% inch to the foot. The vessel was ship rigged 

 throughout her career, according to the Register, and 

 her Customhosue dimensions were length between 

 perpendiculars 124 feet 2)^ inches, breadth 28 feet 7 

 inches, depth in hold 14 feet 3 J^ inches, and 4603%5 tons. 

 Given bv New Bedford Board of Trade. 



WHALING SHIP, 1850-75 

 Rigged Model, usnm 25726 



This model represents an ideal design for a large 

 sailing whaler, ship-rigged. The name U. S. Grant, on 

 the model, which was obtained for exhibition pur- 

 poses, is fictional; no vessel of this name appears 

 among the whaling fleet. 



The model is of a clipper whaler having a sharp and 

 short entrance, a long and easy run, a straight keel 

 with some drag, a rather upright stem rabbet, and a 

 simplified longhead with eagle figurehead and single 

 trail knee but no trailboards. The post is upright, 

 with a short counter and raking elliptical transom. 

 Midsection is formed with slightly rising floor, low 

 and full bilge, and a slight tumble-home in the top- 

 sides. The bottom is copper sheathed. 



Model represents a full-rigged ship under topsails, 

 spanker and jilj. with cutting-in stage hoisted out and 

 boats in da\its, to show the vessel cruising for whales; 

 and it has the typical sailing whaler's deck arrange- 

 ment: topgallant forecastle with catheads on it, large 

 wooden windlass on main deck, forecastle com- 

 panionway slide, foremast, tryworks, main hatch, 

 mainmast, pumps, after hatch, scuttle, mizzenmast, 

 box skylight, binnacle, and wheel. Three whale- 

 boats are on davits on the starboard side, one whale- 

 boat and cutting-in stage are to port, and two whale- 

 boats are upside down on gallows between the main 

 and mizzenmasts. 



Scale of model is supposed to be ji inch to the foot, 

 for a vessel about 134 feet between perpendiculars 

 and 31 feet 6 inches beam, about the size of some of the 

 auxiliary steam whalers of the 1870's and 1880's. 



Purchased from C. H. Shute & Son, Edgartown, 

 Massachusetts, 1875. 



WHALING STEAMER, 1882 

 Rigged Model, usnm 76237 



Orca 



This large model represents the bark-rigged auxil- 

 iary steamer Orca built at San Francisco, California, 

 in 1882 for the Pacific and Arctic whaling out of that 

 port. The largest of her type in the United States 

 when built, the Orca was one of a number of this type 



built in this country during the last quarter of the 

 19th century, and resembles the steam whalers built 

 in Maine about the same time, among which arc the 

 Alarj and Helen, 1879, which became the exploring 

 vessel LI. S. S. Rogers; the Relvidere, 1880; the second 

 Mary and Helen, 1882; and the Navarch, 1892; all 

 built at Bath. The first steam whaler under the 

 American flag on the Pacific was the Pioneer, fitted in 

 1865, a former government transport rebuilt and 

 strengthened. These American steam whalers re- 

 sembled the vessels employed under the British flag 

 and usually Scotch built; notable vessels of this class 

 were the Bear and Thetis, long part of the Arctic 

 patrol of the U. S. Coast Guard, and the exploration 

 ship Alert of the U. S. Navy. 



These American-built whaling steamers, similar in 

 size, model, and rig to the sealing steamers employed 

 on the Canadian Atlantic seaboard, differed from 

 most of their foreign counterparts in being ciuite 

 sharp (clipper-built), with a very sharp entrance and 

 fine run combined with marked rise of floor. The 

 Scotch-built ships were usually rather flat floored; 

 the last ship of this class was the Antarctic exploring 

 ship Discovery, 1904. 



The Orca was designed and built as the most com- 

 plete vessel of her type; she had a steam digester for 

 drxing out oil and other apparatus considered new 

 at the time of her building. Like many of her sisters, 

 she carried full sail power and was fast under sail or 

 steam because of her clipper lines. 



The Orca was one of a fleet of vessels nipped in the 

 ice pack in 1897, off Point Barrow, Alaska, where she 

 was abandoned, A government expedition was sent 

 during the winter of 1897-98 to rescue the crews. 



The model represents a w'ooden, keel, clipper-model 

 steam bark having a straight keel with slight drag, 

 raking stem with longhead, upright posts with round 

 stern of moderate overhang, and medium sheer. 

 The entrance is sharp and the run fine. The mid- 

 section is formed with slighdy rising straight floor, a 

 low full bilge, and a slight Uimble-home in the top- 

 side. This vessel had a much flatter floor than had 

 most American steam whalers; her form resembles 

 that of the first Mary and Helen, whose lines probably 

 guided the designers of the Orca. The model has a 

 deckhouse and a steam windlass forward, pilothouse 

 just forward of stack at break of high quarterdeck, 

 wheelhouse at stern, quarterdeck flush with rail and 

 with stanchioned rail around it; she carried seven 

 boats on wooden cranes, or davits and two boats on 

 fore deckhouse. 



247 



