Whaling became a commercial industry around the 11th century. By 1550, commercial whaling had expanded to the Americas, it became the center of English and Dutch whaling by the 17th century. Once whales became scarce there, the whalers started tp go to the Arctic waters off Greenland, Canada and Alaska. By the 19th century, these too were becoming scarce. Whaling has been practiced for centuries to provide man with all types of things such as food, oil for lamps, cosmetics and toiletries, such as lipstick, cold cream, and soap.Whaling is not a beautiful thing to behold as shown below. At first the whalers pursued the whales from sailing ships in open boats with hand-thrown harpoons. But the development of steam-powered ships, and explosive harpoon cannons, meaning that whaling ships could kill the fastest whales. Catcher-boats would harpoon the unfortunate whales and tow them back for rendering into oil.