Famous people and Whitby: William Scoresby

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Born at Nutholm near Cropton on 3 May 1760, William Scoresby Senior came, not from a nautical background, but from farming stock. He left school at the age of nine years old and went to work as a farm labourer until he reached 19.

However, the young Scoresby was an ambitious man and decided that a life at sea was preferable to working the land. In 1780 he was apprenticed by a Mr. Chapman, a Quaker ship-owner, on the vessel ‘Jane’. Several years later he returned to Cropton and married a local girl Mary Smith, known as ‘Lady’ Smith from being born on Lady Day. They had three children, Mary, Sarah and William Junior. William Senior remained at Cropton for a further two years.
He returned to the sea and signed on the ‘Henrietta’ under Captain Crispin Bean. This was the beginning of his involvement in the whaling trade and by his sixth voyage he rose rapidly to become Second Officer (or the Specksioneer – a Dutch term for the officer in charge of fishing apparatus and the chief harpooner). Then, on Bean’s retirement in 1790, he became Captain. His first voyage was nearly a disaster as the crew did not support his promotion and mutinied. He chose his own crew for his next voyage and returned to port with a huge tally of 18 whales, a Whitby record. Arctic whaling was not for the faint-hearted. The hard weather conditions did not deter crews, there was a certain glamour in exploring the unknown and a thrill in a hunt where success meant affluence, and failure, poverty or even death. The quarter deck for many young Whitby men was the acme of their ambition. Following a famous successful whaling captain such as Scoresby was very attractive, his escape during the French war from a prisoner-of-war camp in Spain, his great physical strength and his outstanding seamanship gave him an almost legendary reputation. This enabled him to recruit the best seamen of Whitby and push them to their utmost.
In 1776, the British Government offered a reward of £10,000 to anyone who could penetrate north of 89 degrees, east or west of the Bering Straits. Whilst Scoresby did not gain the prize he did reach beyond 81 degrees in 1806, he captained the first ship to sail furthermost north up to that time and only 510 miles from the North Pole.

Over a period of forty-three years at sea, Scoresby captured 533 whales, many thousands of seal, some walruses and not less than 60 polar bears. One polar bear was kept at his first residence on Church Street. Famed for his ability to catch whales, it is Scoresby’s invention of the ‘crow’s nest’ for which he is best remembered. The wood-framed box was covered with canvas and leather and allowed the look-out (usually the Captain himself) an unparalled view of the Arctic waters and the elusive but highly prized whales. Entrance was by a hatch trap at the base and there was provision for a speaking trumpet, telescope, signal flags and perhaps a rifle and compass. His invention is celebrated in a monument in front of the Railway Station. The lookouts are cast in bronze and oversee Station Square.

Scoresby was a forward thinker and became involved in Whitby public life in 1816. A public meeting was held at the Angel Inn where he proposed improvements to the harbour. Some ten years later his ideas were published in a pamphlet, unemployment was rife in the town and by then his proposals were better accepted. Some of his ideas were considered too radical for the day but ironically since 1828 many of his far-sighted schemes have been carried out in modern times just as he had laid down originally. He believed that the unemployed could be paid to deepen the harbour, build quays and construct a new bridge.

At his own expense in 1819, he erected a pump at the foot of Salt Pan Well Steps (off Church Street) for the residents of the nearby yards who were short of water. After 100 years of service, the pump can now be seen in the Scoresby Room of Pannett Park Museum. A true philanthropist, Scoresby had the pump is engraved with the Latin quotation ‘Suum cuique. Hauri. Bibe. Tace’ which translates as ‘To each his own. Draw. Drink. Be silent.’
Throughout his life William Scoresby was a deeply religious man, a service was conducted in the ship’s cabin every Sunday and on later voyages the pursuit of whales was completely suspended on the Sabbath.

William Scoresby Senior joined the Whitby Literary & Philosophical Society and remained a member until his death on 28 April 1829 when he died at his then home, 13 Bagdale. The house, built in 1816 by Michael Teesdale, is marked by a blue Whitby Civic Society plaque which was unveiled by Captain Jack Lammiman in 2004.
Ah, Captain Jack Lammiman …….. now that is another story ……..

Kindly Compiled and prepared by Christina Rowe

for The Whitby Seagull. May 2010

See The Former Home of William Scoresby Snr

Whitby is famous for?

WILLIAM SCORESBY Snr