Historic Nantucket, Summer 1998, Vol. 47, No. 3

THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION Dorothy Slover

President David H. Wood

Peter W. Nash

First Vice President

Second Vice President

Alan F. Atwood

Virginia S. Heard

Treasurer

Clerk Jean M. Weber

Executive Director BOARD OF TRUSTEES Aileen M. Newquist Steven M. Rales Arthur I. Reade, Jr. Alfred Sanford Richard F. Tucker Marcia Welch Robert A. Young

Sarah Baker Laurie Champion Prudence S. Crozier John H. Davis Alice F. Emerson Georgia P. Gosnell Barbara Hajim

William A. Hance Arie L. Kopelman Jane Lamb Carolyn MacKenzie Albert L. Manning, Jr. Bruce D. Miller

Mr. Walter Beinecke,Jr.

Mrs. Robert E. HeUman

Mrs. Richard L. Brecker

Mrs. John G. W. Husted, Jr. Mrs. Arthur Jacobsen Mr. Francis D. Lethbridge Mr. Reginald Levine Mrs. John A. Lodge Mrs. Francisco Lorenzo Mrs. Thomas B. Lot·ing

ADVISORY BOARD

Ms. Patricia A. Butler Mrs. James F. Chase Mr. Michael deLeo Mrs. Norman E. Dupuis m Ms. Martha Groetzinger Mrs. Herbert L. Gutterson

Mr. William B. Macomber Mr. Paul Madden Mr. Robert F. Mooney Mrs. Frederick A. Richmond Mrs. William A. Sevrens Mr. Scott Stearns, Jr. Mr. John S. Winter Mrs. Bracebridge Young

RESEARCH FELLOWS Dr. Elizabeth Little

Nathaniel Philbrick

Renny A. Stackpole

EDITORIAL COMMITTEE Mary H. Beman Susan F. Beegel Richard L. Brecker

Thomas B. Congdon, Jr. Charlotte L. Maison Robert F. Mooney Elizabeth Oldham

Nathaniel Philbrick SaUy Seidman David H. Wood

PROPERTIES OF THE NHA Oldest House Hadwen House Macy-Christian House Robert Wyer House Thomas Macy House 1800House Greater Light Old Mill Old Gaol

Old Town Building Thomas Macy Warehouse Fire Hose-Cart House Quaker Meeting House Nantucket Whaling Museum Fair Street Museum Peter Foulger Museum Museum Shop

Cecil Barron Jensen

Bartholomew Gosnold Center Folger-Franklin Memorial Fountain, Boulder, and Bench Settlers Burial Ground Tristram Coffin Homestead Monument Little Gallery Eleanor Ham Pony Field Mill Hill

Elizabeth Oldham

EDITOR

COPY EDITOR

Helen Winslow Chase

Claire O'Keeffe

IIJSTORIAN

ART DmEGOR

Historic Nantucket welcomes articles on any aspect of Nantucket history. Original research , first-hand account , reminiscences of island experiences, historic logs, letters, and photographs are examples of materials of interest to o ur readers. © 1998 by Nantucket Historical Association Historic Nantucket (ISSN 0439-2248) is published qua~terly by the Nantucket Histo rical Association , 2 Whaler's Lane, Nantucket, MA 0255-l.

Second-class postage prud at South Yarmouth, MA and additional entry offices.

Postmaster: Send address changes to Historic Nantucket Box 1016 • Nantucket, 02554-1016 ~(50?) ~28- 1894 ; FA.X:(508) 228-5618 • infonha@capecod.net For a map of our walking tour and histone sttes: http:// www.pointinfinity. com/ mapandlegend

Mf\

NANTUCKET VOLUME 47, NO. 3

SUMMER 1998

20 Beginning with Candle Making

4 A Foreword

5

by Jean Weber

A History of the Nantucket Whaling Museum

The Story of Nantucket's Sperm Whale

by Patty Jo Rice

24 The Changing Perception of

by Cecil Barron Jensen

Whales in Literature

9

The New England Aquarium's Responses to Marine Mammal Strandings

by Richard J. King

33

by Jim Rice <tml Belinda Rubinstein

11 Sperm Whales byJ<tmes McKenna

16

Rare Books A Look at the NHA's Collection of Nineteenth-Century Books on Whales and Whaling

by Betsy Lowenstein

Whaling Tools in the Nantucket Whaling Museum

by Robert E. llcllman

36

Historic Nantucket Book Section

by Judith Powers

The Nantucket Historical Assoa'ation thanks

Nantucket Bank for its sponsorship of this special whaling issue of Historic Nantucket.

On the cover: Whaleship Jdancl!'r UniJc.:ntific.:J artist. circa 1856- 1865 ( )ilon ( ~.tm¡;ts, 20 I '8 inchL-s x 2-1 I/8 inches Thc.: Jdandcr. shown her<.: with uypots smoking on deck while another whale is pursued in the foreground: was built at . .

Fairha\'c.:n, i\Lissachuseus. in 1856 ror Matthew Crosby. On one of the Islander's voyages in the South Pa~c, Captam William Cash Jispatchc.:d an eighty-seven-foot sperm whale whose massive lower jaw is now displayed m the NHA s Whaling Museun1.

Photograph by ,ldfrey S. Allen

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N \ '.J T Ll C K L T

1998

3

A Foreword

by Jean Weber

T

HE GREAT WHALES, PARTICULARLY PIIYSETER

macrocephalus, commonly known as the

sperm whale, have to a large extent driven the course of antucket history. Even the earliest sightings and strandings promised colonial settlers, as they had the indigenous peoples before them, a life of sustenance from the sea superior to that which could be raised from the sandy soil of the island. The hunt for the great whales turned Nantucketers into a seafaring population that grew from close-encounter adventures along the coast to deep-water voyages of world renown.

To such significant years in the island's whaling history as 1690, the year Nantucketers brought the legendary Ichabod Paddack from Cape Cod to teach them the intricacies of whaling; 1712, the year aptain Striking spermaceti Hussey's whaleboat, blown offshore, discovered and on Low Beach. captured the first sperm whale; and 1869, when the last Photograph by whaleship, the bark Oak, left antucket Harbor, we Jim Powers, add the year 1997. Throughout the twentieth century The Inquirer and Mirror the story of Nantucket whaling has been interpreted and retold with little change. ow, in the closing years of the century, events have given us the opportunity to look back on the great age of whal ing from the vantage point of modern perspective and agenda for response.

Early in the year we got word that a new film of Melville's classic Moby-Dick was in the making, with

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Patrick Stewart in the role of Captain Ahab. Stewart spent several days on island, researching the history and the environs of the whaling era. He brought a wealth of background information with him and his questions and insights as he examined the resources at the HA broadened our own understanding of the novel. His sensitive portrayal of Ahab added a level of human complexity and pain to the character and the personal relationships on board the Pequod, which are often passed over in the more traditional emphasis in the novel as a metaphor for good and evil and in the film as a portrayal of adventure on the high seas.

Another dramatic realization of life in the whaling era came home to us in the last few hours of 1997 when a forty-five-foot, eleven-inch male sperm whale stnmded and expired on the southeast shore at 'Sconset. While marine-mammal strandings are not unusual, it is rare to find a deep-water spenn whale ashore. A countless \'OI unteers and HA staff members worked to eviscerate and dismember the expired cetacean, we experienced the massive scale, stench, and gore of the hunt. But in rendering the prized spermaceti, we began to understand the historic rewards of the hunt as the pure liquid - silky, clear, and odorless - was captured in bottles.

Working side by side with the scientists and stnmding teams as they documented the event and pursued their research , we gained insight into the biological miracle and environmental dilemma of the great whales in our own lifetime.

The whale - as symbol, mystery, product, key factor in the histmy of our island, and fellow creature at risk in the world - is our theme for tl1is special issue of Historic Nantucket. We intend this as a stimu lus for curiosity and concern, as a tribute to the great whale , and as a commitment to carry our sense of the importance of the whale to antucket well beyond the traditions of a bygone era.

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The Story of Nantucket's Sperm Whale

D

30, 1997, Edie Ray received a call he will not

Howard Krum- joined me growing ilirong of onlookers to watch helplessly as me whale washed up on me beach. "It managed to get itself off mree or four times during the day," said Sundell. And as high tide approached it finally swam off in the direction of 'Sconset. "We knew it had to be sick to be in t!Us dose and could see that it was becoming weaker- its breathing was weakening- we knew it would die," Sundell explained. The general feeling on the beach was of great sadness. "People were desperate to know why we couldn't do more," said Ray. "But there was really noiliing we could do wiiliout endangering volunteers or me whale." Even iliough it was heartbreaking to see tlle al1inlal finally expire on Low Beach, Sundell admitted mat "it was a rare opportunity for biological samples to be taken from a whole sperm whale."

On Thursday, January 1, government officials, scientists, and volw1teers flooded to tlle eastern end of me island to begin ilie.i.r work on the forty-five-foot, eleveninch sperm whale. It was also on New Year's Day mat me NHA began its involvement in tl1e project. At 9:30 A.M., public progrru11s coordinator Jeremy Slavitz was

liRI'\C TilE MORNING Of' DECEMBER

soon forget. A huge whale was floundering in the heavy storm surf off the coa t of 'Sconset and it was time for the Nantucket Marine Mru1m1al Stranding Team to go into action.

Edie Ray has been connected with the stranding team for ten years; currently she is tlle beach coOt¡dinator, but this was the first time she had heard that a large whale was so close to shore. When she arrived, Tracy Sundell, the Nantucket Town biologist, had already identified the whale thrashing around in the waves as a sperm whale. "It was heartbreaking to watch," Ray said later. "We are all trained, as a stranding team, to do something; so to just stand there and watch was the absolute worst thing."

The Nantucket tranding Team acts as the "eyes, ears, and arms" for the ew England Aquarium (NEAl, the stranding representative in New England for the National Marine Fisheries Service. The teru11 is made up of many volw1teers who perform a variety of tasks such a responding to phone calls, keeping records, and making sure that those working on tl1e beach have adequate supplies, including andwiches ru1d coffee. Most frequently the teru11 responds to calls that seals are on the beach. "There is quite a large popLUation of gray seals around Nantucket," Ray explained, "and January, February, and March is their breeding season. So it is not uncommon to see young seals on tlle beach." However, all year round seals come ashore to rest. If a seal seems to be in distress, the trru1ding teru11 is alerted and will start an "observation sheet." Only if me animal i trLUy unwell will they contact me NEA for furilier instructions on bow to proceed.

In the case of a sperm whale, Ray recognized mat me Nantucket team was out of its depth, so tl1e NEA was immediately c.illed. By the aftemoon of December 31, Ray and oilier members of her teaJTI, Tracy Sundell, and two representatives from the NEA - stranding terun coordinator Connie Marigo ru1d head veterinarian IIISTORI C

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by Cecil Barron Jensen

Sperm whale flukes.

Photograph by William Watkins, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

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5

Not long after its death, the whale is pulled up onto thebeachwzih the help of Colin Sykes's lasso.

Photographs by Reema Sherry (left) and Jim Powers, The Inquirer and Mirror

(right)

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roused from his apartment by a friend to come see the whale. Even on his drive east across the island, Slavitz was determined to find a way to keep the whale skeleton on the island. So when be arrived on the beach be immediately set to work to find out who was in charge.

Ray suggested that he call the NEA (whose staff members had returned to Boston); as well as Tom French, the assistant director for Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife; and Dana Hartley, the stranding coordinator for the northeast region of the National Marine Fisheries Service. After spending the afternoon on the phone, Slavitz returned to spend the night on the beach with the whale.

Properties manager Rick Morcom bad also arrived on Thursday morning to join tl1e grmving throng of volunteers and onlookers on the beach. On instructions from the NEA staff, the Nantucket stranding team was working to secure the whale on tl1e beach; now that it was dead, no one wanted to see it drift back out to sea.

