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fortunate inventor found himself possessed of more than $2,000,000. En- 
couraged by this example, companies were organized to exploit this source 
of profit, to such an extent that in 1887 there were no less than thirty-five 
whaling vessels on the coast of Finmark. In good years they captured from 
twelve hundred to thirteen hundred finbacks. According to the Norwe- 
gian Fisheries Journal four companies alone in 1911 captured fourteen 
hundred and seventy-two finback whales, and in the Antarctic seas around 
South America, not less than ten thousand finbacks and humpbacks were 
killed. In 1913 nine companies with thirty-two steamers were established 
in the South Shetlands, and they caught more than three thousand whales. 
The early days of whaling, as we have seen, was “shore whaling” by 
means of small boats, and all the whales attacked and captured were those 
which approached close to the shores and could be seen from the land. 
This whaling was carried on by means of harpoons and lances. The first 
Nantucket whaling vessels were small, thirty-ton sloops fitted for cruises 
of a few week’s duration and after capturing one whale they returned to 
port. From the small sloops of those early days the vessels were increased 
in size until large barks, ships and brigs were in almost universal use. The 
tools, weapons and implements of those early days were not well adapted 
to the capture and cutting up of whales, and the later whalers found it 
difficult to improve upon them. The most improvement made was the har- 
poon-gun invented by Svend Foyn in 1867. This gun is heavily constructed 
throughout and has a bore of three inches and placed in the extreme bow 
of the whaling vessel. The harpoon is a very heavy missle, weighing sev- 
eral hundred pounds. A bomb containing roughly a pound of powder is 
serewed on to the harpoon, and the latter then rammed home and in the 
same manzer shot. Coiled upon the iron plate under the gun muzzle is the 
“doregoer”, made of the best Italian steam tarred hemp, four and half 
inches in circumference, one end of which is attached to the harpoon about 
eighteen inches from the point. Attached to the other end of the “foregoer” 
is one of the main whale lines from the winch, this line being of Russian 
steam-tarred hemp, about four hundred fathoms in length, and of five and 
a half inches circumference. Thus equipped a vessel is ready for action. 
Near the top of the mast head is located the lookout barrel, from which 
point of vantage the lookout can cover a much larger area than a man on 
deck would be able to do. As soon as a whale is sighted the vessel is run 
as close to it as possible, and when within range the gun is fired. A time 
fuse is attached to the bomb on the harpoon, this being ignited by the dis- 
charge of the gun, and five seconds after the discharge the bomb ex- 
plodes. On the shaft of the harpoon are barbs, which expand on entering 
the body of the whale, making it next to impossible for the hafpoon to be 
drawn out. As soon as struck the whale sounds and goes to the bottom. 
These animals have enormous strength and will at times tow the vessel 
several miles before beginning to weaken. As soon as the line slackens it 
is snubbed around a heavy steam winch on the deck just ahead of the 
bridge, after which the wounded whale is played in much the same manner 
that a fish is played by an expert angler, a continual strain being kept on 
