Book excerpt: Until the present day, whaling and sealing in the nineteenth century have hardly received attention in Dutch maritime historiography. During the two preceding centuries whaling had developed into a prominent maritime industry. Various major external and internal problems, however, contributed to its rapid decline during the second half of the eighteenth century. After the Napoleonic Era (1795-1815), increasing numbers of Dutch entrepreneurs resumed whaling, both in the Arctic and in the South Seas. This book, based on extensive research into unexplored archival sources and secondary literature, fills many of the gaps in our understanding of how whaling and sealing were organied in the Netherlands.