In 1822, the Arctic scientist William Scoresby travelled to Greenland to chart a large section of the island and to observe the development of the whaling industry in the region.
Scoresby was from a Yorkshire whaling family and had spent many summers in the Arctic as an apprentice to his father. He had an intimate knowledge of the equipment used and the hunting methods employed by whalers and used his books to explain the industry to the wider public.
His observations and discoveries helped to advance the knowledge of the Arctic in Britain and aid in the understanding of the whaling industry at the beginning of the nineteenth century.