’ 
82 A History of the American Whale Fishery. 
But the old whalers were reluctant to adopt the gun and 
it apparently fell entirely out of use for Scoresby says,® 
‘‘The method of shooting harpoons . . . froma sort 
of swivel-gun, was, in the year 1772, reintroduced. In- 
deed this instrument had been so long laid aside, that 
the present was considered a new discovery.’ And the 
inventor was given a premiun of twenty guineas by the 
Society of Arts. These early harpoon guns were heavy 
swivel-guns, mounted in the bow of the whale boat. 
Their chief advantage was in the power to launch the 
harpoon at distances as great as eighty-four yards.* The 
weight of the line attached to the harpoon, however, de- 
flected the missile to a serious extent. The gun was first 
used by Scotch whalers.” It was occasionally used by 
Americans but never came into general use. The Amer- 
ican whaler preferred the later ‘‘shoulder guns’’ in spite 
of the fact that they often fired “‘aft’’ with more emphasis 
than they did forward." 
Shoulder guns were an American invention; meeting 
the demand for a weapon to kill the whale as well as to 
fasten it to the boat. They appear to have been intro- 
duced at about the same time as the bomb lance. The 
whaling gun” was invented and introduced into the 
market about 1850. From that year onward advertise- 
ments appear in the ‘‘Whalemen’s Shipping List” setting 
forth the superior qualities of this new instrument for 
killing whales. The American guns were of two sorts, 
the plain bomb gun and the so-called darting gun. Their 
invention seems to have been prompted by the same 
conditions that led to the English invention of 1730— 
the pressing need for improved facilities for killing the 
whales. 
® Scoresby, p. 79. 
®*Scammon, p. 27. 
10 Scammon, p. 226. 
1! Goode, p. 252. 
2 Ellis: History of New Bedford, p. 419. 
