THE WHALING INDUSTRY 689 



modern industry first fished for tlie blue whale and humpback; when these de- 

 clined, it shifted to finbacks and possibly the sei whale. 



Modem Whaling 



Method of Hunting and Equipment Used. The whale is hunted from a power- 

 boat and shot with a harpoon attached to a hne. After death it is hauled close, 

 inflated, and eventually towed to the station or factory ship. The technique has 

 been much the same for the past 75 years or more, except that the ships have 

 become more powerful and the harpoon guns more accurate and long-ranged; 

 also, the whale may now be run down instead of stalked. The explosive harpoon, 

 fired from a muzzle-loading cannon, is still by far the most common type; but 

 a breechloader has been recently perfected and applied, and even more recently 

 the electric harpoon has made its appearance. An experimental compressed-air 

 harpoon with a liquid CO., head has been tried without much success. At one 

 time ships were 100 tons and were 250 horsepower steam-powered; now they 

 are about 500 tons and have 1500 horsepower. Diesel has not yet replaced the 

 steam engine although it has been successfully used to a limited extent. The line 

 is rigged as usual to springs in the hold or at the base of the foremast; but the 

 forerunners and lines may now be made of nylon, and the lines alone sometimes 

 of wire cable. Formerly, all forerunners were of the finest Italian hemp. 



Whale-spotting by airplane has been tried at intervals since the 1930's; but, 

 though successful when the weather is clear, it is so difficult to apply economically 

 that it has not been universally adopted. The foremost exponent of this method 

 has been Grierson. 



The use of ASDIC or supersonic underwater detection has also been tried quite 

 extensively since the end of World War II; though the opinion as to its perform- 

 ance is mixed, the general consensus is favorable (Clarke, 1948). The opposition 

 maintains that the running whale dodges too fast for the ASDIC beam and that a 

 good gunner can guess the whale's future movements with comparable accuracy. 

 Nevertheless, there is no doubt that for long-range pursuit with the modern power 

 catcher ASDIC helps. 



The standard harpoon gun is a heavy muzzle loader about 4 feet long, with 

 a 3/2-inch bore and mounted on 2 swivels so that it can be turned quickly in any 

 direction by a long 2-hand "stock" handle with trigger attached. Recoil is taken 

 up in the mount. Detonation is by a 32-caliber blank shell. The harpoon itself is 

 about 5 feet long and has a pointed, screwed bomb-head set above the barbs. 

 The shaft is either split for the ring or strap of the line, or eyed like a needle at 

 the base and grooved bilaterally for the steel cable strap of the line. The latter 

 type of harpoon is heavier, weighing nearly 165 pounds over-all. It rarely bends 

 in the shank, and consequently needs no expert and expensive blacksmithing after 

 ordinary use. An 8 to 12 ounce charge of coarse, slow-burning black powder is 

 the propelling force behind a mass of closely wadded tow and a hard thick rubber 

 wad, grooved on the edge at one place for passage of gas. The bomb holds about 

 8 ounces of fine, fast-burning black powder, detonated by a spring-, cap-, and 

 powder-actuated fuse which explodes about 3 or 4 seconds after discharge from 

 the gun. The barbs are tied to the shank, and the whole harpoon is held in the 

 barrel by another bight secured to the sight. Both of these lines snap when the 

 gun discharges or the barbs spread. 



