In the later 19th century, guns with explosive charges shooting the harpoons took the place of hand tools for catching and killing whales. They were much safer, for they could be shot at a whale from greater distances than a hand lance could be applied. They also penetrated the whale’s skin deeper and were harder for the animal to dislodge.
Gun harpoons were also far more efficient, for the steam whalers could approach the prey directly and did not need labor-intensive whaleboats and their highly trained crews any longer.
Designed to be fired from a shoulder gun, this nonexplosive style of harpoon was invented by Oliver Allen of Norwich, Conn. to fasten to whales prior to killing.
Once a whale was killed and its blubber was cut up and hauled aboard the ship for processing, the chunks of flesh were moved around the slippery vessel with long-handled, two-tined blubber forks. These forks were used to pitch the pieces of minced blubber into the hot try-pots to boil it down into oil. The long handles prevented sore backs from too much bending over and protected the men from getting too close to the boiling oil.
This odd tool was used to scrape the flesh off the bones from a freshly caught whale. It was the last step in processing the whale’s body before the bone was partially dried on deck and then stowed below in the cargo hold. Once the ship was back in port, the bone was placed on end in large yards to dry further.
The bone and baleen—rows of bony strips in a whale’s upper jaw that filter food from seawater—from a whaling voyage could yield as much as $50,000, or even greater profits than the oil itself. Baleen served a wide variety of purposes from buggy whips to umbrella ribs to women’s corset stays.
After a whale was captured, killed, and brought alongside the mother ship, its carcass had to be processed. First, a heavy hook was set into its skin and the hook’s line was taken aboard. Set on a long wooden handle, the cutting spade was used to cut “blanket pieces,” or long, thick, wide slices of skin and blubber from the body. The whale’s flesh was then hauled aboard for further processing. This example is marked “J.D. Cast Steel.”
This salt-glazed, ovoid stoneware cooler was made by Eleazer Orcutt and Horace Humiston in Troy, New York. It has two large handles and features a classical figure with a lyre in relief surrounded by a series of impressed medallions highlighted in cobalt blue. The cooler was probably made for an individual or firm named A. Drown in Canaan, New York.
The presence of nearby stoneware clays gave rise to the New York state salt-glazed stoneware tradition that, by the early 1800s, developed in villages and towns along the Hudson River. Shipped upriver, the clay returned downstream after being transformed into useful ceramic vessels. With the Erie Canal completion in 1825, stoneware production extended its range to meet the increased flow of perishable goods from the Great Lakes region.
Stoneware clay, when fired to a temperature of about 2100 degrees F, vitrifies into highly durable ceramic material that holds liquids and keeps perishable contents cool. Stoneware potters in America, many of them immigrants from Germany and the Netherlands, maintained their European tradition of throwing coarse salt into the kiln. The salt melts in the heat and forms a pitted glassy surface on the vessels, which would otherwise be a dull grey.
The production of these sturdy salt-glazed containers declined following improvements in tinning and canning perishable foodstuffs. In the late 1850s, the glass Mason canning jar entered the market, after which the potteries lost much of the demand for food storage containers that sustained so much of their production.
While the African American blacksmith and former slave Lewis Temple did not invent the harpoon toggle, his invention made it better. The first barb at the tip of the toggle iron was designed to penetrate the whale’s flesh. The second barb also went straight in. A small wooden peg holding the lower barb in place would then break when the whale pulled away, allowing the barbed head to swivel away from the shaft. The new T-shape of the barb prevented the dart from pulling out of its wound.
It was a harpooner’s responsibility to keep his tools sharp and well lubricated, to ensure that the toggle swiveled freely. Sometimes the men fashioned covers for the heads of their harpoons to keep them clean and dry until needed for use.
One of these irons, or gigs, is shown in the closed position for entering the whale’s flesh; the other is toggled open to show how much harder it was to pull out.
This galvanized metal foghorn was a standard piece of equipment on 19th-century fishing dories. It was used to convey the dory’s location during winter snowstorms and heavy fog. In such conditions, a member of the crew aboard the schooner would pump a larger foghorn continuously to make sure the dorymen were aware of the schooner’s location.
