When were American whalers actively visiting Australia ?

Interesting question, not least because the commercial activity would have added to the coinage in circulation in the colonies visited.

Early records

Front cover of M & C Kerr's 'Australia's Early Whalemen'

“Nantucket whalers under Elijah Coffin in the ‘Asia‘ and Captain Barber in the ‘Alliance‘ fished for whales from Shark Bay to Albany as early as 1792.”
“Australia’s Early Whalemen”, Margaret & Colin Kerr, 1980, Rigby, p.34.

In this initial phase of its development, whaling activity in Australian waters was pretty much the purview of the British, together with colonial ventures.

Peak period

Some hard data exists in great work provided by Ben Schmidt which allows us to home in on the question in greater detail.

The “American Whaling mapped” resource (pictured) shows that the main effort took place around 1834/35, lasting until 1850 or so.

It appears that the high point of activity in Australian waters occurred in the period 1832-1845.

Keeping that in mind, it’s instructive to consider what it all means for silver coin distribution!

The Voyage Down Under

Where Australia figured as a destination, the US whaling fleet mainly used the route pioneered by the Dutch VOC ships.

This involved heading initially for offshore Brazil, then to the Cape Colony, before steering for Western Australia and thence to Hobart.

This was an alternative to the route rounding Cape Horn before heading up the South American coast and then heading into the Pacific; which voyage was much less likely to include Australia at any point.

Specie

It’s a long way from Nantucket to Hobart – which looks like it became a nice ‘pit stop’ before heading up to Japan or across to New Zealand, either way ending up in the Pacific Grounds prior to heading home by way of Cape Horn, a pretty hazardous undertaking either way, it must be said!

Anyway, when they came in for supplies and/or repairs, they needed specie for payment.

Since they set out from the US, that was the primary source of any specie on board.

US sourced means that typically the contents of these chests of silver coin were Spanish Dollars.

Most probably only a few US silver dollars and a bit more halves in amongst all those pieces of eight.

Silver Dollars

This is because US silver dollars were produced in low numbers over the period 1794 – 1850.

A lot more Halves were issued. Not infrequently, mintages were in the millions, and so these types of coins were more readily available compared to the larger US dollars, perhaps the smaller coin being tens of times more common on the average ( N.B. …that is very approximately…!).

Close up USA Half Dollar 1830 obverse — US Half Dollar 1830-P obverse

Close up USA Half Dollar 1830 reverse — US Half Dollar 1830-P obverse

From 1824, Mexican Dollars – a subset of Spanish Dollars – added to the coin mix in circulation.

Exactly how many coins are we talking about ? I think no-one really knows…

Land-Ho!

Anyway, if the ship happened to touch at Australia, most likely one of either Perth, Albany or Hobart, some of the coins on board would have been used to make payments.

With Australia being basically short of silver coinage, it’s generally accepted that the majority of coins accepted for payment soon left the colony in exchange for needed imports.

Colony coinage

Nevertheless, a small proportion would have remained in circulation onshore – perhaps mostly fractionals and small change occasioned by shore leave.

However, whaling ships were not strictly trading vessels; when they left, they were well fitted out for perhaps a 3 year voyage cruising the line… (with the hopeful intention of not touching land, filling up well & returning before the 3 years were up.)

Their contribution to the Early Australian coin mix must be considered in this light.

Still it’s pretty safe to say that there was a significant contribution arising from some 13 odd years of regular voyages.

The extent of the influence of the dollar is demonstrated by the fact that in Australia in the early 1800s, Spanish Dollars almost became the colony’s unit of account for the government.

It appears that sometime around 1822, the decision was finally made to stick with Great British currency.

Officialdom

In 1838, after years of neglect, London determined that all Crown colonies should have enough British coins to facilitate trade; the question is… when did this realistically happen down under ?

Certainly after that year and perhaps there were still shortages for maybe another 10-20 years.

A piece of circumstantial evidence here is that Australia was short of small change generally throughout the 1850s; and it wasn’t until

“About 1860 [that] British bronze coins began to arrive in the colonies in quantity…”
“Standard Catalog of Wordl Coins, 1801-1900”, Krause 3rd Edition.

Results – date range

Anyway, a US sourced coin most likely up until 1840 – maybe even 1850 at a stretch – had at least a chance of making it to Australia and remaining there.

The most common types were most likely Spanish Dollars, expected to form by far the largest proportion.

In US coins, halves would predominate, although it is expected that overall they would form a small percentage – I have no idea at all of a figure at this point!

Happy Collecting!