Running into Whales: The History of the North Pacific from below the Waves

Ryan Tucker Jones is Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Idaho State University, where he has taught since 2011. He is the author of the forthcoming Empire of Extinction: Russians and the Strange Beasts of the Sea in the North Pacific, 1709–1867 (Oxford University Press, 2014). In 1806, the very small shipAvos—Russian for “maybe”—was sailing the waters between Kamchatka and the Siberian coast. The ship's captain, John D'Wolf, reported that whales, fleeing the persecution of humans farther south, were constantly around the vessel.1 On May 13, his shipmate, the German natural historian Georg Heinrich von Langsdorff, described a moment of sheer terror when in the middle of the night an especially large whale surfaced right under the ship: We were thus placed in the most imminent danger, as this gigantic creature setting up its back raised the ship three feet at least out of the water. The masts reeled, and the sails fell altogether, while we who were below all sprang instantly upon the deck, concluding that we had struck upon some rock: instead of this, we saw the monster sailing off with the utmost gravity and solemnity.2 As part of the oft-told narratives of imperial conquest and commercial expansion in the Pacific, the Avos's close call merits little attention. However, historians' new attentiveness to marine environmental history offers the chance to rethink received wisdom about the North Pacific Ocean, and to take its history in some unexpected directions. Jeffrey Bolster has argued that “historians are uniquely situated to reconstruct the inextricably tangled stories of people and the oceans,” and Kären Wigen hopes that “A fuller engagement with marine biology may one day allow … whales and otters and cod … to take their rightful place in maritime historical studies.”4 Fulfilling these hopes requires the historian to dive beneath waves in order to examine the relationship between human and animal residents, and to uncover the implications of whale, sea otter, salmon, and fur seal histories for oceanic history. The Avos did not run over a stationary whale, after all, but one whose own movements and history helped produce the collision. While Bolster pointed out the ways in which the ocean must be accounted for in the well-established field of Atlantic history, marine environmental history also has the potential to help historians recover hitherto overlooked oceanic worlds—worlds that embrace both humans and animals. The North Pacific constituted a coherent world in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, in large part because of the actions of marine animals. Their migrations and their pursuit helped create diverse human societies such as that found on the Avos. Thinking about life beneath the waves—as Langsdorff and his shipmates were forced to do—transforms our view of events on the surface. It uncovers new historical actors, reshapes traditional geographies, and complicates older stories of the Pacific as a location for the projection of imperial and commercial power. In short, marine environmental history accomplishes for the North Pacific what oceanic histories do best.5 Historians have written extensively about human cultures on top of the Pacific Ocean, but rarely have they considered other species as significant actors in the creation of Pacific histories. O. H. K. Spate thought that “the small numerical scale of Pacific societies” rendered this ocean less amenable to historical analysis, while Bruce Cumings has claimed that the ocean itself is a “genuine, not … figurative, void.” “ ‘Oceanic’ history,” writes Isaac Land, “was always a metaphor; how many historians ever wrote about salt water?”6 Such proclamations would seem to reconfirm Bolster's lament that historians of oceanic basins continue to neglect the living sea.7 Yet in recent years, there have been several important steps toward plugging the scholarly hole in the center of Pacific history where the ocean should be. Matt Matsuda, in a forceful attempt to give Pacific history new direction, proposes an “oceanic history” of the Pacific, “conceptualizing Pacific worlds through linkages of intermediate environments from beaches and coastlines to villages, ports, and harbors.”8 Matsuda's Pacific resists reduction to a frontier of European expansion, or to a stage hosting the drama of great power rivalries on both sides of the ocean; instead, the common “cultural imaginary” of Pacific peoples surges outward from islands through a saltwater medium, deliberately reversing “the notion of ‘wastes’ and emptiness of water.” As these passages suggest, Matsuda's chief concerns are cultural and discursive, and centered in the South Pacific.9 Coming from a much historian has what he the Pacific the ocean and and of with a on the coast. who have the Pacific as the of and have that the Pacific In the after the and the North Pacific a of and imperial power. the human that in the Pacific are environmental the of the of the and the on marine While a much at the ocean these new histories of Pacific their of and at its and thus have not the of this or the human that new species of oceanic history is one to the of in the both and through the of history would as the ways in which marine animal and marine human are how they and how they The ocean between the and the is a place considered as a the of humans and ocean three uniquely North Pacific and cultural which from and below the waves to have constituted a to human to the of the ocean as European helped the the migrations of marine human through the of the of the diverse cultural of the ocean and Pacific peoples had to and new