Whalers were a 'sweet spot' for creativity. Lots of resources (whalebone, teeth, baleen, rope etc), a reasonable number of sailors, and stretches of free time. This is where various art forms were perfected including scrimshaw, macrame(!) and knotting. In fact almost all knots (and there are around 5000 of them) were invented on whalers.

Merchant marine and Navy had too many sailors and not a lot of free time. Resources and time were scarce.