THE WFTALE FISHERY. 251 



produce a weak place, which would bend without breaking when the whale started off harnessed 

 to the boat; but this was also found unsatisfactory. Finally Lewis Temple, a colored man, of New 

 Bedford, conceived the idea of the toggle-harpoon. He manufactured his first iron in 1848, and 

 since that time it has been used by the American whalemen to the exclusion of all others.* 



The shanks of the harpoons are forged by hand in blacksmith shops from the best and toughest 

 Swedish iron and not of steel; the heads, though usually cast from annealed or malleable iron, 

 are sometimes wrought. I have seen shanks of harpoons that have been twisted into the most 

 questionable shapes by the actions of dying whales; some had complete circles or loops bent in 

 them, and none of the instruments could be used until forget! anew. When the whale is towing 

 the boat the shanks of the harpoons, usually the portions known as the "necks," are sometimes 

 reduced in diameter by tractile force. That the fibers of cold iron can be drawn out in this manner 

 has been doubted by skeptics, but it does not seem improbable to persons who are familiar with 

 the ductility of metals, or with the great strain brought to bear upon the harpoon when the boat 

 is towed through a heavy sea, and more particularly when the harpoon is fastened under a rib of 

 the whale. I have seen very interesting specimens of this character, and in the fall of 1882 I sent 

 three "stretched' 1 harpoons to the National Museum. Sometimes the harpoon breaks, and the 

 portion which remains in the whale may long afterwards be cut out by the crew of the same or 

 another vessel. Owing to the marks, subsequently referred to, the instrument may be easily 

 identified. The wound becomes cicatrized, and perhaps after many years, by attrition, the pro- 

 jecting shank may be worn to a mere shred. A boat-steerer belonging to the Ansel Gibbs, of New 

 Bedford, threw his harpoon into a bowhead whale in Hudson Bay, and several years afterwards 

 the ship Cornelius Howland, also of New Bedford, captured the same whale in the Arctic regions 

 on the western coast. The whale had traversed the great northwest passage, which is as yet 

 unknown to man, and carried with it the harpoon, which was branded with the names of the Gibbs 

 and of the blacksmith who made it.t 



It is the popular impression that the harpoon is employed solely to kill the whale. This is 

 also erroneous. It is used mainly to fasten the whale to the boat by means of the line in order 

 that the animal may be killed with either the hand-lance or the explosive lance. I am aware that 

 in many cases whales have been killed by the harpoon when it penetrated a vital spot, but these 

 are the exceptions rather than the rule. 



MARKED CRAFT. The harpoons are marked with the initials of the names of the vessels 

 and the boats to which they belong. Thus, the irons belonging to the mate's boat or bow-boat of 

 the ship Susan should be stamped with a cold chisel, S, or S . . . , B. B., and as long as such a 

 harpoon remains in a whale no ship of any nation can legitimately claim the whale or its product. 

 On some vessels, instead of using the initial of the boats, straight marks or a series of dots are made; 

 thus, S on one side and | | | | or ; ; ; ; on the reverse has the same meaning as above noted. 



Capt. W. H: Macy, author and whaleman, of Nautucket, in the " Log of the Arethusa," says that 

 "marked craft claims the 'fish' so long as it is in the water, dead or alive." Also that if the captain 

 of one ship is found in the act of cutting in a whale with the marked harpoon belonging to another, 

 the claimant has a right to cut off the blubber even with the plankshear of the vessel and take 

 what is below, but cannot claim anything that has been hoisted into the ship. This is the whale- 



* To convey some idea of the magnitude of the harpoon trade, I should say that the books of Mr. James Durfee, 

 the veteran harpoon-maker of New IVdford, show that from 1S28 to 1868, inclusive, ho made and sold 58,517 har- 

 poons. Of this number 45,103 were the old-fashioned irons, including both the double and single barbed, and the 

 remainder were the improved toggle-irons. We should also take into consideration that during this time there -were 

 about eight or ten harpoon-makers at work in New Bedford, 

 t Jireh Swift, New Bedioid. 



