28 WHALES 



Since Sperm Whale meat is thought unpalatable the world over, it is 

 not surprising that the animal was left in peace until relatively recently, 

 despite the fact that it is slow-swimming and easily caught by even the 

 most primitive boats. Moreover, their curiosity often brings Sperm Whales 

 into close proximity with the ships, and they like to 'doze' on the surface 

 of the water. A Sperm Whale will generally break surface close to the spot 

 at which it last sounded. All these characteristics are very helpful to 

 whalers. What is less advantageous is the fact that, since the Sperm Whale 

 feeds on cuttlefish, it generally keeps to deep waters, and only where the 

 coast is steep can it be found close to the mainland. The Sperm Whale 

 is furthermore a predominantly tropical animal which prefers to keep to 

 waters between 40° N and 40° S. While small schools of mature bulls, 

 who fail to become the leaders of a herd of cows and calves, migrate to 

 the Arctic or Antarctic in the summer, the vast majority keep to tropical 

 and sub-tropical waters - regions which are far away from the main 

 centres of the early whaling industry. 



During the eighteenth century, when there was an increasing demand 

 for lamp oil and candles, for which Sperm Whale oil is so ideally suited, 

 New England whalers turned their attention increasingly to this animal. 

 American whalers from New Bedford and Nantucket were the first to 

 extend Sperm Whale hunting from coastal waters to the high sea. It all 

 started in 1712, and by 1770, 125 ships participated in pelagic (i.e. open 

 sea) whaling. Frenchmen, Englishmen and Portuguese soon joined in, and 

 at the end of the eighteenth century hundreds of ships were combing the 

 Atlantic for likely prey. Sperm Whales are, however, found in every ocean, 

 and so, in 1789, the Amelia left London as the first Sperm Whale hunter to 

 round Cape Horn in order to try her luck in the Pacific. The expedition 

 proved so successful that others soon followed. In 1802 the first Sperm- 

 whalers reached New Zealand, and during most of the nineteenth 

 century such ships were regular callers there, in Australia, in the Indian 

 Archipelago and on hundreds of small South Pacific islands. 



Hawaii, in particular, became a very important whaling centime and its 

 economic rise must indubitably be attributed to Sperm Whale hunting. 

 In 1846 Honolulu harboured more than 600 ships, and by then many oil 

 merchants and ship's chandlers had set up in business there. A large 

 number of adventurous sailors decided to turn their backs on the hum- 

 drum existence in their cold native countries for good, and deserted their 

 ships to dally in the shade of the palm trees and in the arms of some 

 beautiful Polynesian girl. Thus the racial composition of the population 

 of many South Sea islands owes much to Sperm Whale hunting. 



Catching Sperm Whales under a clear Southern sky was more 

 attractive than Greenland whaling. The animals were caught from boats 



