Nearly everyone on the island was involved in some part of the whaling industry. Whaling ships would make long trips to hunt for whales. The ships had all the equipment necessary for catching and killing whales and also cooking and storing their oil.
An example of scrimshaw, an art form that uses whalebone or teeth
STEVE EMBER: The main room of the Whaling Museum gives visitors an idea of how difficult and dangerous it was to hunt a whale. In the center of the room is a whaleboat which could hold six men. The fourteen meter-long skeletal remains of a sperm whale hang directly above it. The whaleboat looks very small next to this big sea creature. When sailors sighted a whale at sea, several whaleboats were lowered into the water from the much larger whaling ship.
A Whaling Museum speaker gives us an exciting description of the hunt.
SPEAKER: “Six men in the boat, mates in the stern, harponeers in the bow. Four men are at the oars. You are at one of these oars and you start rowing after the whale with twelve to fourteen foot long oars and off you go after this whale.”
BARBARA KLEIN: The men would quickly push and pull themselves toward the whale. But they also had to work quietly so that the whale would not hear them come closer.
SPEAKER: “This is very hard work. And if you notice, you’re rowing with your back to the whale. You can’t see the whale. The mate can see the whale. He is urging you on in a whisper. But you can’t see the whale, and that’s a good thing. Because if you saw this whale, you would drop dead. He is so scary.”
最新
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25
2013-11-25