The Report of the Commisioner of Fish & Fisheries (New England), register a Balaena from the 1850's up till it's sale in while in the port New Bedford 1871. She had been managed by the same ship's agent (James Howland & among her captains there was never a Guy), tonnage was 301. She was ship rigged & somtime between 1863 & 64 rerigged as a bark. She fished the Alantic, Pacific & Indian Oceans. In Nov. 1868 she lost her 3rd mate & 3 others & sent home 550 sperm. The copy of my report only goes as far as 1876, so there could've been another Balaena later but if she was lanched in 1861 I'd say it was slim. At 301 tons she would've been a fair size then, I only found 2 ships over 400 tons, 1 at 407 & 1 at 408, so it seems that 472 tons would be a mega ship at that time. I couldn't find any listing of a Polynia or Polina or anything close to that spelling. None of the reports cover futher north than Mass. only from New York to Mass. but I'd think that those ports handled a very large percentage of the ships in the whaling industry for the North Alantic. Barry