[Illustration: This picture, taken by Roy C. Andrews, Esq., of the
American Museum of Natural History, on his last whaling expedition,
shows a bomb exploding in a whale.]
[Illustration: WHALING IMPLEMENTS.
Figure 1. Harpoon with one barb. Figure 2. Harpoon with two barbs.
Figure 3. The “toggle iron.” Figure 4. The lance for killing the whale
by reaching its “life.” Figure 5. A spade used in small boats for
making holes in the blubber after capture and on the whaleship for
cutting the blubber from the body of the whale. Figure 6. A bomb lance.
Figure 7. The “boarding knife” used for making holes in the strips of
blubber for the hoisting hooks. Figure 8. The dipper used to bail oil
out of the “case,” or head, and from the try-works into the cooler.
Figure 9. A piece of whalebone as it comes from the whale. Figure 10. A
strainer used for draining the scraps from the oil.]
The earliest method of killing whales was by means of the bow and
arrow, and the first accounts of New England whaling refer to the
harpoons as being made of stone or bone. There are three kinds,
however, that have been popular among American whalemen: one had one
barb (Figure 1), shown on the preceding page; another had two barbs
(Figure 2); and the third was the “toggle iron” (Figure 3), which has
already been described. The edges were sharpened like a razor and
were protected by a wooden cover when not in use. They were so sharp
that Melville in “Moby Dick” describes his whaling hero, Queequeg, as
shaving with one. The lance (Figure 4) which was used after the harpoon
had been driven in “to the hitches,” or its entire length, resembled a
flat spoon, and was very sharp on the edges and on the point. The long
line was attached to the harpoon, and shorter lines, called “monkey
ropes,” were made fast to the lances.
It has been shown by the records of one James Durbee, a veteran harpoon
maker of New Bedford, that between the years 1828 and 1868 he made and
sold 58,517 harpoons, and he was only one of eight or ten manufacturers
of whaling implements in that one port.
An interesting and authentic anecdote of a lost harpoon describes how
a Captain Paddock in 1802 struck a whale, which escaped with his iron,
and in 1815, thirteen years later, the same captain killed the same
whale and recovered his lost weapon.
A whaler is supplied with from four to seven whaleboats, three of
which are usually on the port side, one on the starboard side near
the stern, and the rest are on deck; it was the improved early canoe,
sharp at both ends so as to make a dash at the whale and then be able
to retreat just as easily. The floor was very flat so as to enable
the boat to be turned quickly in order to dodge a sudden movement of
the whale. The boat was about twenty-eight feet long, was equipped
with one long steering oar and five rowing oars, and a sail which was
occasionally used; also paddles were sometimes resorted to in order to
avoid noise. In the bow of the boat two seven-foot harpoons were placed
ready for use. A warp was securely fastened to them, and to this warp
was secured, after the boat was lowered, a line of two or three hundred
fathoms of the best manila two-thirds of an inch in diameter, and
with a tensile strength of about three tons. It ran from the harpoons
through a chock or groove in the bow to a coil in a depressed box near
by, and then lengthwise along the boat to the stout loggerhead or post
in the stern, around which it made a turn or two, and then went forward
to the line tub near the tub oarsman. Its twelve or eighteen hundred
feet of line were coiled in this tub, with every possible precaution
to prevent fouling in the outrun. When the rope was coiled and the tub
was covered, it was said to resemble a Christmas cake ready to present
to the whales. The loggerhead was for snubbing and managing the line
as it ran out. A spare line was carried in another tub. A boat was
also supplied with extra harpoons, lances, spades, hatchet with which
to cut the line if necessary, lanterns, box of food, keg of water, and
compass, weighing, all complete, about twelve hundred pounds.
[Illustration:
Fig. 1. The Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus).
Fig. 2. The California Gray Whale (Rjachianectes glaucus).
Fig. 3. The North Pacific Humpback (Megaptera versabilis).
Fig. 4. The Sulphur Bottom (Sibbaldius sulfurens).
Fig. 5. The Bowhead (Balaena mysticetus).
Fig. 6. The Finback or Oregon Finner (Balaenoptera velifera).
Fig. 7. The Pacific Right Whale (Balaena japonica).
]