Volunteers tried several different stategies to move the creature but found it almost impossible. Finally, Colin Sykes, an employee of Toscana Corporation, entered the rough surf and successfully lassoed the enormous tail. "Then the parade of machinery hooked up to the whale," Ray explained. "They tugged and tugged and got the whale up on tl1e beach a little bit." Amazingly, it took a total of four excavators to pull the whale far enough out of the water to secure it in order for the NEA to perform the necropsy. The aquarium staff planned to arrive the following morning, so for a second night the stranding tean1 and the NHA staff kept NANTUCKET

representatives on the beach to guard the whale overnight. While it was essential to protect the whale (especially its valuable teeth), it was imperative that no one ta1.11per \vith it in any way that would impede the scientists in their work on the whale.

A necropsy of a whale starts with measuring and photographing. Scientists will refer to basic measure ments and descriptions of the whale to estimate its age and size and general health. After tho e first documentations are recorded, the stranding team from the aquarium started to take tissue sa1.11ples- they cut into such areas as the skin, blubber, and stomach. "They brought their own tools for the job," said Morcom.

"They used everything from whaling tools to scalpels. It was funny to see tl1em cutting on a forty-six-foot whale with a scalpel!" The work was fascinating for everyone involved. As the necropsy progressed, the many island volunteers lent their time and energy to assisting the aquarium staff. "Volunteers were used as extra hands to do all sorts of tasks such as holding or sharpening the tools , making sure the crowd was kept at a afe distance, and operating the excavators to help pull the blubber away," aid Slavitz. Volunteers were also asked to help other scientists who had arrived to see the whale. For instance, Slavitz spent much of the day helping Dr. Darlene Ketten of Harvard University to remove the whale's ear. She has been making a study of the sperm whale's ears and its ability to hear under water. By 3 p.m. on January 2, the necropsy was complete and the NEA staff left the island.

Early the next morning tl1e volunteers met back on S U 1\1 1\1 E R

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the beach to bl:gin the long task of removing the remaining flesh and blubber from the whale- exposing the skekton. Tom French from the state Office of Fisheries and \XIildlik remained on the scene and directed the group. The EA staff had taken their whaling tools with them and it was necessary to find replacements. Using a nineteenth-century whaling book, Tbe Maml(' Alammals of tbe ortb-wcslem Coast of ortb !lmatw am/ tbe American \'1/balc Fisbct)', by Charles M. Scammon, Morcom researched what tool would be most dlective for cutting-in. So with the permission of executive director Jean Weber, he went to the Whaling Museum and chose a boarding knife, a double-edged knife used to cut the blanket piece (blubber) free; a cutting spade, used to strip away blubber; and a bone spade, a sturdy blade that is used to cut bone. "It was mmtzing to see how well they worked," said Morcom. "Much better- faster and more effective - than the butcher's knives they had been using."

But still it was a very difficult job.

Compared to a whaling ship, Low Beach was a much more complicated place to cut in a whale. For instance, whalers hung their catch with iron chains off a platform built on the side of the ship. That way they could roll the whale around and cut away the blubber, spiraling toward the tail. Anything they didn't want- such as blood and organs - immediately dropped off into the ocean. Our volunteers had to work on one side of the whale at a time, cutting away the flesh and blubber in large pieces. Whaling ships were outfitted with pulleys and winches that cranked away and lifted the heavy lllSTORlC

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blubber - dropping it into the hold of the ship. The men and women on the beach had to drag the heavy pieces with excavators. And the whalers had a system.

Despite Morcom's research and Tom French's experience, this was the first time many of the volunteers had even seen a sperm whale, let alone cut one up. The mystery of the whale's anatomy led to many difficult decisions over where to cut and how to best expose the bones. The stench was almost unbearable. For days after working on the whale, the volunteers complained of the pervasive odor. "Everything tasted like it, smelled like it ... I couldn't escape it," said Morcom. Imagine the smell of a whaling ship and its men after five years at sea hunting, cutting, and trying-out whales.

It was also on January 3 that the volunteers on the beach punctured the head case. For three hours they collected spermaceti in barrels and buckets - and even in a small dinghy. "It was fast flowing and clearer than water," explained Morcom. But as soon as the liquid hit the air it congealed into a more solid, almost waxlike, substance. Morcom estimated that they collected a hundred gallons of spermaceti and left close to three hundred more in the head case. Even though the volunteers expected the spermaceti, they were surprised by the clarity of it and the speed of the flow. Nineteenth-century whalers dealt with the spermaceti by lifting the whole head on board the ship, cutting off the top, and, eventually,lowering a man inside to bail out every last drop.

By sunset that night, the volunteers had removed most of the flesh and blubber from the skeleton. They covered the bones with a tarp and said goodbye to

"Then the parade of machinery hooked up to the whale."

Photograph by

Jtin Powers, The Inquirer and Mirror

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7

French. He left the island with instructions for the NHA staff and a promise that he would do all he could to guarantee that the skeleton, teeth, and spermaceti would stay on the island. "He was really impressed by all of the work that the volunteers did," said Slavitz.

"After working with us he saw how committed we were, how willing we were to learn, and how willing we were to put in a substantial amow1t of time." And it was not just the NHA staff, representatives from all over the island were lobbying for the whale to stay. "Carl Jelleme, who has a construction company here, said be would not lend his excavators to the project wlless the whale stayed on Nantucket," said Slavitz.

So first thing Monday morning the NHA wrote a letter to the National Marine Fisheries Service applying for permission to be the holder of the whale skeleton.

And a few weeks later, after the whale had been safely buried in a pit away from the beach, we received the

news. "The information relayed in your correspondence about the Nantucket Whaling Museum is sufficient to satisfy the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) requirement for transfer of marine mammal parts," read the letter from Andrew A. Rosenberg, regional administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Nantucket would have its sperm whale.

What began with heartb reaking sa dn ess, as the greatest of the ocean's denizens floundered in the waves of 'Sconset, ended in jubilation. Thanks to the hard work and commitment of many, the whale is staying on Nantucket and its skeleton will someday be the centerpiece of a new exhibition at the Whaling Museum for everyone to admire, learn from, and ponder the life it lived in the deepest depths of the sea

Scientists examining the whale and prepanng tissue samples /or study.

Photographs by (clockwise /rom top) Jim Powers, The Inquirer and Mirr01; and Reema Sbeny

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The New England Aquarium's Responses to Marine Mammal Strandings

T

liE MARINE MAMMAL PROTECT! ()

ACT OF

1972 set forth the policy of protection and managemen t of marine mammal populations in the United States. In 1973, the ew England Aquarium (NEA) was authorized to intervene on behalf of stranded marine mammals by a Letter of Agreement with the ational Marine Fisheries Setvice (NMFS ). I n 1977, a wo rksho p held by th e Marine Mammal Commission began the formation of regional marin e mamma l stra nding netwo rks in th e United States. Th e NEA i part of the No rth east Region al Marine Mammal tranding Network, which covers the coastline between Ma in e and Virgini a. Th e ew England Aquarium/Fleet Bank Marine Animal Rescue Team covers over 2,500 miles of coast, responding to beach -stranded seals, whales, and sea turtles in Maine,

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N ew Hampshire, and Massachusetts. In order to respond to such a large area the aquarium relies on a network of trained volunteers. Some of the volunteer groups are organized as not-for-profit organizations and are authorized to respond to strandings under a SubLetter of Agreement from the NEA. Such groups are present in both Maine and Massachusetts and work directly with the aquarium.

Over the past two decades the NEA has pioneered the development of many medical techniques utilized in the rescue and rehabilitation of stranded marine mammals. As a result, biologists and researchers from around the world tum to the NEA for expertise in the biology and care of stranded marine mammals.

Strandings provide valuable information about the ecology of our marine environment, including the health of marine animal populations. Live animals provide crucial information on care and treatment techniques, as well as the life history of the animals. Dead animals are just as important. Much information can be learned from performing a necropsy (autopsy) on the animal, including clues concerning cause of death, information about food habits, the age of the animal, and information about the over-all health of the populations in our area. Information gathered is shared with the NMFS, other stranding response organizations, and through scientific publications.

Marine animals strand on beaches for many reasons.

In some cases tl1ere is a clear physical problem, such as an injury or illness, which renders an animal unwilling or unable to function properly in the water. Any stranding involving a cetacean (whale, dolphin, or porpoise) or sea turtle is cause for concern; for such animals, by the very fact that they have come ashore, are clearly in trouble. Although the root causes of a stranding event might not be clear, the process of coming ashore creates a host of serious health problems for these animals.

Lnmediate response is necessary to alleviate suffering as quickly as possible.

by

Jim Rice and Belinda Rubinstein

New England Aquanum staff cutting into the sperm whale on Low Beach.

Photograph by Reema Sherry

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Getting a closer look at a sperm whale's jaw.

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Whale strandings are inherently complex events due to the enormous size of the animals and the associated logistical problems of performing health assessments and moving them. In most cases, our options for "rescuing" large whales are limited. Most live whale that come ashore are suffering from an injury or illness that would make returning them to the water not only counterproductive but cruel and inhw11ane. The vast majority of whales that strand are dead, having succumbed at sea and drifted with the winds and currents to shore.

During a typical year we might expect to have close to a dozen such whale strandings between Maine and Massachusetts. From these animals we attempt to learn as much as possible about their life history and, perhaps, causes of death.

Performing a post-mortem exan1 on a whale typically requires a coordinated effort involving many people (sometimes dozens), including specially trained scientists, logistical support volunteers, and operators of heavy equipment to move large body parts. After the carcass is carefully measured, photographed, and examined, incisions are made using large !lensing knives attached to long poles (as traditionally used by whalers), and the body is systematically dissected to allow ampling of important body tissues. Analysis of these ti sues is later performed in various laboratories around the coWltty. Skeletal remains are most often used for display purposes in Wliversities and museum . The objective is to learn as much as possible from each animal.

The circw11Stances surrounding any marine man1mal stranding event are not always clear cut or obvious.

Seals, for example, come ashore regularly to rest.

People who encounter resting seals might be unfan1iliar with this behavior and assume that human intervention is necessaty. For the animal's well-being, we mu t caution people not to pour water on eals, feed them, cover them with blankets, or return them to the water. uch actions are deemed inappropriate and may even be harmful to the aninlals and to those trying to help. Seals NANTUCKET

are designed for a lifc'Style spent both in and out of the water. They generally come a hore to sari fy physical needs, and we can best help them by allowing them the opportunity to do what they want.

The EA 's initial response to a seal stranding usually is ro send a trained field volunteer to witness the animal first hand, to determine whether it is alive or dead, to identify it by specie'S, and to gin~ a detailed description of it physical and behavioral appearance. We typically observe "resting" seals for twenty-four hours to determine whether or not there is evidence of a health problem, the signs of which often mdude subtle behavionJ clue . Like all wild animals, seals mask the ymptoms of illness to reduce the likelihood of being detected and exploited by predators. If our asses ment indicates that the animal is in need of medical attention, we make preparations to collect it and tran port it to the aquarium in Boston. Stranded animals brought to the EA receive medical care from a team of veterinarian , biologists, and technicians. As in a human hospital, each animal receives individual attention, involving diagnostic tests, treatments, and medications. The progress of each is case is closely monitored throughout the cour e of therapy. Our ultimate objective is to return healthy animals back to the ocean.

All animals that are released are tagged so that they can potentially be identified if they strand again in the future. In ome cases, the aquarium can apply satellite telemetry tags to released animals, which allows us to monitor their movements, including geographical location, depth of dives, ;mel time spent at depth. This ott of information offers us a rare glimpse of the daily lives of marine animals once they return to the oce<m.