Dories were small, open boats equipped with a sail and oars. Stacks of them were carried aboard large fishing schooners. Once a schooner reached the offshore fishing grounds, the dories were set in the water and manned by pairs of crewmen. These fishermen set their trawls—long lines with baited hooks—and then hauled them in, removing the fish into the dory. Once their dory was filled, the fishermen rowed or sailed back to the schooner to offload the catch and rebait the hooks, if needed.
The prospect of getting separated from the schooner in bad weather and thick fog was a constant worry among fishermen on Georges and the Grand Banks. In addition to a dory compass, a water bottle, and hardtack, the foghorn was an essential part of a doryman’s survival kit.
Whaling crews used mincing knives to cut the blubber strips into thin slices down to, but not through, the thick whale skin. This process increased the surface area of the blubber and helped it melt faster in the try-pots. Cut in this fashion, the sections of whale blubber and skin were known as “bible leaves” because they resembled the pages of a book.
Gambling usually was banned aboard whaling ships, on the grounds that it could cause too much strife among the crew. But “bones” or dice were easily concealed from a ship’s officers, and crews found out-of-the-way places to spend their free time wagering their earnings, tobacco, or other assets.
Porcelain factories responded to the American passion for oysters by designing special plates on which to serve the delicacy, accompanied by silver-plated forks also designed for the purpose. During the long and lavish dinners characteristic of evening entertainment among the wealthy on the East Coast in the 1870s and 1880s, guests were frequently served their first course on oyster plates such as these gilded examples produced by the Union Porcelain Works, in Greenpoint, New York, around 1881. American and European porcelain factories met increasing affluence and elaborate dining etiquette with an extensive range of items designed for specific foods and beverages. Oyster plates represent one such refinement in response to a newly acquired taste for the shellfish.
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.
This two-gallon stoneware jug was made by Calvin Boynton & Co, Troy, New York, about 1826-29. The maker's mark is stamped on the front shoulder above a gaff-rigged sloop in full sail with a banner flying from the masthead and "TROY" marked on the stern.
Two brothers, Jonah and Calvin Boynton, came from Vermont to, at first, become merchants in Albany, New York. The pottery on Washington Street in Troy was first in operation by 1816, but Jonah appears to have abandoned the trade early on, leaving Calvin to continue the stoneware pottery, which was then taken over by Moses Tyler and Charles Dillon in 1826. Calvin Boynton then moved his business to West Troy.
The sailing vessel incised onto the jug, was probably a local sloop used in the Hudson River trade and inshore waters. The technique of incised decoration on stoneware, common in the early 19th century, had more or less disappeared by 1840.
The presence of nearby stoneware clays gave rise to the New York state salt-glazed stoneware tradition that, by the early 1800s, developed in villages and towns along the Hudson River. Shipped upriver, the clay returned downstream after being transformed into useful ceramic vessels. With the Erie Canal completion in 1825, stoneware production extended its range to meet the increased flow of perishable goods from the Great Lakes region.
The production of these sturdy salt-glazed containers declined following improvements in tinning and canning perishable foodstuffs. In the late 1850s, the glass Mason canning jar entered the market, after which the potteries lost much of the demand for food storage containers that sustained so much of their production.
Porcelain factories responded to the American passion for oysters by designing special plates on which to serve the delicacy, accompanied by silver-plated forks also designed for the purpose. During the long and lavish dinners characteristic of evening entertainment among the wealthy on the East Coast in the 1870s and 1880s, guests were frequently served their first course on oyster plates such as these gilded examples produced by the Union Porcelain Works, in Greenpoint, New York, about 1881. American and European porcelain factories met increasing affluence and elaborate dining etiquette with an extensive range of items designed for specific foods and beverages. Oyster plates represent one such refinement in response to a newly acquired taste for the shellfish.
This matched pair of pistols was manufactured in the late 1700s for sea service at close range. The barrels were made of bronze, on account of that metal’s resistance to corrosion. The pistol’s wide bore enabled easy loading. The pair was manufactured by John Tow, of Griffin and Tow, who made weapons for the British East India Company. Started in 1600, the publicly-owned EIC traded with the East Indies, China and India until the late 19th century.
