Bequia has an aboriginal whaling tradition dating to the late 19th century, when Yankee whalers from New England settled here and married into the local population. The small museum tells the story through harpoons, whaleboat models, photographs, and the personal effects of the island's last active whalers, the Ollivierre family of Friendship Bay.
The collection is modest and the curator's commentary is the best part of the visit — most of the people running the museum are direct descendants of the whalers. The processing station on the privately owned island of Petit Nevis, where any harpooned whale is butchered, can sometimes be visited on a half-day boat trip from Friendship Bay.