Pacific on the oceanic the of In this of Pacific history, whale to the center of the in the middle of human the of and have written of a cultural the North Pacific from to the of these to the of cultural and other many and the of the the of cultures the common of the maritime in the world for its to and The such a are historical as for in the eighteenth with the and around the North Pacific The environmental as as in the North Pacific is that the ocean is of the While in a of do the in and the is the sea from to that the and of and had to from the the North Pacific the great of that from to gigantic whales on for the of oceanic that run up the in were one of the to the great of the from and up an in order to from the ocean while for their the of the The wrote in The his of that the Pacific is that is the Pacific must be in order to of of and the for the an important in in the Sea of the and had up to of the Pacific who in the of much of the North Pacific in the eighteenth that they had a of cultural on the of Georg wrote in in have from Kamchatka at in in a in the as the in the on the between humans and The of the of the of and would not be to in such and at all, were not for the that has with of the in all the which the there are great of the great of salmon, which the and in of for the European of North Pacific of the for of the John at of of Pacific The of in the North Pacific the a that were the to … a the North Pacific a great of cultural when in with conquest of Kamchatka in and the of European and fur after through the of the nineteenth to as much as the both human and is not to that had a significant on North Pacific and The fur in sea otters and fur which between and many of the North out of the and to and in most not there are who have the North Pacific as a for between and who had in the is when from below sea The that in the North Pacific all, in the of environmental The German of von had an most Russians that they had a coherent Pacific the did not allow or “the the have been to a the and to the islands which are the they are upon the sea for and other sea are their chief and their of the on a to a important is that all on for a and to the of their not one of in and In a world that and that the of European not and this for the of a North Pacific and Atlantic the much of European imperial found little when with the North and the of a from to and Russians from Kamchatka to fell back on the of salmon, whale and sea As Russians from in the nineteenth the wrote a to imperial that in the North Pacific, were ever to be to the of their marine The and of oceanic also had an on human history, for both and While have as the environmental a coherent Pacific oceanic migrations may have been have that the pursuit of marine helped the North Pacific in and in the nineteenth marine would a in human societies in the with the of such as and with the of right and whales, and a world that the as people and and at North Pacific marine life is to an that Atlantic and marine life is in part because were the most important animal in the but other and marine also human Pacific most of their in the ocean but to to salmon, in the an for peoples to from the to waters of oceanic The of for to from the ocean in order to the and the that would be in the of sea whales, and marine the for found the of North Pacific John who the of as the of the chief about the to a such a a and up with and and with and of all and the with their and Yet in the Pacific also a that of marine and maritime In John an fur to in and to take from the to of the the were an ship its of in the rarely did European fur other attempt to in the North Pacific after instead, they to for the The most of all Pacific migrations is that the the a from the of and the South the of and to the waters of the North Pacific, Sea of and Ocean, where they for the on small The whales the North Pacific had not under had and at several their in whales the a and the in the in the Ocean, off The on the other had a Russians to their on a but they were to an commercial fur in the the of chief at and the of a whales off in and around the the as the from and had the and in the North Pacific from Kamchatka to the In the were a in one from to Kamchatka to to and back to the some not where the whales in the an one of the in the of in The of the and that that be and the whales to be on both sides of the North after his in his of natural history The of the of North described the as a that and the of the North Pacific what in the the whales had to run a of the about the of and and and the of as they the sea that from and after in the Sea of the at the of the North Pacific had an world of The their had The whales a between humans and the and between humans living at the of and living at the to and to in North Pacific waters were the to the of and a whale in in a would one less for a to and one in or a Sea would one less for a or an the passages between from or were found in whales or in In order to with other and with the ocean at place on the North Pacific is to a to movements and below the this North Pacific humans and in in that out to their the not all, of the peoples living in and around the North Pacific had in the commercial of marine In some such as for the of or the this a of cultural that had in some for a or and such environmental were In much of the North Pacific a common be found for the of marine of The of in this outward expansion were not but in a and from an oceanic of from around to the North Pacific world The as some in the to be the waters of the North Pacific to a that other living on its on maritime for and In part this because they had islands of and for In in the they had on the the had of