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How
Whales Were Captured
The
long search
The great whales roamed the oceans in search of food: * Krill
(masses of tiny, shrimp-like organisms that float near the surface
of the water); * Small fish and squid; * Giant squid, often consumed
by sperm whales in chunks nearly half the size of a whaleboat.
Crow's nest or Hoops
Hungry for oil, whaleships kept lookouts at the masthead every
day from sunrise to sunset. Each foremast hand took a two-hour
turn aloft, his eyes scanning the ocean, hoping to see the spout,
a vapor plume caused by the whale's breath. Two pieces of lumber
nailed to the top-gallant mast and a pair of iron hoops at breast-
height were the lookout's only support as he steadied himself
100 feet above the deck.
What kind of whale?
Under ideal conditions, a lookout might spot a whale's spout as
much as eight miles away. Each species of whale has a distinctive
spout and it took an experienced hand to know whether he was seeing
a prized sperm whale or a fin whale that the captain might not
consider worth pursuing.
"There
she blows"
When the lookout sang out, a mate or the captain called back questions
until he had determined the location of the whale as precisely
as possible. Then, captain, mates, and crew thundered across the
deck to launch the whaleboats. The shipkeepers, usually the cooper
(who made and repaired casks), the blacksmith, the carpenter,
the cook, and the steward, were left behind to handle the ship.
The frenzy of the hunt
Although the business of whaling was filled with long
hours of boredom, the moment when the whaleboats were launched
and the chase began was filled with the frenzied excitement of
a hunt. The crews raced against each other, struggling to arrive
at the whale first. Even as they moved closer to danger, they
could not see their prey. They faced the stern (rear) of the boat
and the boatheader (a mate or the captain), who steered the boat
and urged the men to row harder. He coaxed and commanded them
to strain every muscle as they surged forward. For all hands,
especially the inexperienced, it was a tense moment as the small,
fragile whaleboat drew up to the unpredictable and enormous mammal.
The listening prey
It was not simply a matter of rowing fast, reaching the whale,
and making a kill. Whales have acute hearing, so it was important
to approach quietly. The splash of an oar could "gally" (scare)
the beast and make it "sound" (dive) and swim further away from
the boats. Whenever there was a favorable wind, the crew attached
a rudder and put up mast and sail. If they could not sail, they
rowed. Sometimes, as they drew close to the whale, they quietly
paddled the boat like a canoe.
Whaling harpoons and a lance, from the museum collection.
The whale iron
As the whaleboat glided closer, the harpooneer picked
up his weapon. The harpoon, known to crews as the "whale iron,"
was used to fasten the whale to the whaleboat, rather than to
kill it. It was designed to penetrate blubber and hold securely,
like a hook. A whaleship embarking on a four-year voyage in the
mid- nineteenth century usually carried 150-200 harpoons.
The harpoon was a forged iron head mounted to a hardwood shaft
five or six feet long. The blunt end of the harpoon was attached
to a long coil of line in a bucket. Although blacksmiths and harpooneers
experimented with many different barbs, swivels, and toggles in
designing harpoon heads, the standard, hand-darted harpoon in
the second half of the nineteenth century was the toggle iron
designed by an African-American
in New Bedford, Lewis Temple.
"Give
it to him"
The harpooneer stood at the bow (front), bracing his leg against
the thighboard, weapon in hand, poised for action. "Give it to
him," the boatheader shouted when the boat was within a few feet
of their prey and the harpooneer plunged his barbed weapon into
the whale's back.
Charles S. Raleigh (1830 -1925), "Crushed Whaleboat," 1879,
oil on canvas, panel from "Panorama of a Whaling Voyage in the
Ship Niger."
Gift of Benjamin Cummings 1918.27
"Stern
all! Stern all, for your lives"
At this moment of danger, the crew backed the boat away, as the
whale thrashed in pain. The jaws or tail of a 50-ton whale could
smash a boat and send the crew tumbling into the water. (In rough
seas or fog, losing the whaleboat was a death sentence, if the
ship could not find the scattered crew.)
Smoking line: The whale usually
dove, taking down with it the embedded harpoon. The crew allowed
the line to run out to prevent the boat from being dragged down
with the whale. The line was turned around a small post called
a loggerhead, to slow it down as it ran out. As the whale pulled
the boat, the line often played out so fast that it smoked from
the friction. If the line became fouled, the boat could be dragged
underwater. A seaman caught in the rushing line could be pulled
from the boat.
Fast to the whale
When the whale came up to breathe, it often swam on
the surface, at speeds of over twenty miles per hour for a sperm
whale. The whaleboat, attached to the prey by harpoon and line,
bounced along, showering the men with spray. The danger was very
real that the crew might be carried so far from the ship that
it could not find them again. The kill: When the whale tired,
the crew pulled on the line to draw the boat close to their prey,
while boatheader and harpooneer changed places - a hazardous maneuver
that led to more than one death. The harpooneer went aft (to the
back) to steer, while the boatheader carried a lance forward and
plunged it into a vulnerable spot, such as the heart or lungs.
With each breath,
the whale spouted blood.
The flurry
As the whaleboat backed off again, the crew observed
the awesome spectacle of the death of the whale. The great beast
swam violently in ever smaller circles, a pattern known as the
"flurry." The end came when the whale beat the water with its
tail, shuddered and turned fin out, a whaling term meaning that
the whale had expired and turned over on its side..
Towing Leviathan
After hours of tremendous exertion, the whaleboat crew still had
work to do. The dead whale, often weighing more than 50 tons,
had to be towed back to the ship by a handful of exhausted men,
unless the ship could sail to it.
Unsuccessful chases
Not all pursuits ended in the death of the whale. Crews sometimes
chased for hours and never got close to their prey. Occasionally,
the harpooneer might not make a firm hit and the whale would escape,
or the whaleboat would be overturned by a whale or a storm.
More powerful weapons
Throughout the nineteenth century, whalemen sought to improve
their methods of capturing whales by perfecting better weapons.
* From the late 1850s on, harpoon guns supplemented the harpooneer's
strong throwing arm; * In 1865, an explosive harpoon was introduced
that simultaneously fastened to the whale and hit it with two
small explosive projectiles; * Bomb lances, which contained a
gunpowder charge and time fuse that triggered an explosion deep
within the whale's body, were shot at the whale from a bomb lance
gun; * Darting guns combined a harpoon and bomb lance at the end
of a single pole. As the harpoon was driven into the whale, a
rod-like trigger was released and discharged a bomb lance.
The explosive weapons were intended to slow the whale down and
weaken its ability to struggle against its captors. Explosive
devices were particularly popular in the Arctic fishery, where
it was important to prevent the whale from diving under the ice.
As weapons were improved, the whale's chances of escaping declined
dramatically.
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