In the mid-1840s, Joseph Francis developed a new method for using steam-powered hydraulic presses to stamp large sheets of iron into corrugated shapes to make boat hulls. His 1845 patent model for the process does not survive, but in 1885 he donated models representing the various steps in manufacturing corrugated metal life boats. This object is a model of a die used for stamping metal in the manufacturing process.
Joseph Francis experimented with boat construction methods throughout his life. In collaboration with the Novelty Iron Works in New York, he began to manufacture lifeboats, military cutters, and coastal rescue craft, as well as life preservers and similar gear, in the 1840s. His products proved popular among commercial steamship operators, life-saving stations, and the United States Navy. The Collins Line of express passenger ships, for example, adopted Francis lifeboats for its opulent ocean steamers in the 1850s. When the Arctic sank with great loss of life in 1854—but its patented metallic lifeboats survived—the company ordered more Francis boats for its remaining ships.
Francis is best known today for designing an enclosed rescue craft called a life-car, the prototype for which is preserved by the Smithsonian. In 1848, the Patent Office denied him a patent for the life-car, saying it was already protected under Francis’s own 1845 patent.
Liquid natural gas (LNG) is composed mostly of methane (80–99%). For shipping, it is chilled to -260°F, at which point it is condensed into a liquid 1/600 of its original volume. It is transported globally in this form aboard ships with insulated containers that offload it at special terminals.
LNG tankers have been around the United States since 1959, when the first cargo was exported from Lake Charles, Louisiana, to England. There are around 200 LNG tankers in service in 2007, and nearly that many more are on order at specialized shipyards to meet the globe’s growing demand for this source of energy.
LNG tankers have completed more than 40,000 voyages without serious incident; they have the best safety record of any category of commercial shipping. However, they are among the world’s most expensive and difficult ships to build.
Methane Shirley Elisabeth is one of the newest types of LNG tankers, having been delivered to its owners in March 2007. Its double hulls, separated by six feet of seawater, protect the four gas tanks, which are refrigerated and insulated to maintain the -260°F temperature. The tanks, or membranes, consist of layers of stainless steel and other materials alternating with thick foam insulation. The insides of the membranes are lined with stainless steel, corrugated in two dimensions to prevent the frozen gas from sloshing around inside.
In the mid-1840s, Joseph Francis developed a new method for using steam-powered hydraulic presses to stamp large sheets of iron into corrugated shapes to make boat hulls. His 1845 patent model for the process does not survive, but in 1885 he donated models representing the various steps in manufacturing corrugated metal life boats. This object is a model of the weight used with dies for stamping out copper sheets.
Joseph Francis experimented with boat construction methods throughout his life. In collaboration with the Novelty Iron Works in New York, he began to manufacture lifeboats, military cutters, and coastal rescue craft, as well as life preservers and similar gear, in the 1840s. His products proved popular among commercial steamship operators, life-saving stations, and the United States Navy. The Collins Line of express passenger ships, for example, adopted Francis lifeboats for its opulent ocean steamers in the 1850s. When the Arctic sank with great loss of life in 1854—but its patented metallic lifeboats survived—the company ordered more Francis boats for its remaining ships.
Francis is best known today for designing an enclosed rescue craft called a life-car, the prototype for which is preserved by the Smithsonian. In 1848, the Patent Office denied him a patent for the life-car, saying it was already protected under Francis’s own 1845 patent.
Sperm whale oil is very light and fine, and it has a low freezing point. As a result, it was used to lubricate fine machinery such as clocks, watches, and sewing machines from colonial times into the 20th century.
The coach gun was developed in England in the late 18th century to defend coaches against highway robbery. This 10-gauge double-barreled “scattergun” was made by Richard Bolton of Birmingham, England. A shotgun’s ammunition, in the form of round pellets or shot, spread out after leaving the smooth bore making it highly useful for close range combat. The two barrels allowed a second blast before reloading. This example features a spring-loaded bayonet that can be deployed after both barrels are fired.