scurvy and the wreck of the ''Lively'' at the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubouzet ...

in July 1832, the expedition successfully returned to London in early 1833. From 1838-1839, Captain

John Balleny John Balleny (died 1857) was the English captain of the sealing schooner , who led an exploration cruise for the English whaling firm Samuel Enderby & Sons to the Antarctic in 1838–1839. During the expedition of 1838–1839, Balleny, sailing in co ...

led another expedition to the Southern Ocean. Commanding the ''Eliza Scott'', another whaling

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

, this expedition led to the discovery of the

Balleny Islands The Balleny Islands () are a series of uninhabited islands in the Southern Ocean extending from 66°15' to 67°35'S and 162°30' to 165°00'E. The group extends for about in a northwest-southeast direction. The islands are heavily glaciated an ...

. In 1846, Samuel Enderby's grandson

Charles Enderby Charles Enderby (1797–1876) was one of three sons of Samuel Enderby Junior (1756–1829). He was the grandson of Samuel Enderby (1717–1797), who founded the Samuel Enderby & Sons company in 1775. Samuel Enderby & Sons was one of the ...

founded the

Southern Whale Fishery Company The Southern Whale Fishery Company was established by the granting of a Royal Charter in 1846 to Charles Enderby, for the purpose of operating a permanent whaling station on the Auckland Islands. Charles Enderby was the grandson of Samuel Enderby, f ...

in England. In December 1849, he established the

Enderby Settlement Hardwicke was the name of an agricultural and whaling community set up at Port Ross, a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands in the Southern Ocean, south of New Zealand. Although a short-lived settlement was established, it w ...

in Erebus Cove,

Port Ross Port Ross is a natural harbour on Auckland Island in the Auckland Islands Group, a subantarctic chain that forms part of the New Zealand Outlying Islands. Guarding the mouth of Port Ross are Rose Island, Enderby Island, Ewing Island, and th ...

, at the north-eastern end of

Auckland Island Auckland Island ( mi, Mauka Huka) is the main island of the eponymous uninhabited archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the New Zealand subantarctic area. It is inscribed in the UNESCO World Heritage list together with the other New ...

, close to

Enderby Island Enderby Island is part of New Zealand's uninhabited Auckland Islands archipelago, south of mainland New Zealand. It is situated just off the northern tip of Auckland Island, the largest island in the archipelago. Geography and geology Enderby ...

.Historical Timeline of the Auckland Islands
This was the beginning of the community named Hardwicke. The Hardwicke settlement was based on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

, resupply and minor repair of ships, and whaling. Ultimately unsuccessful, the colony was abandoned in August 1852. Charles Enderby returned to London in 1853. The ill-fated Enderby Settlement finally bankrupted the Enderby family business, which was liquidated in 1854.Charles Enderby
/ref> Charles Enderby died in poverty in London on 31 August 1876.

Terrain features named after the Enderby family

Terrain features named after the Enderby family include: *

, a large coastal land mass located in

extending from

Shinnan Glacier Shinnan Glacier ( ja, 新南氷河, ''Shinnan Hyoga'') is a glacier which flows northwest to the coast just east of Shinnan Rocks and marks the division between Queen Maud Land and Enderby Land. Mapped from surveys and air photos by Japanese An ...

at to

William Scoresby Bay William Scoresby Bay is a coastal embayment at the western side of William Scoresby Archipelago, Antarctica. It is long and wide, with shores marked by steep rock headlands and snow-free hills rising to 210 m. The practical limits of the bay ...

at . *

, part of the uninhabited

. *

Enderby Plain Enderby Plain (also known as Enderby Abyssal Plain or East Abyssal Plain) () is an undersea plain (or ''abyssal plain''), located off the coast of Enderby Land and Queen Maud Land, East Antarctica. The name was approved by the U.S. Board on Geograp ...

, an undersea plain located at .USGS GNIS: Enderby Plain
/ref>

Fictional References

*In Chapter 100 of the novel

Moby-Dick ''Moby-Dick; or, The Whale'' is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael (Moby-Dick), Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab, Ahab, captain of the whaler, whaling ship ''Pequod (Moby- ...

, ''

Pequod Pequod or Pequot may refer to: *The Pequod, or Pequot The Pequot () are a Native American people of Connecticut. The modern Pequot are members of the federally recognized Mashantucket Pequot Tribe, four other state-recognized groups in Conne ...

'' of Nantucket meets a whaling ship of London named ''

'',Herman Melville, 'Moby-Dick', Harper & Brothers, New York, 1851, Chapters 100 & 101 which has also encountered the White Whale. ''Samuel Enderby'' was a real ship and was in fact among the three Enderby company ships (the other two were ''Fancy'' and ''Brisk'') from England that arrived at Port Ross in 1849 carrying the 150 colonists for the new Enderby Settlement. Chapter 101 of Moby Dick discusses Samuel Enderby & Sons whaling company in further detail. *In the novel ''

The Far Side of the World ''The Far Side of the World'' is the tenth historical novel in the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O'Brian, first published in 1984. The story is set during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. The story from ''Treason's Harbour'' has se ...

'' (chapter 3) by

Patrick O'Brian Patrick O'Brian, Order of the British Empire, CBE (12 December 1914 – 2 January 2000), born Richard Patrick Russ, was an English novelist and translator, best known for his Aubrey–Maturin series of sea novels set in the Royal Navy during t ...

a character describes the voyages of Shields in ''Amelia'' and Colnett in ''Rattler''.

References

External links

Australian Antarctic Division

Australian Antarctic Gazetteer

United States Geological Survey, Geographic Names Information System (GNIS)

Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR)

PDF Map of the Australian Antarctic Territory
{{DEFAULTSORT:Samuel Enderby and Sons Whaling in the United Kingdom Whaling firms Defunct companies based in London 1775 establishments in England British companies established in 1775 1854 disestablishments in England British companies disestablished in 1854 British people in whaling Sealers Ship owners