High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Thomas Luce & Company was one of the last American whaling companies on the east coast. Based in New Bedford, Massachusetts and founded by an Azorean immigrant, the Thos. Luce company operated thirty-six whaling voyages between 1886 and 1903 into the Atlantic Ocean and Hudson Bay. The company's founder and owner, Capt. Thomas Luce (1827-1911), was born on the island of Flores in the Azores, to Azorean parents. Thomas Luce wasn't his real name, which has been lost. He emigrated to the United States as a teenager aboard the whaling ship Brunette, commanded by Capt. Eddy Manter Luce Jr. (1807-1849) of New Bedford and Falmouth, MA.