After some species of whales were killed, their carcasses sank. Other species, like the right whale, floated. A whale that sank represented a major loss to the whaleship crews, who had risked their lives to capture the creatures.
To prevent this sort of loss and maximize a whaleship’s efficiency, Thomas Roys of the whaling port of Southampton, on Long Island, N.Y., patented an apparatus for “Raising Dead Whales From the Bottom of the Sea.” There is little evidence that many American whalers tried the device or that it found widespread use in the industry.
Bliss’s Patent American Taffrail Log–which was introduced around 1871 and which received a medal at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876–was based on the inventions of Captain Truman Hotchkiss, a sea captain living in Stratford, Connecticut. This example incorporates two features designed by John and George H. Bliss in the late 1870s. One is a register with three dials that read tenths of a mile, ten miles, and 100 miles. The other is a rotator designed to prevent sea-weed accumulation. It was probably made before 1884 when the Bliss brothers obtained another patent for a further improved rotator.
Ref: T. Hotchkiss, "Nautical Log," U.S. patent #45,042.
T. Hotchkiss, "Screw Propeller," U.S. patent #63,520.
J. & G. H. Bliss, "Ships’ Logs," U.S. patent #178,261.
J. & G. H. Bliss, "Rotators for Ships’ Logs," U.S. patent #208,061.