298 FOLLOW THE WHALE 



warrants brief reiteration since it concerns one of the half dozen 

 really important names in whaling history — to wit, Tiglath-Pileser, 

 King of Assyria; Fran9ois Sopite, the Basque; Captain Christopher 

 Hussey of Nantucket; Samuel Enderby of London; Svend Foyn of 

 Norge; and Captain Carl Anton Larsen of that same country. At the 

 age of fourteen Svend Foyn was at sea on a sealing ship. Ten years 

 later he was already experimenting with guns, and becoming very 

 successful and prominent in the whaling industry, with consequent 

 financial returns, so that he was soon thereafter investing heavily in 

 this work. The industry did not back him properly for some time 

 and he spent, in all, 360,000 kronen on his experiments before he 

 had the proper answer. This was an altogether revolutionary device. 



The first practical model weighed about a ton and was mounted 

 in a steel swivel shaped like a huge rowlock, so that the gun could 

 be elevated or depressed and the whole moved around a complete 

 circle while steel springs took up the recoil. This was erected on the 

 bows of the vessel. The barrel was four feet in length and was 

 muzzle-loaded with no less than 350 pounds of black powder in a 

 cheesecloth bag which was pounded down with a ramrod. This 

 cannon had a three-inch bore and was provided with a wooden 

 handle at the back for aiming. The harpoon consisted of a shaft 

 fitting the barrel and an explosive head of rather complicated design. 

 To this was attached 400 fathoms of rope. 



The "head" was really a kind of shell with a tail to which the 

 rope was attached. Imagine a shell composed of two parts: a pointed 

 solid bomb in front, and a cylinder behind. Then cut four length- 

 wise gutters in the latter and fit exactly into each, large barbs pointed 

 at the back, with a forward-directed tine on the inside, and hinged 

 to the body of the shell at the front end. You will thus get a smooth 

 shell with a tail, but one from which four arms may be spread out- 

 wards, to north, south, east, and west when looked at end on. The 

 idea was to shoot this "shell" into the whale and then have the arms 

 open inside the beast so that they formed a star and thus a firm 

 anchor for the rope. Svend Foyn therefore included an explosive 

 charge in the solid front portion of the shell. In order to detonate 

 this, he further introduced a glass vial of sulfuric acid, and then de- 

 signed the "arms," or barbs, of the hind portion so they would turn 

 upon entering the whale's body and thereby crush this vial and re- 



