{{Short description|American whaling ship master}} {{about||the politician|Thomas W. Long|the writer|Thomas Long (writer)}} {{Infobox person | name = Thomas W. Long | image = | caption = | birth_name = | birth_date = 1814 | birth_place = | death_date = 1875 | death_place = Tiksi Bay, Sakha, Russia (disputed) or Honolulu, Hawaii{{cn|date=November 2025}} | body_discovered = | death_cause = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = {{coord|71|39|N|129|8|E|display=inline,title}} | nationality = | citizenship = | other_names = | known_for = Discoverer of Wrangel Island | education = | alma_mater = | employer = | occupation = Whaler | years_active = | height = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = | opponents = | boards = | spouse = | partner = | children = | parents = | relations = | signature = | website = | footnotes = }}

'''Thomas W. Long''' was an American whaling ship master.<ref>''Directory of Whaling Masters'', Federal Writers' Project, p. 184</ref><ref>[https://www.jstor.org/stable/1781170?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents ''Wrangel Island'', The Geographical Journal. Vol. 62, No. 6 (Dec., 1923), pp. 440-444]</ref>

==Whaling career==

Long was captain of the ship ''John and Elizabeth'' (296 tons), of New London, in 1854; the ship ''India'' (433 tons), of New London, in 1855, 1856, and 1857; the barque ''Merrimac'' (414 tons), of New London, in 1858; and the ship ''Isaac Howland'' (399 tons), of New Bedford, in 1860, 1861, 1862, and 1863.<ref>{{cite book |last=Starbuck |first=Alexander |title=History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the year 1876 |year=1878 |publisher=Castle |isbn=1-55521-537-8 }}</ref> He used the schooner ''Caroline'' (106 tons), of New London and then Honolulu, as tender from 1855 to 1858 and from 1860 to 1862.<ref name=WSL1857>''Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript'', New Bedford, December 22, 1857, Vol. XV, No. 41.</ref><ref>''Eliza Adams'', of New Bedford, October 12–16, 1858, KWM #353.</ref><ref>''Isaac Howland'' and ''Caroline'' seen steering along the land to southwest. See ''Montezuma'', of New London, October 1, 1860, off Cape Ukoy, Nicholson Whaling Collection.</ref><ref>''Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript'', New Bedford, January 22, 1861, Vol. XVIII, No. 46.</ref><ref>''Friend'', Honolulu, November 1, 1862, Vol. 11/19, No. 11, p. 88.</ref> He sailed to the Sea of Okhotsk each season. In 1854 he obtained 800 barrels of oil.<ref>''Friend'', Honolulu, November 22, 1854, Vol. 3/11, No. 11, p. 88.</ref> In 1855, up to September 8, he had taken 39 whales, which produced 1,800 to 1,900 barrels of oil;<ref>''Whalemen's Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript'', New Bedford, December 4, 1855, Vol. XIII, No. 40, p. 314.</ref> and in three seasons from 1855 to 1857, he got 8,000 to 9,000 barrels of whale oil with the help of his tender ''Caroline'', mainly cruising in Tugur Bay and Academy Bay. He left the ''Caroline'' in Mamga Bay for the winter of 1856–1857. When he returned the following season three of the four men left with her had died, with the last expiring shortly after being taken aboard ''India''.<ref name=WSL1857/> In 1858 he caught 52 whales,<ref>''Evening Bulletin'', Honolulu, March 30, 1902, Vol. 1, No. 10.</ref> which produced 1,600 barrels of oil.<ref>''Friend'', Honolulu, December 4, 1858, Vol. 7/15, No. 12, p. 94.</ref> In 1860 he caught three sperm whales outside of the Sea of Okhotsk as well as four bowhead whales in the sea, which yielded 40 and 200 barrels, respectively.<ref>''Polynesian'', Honolulu, November 10, 1860, Vol. XVII, no. 28.</ref> In 1861 he got 1,450 barrels of whale oil and 70 of sperm,<ref>''Friend'', Honolulu, November 18, 1861, Vol. 10/18, No. 11, p. 88.</ref> and in 1862 he caught 32 bowheads – one of which yielded 250 barrels of oil – for a total of 1,700 barrels of oil.<ref>''Friend'', Honolulu, December 1, 1862, Vol. 11/19, No. 12, p. 96.</ref> In 1863 he was only able to obtain 600 barrels of oil.<ref>''Friend'', Honolulu, November 2, 1863, Vol. 12/20, No. 11, p. 88.</ref>

Among his commands was the barque ''Nile''.<ref>[https://educators.mysticseaport.org/artifacts/nile_oil_painting/ Oil Painting of Bark ''Nile'']</ref> In 1867, as captain of the ''Nile'' during a whaling voyage in the North Pacific Ocean, Long entered the Chukchi Sea and sighted Wrangel Island. He described its southern shores, deeming it was a bigger landmass. Long named it "Wrangel Land" after Russian Navy seaman Ferdinand Wrangel (1797–1870).<ref>[http://www.forbesindia.com/article/recliner/a-journey-to-the-end-of-the-world-the-arctic-seas-wrangel-island/44345/1 A journey to the end of the world: The Arctic Sea's Wrangel Island]</ref> He also named Cape Hawaii and Cape Thomas on the same island.<ref>John Muir, S. Hall Young<, ''The Alaska Route: The Cruise of the Corwin, Travels in Alaska,''</ref>

{{blockquote|...sailed to the eastward along the land during the fifteenth and part of the sixteenth (August 1867), and in some places approached it as near as fifteen miles. I have named this northern land Wrangell Land as an appropriate tribute to the memory of a man who spent three consecutive years north of latitude 68°, and demonstrated the problem of this open polar sea forty-five years ago, although others of much later date have endeavored to claim the merit of this discovery. The west cape of this land I have named Cape Thomas, after the man who first reported the land from the masthead of my ship, and the southeastern cape I have named after the largest island in this group (Hawaii).<ref>Text by Captain Long published in ''The Honolulu Advertiser'', November, 1867</ref>}}

==Death==

Thomas Long died at Tiksi Bay, then known as "Gorely Bay", in the Laptev Sea. There is a cross there marking the site where he perished.<ref>Soviet Life, Issues 7-12</ref>

==Honors==

Long Strait, connecting the East Siberian Sea and the Chukchi Sea, was named after him.<ref>William J. Mills: [https://books.google.com/books?id=PYdBH4dOOM4C&pg=PA720 Exploring Polar Frontiers: A Historical Encyclopedia, vol. 1] Google Books</ref>

== References == {{Reflist}}

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Category:Sailors from Connecticut Category:American people in whaling Category:American polar explorers Category:Wrangel Island Category:19th-century American people Category:1814 births Category:1875 deaths