Evaluating French Whaling Expeditions from the 16th to the 19th Centuries

The history of French whaling is familiar to a small group of specialists, but the lack of sources and the opacity of maritime statistics in the Early Modern period have long discouraged researchers wishing to assess its extent, not only for French fleets but also for those of other nations. The history of the French whaling industry has been studied for certain regions and periods, but no one has really attempted to give a global panorama by evaluating the total magnitude and frequency of catches, quantities of oil and baleen, or the size of fleets from the 16th to the 19th centuries. These are the questions that the following article will seek to answer, based on existing data and new figures.