Introduction Part One: A History of Whaling & Maritime Commerce

This 3-site collaborative exhibit of the Hudson Area Library, the Hendrick Hudson Chapter of the Daughers of the American Revolution, and the Columbia County Historical Society focuses on Hudson's beginnings and its era of whaling and maritime trade. 

Throughout the history of the land the City of Hudson occupies, the river has always been the focal point. The people who lived in this area used the river and the rich soil around it for sustenance and wealth. Indigenous people cultivated crops and used canoes to bring goods up and down the river that they called Muhheakantuck, "the river that flows both ways." The Dutch farmers and sailors used sloops and scows to carry produce and goods to native and settler communities. Hudson whalers and merchants sailed as far as London and throughout the seas to whaling grounds. Likewise, on land, the footpaths of the Indigenous people became the wagon ways of the Dutch, which became the toll roads of the English settlers and finally became the modern day routes north to Albany and east into Massachusetts.

In the spring of 1783 Thomas Jenkins and three other men, representing a group of merchants and whalers who had formed an association of proprietors, went in search of land for a settlement where they could continue their trade and commerce. They decided on the deep water port of Claverack Landing and by the summer had purchased much of the land that would make up their city. Within two years, the Propietors had planned the city grid, divided the lots, formed a government and brought with them the wealth, skills, knowledge, materials, labor force, and social and professional conmnections needed to create a bustling town along the river. By 1785 Hudson became a chartered city and the first whaling voyage from Hudson was well on its way. 

Although Hudson was never a whaling port in the leagues of Nantucket or New Bedford, it was a bustling port with whaling and packet (cargo and passenger) ships and related industry and commerce. Between 1784-1845, there were 47 whaling voyages out of Hudson, some successful and some financially devestating. Industries turning out products such as shipbuilding, rope, sail, soap and candle making rose along the wharves, and in 1795 Hudson became a U.S. Port of Entry.