An original watercolor painting of the starboard view of the ship Henry of Nantucket. Nantucket whale-ship signals from 1840-1850 surround the margin of the pictures. Names of the whaling ship are written underneath each flag; half of the letters are now faded.
During the late 19th and early 18th centuries, Nantucket was the whaling capital of the world. A typical Nantucket whaleship voyage killed and processed approximately 40 to 50 whales. The oil from whales were used to make candles that were said to burn longer and brighter than any in the world. By the late 1840s, Nantucket's whaling industry was in decline, and New Bedford overtook the title of the nation's whaling capital.
