CHAPTER III 

 WHALING IN THE COLONIES 



THE first American whalemen were not white, but 

 red. For an undetermined length of time before 

 the white man came, the Indian tribes living along 

 the southern coast of New England had pursued 

 the whale in canoes from the shore. Their implements were 

 crude and their captures relatively few, as shown by the fact 

 that whale meat and blubber were considered great delicacies 

 in all the Indian villages 5 but nevertheless they developed a 

 definite technique and some degree of skill in the pursuit of 

 their game. 



When a whale was sighted, as many canoes as could be 

 manned put out from shore in an attempt to surround the 

 animal. If successful in this, numerous rude wooden har- 

 poons, attached by short lines to wooden floats, or droges, 

 were implanted in the blubber. The cumbersome droges were 

 intended to impede the flight of the victim to such an extent 

 that the pursuers, by dint of heroic paddling, might keep 

 within striking distance. The death of the game, if finally 

 achieved, then became the result of a lengthy harassing pro- 

 cess or running fight which continued for many hours. Fas- 

 tening directly to the whale by means of a long line attached 

 to the sunken harpoon, as the white whalemen did later, was 

 out of the question in such frail craft as the birch bark canoes 

 of the Indians. Consequently they were forced to keep within 

 range as best they might, and to be content with the delivery 

 of such occasional lance thrusts as opportunity might allow. 

 Both the strategy of the chase and the inadequacy of the 

 weapons employed were more likely to weaken the victim 

 through the loss of blood from many minor wounds than to 

 result in any mortal blows. If the prey remained near the 



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