Reports of stranded animals go to the NEA through a twenty-four-hour hot line (617 973 5274), which notifies rescue team staff members by pager. If an animal is spotted on a beach in Nantucket and it is in a dangerous situation, bleeding, or appears to be small, please call the antucket 'tranding Team at 228-1212.

}1in Rice began work ai a lecbmcitllllll Maninâ&#x20AC;˘ Animal Rescue and Rehabi11iation a/ the ew England Aqzlllrium 1i1 1996.

Previously be bad worked a/ tbe MvJtic Marine L1/e Aquarium, the Roge~ \'VilliamJ Park Zoo 1i1 Rhode Island, and as a field researcher with killer u..>bales 1i1 British Columbia, Canada.

Belinda Rubinstein also works in Rescue and Rehabilitation /or the ew England Aquarium. ller previous experience includes work at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary Hospital and the ew jersey Aquarium.

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Sperm Whales

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VIN \SSUI\IINC TilE Dl$lRED

O~JECllVITY

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a scientist, it is hard to describe the sperm whale with anything other than superlatives.

The sperm whale is the largest toothed whale. It possesses the largest head and brain of any animal, and the largest gullet of any cetacean. It dives deeper and longer than any other mammal. It has the largest population of any of the "great whales" yet has the slowest reproductive rate of any cetacean and most mammals. All this, despite being the most heavily exploited and commercially valuable of any whale species. While it is arguably the mo t familiar species of whale, it also remains one of the least understood of the great whales. While we know a great deal about its anatomy from statistics gathered when the sperm was commercially harvested, we know surprisingly little about the various hmctions of its anatomy or behavior.

Objectively then, these are the facts we have to look at when we examine the truly superlative sperm whale.

In the taxonomic hierarchy of kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species, whales are placed in the Class Mullmta!ia and Order Cetacea. Like all mammals, whales are air-breathing, warm-blooded animal that bear live young and feed the young by mean of milk producing mammary gland . As cetaceans, however, whales are distinct from almost all other mammals owing to the absence of hind legs and virtual lack of fur. There is a total of seventy-eight recognized species of cetaceans, and all are believed to have evolved from a single common hippopotamus-like ancestor forty-five to fifty million years ago.

The seventy-eight species of cetaceans are further divided into two suborders: Mysticeti and Odon/oceti. Mysticetes (from the Greek, mystax = moustache and ketos = whale) are named for the appearance of hair-like keratin plates known as baleen, which hang down from the roof of the mouth. The baleen ha replaced the teeth in mysticetes and acts as a @ter to sieve and trap large quantities of small food items from the water. It has also given rise to the lllSTORJC

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common name "baleen" whale. There is a total of eleven species of baleen whales, ten of which are included among the "great whales" or large whales commonly hunted commercially. Species of baleen whales include such well-known examples as the humpback, blue, finback, Pacific gray, and right whales.

As the name implies, odontocetes (from the Greek, odonto = tooth and ketos = whale) are the toothed whales. Odontocetes comprise the remaining sixtyseven recognized cetacean species and include what are commonly referred to as whales, dolphins, and porpoises. These cetaceans have teeth that they use to capture individual prey (often squid or fish); are generally characterized by highly evolved sonar abilities; and possess a single external nostril, or blowhole, in contrast to baleen whales, which have two blowholes. Odontocetes also cliffer from mysticetes in that most species are significantly less than thirty feet in length. The exception is the largest and only odontocete representative of the great whales - the sperm whale.

Adult male sperm whales may reach lengths of greater than sixty feet and weigh as much as fifty metric tons (mT), although fifty feet and forty-three mT is more common. Females are notably smaller at forty feet or less. The physical appearance of a sperm whale is distinct and difficult to confuse with any other cetacean.

Most notable is the massive blunt, square head, which in males comprises a full one-third and in females onequarter of total body length. This gives the sperm whale

byJames McKenna

Ivory carvings of spenn whales from the NHA collections.

Photograph by JeffreyS. Allen

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the largest bead of any animal. The sperm whale also possesses the largest mammalian brain, weighing in at around twenty pounds. Another distinctive feature of the sperm whale is the long, narrow lower jaw with its thirty-four to fifty functional teeth. The conical teeth fit into shallow depressions in the upper jaw, which is devoid of functional teeth. The single s-sbaped nostril is located on the left, front portion of the bead and result in a distinctively bushy blow or spout angled both forward and to the left of the animal. The skin is usually slate gray or brownish with a paler belly and often appears wrinkled, particularly behind the bead. Instead of a dorsal fin a small rounded bump is set back on the body. The tail flukes are large and triangular with smooth edges, rounded tips, and a deep central notch.

There is some debate regarding the proper scientific name for the sperm whale. Scientific names are composed of a genus and species name (such as Homo sapt~ ens for hun1ans) and should be a single, wuque identifier for an individual species. Despite this standard, two synonymous names are still commonly used to describe the sperm whale: Physeter macrocephalus and Physeter catodon. The two names date back to the mid-eighteenth century when the spenn whale was mistakenly thought to be composed of four distinct species, and each was given its own unique name. Thls error was corrected in the mid-nineteenth century when it was recognized that all four names described just one widely distributed species. Determination of which of the four original names to use has been argued and while preference

TAXONOMIC HIERARCHY OF THE SPERM WHALE Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Cetacea Suborder: Odontoceti

Family: Physeterzdae Genus: Physeter Species: macrocephalus

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recently is given toP. macrocepha!u.\', it is still not uncommon to see reference to P. aztodon. Thus the names are used synonymously and both refer to one species, which goes by the common name of sperm \\'hale.

The scientific names for the sperm whale arc interesting to consider, for despite the historical controversy, they arc all descriptive and appropriate for this unique whale. Physeter, from the Greek phy.1a, to blow or bellow, refers to the distinctively angled blow or spout of the sperm whale. While other great \\'hales may have larger spouts, no other whale has the angled blow of a sperm. In the past, whalers, and more recently whalewatchers, could easily determ ine the ick:nrity of a sperm whale from a considerable distance simply by the distinctive angled spout. The species name aztodon (from the Greek kata = lower and odontos = tooth) roughly translates to "one with a lower jaw of tL'Cth," a reference to the long, narrow, tooth-lined lower jaw unique to sperm whales. The species name macrocephalus (from the Greek makro.r = long and kepba!c = head) is equally descriptive and makes note of the unusually large bead of tl1e sperm whale.

Two common names are also frequently used for this whale: "cachalot" and "sperm whale." Cachalot is a seventeenth-century rrench word, derived from the Romanic word for "tooth" or "grinder," a clear reference to the distinctive row of teeth on the lower jaw of the perm. The term "sperm whale" refers to the large spermaceti organ that occupies mo t of the whale's bead. This organ contains a mass of web like pipes filled with as much as three to four tons of a yellow, waxy subst<mce. Early whalers mistakenly thought this substance was the whale's sperm so they called it "spermaceti" and hence the name "sperm whale."

Despite its massive proportions, the actual function of the spermaceti organ remains uncertain. One theory is that the organ acts as an acoustic lens to direct and magnify the sonar clicks the sperm uses for its soplusticated echolocation. By squeezing air through a valve at the end of the nasal passage and bouncing the resulting sound pulse through the permaceti organ, the sperm is capable of producing a powerful and focused sonar click that can echo off and detect a target up to half a mile away. It has even been suggested that the sonar click produced by a sperm whale may be powerful enough to startle, stun, or disable prey at close range.

The clicks are loud enough to be heard by underwater microphones several miles away. Furthermore, acoustic SUMMER

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studies indicate that individual sperm whales are capable of producing unique, distinctive, rhythmic patterns of clicks suggesting that they may be used as a form of communication with other sperms.

An alternative or additional function for the spermaceti organ has also been thcoriscd: that the spermaceti organ may act as a buoyancy control device to aid in diving. At normal body temperatures, the wax in a sperm whale's head is liquefied but congeals at a few degrees belo\\ body temperature. By pumping cold seawater through the nostril the whale may be able to sufficiently cool the spermaceti so that it congeals and thus increases in density and helps the whale to sink. When preparing to rise, the whale could then reliqucfy the spermaceti by increasing blood flow to the spermaceti organ, thereby decreasing the density of the spermaceti and increasing the whale's buoyancy. It has been argued, however, that the spermaceti organ is incapable of exchanging heat so rapidly and, even if it could, the metabolic costs in terms of heat loss would be too great to make tl1e process advantageous. Thus the actual role of the spermaceti organ remains elusive and theoretical and awaits further research.

Although the spermaceti organ may or may not aid in diving, the sperm whale has clearly evolved sophisticated mechanisms for making it the deepest-diving mammal. Prior to diving, the whale will inhale deeply and descend at a rate of one to three m/s (two to six knots). During extreme dives, the heart rate is reduced, the lungs collapse, the animal relies on oxygen stored in the blood and muscles, and oxygen is routed to es entia! organs such as the brain and heart. What would be considered an extreme dive? Sperms routinely dive to depths of five hundred meters and there is good evidence that dives to three thousand meters have been made. To put these numbers into perspective, at three thousand meters the pressure is three hundred times what it is at the surface of the ocean, and temperatures are near freezing. Scuba divers with specialized gear and mixture of gases can only go to depths of three hundred meters.

One should not assume however that sperms are incapable of diving for quite impressive lengths of time.

Average dives arc forty five minutes while the longest recorded dive lasted two hours and eighteen minutes.

The depth and length of dives are related to size, witl1 the older, larger males making tl1e deepest dives. Upon returning to the surface after a dive, the whale will HISTORIC

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immediately exhale a large spout and then spend five to ten minutes at the surface taking anywhere from twenty to sixty breaths. After extended, deep dives, surface times may be as long as an hour. The whalers' rule of thumb is a good approximation for sperm dive times - for evety foot, a sperm whale will breathe once at the surface and spend about one minute underwater during the next dive.

What drives a sperm whale to such lengths and depths? As with much of the sperm whale's behavior and biology, it is a search for food and, more specifically, a search for squid. Although octopus and a variety of demersal fish including some rays, sharks, and bony fish are sometimes found in their stomachs, mesopelagic squid are by far the spem1's primary diet. Each day, it is estimated that a large sperm whale \vill eat about 3.5% of its body weight in squid (as much as 1.75 mT). In one whale stomach alone, over ten thousand squid beaks have been found (the beak is a hard, shell-like, indigestible body part which the squid uses in feeding).

Estimates based on sperm whale population sizes and stomach contents indicate that annual sperm whale squid consumption exceeds the global human fish catch.

The abundance of squid beaks in sperm whale stomachs relates to another peculiar and commercially important facet of sperm whale biology. Since the beaks are hard, indigestible, and possess sharp edges, it is difficult for the whale to pass this material ilirough its digestive system. One theory suggests that me whale produces a gw11my, waxy substance known as ambercrris to coat the beaks and mem vomits them to remove "tl1et11 from me stomach. It is also mought mat ambergris is formed from feces in the large intestine where as

Whalers, and more recently whale-watchers, could easily determine the zdentity of a sperm whale /rom a considerable distance simply by the distinctive~y angled

spout.

Photograph by William Watkins, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

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much as two hundred pounds may be found.

Ambergris was once highly prized as an aphrodisiac and later as a fixative to hold the scent of fine perfumes and soaps. It was once so highly valued that it was considered worth its weight in gold.

Although most squid consumed by sperm whales are several feet long, some sperm whale stomachs have been found with giant squid (Architeuthis dux) up to thirty feet long inside. If the sperm whale's biology and behavior are poorly known , the giant squid's remain a near total mystery . The giant squid are strictly denizens of the deep, and information on this organism comes exclusively from pieces found in sperm

Sperm whale.

Illustration by DonSineti

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whale stomachs, in fishing nets, or washed up on beaches. Recently , a group of scientists on a National Geographic sponsored expedition, attempted to get a glimpse of the giant squid in its natural habitat by attaching a small video camera to a sperm whale.

