Famous People from Whitby and the surrounding area
The ‘Resolution’ Whitby In 1803 Scoresby was offered captaincy and one eighth ownership of a new Whitby ship the ‘Resolution’ a brand new ship built by Fishburn and Brodrick. The ‘Resolution’ set sail from Whitby with the captain’s son, William Scoresby Jnr at just 13 years old, and was a huge success. With another 7 […]
The ‘Dundee’ Whitby Soon offers were being made to Scoresby and eventually he finally became commander of the London ship the ‘Dundee’, a much larger vessel than ‘Henrietta’. In 1798 the Dundee set sail for the Greenland Fishery and returned with an enormous 36 whales. This was Scoresby’s record catch. For 5 years he sailed […]
The ‘Henrietta’ Scoresby’s first command, the ship the Henrietta, came in 1791 when he took over from Captain Chrispin Bean. Its was a bad first season for the Whale Fishery, 4 out of 7 ships came home with empty holds, one ship was lost and the 2 remaining ships came home with 1 ‘fish’ each. […]
William Scoresby, Senior (1760 – 1829) One of Whitby’s famous son’s is William Scoresby, the famous whaler and explorer spending most of his life around the Whitby area when not at sea catching whales! Few other names in the history of Arctic exploration are so well known as that of Captain William Scoresby. Born on […]
Robin Jarvis Whitby A trilogy of young adult novels, The Whitby Witches, makes much of the town’s setting and history, embellishing local traditions whilst incorporating them into the narrative. The author, Robin Jarvis, recalls “The first time I visited Whitby, I stepped off the train and knew I was somewhere very special. It was a […]
Charles Dickens Whitby Charles Dickens is known to have visited Whitby and in a letter of 1861 to his friend Wilkie Collins who was staying in Whitby at the time. Dickens states “In my time that curious railroad by the Whitby Moor was so much the more curious, that you were balanced against a counter-weight […]
