Colonial Whaling: A Risky Business
The Occupation of Catching the Precious Oil Denizens of the Deep
Vapor spurts from the surface of the ocean signaling the presence of a whale. Thar she blows! Immediately, longboats are dispatched from the whaler. Men scramble precariously down the sides of the heavy ship into the bobbing longboats below.
The Colonial Whale Hunt
Straining their backs, the men row according to the directions of the boatheader. Only the boatheader can see the whale. The rowers have their backs to the creature.
The whale sounds(dives) as the boats draw near. Pull away boys! Hollers the mate. We'll have her the next time she spouts!
The men row hard while the boatheader shouts directions. The boatheader judges the position of the whale to the boats. He gives the harpooner the command to strike. Balancing in the jerking boat, the harpooner lifts his heavy, thick,11 foot long weapon and attempts to thrust it into the vulnerable spots behind the whale's pectoral fins.
The punctured, enraged creature reacts by sounding or running (the Nantucket sleigh ride), until it becomes exhausted, usually through the loss of blood. Though death approaches, the creature continues to be dangerous. Whales were known to breach(rise) under the whaling boats or smash the boats with their tales (flukes). Toothed whales or cachalots bit longboats in half. In the incident of the Essex, this whaler was rammed twice and sunk by a furious sperm whale.
Once the whale dies, the carcass is secured next to the whaler for dissection. Then the fat is boiled down into whale oil.
Commercial Whale Products
Whale products provided colonists with meat, fuel for their lamps (including light house beacons), and for some machine lubrication. Spermaceti, a substance found in the creature's head allowing it to dive to great depths and then to rise, made a better quality candle than did the tallow candles. It was also used for soap. Whale bone was used for the ribs in womens' corsets, horse whips, simple tools and for the ribs of umbrellas.
Ambergris was worth more than the oil and spermaceti. Found in the intestines of a sick, sperm whale, it was used to retain the scent in perfumes. A substantially large specimen weighing 983 pounds was obtained from a whale caught by a New Zealand whaler, worth, $125,000.
The usual whaling voyage spanned 3-5 years. Whaling was once an offshore enterprise in New England when the whale population was large.
Colonial Whaling Ports
New Bedford and Nantucket in Massachusetts were the whaling ports, but other ports including Salem, Beverly, Lynn, Gloucester, Newburyport and north to New Hampshire and Maine also engaged in this perilous business.
Unfortunately, the noble whales were hunted almost to extinction. Perhaps, the famous manuscripts, The Declaration of Independence and the U.S.S. Constitution were penned by the light of whale oil lamps.
Sources
Frances Diane Robotti, Whaling and Old Salem, Fountainhead Publishers, 1962, New York 17., NY. pgs. 39-45, 100-109,