Although unsuccessful thus far in capturing footage of the giant squid, the technique should at least provide interesting information on some of th e mysteries regarding sperm whale behavior.

Mesopelagic squid are most common in water depths of several hundred to several thousand meters and are particularly abundant in the higher productivity waters along the edge of the continental shelf and in regions of cold water upwelling. It is no surprise then , given the vast quantities of squid consumed, that sperm whales are most often found in these same waters. Thus most sperms will be fow1d in deep waters just off the continental shelf and around equatorial upwelling regions. It is rare to find a sperm whale in water shallower than several hundred meters, as they appear to be particularly susceptible to stranding when they move inshore. This is clearly a whale that has evolved for life in the deep sea.

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Sperm whales congregate into two main types of groups, which are sex- and age-distributed. "Nursery schools" consist of mature, most likely related, females and juveniles of both sexes. Membership for females in nursery schools may be lifelong, about seventy years .

These nursery schools can be quite large, composed of hundreds of individuals, although herds of fifteen to thirty individuals are more common. These female-centered groups are strongly cooperative with calves apparently cared for communally. The nursery schools tend to stay do e to breeding grounds and are very rarely found above latitudes of forty degrees. Upon reaching puberty, at about age six, sexually inactive m a 1e s leave t h e nursery schools, and begin to migrate to hi gher latitudes where they join a series of loose-knit, size- and age-graded "bachelor school ." As the males mature they frequently become more solitary and seldom form groups larger than five or six individuals. The oldest and largest males are often found at the highest latitudes, as far as 67° off the equator, and rC11lain solitary except during breeding season.

During the breeding season mature males return to the breeding grounds and mix with the nursery schools with perhaps one to five other sexually mature males.

There is apparently intense physical competition among males during this time as evidenced by large scars around the jaws of bull males. While males sexually mature in their mid-teens, it is often not until their early thirties that they are large enough and socially mature enough for breeding. Thus, only about ten to twentyfive percent of sexually adult males in a population actively breed. Females, in contrast, are sexually mature and begin breeding as early as age nine. De pite this relatively young age of sexual maturity, tl1e reproductive rate of sperm whales is one of the slowest of all mammals. The gestation period is approximately fifteen months, at which time a single, thirteen-foot, one-ton, calf is born. The calf typically nurses for two years, durUMMER

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ing which time it will grow to about twenty-two feet and three tons. Following weaning, the female has a period of at least nine months during which it does not become pregnant. On average then, a female will calve about once every four years.

Given the extremely slow reproductive rate, it is quite surprising to find that the sperm whale is apparently the most abundant of the great whales. Estimates place the sperm whale population at approximately one and a half to two million individuals. While e timating whale populations is notoriously difficult, and the value must be considered with an appropriate level of uncertainty, it is still quite an impressive number of whales.

Compare this number to the estimated twelve thousand h umpbacks, ten thousand blues, eighteen thousand grays, or six hundred northern right whales. Add to thi eq uation the fact that sperm whales were the single most heavily exploited species during commercial whaling, witl1 as many as one million whales captur d, and the resiliency of the sperm whale population becomes truly impressive.

Despite an apparently robust population, the sperm whale remains on the endangered species list. While many individuals stili survive, there is concern that preferential harvesting of large bull males, who pos essed the largest heads and therefore tl1e largest amounts of spermaceti and whale oil, resulted in a shortage of large males. Fewer large males equates to fewer breeding males and hence the reproductive success of the population may be altered. What is disturbing is that due to the slow reproductive rate of the specie , it may be some time before the e kinds of effects are exhibited in tl1e population. As with many aspects of sperm whale biology, we are left with many unknowns and Lmcertainties regarding this most familiar and yet mysterious of whales.

]ames McKen11a is an assistant professor of ocecmography at WzlLiams CoLLege. I Je teaches oceanography at the WtlLiams CoLLege at Mystic eaport Manlii11eStudies Program, a semester-Long, o/1-campus progra111 that focuses on the interdiscipLinllly study ofthe oceans. Each semester be visits Nantucket w1lh his cLass to study the isLand's rich and unique maritime and naturaL history.

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Scrimshaw on whale's tooth.

Photograph by JeffreyS Allen

Further Reading: Harrison, R. and M.M. Bryden. 1988. Whales, Dolphzl1s, and Porpoises. Facts on File Inc., New York Katona, S.K., V. Rough, and D.T. Richardson. 1993.

A Field Guzde to Whales, Porpoises, and Seals /rom Cape Cod to New Found/and, 4th edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington.

Leatherwood, S. and R.R. Reeves. 1983 . The Sierra Club Handbook a/Whales and Dolphins. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco.

Ridgway, S.H. and R. Harrison. 1989. Handbook of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, San Diego.

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Whaling Tools in the Nantucket Whaling Museum by Robert E. Hellman Photographs by Jeffrey S. Allen

Tracy and Brand swivel gun.

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harpoons and other implements mounted on the walls of the "whaleboat room" in the Nantucket Whaling Museum is primarily the collection of Edward F. Sanderson. One of the first collectors to appreciate the significance of the memorabilia of an industry soon to be history, Sanderson undoubtedly acquired some of his pieces by scouring the shops and wharves of New Bedford during the first quarter of the twentieth century. At that time whaling tools and whaling gear were still available in fair quantities and at modest prices, by today's standards.

According to a New Bedford newspaper, in a 1912 auction an "ordinary whaling harpoon" was bought for $7 .00, considered a premium price; a long-handled whale-oil bailer was purchased for $5.50; a companion piece -a whaling skimmer on a long handle brought as much as $10.50; and a boarding knife was bought for $5.00. Mr. Sanderson may have missed that particular auction but he must have attended many more.

Edward F. Sanderson (1874-1955) was a Congregational minister who lived in New York City and summered on Nantucket where in the 1920s he purchased Moors End at 19 Pleasant Street. He was largely responsible for the NHA's acquisition of the Had wen and Barney candle factory, which the whaling museun1 has occupied since its inception in 1930. He donated his entire whaling collection to the museum, one of the most extensive private assemblages of whaling memorabilia in the country at that tin1e. The previous remarks about bargain

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prices notwithstanding, Sanderson's acquisitions were said to represent an investment in excess of $50,000 (in 1920s dollars).

As part of the NHA's continuing efforts to assess its extensive holdings, I have been examining and recataloguing the whaling "craft" ("whalecraft" was the term used by the early whalemen to describe the products made for them by blacksmiths) and gear in Sanderson Hall. In the course of this work a number of especially interesting pieces have been observed and are discussed herein.

A Rare Whaling Gun Nineteenth-century American whalemen pursued their quarry in thirty-foot whaleboats and generally used hand-thrust harpoons and lances for fastening to the whale and killing it. The late 1840 in America saw the development of shoulder-fired whaling guns , which were used to fire modified harpoons and explosive missiles called bomb lances. The latter were used successfully to kill whales that had already been harpooned by hand-darted irons. The former, although manufactured in different designs throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, were for the most part rather ineffective devices.

The earliest American whaling shoulder gLm that we know of was made about 1847 by Oliver Allen of Norwich, Connecticut. His associate wa Christopher C. Brand, who slightly modified Allen's design. Allen took off for the California gold fields in 18-19 and eventually settled in Petaluma, where he was known as an ingenious inventor. Brand continued producing the now popular gun with virtually no further changes until the last decade of the nineteenth century. He was briefly associated with Charles Tracy, also of Norwich, and until1856 the fim1 was known as Tracy and Brand.

And after Brand's retirement or death in 1876, the enterprise was continued by his son Junius A. Brand, who produced his father's gw1 until 1890. The Brand shoulder gun was simple in design, a muzzle-loader SUMMER

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made almost entirely of cast iron, and relatively cheap -the going price in 1854 being 45.00. It wa old throughout the Engli h-speaking whaling world.

The Brand shoulder gun was advertised almost continuously in the Whalcmcn '.1 Shipping List and Merchants' Transcript, a trade newspaper for the whaling industry published weekly in New Bedford from 1843 to 1914. During 1852, '53, and '54 the second paragraph of the Tracy and Brand ad contains this inrere ring tatement: "They also manufacture a Gun for shooting I larpoons to be mounted on a boat, which is very highly appro\'cd. !'his Cun is about the size of the English I Iarpoon C.uns and is superior to them in its trength , implicit\, .md com·enicnce in loading and firing." The Tracy and Brand whaleboat mounted swivel gun may have been m,tde only for three years; it di appears from th ·ir ads after 1854 . Perhaps it was unable to c mpete \\ ith the English version made in Birmingham by William Greener.

To my knowledge, there arc no known example of the Tracy and Brand swi\'cl gun in any American mu cum - except for a single gun from the 'ander on Collection n display in rhe anrucket Whaling Museum. The gun is unsigned - but Brand never signed or marked his gun· in any way. So far as 1 know, it ha never been illustrated, but details of its construction are o imilar to those of their shoulder gun a to make the attribution \irtuallv certain. It is made of ca t iron, the barrel is part octag<~n~J and part round, it ha a pistol grip, and it is compk:te with it original swivel mounting. The I IA is fortunate to have thi extremely rare artifact, which could conceivably have been u ed on a antucket vc .. I.

Lewis Temple's Toggle ll'On Since the beginning of its r ·cord ·d history, the whale

fi hery of the We t •rn World used some form of the "double flued" harpoon to fasten to its prey. This wa an arr w-headed ir n that made a large entry wound.

As likely as n t, this type of harp<X)n would 'd raw " r Ieave through the same opening it created on fastening, allowing th wh~Je to get away. The problem vexed the whalemen or ·ly but they w re a con ervative lot and did not easily tty new m thods.

Sometim during the fit t quarter of the nineteenth century ome American blacksmiths offered "single IIISTORI

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flued" harpoons, which were basically the old arrowheaded device with one of its two barbs removed. The theory of the new iron wa that being asymmetrical in shape it would tend to twist when back pressure was brought to bear and the single barb might bite into ome undisturbed flesh and hold. In some arenas this improved device was given a modest and reasonably ucces ful try.

Befor 1850 a dramatically different and exciting alternative wa offered to the American whale fishery. It wa ba ed on an age-old principle u ed by Eskimo marine-mammal fishermen whereby a harpoon head made of bone or ivory wa made to toggle around the loop in the whale line itself. It made a mall entry wound and pres ures brought to bear upon the harp n line caused it to turn ninety degrees to the entry wound and almost assuredly hold. This, in fact, is the same principle employed in the modern swordfish harpoon. Tradition has it that the first man to devise a toggle-type whaling iron was an African-American blacksmith from ew Bedford named Lewis Temple. o ne knows exactly when or on what vessel this style of harp n made it debut, but the year of it appearance i said t be 1848. What is certain, however, was that it wa an almo tin tant success and that it replaced the old-fashioned fixed-head harpoons almost entirely.

A look at th inv ntory for the ew Bedford whaling bark unbeam illu trates the new harpoon's dominance but it Joe appear that whaling ves els continued to take along a small handful of double- and single-flued harpoons ju t for old time' sake. In 1878 Sunbeam carried four ingle-flued harpoons, seven double-flued iron , and a hundred and ixty-two toggle irons.

Lewi Temple's original toggle irons were mostly quite long, do e to forty inches; the head was made of a inglc cast-iron barb about eight inches long that rotated between two flattened cheek that were applied t the end of the harpoon's shank. The head toggled around a turdy pivot pin held within the cheeks. The

Lewis Temple's toggle iron.

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Eben Pierce's darting gun.

