William Goodlad
English whaler (1570s-1939)
William Goodlad (c. 1576–1639) was a 17th-century English whaler. He was admiral of the Muscovy Company's London whaling fleet for nearly two decades, participating in several of the disputes involving the right to catch whales in Spitsbergen. The Arctic explorer Luke Foxe, in writing about the early voyages to Spitsbergen, said of him: "... but this I leave to Capt. Goodlade [sic], whose great experience this way, and to the E.-ward thereof, is the best able to supply or confute, if he be pleased so to shew himselfe".
Career
Goodlad first appears as admiral of the English whaling fleet in 1620 in Thomas Edge's Dutch, Spanish, Danish Disturbance (1622), which appears in Samuel Purchas' Hakluytus posthumus or Purchas His Pilgrimes (1625). Edge states he was again admiral in 1621 and 1622. Purchas (1625) also reprints a letter, dated 8 July 1623 (Old Style), written by "Captaine William Goodlard [sic]" to vice-admiral William Heley. Writing from "Bell-sound" (Bellsund), the main harbor of the English in Spitsbergen, he reported a catch of "three and thirtie" whales there, as well as the lamentable loss of his brother Peter on 28 June (OS), who was drowned when pulled out of a boat by a kink in the line from a harpooned whale.
The public source identifies “William Goodlad” as english whaler (1570s-1939). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around William, Goodlad and English.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 1, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q8009992. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1576, 1639, 1620 and 1622.
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This entry incorporates text from “William Goodlad” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.