Excerpted from "In the Heart of the Sea; the Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex"
"The harpoon did not kill the whale. It was simply the means by which a whaleboat crew ayyached itself to it's prey. After letting the creature tire itself out - by sounding to great depths or simply tearng along the water's surface - the men began to haul themselves, inch by inch, to within stabbing distance of the whale."
"If the whale was proving too spirited, the mate would hobble it by taking up a boat-spade and hacking away at the tendons in the tail. Then he'd take up the eleven- to twelve-foot-long killing lance, it's petal-shaped blade designed for piercing a whale's vital organs. But finding "the life" of a giant swimming mammal encased in a thick layer of blubber was not easy. Sometimes the mate would be forced to stab it as many as fifteen times, probing for a group of coiled arteries in the vicinity of the lungs wth a violent churning motion that soon surrounded the whaleboat in a rushing river of bright red blood.
When the lance finally found its mark, the whale would begin to choke on its own blood, it's spout transformed into a fifteen- to twenty foot geyser of gore that prompted the mate to shout, 'Chimney's afire!' As the blood rained down on them, the men took up the oars and backed furiously away, then paused to watch as the whale went into what was known as it's flurry. Beating the water with its tail, snapping at the air with its jaws - even as it regurgitated large chunks of fish and squid - the creature began to swim in an ever tightening circle. Then, just as abruptly as the attack had begun with the first thrust of the harpoon, it ended. The whale fell motionless and silent, a giant black corpse floating fin-up in a slick of its own blood and vomit"
These whale hunters in the early part of the 19th century would go on 2 year voyages from Nantucket, MA down under South America to the South Pacific on a 2 year voyage and kill about 20 or so whales like this during that time. Upon their return they'd be paid as little as $150. Think about that next time you think your job sucks!
"The harpoon did not kill the whale. It was simply the means by which a whaleboat crew ayyached itself to it's prey. After letting the creature tire itself out - by sounding to great depths or simply tearng along the water's surface - the men began to haul themselves, inch by inch, to within stabbing distance of the whale."
"If the whale was proving too spirited, the mate would hobble it by taking up a boat-spade and hacking away at the tendons in the tail. Then he'd take up the eleven- to twelve-foot-long killing lance, it's petal-shaped blade designed for piercing a whale's vital organs. But finding "the life" of a giant swimming mammal encased in a thick layer of blubber was not easy. Sometimes the mate would be forced to stab it as many as fifteen times, probing for a group of coiled arteries in the vicinity of the lungs wth a violent churning motion that soon surrounded the whaleboat in a rushing river of bright red blood.
When the lance finally found its mark, the whale would begin to choke on its own blood, it's spout transformed into a fifteen- to twenty foot geyser of gore that prompted the mate to shout, 'Chimney's afire!' As the blood rained down on them, the men took up the oars and backed furiously away, then paused to watch as the whale went into what was known as it's flurry. Beating the water with its tail, snapping at the air with its jaws - even as it regurgitated large chunks of fish and squid - the creature began to swim in an ever tightening circle. Then, just as abruptly as the attack had begun with the first thrust of the harpoon, it ended. The whale fell motionless and silent, a giant black corpse floating fin-up in a slick of its own blood and vomit"
These whale hunters in the early part of the 19th century would go on 2 year voyages from Nantucket, MA down under South America to the South Pacific on a 2 year voyage and kill about 20 or so whales like this during that time. Upon their return they'd be paid as little as $150. Think about that next time you think your job sucks!