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ment line is spliced. Upon darting, the bomb lance is projected into the whale's body as the harpoon is fastened . The whale takes off on the "Nantucket sleigh ride," hopefully to be stopped in short order after the toggle head was generally held in position for darting by bomb lance explodes. The gun and pole fall into the a small wooden "shear pin," which was placed in a hole water and are retrieved by a light line attached to the drilled through both cheeks and head and which broke pole. This ingenious and, some may say, diaboli~al when tension was brought to bear upon the head. device was invented and patented in 1865 by an active "Temple's gig," as it was called, became the rage, and New Bedford whaling master named Eben Pierce. since it was never patented, it was duplicated by all har- Pierce, a resident of Hallowell, Maine, was master of poon makers. the New Bedford whaling bark James Allen in 1865.

Toggle irons made by Lewis Temple himself are Pierce patented five further improvements on his invenextremely rare. Temple sustained debilitating and ulti- tion over the next nineteen years, and at least four other mately fatal injuries from a fall in 1853 and he died in makers produced and patented versions of the darting 1854 at the age of fifty-four. He made toggle irons for gun, but Eben's was the first and is the best known. only about five or six years, which would account for The Whaling Museum has a number of examples of their extreme rarity. In the Sanderson Collection and Pierce's later guns and some of his competitors' but the on display in the whaling museum is an exceptional prototypes are of primary interest for this discussion. early example of Temple's toggle harpoon. It is forty The advent of the darting gun produced better inches long, has no drilling for a breakable wood pin, yields for wbalemen, particularly in the Arctic where it and was held in position for darting by a small rope was important to kill a harpooned whale quickly before grommet that was cut by the blade when under tension, it could disappear among the ice floes. (As a matter of thus allowing it to turn. This feature clearly marks the fact, a later style of Pierce's gun is still being made in NHA iron as one of Temple's prototypes. No other Pennsylvania for the Inuit of Alaska.) In an 1868 letter Lewis Temple toggle iron is known that does not use a from San Francisco whaling agent Abraham W. Pierce shear pin. It bas the maker's initials "L.T." clearly (possibly a relative of Eben's) to the well-known New stamped into the head. It is also chisel marked "S. Bedford whaleship owners Swift and Allen, he writes MTCM" on the head, the letter "S" standing for ship about the experiences of their wbaleship Fanny under and spelling out the name of the New Bedford whaler the command of Capt. James Hunting. He writes: Metacom, minus the vowels. The ship Metacom sailed "Capt H ... would have had more oil bad not he had from New Bedford in 1848 on a whaling voyage to the the worst sounding whales it was ever his fortune to get Pacific Ocean. Perhaps the voyage was the one that fast to. Capt H thinks had he had 4 of Ebens guns he changed whaling techniques for all tin1e, and perhaps would have had a 1000 bbls sure but the only one he the NHA's iron was one of those seminal harpoons. got burst owing to bad metal."

We shall probably never be able to document all the In the Sanderson collection are two very early and circumstances of its provenance, but the NHA has a unusual Pierce darting guns. One of these has a single very exciting piece of whaling history in this artifact. harpoon-mounting lug near the muzzle and a guide sleeve for the trigger rod on the opposite side of tbe Eben Pierce's Darting Gun muzzle; unfortunately, the trigger rod is missing. The The darting gun is a gun mow1ted on the "business" gun is unmarked, which is unusual for guns made by end of an ordinary whaling harpoon wooden pole. The Eben, who generally signed his pieces and indicated the gun has one or two lugs for holding a specialized har- patent date. The gun may predate the patent, which poon that bas a spiked end rather than a socket. Within would account for the anonymity. It is a muzzle-loader the barrel of the gun is a bomb lance, which is fired with a screw-off barrel and it is detonated by a large from the muzzle by means of a long trigger rod that iron hammer activated by a leaf spring. The hammer activates the firing mechanism at the same time that the strikes percussion caps on two individual nipples. The harpoon is darted. The darting gun harpoon has an iron double nipple is reminiscent of the early English swivel loop just forward of the spike to which the main attach- guns that were used as a kind of insurance policy; NANTUCKET

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should one cap fail to ignite there was a backup. A slid ing sleeve of metal fits over the lock case and is ren dered watertight at the rear by a "gasket" made of light line that lies within a cylindrical groove at the fol\vard end of the gun's mounting socket.

The second gun is sinular hut has no harpoon lug, no forward trigger guide, <111d no signs that it ever had them. This situation so t"<tr has ddicd explanation. The barrel has a sighting nub ncar the muzzle, as on a shoul der gun - an amusm.' anonul\ since it is completely useless. This gun is markd on the breech housing "PATENT 1865" and on thL· opposite side "LC. PIERCE. " This, roo, is UIHISU<tl. as on no other of his signed pieces is rhcrL' <I mrddk· initial. nor docs one appear in the patent documents. I .ike the first gun, this one has double nipples . ()nee again the Nantucket Whaling Museum is pri,·ilcged to possess two landmark pieces of American whalmg ml'morabilia.

The Hull Collection On the east wall of ~antkrson I I all t herl' is a large assemblage of British \\haling harpoons, which for many years has been labchl "I lull C:ollcnion." l hm·c been unable to glean anvthing <thour rhe source of this collection, but Mr. Sanderson is s;tid to hm·c bought ir in England where he procured \\'hat is probably the best collection of British J\rctic harpoons on this side of the pond.

The city of Kingston upon I lull. situated ncar the mouth of the l lumber Rtwr 1n northeastern I :ngland, was the center of Arctic wh,tlinu.... from Fnuland dur .... ing the eighteenth and nineteenth CL'n turies. Activities were primarily confined to the Davis Stralls to the west of Greenland ,tnt! the Greenland ea to the cast I lull suffercd extensively from the German blitz during World War II and many whaling ;trtifacts were lost.

Fortunately, Mr. Sanderson did his col leering of articles, primarilv from Hull vessels, in the 19l0s or earlier.

A Briti h whaling

~arpoon generally tells a etter story of its adven ~res than docs an American tron. The British regularly marked rhcir irons with the names of the makers, dates of manufacture (dates are HtST ORt(

r-.; \ :'\ T t ' <. K F T

virtually unknown on American harpoons), and usually the full names and ports of the whaling vessels. The HA's Hull Collection consists of sixteen hand-thrust harpoons and seven harpoons for the "Greener" gun, one swivel gun, as well as miscellaneous lances and processing tools. Most are marked with the names of vessels whose history can be followed in several published accounts. These Arctic harpoons of the British whale fi hery arc all very large-headed and double-flued with small extra return barbs called "stop withers." They are generally about six inches across the head. Their markings range from the ship Greenville Bay of Shields, England, dated 1816, to the Ocean Nymph in 1866. The last was a whaler built in 1862 in Quebec, Canada, and registered in London, England, to the Hudson's Bay Company.

Among the harpoons in the Hull Collection are five exmnples from the whaleship Truelove, without a doubt the most interesting vessel in the Hull fleet. She was built in Philadelphia in 1764, and was engaged as an American privateer during the Revolutionaty War. She was captured by a British cruiser, brought to England as a prize of war, converted to a whaler, and entered into the I lull fishery in 1784. After a record seventy-two seaons in the Arctic whale fishery she was retired from whaling in 1868. Still a sound vessel, she became a cargo carrier, and in 1873 the Truelove sailed once again into Philadelphia with a cargo of minerals consigned to the Pennsylvania Salt Manufacturing Co. She created quite a stir when it was discovered that this was the same ship built there 109 years earlier.

The year following Truelove's last whaling voyage, 1869, marked the final one for Hull whaling, and coincidentally the year that whaling ceased 111 N~mtucket.

Robert E. 1/ellman, a Nantucket-based anllques collector and dealer, has been working on cataloguing the NHA 's collection of whaling implements f!iiC£' January 1998. His research has hcenfascziwting and illuminalli1g, and the NHA staff fcds privtleged to have h1in as a volunteer.

A harpoon stamped with the whaleship Truelove's name.

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Beginning with Candle Making A History of the Whaling Museum by P atty Jo Rice

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basic design of its spermaceti press belies the intricate nature of colonial candle manufacturing, the simplicity of the Richard Mitchell and Sons manufactory (today known as the Whaling Museum) belies the role antucket played in Colonial America, Great Britain, and, to a lesser degree, France.

To put it simply, when Nantucket spoke, people on both sides of the Atlantic listened. Those listening ranged from common citizens to national leaders. The speakers were whaling merchants, referred to as Nantucketers, or, as Thomas Jefferson called them, Nantucketois.

Whaling merchants were savvy businessmen, among the first in the colonies to recognize the value of expanding business interests vertically as well as horizontally. By the outbreak of the American Revolution, several were either directly or indirectly involved in all aspects of the whaling industry.

The art of manufacturing candles from the headmatter of spenn whales began in America around 1748. It is generally agreed that Jacob Rodriques Rivera, a Sephardic Jew living in Newport, Rhode Island, introduced the process after immigrating from Portugal (Hedges 1968, p. 89). In 1749, Benjamin Crabb petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for the "sole priviledge" of making "Candles of Coarse Sperma Caeti Oyle." The petition was granted, but Crabb never acted on his grant. Instead, he moved to Rhode Island and by August of 1751 was involved in the manufacture of candles. Apparently, Crabb's manufactory burned and by 1753 he was involved in the construction and operation of a manufactory for Obadial1 Brown, in Tock:wotton, now India Point, Providence (Macy 1972, p. 78). This arrangement lasted approximately three years, after which Obadiah Brown and Co. became a leader in the manufacture of spermaceti candles and Benjamin Crabb dropped from view. By 1760, at least seven works were in operation: five in Newport, Obadiah NANTUCKET

Brown and Co. in Providence, and Joseph Cranch and Co. in Braintree, Massachusetts (Kugler 1980, p. 163 ).

Once the manufacture of candles began, headmatter, sperm oil (oil from the blubber of the sperm whale), and whale oil (from all other whales) became separate products in the marketplace with headmatter com manding three times the price of standard whale oil.

Candles were considered a specialized element of the whale-oil trade and were priced as a luxury item .

However, competition for headmatter made the cost of doing business equally high. It was estimated that threeto-four manufactories operating at capacity could easily consume the average amount of headmatter brought in annually (Hedges 1968, p. 93). Complicating the picture, whaling merchants often mixed headmatter with sperm oil for shipment to Great Britain to avoid heavy English duties on the former. As a result, producers, i.e., whaling merchants, held the key to trade. They had the ability to evade the American market and ship directly to Great Britain, they could conspire to deny needed head matter, or they could erect their own candleworks.

The need to be circumspect with Nantucketers was recognized as early as 1756. In that year, Henry Lloyd, from Boston, wrote to Aaron Lopez, a Newpmt candle manufacturer and merchant, warning "against being too nice and critical with the Nantucket men for I can assure you that nothing can be done witl1 them in that case; the only way is to make the best terms possible with them whenever you have occasion to purchase, but 'tis vain to attempt to tie them down to any measures they do not like" (Byers 1987, p. 157).

Realizing their tenuous position in the marketplace, tl1e candle manufacturers sought to do two things: prevent interested parties from entering into business and prevent Nantucket whalers from artificially inflating the price of headmatter. To do so they formed the United Company of Spermaceti Chandlers, generally referred to as the "Spermaceti Trust." The trust provided for SUMMER

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eighteenth-century America its foremost example of attempted monopoly and price fixing (Kugler 1980, p. 168). At best, adherence to trust agreements was tenuous. By 1763 there w re as many a twelve manufacturers in th<.: colonies and accu arion of pricing violations was commonplace.

During this period, an unsuccessful attempt by John Hancock to wrest control of the oil marker from William Rotch kept th<.: price of headmatter relatively stable. However, once Rotch secured his position prices rose as h<.: turned his eye toward vertically expanding his busin<.:ss empire. Rumors circulated that he was in the process of building a candle manufactory.

