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Bill B., you wrote:
"1. Were they able to navigate to the whaling grounds? (And "grounds seems
like a strange term for water ;-)"

Yes, it is a strange term. But the whales liked certain areas more than others 
(funny no one's asked how the whales navigated! Lunars??). There's little 
doubt that the whaling vessels could make their way from New England (and in 
the post-war period, San Francisco) directly and accurately to distant points 
around the globe using the normal navigational methods of the day. There's 
plenty of evidence for this in the logbooks.

And:
"2. Were they able to chase whales around and perhaps (in the heat of battle)
make some reasonable estimation of where they were after a chase?"

First, remember that these whaleships were basically factory ships. The small 
whaleboats did the chasing about, sometimes sailing over the horizon while 
hunting. These were typically thirty-foot long, open, center-board sailing 
boats which could also be rowed when necessary (and when hauling the dead 
whale back to the ship). So the ship was largely stationary during the hunt. 
If they could, they would sail to meet the whaleboats half-way when they had 
caught and killed a whale. Keeping the whaling ship's position, even on the 
whaling grounds, was not difficult, but it was also not necessarily 
important. They could go a few days without an updated position, especially 
when there was good hunting.

And:
"3. Successful or not in the hunt, were they able to navigate back to their
home port?"

Yes. And also, they were able to navigate to small Pacific islands and ports 
in foreign lands every few months. Hawaii was a frequent stop for whaling 
vessels. They visited strange and mysterious places with exotic names, like 
Monterey, California. 

As an aside, there was a minor diplomatic incident that occurred during the 
Morgan's first voyage. They called at Monterey, as whaling vessels often did, 
with a substantial cargo of goods from New England to trade for local produce 
and water, ignoring Mexican customs laws and trading regulations. When the 
Morgan arrived in port, the Mexican governor there informed them that such 
trade was now prohibited -- go away. So some letters were exchanged, and 
within a year that illicit trade was active again. A few short years later, 
that became US territory.

And you concluded:
"Short of ships and souls lost to storms at sea, those company records (if
available) should pretty well tell the tale."

Yes. That's true. 

-FER




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