Whaling Across the Atlantic

Over the past three years, we have sailed a large portion of the Atlantic Ocean. During the late eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, whale oil was very valuable so connections to the whaling trade litter some of the places we have been. South Georgia, The Azores, and Mystic Seaport in Connecticut are three places where whaling is a large part of the local history. Even now, many decades later, the whalers and their practices can be visualized and learned about through old factories, old ships, and new museums. It is interesting to compare what I have learned about each of those places.

Whale hunting involves a variety of steps that begins with finding the whale and getting to the whale. Once they have harpooned and ultimately killed the whale, the blubber needs to be processed, which includes flensing (taking the blubber off the animal), cutting, and cooking it down to oil. While the basic process was the same in all three places and times, the specific strategies were a little different.

For example, the whalers from Connecticut went out on big ships that were practically floating factories. For three to five years they would stay at sea, killing and processing the whales until they could carry no more oil. They would return to port and sell the whale oil. The height of the Connecticut whaling industry was during the age of sail, so engines were not invented yet. Their boats were rowed and sailed, not motored. 

The whalers in the Azores did not have to go for years at sea; whales surrounded the islands so they did not have to go far. When a whale was spotted, the Azorean whalers would leave their houses and other jobs and run for the whaling boats to catch the whale. The height of the Azores whaling industry stretched from the end of the age of sail all the way to the late 1900s. 

The whalers in South Georgia were Norwegian. They operated from land on small motorized ships. Like in the Azores, the whales were towed to shore to be processed then the barrels of oil were picked up and shipped to Europe. The height of the whaling industry in South Georgia was from 1904 until 1965.

I think the actual process of catching the whale is interesting. The steps are finding, chasing, harpooning, flensing, cutting, and boiling the whales. The comparison of the steps makes it all the more intriguing.

The Connecticut whalers had a man at the top of the mast looking for the blow of a whale. In the Azores, a man searched with a spyglass from a mountain top look-out place. The Norwegians in South Georgia only needed to go into the bay because the whales there were so abundant. 

Both the Azorean and American whalers had small whale boats, hardly larger than a dinghy. The Americans rowed the boats themselves while in contrast, the Azoreans were towed most of the way. The Norwegians had motorized ships and only needed to gun the engine to chase down their prey.

Both the Azorean and the Connecticut whalers harpooned the whale by hand until they could stab it with the killing lance. Then they had to tow the whale carcass back. The harpoons in South Georgia were shot with a powerful harpoon gun. After shooting the harpoon, the Norwegians simply waited until the whale tired out before shooting it in a fatal spot. Then they let the carcass float until they caught fourteen whales when they towed them all back to the station at once.

The Americans flensed (peeled off the blubber of) the whale by strapping it to the side of the ship, cutting the blubber into pieces, and hoisting them off with a halyard. The Azoreans and Norwegians pulled the whale onto a deck on land called the flensing plan where men cut the blubber into strips and winches pulled it off.

In all three cases, the cutting up was the same. The whalers simply chopped up the huge pieces of blubber into sizable chunks. The Azorean and Norwegian whalers had huge boilers that cooked enormous amounts of blubber at once. The American whalers were on ships so the boilers could not be big. Instead cooks rendered the oil chunk by chunk, taking much longer than in a land-based factory. 

Oil ships came and picked up the rendered oil from the islands and the Americans sailed into port to sell the cargo. Again and again the whalers from all three places repeated the process until the whales died out. By the time the waters of the Atlantic had barely any whales left, the need for whale oil was not as great. Now, we are protecting this beautiful creature, trying to repopulate the Atlantic with whales.

I find whaling an intriguing subject. The combined history of all the different places amazes me. The three different places' history is the same but different. I like finding and picking out comparing and contrasting nuances that make the whaling in each place work. Also, if you have not seen it, I wrote a poem about the whaling history in South Georgia. You can find it here: http://svsila.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-place-that-is-called-grytviken.html

 -JackRabbit

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