Although it is uncertain whether rhe Rotch manufactory was Nantucket's first. it is certain that by 1774 his works were in operation. Trust agreements for that year bear his signature and show Rotch being allocated thirteen of every hundred and eighy-one parts of headmatter (I ledges 1968, p. 112). The entry of Nantucket whaling merchants into the candle marker afTorded them an advantage that was both strong and unique. everal were now directly involved in everything from building and fitting out ships to manufacturing raw material into fin.i hed goods. The poinr was not lost on WiiJiam Rotch, who, by 1775, was leveraging for a significantly larger annual allocation of head matter.

The Revolutionary War ended large-scale candle manufacturing on the mainland and shifted th c nter of activity to Nantucket. By 1792, there were ten andleworks on island; within ten yea rs the number itunped to nineteen ( tarbuck 196--1, p.153; Byers 1987, p. 249). Among the early manuCacturcrs was Richard Mitchell.

Born in Newport , Richard Mitchell mov d to Nantucket around 1731 after marrying Mary Starbuck.

He quickly became recognized as a prominent whaler, I~erchant, and leader in the Quaker meeting. Among his many holding was a tri<mgular piece of land at the corner of what is known today as Broad and ourh Beach streets. lt wa here, at the ba e of "new north wharf" he established his manufactory. Upon hi death, the manufactory pa sed to his son PaLU. Records indicate the firm may have been a partner hip with Walter Folger. Account books from the Mitchell and Folger ~ 0 ¡ contain communications regarding business etween Paul Mitchell and Walter Folger,Jr. In March HISTORI C

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of 1846, Paul's sons, Frederick and Paul Jr., inherited tl1e manufactory; that July it was destroyed in the fire.

Late that san1e year, Richard Mitchell purchased the remains of the fum from his brothers. He constructed the current building and opened for business as Richard Mitchell and Son. In 1848, William Hadwen and Natl1aniel Barney purchased the building and incorporated it into their operation. Few traces of its original purpose remain today. The largest artifacts are a press and the original tryworks foundation. To learn about tl1e building and understand its purpose one must rely on archival documentation; but although the general nature of converting headmatter into spermaceti candles is documented, d1e exact process remains elusive.

What is known is d1at it was a fairly lengthy process lasting fr m fall until tl1e following swmner. Nature played a role in the process and tl1e work force floated between candlemaking and other island industries.

An average candleworks was capable of refining six hundred barrels of headmatter annually. Manufactories were often made of wood and generally measured 900 quare feet with an adjacent storage shed averaging 720 square feet (Kugler 1980, p. 164). The purchase of the year's supply of headmatter was made in the fall.

At that time, a work force would be recruited to transport barrels to the works and begin the manufacturing process.

The interior a/the Whaling Museum in the 1960s.

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Unlike oil from whale blubber, headmatter was not tried out aboard ship. Upon arrival at the works, it would be poured into a large copper vat and heated to remove any impurities and/or water. The remaining mi.xture was drawn off, stored in casks, and removed to a shed. A letter to Tench Francis, in Philadelphia, from Nicholas Brown and Co., Providence, describes the care given the mixture: "[The] manner we keep our Oil is this, when it Comes to us we Carefully Trim it, for which purpose we keep a Cooper whose Constant Business is when aney [sic] leaks to over hall it and Trin1 it anew" (Brown 1968, p. 92). During the ensuing winter, natural clin1atic cold would congeal the matter into a spongy and viscous mass called "black cake."

On a "favorable day in winter when the weather slackened and the temperature rose" black cake was shoveled into strong woolen bags and placed between the heavy wooden leaves of the spem1aceti press. The

post end of the press beam was lowered until it rested on the topmost leaf and locked into place with an iron pin. The free end of the press beam was lowered and pressing began. The oil drawn off- winter-strained spenn oil - was clear and considered to be the finest of all spermaceti oils. The material remaining in the bags was then reheated and molded into forty-pound chunks, again called black cake.

In the spring, generally around April, the black cake would begin to show the presence of oil. Once again, it was shoveled into bags and placed in the press. The result was spring-strained oil- considered to be inferior to winter-strained oil as it could not be used in the cold winter months. This pressing left the black cake compressed and waxy. The cakes were stored, but this time in a warm rather than cool location until summer, when they were shaved or ground into flakes, placed in bags, and pressed a third time. What remained after this pressing was spermaceti; but despite being nearly pure, it was brown in color.

Again the spermaceti was ground. Shavings were then placed in a kettle and heated until liquefied. Water and an alkali, generally potash, were added. The mixture clarified and whitened the spermaceti; eventually, vapors from the hot mixture removed any residue from both the water and potash. At that point, beeswax was added to prevent gnmulation as the spermaceti cooled.

Once cleaned, the mix was transformed into candles in only two days.

As with the whaling industry, the island's candleworks led to the creation of other on-island product-

Above: The /m;ade a/the Nantucket \Yihalti1g Museum .reen here til 1968.

Rigbt: The rear view ca. 1890.

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related businesses. Account books show payments to local businesses for paper and boxes used in packaging (AB 402 , 1817 , n.p.; AB 150, 1783, n.p.). Wick.ing was also produced (AB 149, 1825, n.p.). After the 1846 fire, the candle industry never regained its earlier prominence. Demise became inevitable with the development of gas lighting. By 1869 records show only one works in operation employing two men (Warner 1866, p. 421).

The Mitchell and Sons/lladwen-Barney building was used as a warehouse and storage facility until its purchase by the Nantucket I listorical Association in 1921.

Today it serves as a constant reminder of antucket' early industrial and economic might and a time when her sons ruled the seas.

Patty jo Rice spent many hours 111 \Jalltllcket last winter researching the origins o/the hmldmg that ir 110tu the Whaling Museum. Previously a.uociated uâ&#x20AC;˘tth Preservation lmtitutc: Nantucket, she has her doctorate 111 I It.\/oric Pre\l!rvat ion /rom the University of F!orula kbrxJ! of Archtlecture.

Works Cited AB 149. Folger and Mitchell. 1820-30. Account book

in the collection of the Nantucket 1-Iistorical Association , Edouard A. Stackpole Library and

Progress of the Whale Fishery. Reprint of 2d ed.

Clifton, New Jersey: Augustus M. Kelley, 1972.

Warner, Oliver. 1866. Statistical In/ormation

Relating to Certain Branches a/Industry in Massachusetts /or the Year Ending May 1, 1865.

Boston: Wright & Potter, Inc.

Other References of Interest Chyet, Stanley F. Lopez a/Newport: Colonial American Merchant Prince. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1970.

Brown, James Templeman. "The Whalemen: Vessels, Apparatus, and Methods of the Fishery." In The

Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States.

George Brown Goode, ed. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887. lark, Howard. "The Whale-Fishery: History and Present Con clition. " L1 The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States. George Brown Goode, ed. Washington: Government Printing Office, 1887.

Ellis, Richard. Men and Whales.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.

Gardner, Will. Three Bricks and Three Brothers:

Research Center, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

The Story of Whale Oil Merchant Joseph Starbuck.

AB 150. Walter Folger, 1777-85. Account book in the collection of the Nantucket I listorical Association, Edouard A. tackpole Library and Research enter, Nantucket, Massachu etts.

Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1945.

AB 402. Candle I-Iouse Gilbert Coffin, 1817-26.

Account book in the collection of the Nantucket Historical As ociation, Edouard A. Stackpole Libraty and Research Center, Nantucket, Massachusetts.

Rotch, William. Memorandum Written by William Rotch in the Eightieth Year a/His Age. New York and Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1916.

Stackpole, Edouard A. The Sea Hunters: The Daring

ew England Whalemen Dun¡ng Two Centuries, 1653-1853. New York:J. B. Lippincott.l953.

State treet Trust Company. Whale Fishery of

Byers, Edward. The Nation of Nantucket: Society and Politics in an Early American Co111mcrcial Cell let; I 6601820. Boston: Northca tern Univ rsity I ress, J987.

New England: An Account with Illustrations and Some Interesting and Amusing Anecdotes, o/ the Rise I and Fall ofan Industry Which Has Made New England Hedges, James B. The Browm- of Providence Plantations: Famous Throughout the World.

Boston: P. Walton, Publishers, 1915.

The Colonial Years.

Providence: Brown University Press, 1968.

Kugler, Richard . "The Whale Oil Trade, 1750-1775," in Publications. Boston: olonial ociety of Massachusetts (54): 153-73, 1980.

Macy, Obed. The History of Nantucket: Being a

Compendious Account of the First Settlement of the Island by the English Together with the Rise and HISTORI C

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The Changing Perception of Whales in Literature by Richard J. King

The death of a sperm whale depicted in scrimshaw on a whale's tooth.

Photograph by JeffreyS. Allen

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ANKIND ORIGlNALLY VIE\xrED Tiffi WHALE

as a divine animal. Genesis states, "And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth ... And God saw that it was good" (Genesis 1, 21). In the biblical story of Jonah the whale serves as God's agent. A massive, elusive anin1al swimming the unknown waters of the ocean, the whale remained a mystery and a source for myth and wonder, a source for oral legends of all peoples around the world seeking to Lmderstand their environment. This excerpt from a retelling of a Tlingit legend reveals one culture's attempt to explain the origin of the killer whale: [Natsihlane] worked by moonlight and carved eight fish from yellow cedar. He ... painted each fish with a white stripe across the head and a circle on the dorsal fin. Never before had he seen fish like them, but he placed them in line, as he had done the others, and danced and sang his most powerful spirit song for them. Then as the raven cawed a greeting to morning, he commanded the fish to leap into the water and swim and live. They did so, and soon the tide washed up foam from their spouting, because they had grown greatly and become black whales (MacFarlan 1985, p. 60).

N A NT U C K E T

The first major English authors to write about the sea - William Shakespeare, William Falconer, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Lord Byron - all described the mystical and powerful qualities of the ocean and her creatures, rarely straying too far from spiritual themes.

In 1818, Byron writes of the sea in Chi/de Harold's

Pilgrimage: Dark-heaving; boundless, endless, and sublimeThe image of Eternity-the throne Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone. (Raban 1992, 179) Well into the nineteenth century, authors viewed the sea and the whale as elements controlled by the direct hand of God or some supernatural force (Springer 1995, p. 46).

The changing of this divine perception can1e slowly.

In 1729 Sir Isaac Newton published his Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in English. Newton did not want to displace God as controller of the universe, but explained many of the mechanics and predictabilities of nature that God put in place. Newton greatly furthered scientific thought, paving the way for further experimentation to explain the world (Boorstin 1985, pp. 202-07). By the nineteenth century a cautious acceptance of some of the laws of nature had seeped into cl1e writer's perception. Culturally, the ocean had become more of a place of business than of exploration. The catching and processing of whales expanded the maritime world, stimulating the growth of the United States and, of course, Nantucket. Fan1i.liarity did not breed contempt for the whale, but fostered a closer connection to the ocean and a sense that some of her systems could be explained logically. The writer's awe of the whale decreased.

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In 1821, Briti h author Sir Walter Scott wrote The Pirate, which contains the f1rst well-known whaling

maintains a respect for the animal. He is true to the time period.

Amidst the maritin1e world of nineteenth-century America, the public demanded true and "stretched" sea narratives, particularly stories of sea disaster. Owen Chase, probably by the pen of a ghost writer, wrote one of the most famous sea-di aster stories: Narrative of the

scene in western literature. A beached whale is cut up on the shore and the characters argue about ownership.

Two years later, American Jtmes I'enimore Cooper responded with hi work rz,c Pilot, which many consider to be the first true sea no\'d. In JZ,e Pilot, Long Tom Coffin, the coxswain, is a '\lantucketer who e mother Mo11 Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the bore him at ea O\'er the \¥/hale-Ship Essex of antucket Nantucket hoals. The crew is on (1821). Chase is first mate of a NARR,\Tl\'.B a boat from their naval vessel. whaleship stove by a whale. He and • • Til and they have some time to spare.