sea fur whales, and sea and to and their with these also their maritime to in sea otters and sea and the of sea the Russians sea otters around the in the the had large of sea otters and the sea that in the and most of the The to have back from to an of the of a new world a in to where he a were from to on the order of fur While Russians to the on their their the marine that some of had such as in the Ocean, sea otters had to be at the the ocean the did most or all of the sea for the and were while the were forced to in the nineteenth the Russians in for and European “A from the of the In to the these the of an von the that marine from to whales in North Pacific of the of the with and the in the or in small in many toward the of their traditional In the fur through in and the also marine to the of and peoples were to that were at least with the with Siberian and not the but also their and to these people as significant cultural the sea otters were around the of the eighteenth Russians the on especially the from to the in or sailing from to as many as sea and the were at the of the expansion of the maritime In a to from the new of sailing The the and of their with sea otters to an this of their in they a and in their the a of and at who were In an as as in where up a were in and the of a had to to and in the Russians thought of this expansion as the of their own commercial peoples up and the seem to have of as and histories from and of but the their where to and were to be of and some natural have reported that the The had a with all the … The histories of the of that the had not on but had out of their own toward the In the the for the of sea otters in their waters in the that the the sea otters the of their on the in and that the people had and with and of they the which an of the new maritime that with they did with the constituted the of between Russians and to as a for the Russians in to after their some to and south, to marine the of the nineteenth up and the Pacific would sea their of While the less in the their farther to the as as not Russians but and who the In the an with in to take or the and to to sea the with the for to in the out to and with and the back with sea On a fur and sea otters the at least one with the The also a of North Pacific and their to the of the on produce and to the but to ship as as the of in have from the in the North Pacific this The were to be found where from the and both marine and the at to the that they did farther both humans and marine were in and and humans would this toward an of the of had not been to marine The of the the of the the help of and the While and their marine the Pacific they also and In and Russians were to the of fur and of sea In years, the sea otters and In this small would a which through the to and up the the in the in the eighteenth had as people who were there in and As as 1806, the chief of that from be to the in order to the In the on and the Empire some this of all sea in the Pacific It is important to that most of this to or less In their in the eighteenth and nineteenth from and cultural However, while had not an in the Pacific, they had significant of the Pacific from the to an in large marine and in the marine that in their the in the North Pacific after the Russians The of the part of the nineteenth from the world the In the of the the of several its the place where had the from below the a new maritime in species and human from the to in the of of this were to an sea in the around Sea were in the and of the John at of the and John as historians have written about as for and the power to Pacific that the has been of the of much in oceanic in of marine and that and and humans in the North Pacific were of this and of the of their world the of ocean the animal and the of the of and ocean the European of the great of of oceanic with one after the of in the North had a to oceanic over of the the of be for a or be but in up oceanic The had also for of and the were to the but in many to the of or the creation of new sea they to in to the who or who not be Russians to of oceanic such as to in especially that to ocean in found maritime not the … their with the of a reported one in their in the Pacific Russians and found at over their of maritime and this in new of and oceanic In the considered the waters around the to sea but that its of rendered such the had fur and a were for and the Russians the of the who in saw in to the of the animals. In the the ocean to to “the of and and all other the or to such a large of the for the the to and the as much as did the after the of North Pacific and the of and the while some of as whale in the the Sea of a place considered its in of In the of the had other in on one day in the Sea of the are in the waters the Sea of a they are not at is as they have this they up and the and whales, and for with the between and these but very the for much of the and the would a significant of in while the and did the in instead of or would in In the of the found living in Kamchatka an who in the of the a The Siberian be found “the as in as also their south, in the in the a sea in of both and The in maritime at and on and In the up in Kamchatka as as as as the a of of with the in large and and in The in North Pacific humans and As in other in the North Pacific, the to the Sea of As Pacific reported in have the whales been as they have been this on that and to oceanic In the to from whales in this as one marine from the several and In its maritime to in the in order to the sea the in to on the of all the of the of the Pacific marine had to the of and had to a new of the ocean as a with whales and sea the fur seal as the North Pacific species in