Whitby Ships & Shipping

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As a harbour town Whitby's shipping history involves trade and commerce, ship building, whaling, fishing and exploration as well as daring and heroic sea rescues and horrific disasters.

From the mid 18th to mid 19th Century Whitby bustled with those involved in the shipping industry, centred around the shipyards, roperies and sail yards. At this time the most successful and prevalent Whitby built ship was the 'cat' design. These distinctive and sturdy boats were built with flat bottoms that enabled them to take land and thus made repairs easy. This traits also made them ideal vessels for the exploration of unknown waters making them popular with the explorers of the day such as Cook and Scoresby. Some of the most notable Whitby built ships can be found below:

HMS Bark Endeavour

HMS Resolution

HMS Adventure