1'1-XTRAORt>I'IAR\" A. Olll 1'RI' I. G most of his crew survive an openA right whale presents itself. and boat voyage of ninety-three days by 'iiiiP\\RE K eating their dead shipmates. Chase Coffin lead the chase. The new .. ..,· li:P . hunts because the temptation for describes the whale with matter-offact detail, and he credits the whale sport and some quick monc\ is \l\Tl (Kin; with intelligence, violence, and contoo great. offin ays, "I s:m his l'I'IQCa W.U .t.lt4rUD .t."D II .&Ut t•lfi'IIGl"lll- aT Lt.aer scious choice: spout; he threw up a pair of as 'PER,fACE'l'l-W II ALE, pretty rainbows as a Christian l, 'lll~ I' II'IYI(' 0 ~· His aspect was most horrible, would wish to look at. I Ie's a real and such as indicated resent.\!If 4Ct'O ,VI' oil-butt, that fellow!" (Cooper ment and fury. He can1e directly [1823] 1947 , p. 142). TIK· only • ·p R.\LLELED UFFr.HI. G'-' from the shoal which we had one who know ho\\ to hunt Of' THE CAPT•ts A II Wll W just before entered, and in properly, offin harpoons the which we had struck three of his I. Tltf,) ' whale, and the crew goes on ''hat companions, as if fired with BV we later know as a antuckct OWEN CH\SE, revenge for their sufferings. But sleigh ride. The death is gr<~phic to this it may be observed, that the mode of fighting which they .\'F.fl'·l'ORA.From a state of perkct rest, tVILJ BLD Jll. w., 011ll1', 92 111.0.&0'-\".lf always adopt is either with the terrible monster thrc\\ Its J f'ril!et repeated strokes of their tails, or tail on high , as when in sport. snapping of their jaws together; but its blows were trebled in and that a case, precisely sinlllar rapidity and violence, till all to tl1is one, has never been heard of amongst the was hid from view by a pyramid of foam, that was oldest and most experienced whalers (Chase deeply dyed with blood. The roarings of the fish 1989, p. 31). were like the bellowing of herd of bulls; and to one who was ignorant of the fact, it would have Chase booes on to describe how the whale, perfectly appeared a if a thousand monsters were engaged designed to be a battering ram, bashes his vessel with in deadly combat , behind the bloody mi t that "calculated mischief." He knows the whale's appearobstructed their view (Cooper [l823] 1947, pp. ance and his normal behavior in the wild ocean, 145--46). possessing skills of observation and environmental Long Tom Coffin predicts all of the whale' actions immersion that we associate with the finest biologists.

Religion remains central to the nineteenth-century and maintains a r verence for the whale ' callinn~ him « gentleman." ooper describes the whale as a "foe." perspective of whales and whaling. The L~fe of John The whale is "terrified" and "innorant of his own Thompson, a Fugitive Slave (1856) explams life on ,... power, and of the in significance of hi enemies." board a whaler and demonstrates the clear Christian Cooper intended to be as accurate as pos ible in The perspective that so many sailors shared. After twentyPilot. Although he portrays a bloody kill , ooper five years of cruel treatment, Thompson escapes and 1.

OF !'fAIITtCI.U' 1 FlllR I'IUTa 0 1 UID \&•f&l

llrtllft1 0

HISTORI C

t\NTU<KIT

Title page /rom the original edition (182 1) of the Owen Chase arrative

in the NJ-JA 's rare book collection.

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sails as a greenhand on board the whaleship Milwood out of New Bedford. Thompson tells a story about Smith, a sailor about to drown after a whale splinters his boat. With no other option, Smith grabs hold of the harpoon, still fixed in the whale, and climbs on top of the whale's back: He rested securely until a boat came and took him off! Then was the moment when mith, in the agony, and from the depths of his heart, cried, "Lord save, or I perish!" And Heaven heard the rebel's prayer, and held that mighty leviathan, and made him the means of his persecutor's preservation! For as soon as Smith was taken off his back, he went down and came up again a half mile distant (Thompson 1856, pp.

121-22).

Cartoon /rom Vanity Fair ca.1861.

Thompson sees the whale of}onah, a creature acting on behalf of God. Regardless of their religious values, nineteenth-century whalers who lived at sea and hunted the whale both respected the animal and saw their own mortality, even equality, beside it. Sailors worked with only a few planks separating them from the water, a position that engenders humility. The closer one is to the water, the larger the ocean, the higher the sky, the smaller one feels. How could nineteenth-century whale hunters not

··cra11rl bnl/ gwm by the whale>111 ho11or of tile dzscot•ery of tile ozl wells zn Pelllz>.~lz·nmn .'" From Vanity Fair, 18bl

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sec thcmsclve as part of a larger environmcnral picture? Maybe they did not care about phytoplankton or consider the overuse of resources, but whalers realized that they were not only predators. bur prey of sharks and the sea herself.

In I 85 I, I Ierman Melville published Mobv-Dick, partly inspired by Chase's narrative and today regarded a a masterpiece in American literature. Melville packs many different views into one work, ,md claims none as moral or correct. I le describes the whale as beautiful, violent, playful, wise, divine, satanic, practical, idealist, and intelligent. For people, the animal is light, material goods, and food. The whale is a great unknown, but scientifically explained; the whale is inspirational, but also a torment. Melville incorporates all perspectives of this animal from the past and foreshadows those of the future in such a profound wa; that Mobv-Dick will remain the one work against \\ hich all writing about whales will be measured.

One of the final quotations Mekillc chose for the "Extracts" section that begins Mobv· Dtck is a brief observation by a man named Charles Darwin. Eight years later, Darwin published his theory of evolution in On the On~in of !)'peeler, changing forever how men and women perceive their place in the world and the animals with whom they share this pbnet. B; the 19--!0s, marine biologist Rachel Carson had advanced Darwin' tl1eorics into the modern environmental movement. She felt that to conserve a particular area or protect a particular animal was meaningless because the balance of Earth is so delicate and all -encompassing. Por example, Carson knew that damming a creek in upstate ew York affects the spawning of ocean fish migrating within the Gulf Stream.

In Under the Sea W!ind ( 194 I) Rachel Carson writes from the perspectives of a f-ish, a bird, and an eel. She tactfully dance'S a thin line between children's book personification and rc<J, empirical science. The theme of tl1e work is clear. Every organism, large or small, is connected, relevant, and important to Earth's ecology.

Wh,Jes appear occasionally, but only as part of it all: Over mile of sea that morning the mackerel swam through the pteropod shoals, and often they met whales driving open-mouthed tl1rough the swarms of mollusks. The mackerel, whom the whales did not seek, fled from the huge, dark forms of the whales; while the \vinged snails, who SUMMER

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were being captured in millions, knew nothing of the monsters who hunted them. Eternally occu pied with the quest for food. they browsed peace fully in the ca. una\\ arl' ol the terrible hunter until the great jaws closed over them and the water rushed away in '' torrent through the plates of whalebone (Carson [ 19-11 [ 1996, pp. Jl). l) I).

Rachel arson emphasizes tiK· life cycle. Later in the book, she describes the terror ol a fish being caught in the lashing feeding of three killer wh,tb. Carson wants cl1e reader to understand tll <ll organisms die to Iced oth ers, who will subsequent!~ mon· through the food web.

The whale is no more unport.lllt th<lll the bit bacteria iliat feeds on its carcass.

Carson believes people arc p<trt of the cycle ol life. ending Under the Sea \\··urd h~ humbling the domi nance of the human species: " I :or once more the mountains would be worn <1\\<1\ hv the endless erosion of water and carried in silt to the sea, and once more all the coast would be water a!•,un, and the places of its cities and towns would bdong to the sea" (Carson [1941] 1996, p. 272). im:tv wars before. t\lelville had ended Moby-Dick this'',,~ ...

or

Now small white fowls flew screaming over the yet yawning gulf: a sullen white surl beat against its steep sides; then ,,IJ colbpsl·d. and the great shroud of the ea rolled nn ;ts it rolled fiw thou sand years ago (Mehtlle [I "'51] !992, p. 62-1).

Literary naturalists John Stl·mbeck and Ed Ricketts wrote at ilie same time.as Rtchd Carson. Although they describe few whales, they express her environmental message exceptionally well 111 their h<x1k l.o!!, from tbe Sea of Cortez (19-11 ): And it is a strange thing th<ll most of the feeling we call religious, most of the m~stical out crying which is one of the most prized and used and desired reactions of our species. is really the understanding and the attempt to sa) that man is related to the whole thing, related ine'\tricably to all reality, known and knowable ... the profound feeling of it made a Jesus, a St. Augustine, a t.

Francis, a Roger Bacon, a Charles Darwin, and an Einstein. Each of them in his own tempo and WHh his own voice discovered and reaffirmed wiili astonishment the knowledge that all thing are one thing and that one thing is all things H I ST 0 R I C

N A N T U ( 1-. I

I'

plankton, a shimmering phosphorescence on ilie sea and the spinning planets and an expanding universe, all bound togeilier by ilie elastic string of time ( reinbeck [1941] 1995, pp. 178-79).

Steinbeck and Ricketts's philosophy suggests that the reader should not place any species apart as more significant. o line can be drawn, even if a whale may be more intelligent or lovable or beautiful. They explain that if anything should be considered special it is ilie microscopic plankton, the base of ilie food web.

The literary naturalists have not dominated the twentieth-century perception of ilie whale. Once again, becau e of ilie animal's beauty and power, auiliors can not avoid giving whales particular signiiicance. Melville reminds hi reader that Moby-Dick could not be about a flea.

In l945, Robert Lowell published his poem "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket." This poem also humbles man before the sea and the whales the Quakers ought to kill. Willi quiet, eerie rhythm Lowell references the Bible and Greek mythology, mixing modern war metaphor with nineteencl1-century whaling hist01y and ilie oce~m it elf. Throughout "The Quaker Graveyard in antucket," he brings in images from Mohy-Dick and questions God's role: . . . only bones abide There, in the nowhere, where ilie boats were tossed Sky-high, where mariners had fabled news Of I , the whited monster. What it cost Them is their secret. In ilie sperm whale's slick ] see the Quakers drown and hear ilieir cry: "If God himself had not been on our side, If God him elf had not been on our side, When the Aclantic rose against us, why, Then it had wallowed us up quick.

(McClatchy 1990, p. 5) For Robert Lowell, ilie whale represents mankind's historically futile attempt to conquer nature, and ilius each other, rationalizing iliat God approves.

In Tuning the Rig (1990) Harvey Oxenhorn delivers information about the state of whale research while relating his voyage on the barkentine Regina lv!arzs.

Oxenhorn cannot help imagining whales as higher creatures: When I look at iliese animals dose up, when iliey look back at me, I am ilierefore moved to ask: SU M M ER

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Did our forebears in their own tali ships not see what we admire? If not, why not? And if they did, how could they so heedlessly destroy it? To pose these questions is to ask how different we are from those who came before us in our perceptions of and assumptions about the natural world (Oxenhorn 1990, p. 262) .

Oxenhorn goes on to attribute the difference to an ignorance of finite resources, but cannot explain why men hunted so brutally, especially when it went beyond the need for profit or food. I Ie does not understand "the attitudes of Victorian gents who regarded such activities as sport."

Today, the whale has become one of American soci ety's most adored image , privileged and magical, a major symbol for the pop-environmental movement.

Bobbi Ann Mason writes in a 1985 short story "Blu<.: Cow1uy": The pa sengers were shouting and dum ily aim ing their cameras. Water smacked their faces, and Jack and Nancy gasped with laughter, as though laughter could protect them .. .. And then a humpback whale, barnacled like a circus elephant decorated with sequin , rose completely out of the water and seemed to fly. At that moment Nancy knew thi - not something quaint or cozy - wa what she had come o far from home to sec (Walker 1986).