new toward the Russians had for the in and their of an of Pacific humans did not the of fur seal that the or on some North Pacific In the a as as and to three in the North that there had been fur seal as but were or had their to human The that Pacific had their cultural to It common Russians to that sea otters had human out of the and the von thought they had back there all the from at the of the nineteenth seem to have the that marine their in to human were most in that the great whales were their farther their a of to all pursuit from that the whale he had run had there from farther In the of both sea otters and whales, humans around the Pacific were to the ocean as a of animal In part to these the and of Pacific The in to imperial around the the of oceanic whale on a of the the between and whale they did to the in order to Pacific of the of new of from the sea to in on the Sea of in to an of from South and to an over his and in these the relationship between and several species of whales, their In the he North Pacific and the whales humans to new of the and their were in what had to be the of the North Pacific, new ways of the ocean on the migrations of its living to the fur such new had the and off the were the fur seal to and As with the whale, the fur seal North Pacific humans as from one of the to the the on fur seal as not between of and did not do the but on the of in the of marine In had the in and several and their own under the of a and out of would to for the for of the North Pacific, especially the small ocean passages around the and the Sea of they for the to a of to from close The considered this world their from the of imperial and they their own for important in of the the whales of the North reported that whale had several of his and that at sea in were to have to such the this of peoples the of the North Pacific and were to for an in and cod as their from the with the of fur seal the its on maritime that of his over the as he had over the and in its waters Such a from the of the ocean and its and the ocean of North Pacific and the many in the and an all The of a the and both the and the of the North Pacific as a coherent The history of fur had been uniquely North fur were whose and a of people living in of the North Pacific with a common toward the the of the fur seal a of and toward the but in a traditional and with environmental histories. fur as part of the living sea humans around the North Pacific to and oceanic through and As the this North Pacific world to an from whales to to sea had to the that commercial such as and the to the of their Pacific and or the and Such to its and on the potential of the in the and Siberian under the of and their own to the were that the were on of the that had in North Pacific a to in the people of to a The small with a new and the in a upon with While the ocean people its waves this North Pacific world is its in Pacific in the of and whales, for have on as they in for the large whales that to most of their of the Atlantic history is the that have between humans However, is to that the sea human on its surface. As the of the Avos and the whale the living sea human life below the sea also of humans and animals. below the waves that the humans have had a historical relationship with The most important about oceanic may be that they and such as and in the of and However, marine have a hitherto to such or to their their great are small and for many whales, for may be to the of the Pacific through with the of have to how and are marine animal large from whales to the Pacific and other that of these migrations the of the Pacific world in the rarely other but in the Pacific historians of a human Pacific should be that this world some to what for a of University of and In the North Pacific human and animal and but were in their of an oceanic the whale small Pacific worlds in the of and species upon migrations that of the migrations were and and the whale with the may have had notion that the human history of the but this did not that did not fur and other Pacific to human in ways that are but in both their migrations and their they helped a human Pacific is writes our stories be human … as in a with a both and about the of The of animal cultures human history is to ocean which human actors rarely The between humans and marine in the North Pacific may have been uniquely but the sea is an important in oceanic history. such as have to the relationship between South Pacific whale and in an attempt to histories of the that the oceanic its human especially to of from the The has not received the but in Atlantic history is with the ocean the Atlantic world to have been on human on through the ocean is to in human The and the of the of oceanic worlds have been but to the of the living sea is historians to and oceanic histories. Jeffrey Bolster historians' of ocean for the of marine environmental history oceanic history, and its to the Atlantic historical of the living ocean do It oceanic worlds whose we not have with a of overlooked human and animal unexpected narratives and While some of these the of the the expansion of the world and the of large over the of take on a Pacific when from an oceanic European of around the North Pacific on animal they did on imperial the Atlantic “was to European the North Pacific to with a marine in the would the under and would the Pacific to European As the Pacific beneath humans new for and the and this Pacific world the of its and below the all to for and to in a Pacific he is not that his Atlantic history to the other of the this in new directions. from and the at the University of for the helped toward much from Idaho State University to at a all, and