Men and women of color had been involved in the Yankee whaling industry almost from the beginning. By the time photographers began to capture whaling images on film around the turn of the century, a majority of American whalemen were of African descent.

The largest and most conspicuous group were Portuguese-speaking Creoles from the Cape Verde Islands off the West Coast of Africa, for whom the whale fishery itself was the attraction to America.

Ready to Sail	Mending Sails	Setting Sail
Coiling Line	Preparations	Crews On Deck

West Indians, urban Blacks from the industrial cities, and the descendants of rural slaves and share-croppers from the South, all found their ways to the shores of New England and California in pursuit of the Leviathan.