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In children's books, novels, poetry, science fiction, in music, art, and the media, the whale has again become an other-worldly figure, no less than divine.

And so it comes fu ll circle. In the beginning our writers perceived the whale as divine, due to the animal's mystery and size. With a growth of scientific knowledge and a familiarity with the whale through the hunt, writers did not lo e respect for the whale, but described the animal and its death with careful, eye\\~t­ ness detail. Today, despite the teaching of the Lteraty naturaLsts, we deify the whale. Modern man ' disconnection with the environment create a new my tcry about animals. Yet the whale's beauty and force, its hints of sensitivity and intelligence, are undeniable.

Living in the deep sea, whales occupy the last part of the planet that humans do not know, so they have become a cultural icon for con ervation. Whales will continue to inspire writers, even if all authors adopt the perspective that the whale's role is equal to all things HIS T 0 RIC

NANTUCKET

within the ecology of the Earth, th<.: perspective of Ed Ricketts and .John Steinbeck who said, "None of it is important or all of it is" (Steinb<.:ck ll9-H] 1995, p. 3). /\!(bard} 1\mg 1.1 the ll'llchmg ti.HI.I/<1111 mthe l.ttemture o/ tbe .\ea mune of tbe \\"tfb,mrl Co/leg!' at ,\fv1t1c \'caport Man/nne Studw1 Progmm lie 11 '' f!.raduatc .\!IIden/ at \Vc1lt'l'tlll Llnn•cnttv and 1'1.1111 ,\ 'antud:el hv ship as a teacher ahoard the 1chormer llarn·y Camage

Bibliography Boorstin, Danid .J. The Drlml·crcn. e\\' York: Vintage Books. 1985.

I

Carson, Rachd L. Under the \'ea \Vmc/.19-H. <.:\\'York: Penguin, 1996.

Chase, Owen et al. Narmtn•n of the \\I'reck of the \Vhale-Sh1j1 E111'X. li-l35 . e\v York: Dowr Publications, 1989.

Cooper, .J ames Fenimore. 'Jbe Pilot. 1823.

Cornwall: Cornwall Press, 19-i7. lac Farlan, Allan A. "The I irst BhJCkfish."

Greg Catt:nby, ed. \Vbales. 11 Celebration.

Boston: Little Brown & Co. 1983. lclville, I !crman. A1ohrDick. 1851.

New York: Pt:nguin. 1992.

McClatchy, J.D .. ed. 1Zw \ 'mtap,c Book of Contemporary !lmeriwn Poetn•. New \' ork: Vintage Books, 1990.

Oxenhorn, I larvey. 'f'IIIIIIIP, the 1~1[!,. ew York: I Iarper & Row. 1990.

Raban ,.Jonathan , t:d. '/Z11' Oxford Book of the Sea. ew York: Oxford nivcrsit} Press, 1992.

Philbrick, Thomas. }tllllt'\ /'em more Cooper and the Development of !lmeric~111 Sea Fiction. Cambridge, MA: I Iarvard nivt:rsity Press, 1961. , pringer, I Iaskdl, t:d. Amam1amltbc Sea: A Litermy fl l:ftorv. Athens, C A: nivcrsity of Georgia I ress, 1995. tcinbeck,.John. Tbc LogfromtbeSca of Cortez. 1941. ew York: Penguin, 1995.

Thompson, .J ohn. Tbe Life o/}obn Tbompson, a Fugitive SiaL'£'. Worcester: John Thompson, 1856.

Walker, Scott, ed. Tbe Crevzml/ Annual II: Short Stories

by Women. aint Paul, M : ,rcywolfPrcss, 1986.

Sec also the poem of Derek Walcott and A Whale for the Killing. by Farley Mowat.

SUJ\I MLR

1998

Rare Books A Look at the NHA)s Collection of Nineteenth-Century Books on Whales and Whaling

T

IIC EDOUARD ·\ .

s·r \( KPOLI I IBR,\RY A\JD

Re earch entt:r's collection of more than 450 rare books includes a small group of nineteenth -century books on the history f the whale fishery and the natural history of the whale.

Here is a sampling from this rare collection.

which the true history of this animal has been wrapped." Beale's history is one of the earliest books that reliably describes the sperm whale's "external form and peculiarities," its anatomy and physiology, and all other "particulars."

by Betsy Lowenstein

Tbe \¥/hale Fishery and Its Appliances The Whaling Directory of the Unttcd Statc.r i11 186CJ, With the Signals of the Fleet Lttbograpbcd in Colors (New Bedford: 1869) As stated in its preface, the purpose of this dire [()ry was to provide "an easy book ol reference for recognizing whalers at ea." Owners .md agents of whaling vessels had a particular Oag b\ which their vessels could be identified at sea. In addition to the illustrations of these signals, the directory contains , under the heading of each owner, a listing of the indtvidual vessels that constituted the American whaling fleet. On Nantucket in 1869, only the firms of F. E. t\dams & Son and J. B. Macy were still outfitting vessels for whaling voyag~ four each, respectively. That antucket 's whaling Oeet numbered only eight vessels is indicative of the degree to which the island's whaling industry declined in the latter half of the nineteenth century. This was the la t whaling c!ir ctory to be published in-the Uni ted tates.

by James Temple Brown (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1883) In 1883 a Great International Fisheries Exhibition was held in London. One component of the mammoth exhibition was an exhibit illustrative of the whale fishery, embracing the "apparatus used at present; but ome rare and interesting implements that were hastily con tructed on vessds in times of necessity, as well as ome that were developed as experiment both at sea and ashore." Temple proceeded to the principal whaling ports of the East Coast, including Nantucket, to visit wicl1 whalemen and owners of vessds, and to gather materials for the exhibition. Included in the catalog are descriptions of whaling harpoons and guns, lances, hooks, knives, chains, spades, tryworks gear, ropes, flags, photographs, logs, and stamps. Regrettably, illustration do not accompany the text.

;, I .

The Natural History of tbe Sperl// \\'!bale.· ... To \'(/bid? zs Added, A Sketch of a South-Sea \\'!baling \lovage .. .

by Thomas Beale

~

·

t'

~:·

•'llj-

~:

House flags of two Nantucket whaleship owners, Illustrated in the whaling directory o/1869.

•

(2d ed., London: 1839)

~homas B~al

, a surgeon, made severa l voyages on oard Engli h whaling ves els. (American whal rs did not require the pre ence of a physician on b ard.) It ;as during those voyages that he be amc familiar with . e appearance and habit of the sperm whale, observ~g that previous naturalist had inaccurately described e nature of this creature. A a re ult of these mi representations, he strove to "unravel the inextricable veil in N A N T U C K

r·

f

... .. A.claml a: SoD.

l. B.llaq.

SUM MER

1998.

29

Historic Nantucket Book Section

by Judith Powers

Gone A-Whaling: The Lure of the Sea and the Hunt for the Great Whale

by Jim Murphy Clarion Books, New York; hardcover, $18.00.

J

I

IM MURPIJY DEALS WITH SEVERAL TOPICS [

IllS

handsomely presented book. He delivers a concise history of the whaling industry from its earliest times to contemporary factory ships; a detailed account of a traditional whale hunt and killing; thoughts on the evolution of the perception of whales by the general public; and, finally, a plea for education and conse1vation.

Gone A-Whaling was inspired by the author's reading of journal entries and letters from boys who went to sea in search of freedom, adventure, and the hope of making more money than was available to many people living in a predominantly rural and agricultural America. Murphy's skillful use of excerpts from such sources helps us get to know the "greenies" who, although invariably horribly seasick at the outset, were given two weeks to "learn the rigging, box the compass, find .'7h~ . {ltr~• pfiht' • li·u mul their way around the ship, and take a trick at thl' Flfim{jrH- tltr N~u/ •fffmll' the wheel."

- - - BY JIM )JURPII\ - - A connection to Nantucket is made in the inclusion of Owen Chase's account of the ship Essex, a ship "stove by a whale," the narrative which coupled with his own whaling experience and imagination, formed the basis for Melville's Mobv-Dick. The early successes of blacks aboard whaling vessels are attributed to the many antislavery shipowners of alem and Nantucket who were members of the Religious Society of Friends. Reference is also made to Captain Absalom F. Boston, who sailed from Nantucket in 1822 on the ship Industry with an all-black crew.

The full-color cover illustration was artfully chosen.

It depicts the moment in the whaleboat when the harpooner stands poised to thrust his weapon into the body of the whale. The picture, like the book, tells the story of both the excitement and the cruelty of whaling.

The men in the boat are brave and risked their lives each time they lowered their boats, but Murphy wants

30

IIISTORIC

NANTUCKET

to underscore that whales are intelligent, sentient, social beings who feel pain.

The book contains a glossary, index, and bibliography, and lists whale conservation and research organizations. It is liberally illustrated with historical photographs, charts, line drawings, and engravings .

A special feature of the book are short essays on various kinds of whales that are interspersed throughout. These include vital statistics as well as remarks on characteristics and habits.

The publisher recommends the book for eight-year olds and up. Highly readable and informative, it is a book for all ages.

MobyDick Adapted and illustrated by Alan Drummond Frances Foster Books, New York; hardcover, $16.00.

T

liiS

PICTURE-BOOK

ADAI'TA I'ION

01'

Melville's classic is definitely for younger readers. The richly colorful cartoon -like drawings are imaginative and appealing.

Children will enjoy reading the little speech "bubbles" on each page as the characters add running comments to the text. Although greatly simplified, the text captures the thrill and fear of the Pcquocfs crew. The tragic conclusion is dran1aticaUy told and illustrated perhaps haunting enough for the children to want to read the original novel when they arc older.

Drummond devotes the last two pages of his book to remarks on Melville and whaling.

He ends with a message that is strikingly similar to Murphy's. lie says, "In Moby-Dick 1 discovered a wonderful celebration of the beauty of the ocean and the amazing skill of man .... Understanding the history of whaling will help us to prese1ve the whales that are left."

judith Pou•crs has sm•ed as lihnmim at the 1 antucket Elementary School /or the pa1t tu•cnty years -a per/eel career /or a woman who tmlv enjoys books, cbildren, and Nantucket h/rtorv.

S U i\1 M F R

19 9 8

GREAT WHALES NOTECARDS

F

JVL: GRAPIIITT ILLUSTRATIONS OF TIIC GRCAT WHALES WILL BE

featus路ed in a boxed set of notecards. The sperm, humpback (as seen at right), orca, finback, and right whales are illustrated by Don Sineti and will be sold for $10 a box

to benefit the Cetacean Society International and the Nantucket

Historical Association. Sineti, the cofoundet路 and past president of the Cetacean Society International, is an artist, chanteyman, and nntus路alist. Currendy he is the chanteyman at Mystic Seapos路t. The notecards will be on sale starting in Augu t. For further information, please call the NHA office at (508) 228-1894.

MOB y - DICK notu available on video For his role as Ahab, Patrick Stewart researched the history of the whaling era here on Nantucket at the NHA's Edouard A. Stackpole Library and Research Center.

The cassette is available for $19.95 at the Museum Shop at 11 Broad Street, or by calling (508) 228-5785.

rr I s T o R r c

1\ \ '\TUCK I T

IF YOU ENJOYED THIS SPECIAL ISSUE OF

HISTORIC NANTUCKET...

Become a Member!

BENEFITS OF NHA MEMBERSHIP

Every member enjoys the following benefits: free admission to all museums and historic houses; free use of th e Research Center; free admission to lecture series; invitations to events and openings; subscription to the quarterly magazine Historic Nantucket; 10 % Museum Shop discount; voting privileges at the annual meeting; and a listing in the annual report.

Please call the NHA office at (508) 228-1894.

SUMMER

1998

31