Natural Resources

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  Alaska Ocean Coveralls

  Description

  Fish processors, laboratory staff, inspectors, supervisors, and others who work in the factory aboard the Alaska Ocean wear royal blue coveralls like these when on duty. These polyester coveralls are worn over other clothing to maintain standards of hygiene in the factory. Some processors change their coveralls several times during their daily 12-hour shift, which can extend to kicker shifts of an additional three hours. Because clean coveralls are always in demand, the factory’s laundry crew keeps the industrial washers and dryers running continuously. The coveralls, with the words Alaska Ocean emblazoned across the back, zip up the front and are typically worn tucked into boots.

  date made

  2006

  Associated Date

  2007

  used

  McFarland, Thelma

  maker

  Fristads

  ID Number

  2007.0178.20

  catalog number

  2007.0178.20

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Scrimshaw Sperm Whale Panbone, mid 19th Century

  Description

  This large panbone, or section of the back of a sperm whale’s jaw, served as the canvas for a whaleman’s freehand drawing on two levels. In the center of the upper level is a three-masted whaleship with painted gun ports along its sides. Merchant vessels often did this, to look like powerful warships from a distance and thus protect themselves from pirates or other predators. The ship’s vertical whaleboat davits are empty, and the ship is sailing towards its little fleet of four whaleboats in various stages of harpooning a pod of five whales. Four of the whales are ‘blowing,’ or exhaling through the blowholes on top of their heads. One of the whales already has two harpoons sticking out of its back and is towing a whaleboat on a ‘Nantucket sleigh ride.' Behind the ship on the left is an old-fashioned two-masted topsail schooner sailing in the opposite direction. The sea in the foreground is calm, and the scene is placed against a shoreline of low, rolling hills. Below is another pair of sailing ships: a two-masted square-rigged brig follows a brigantine with a square-rigged foremast and a fore-and-aft main. Although engraved by the same very talented artist, the two levels of illustrations do not appear to be related. Judging from the extremely detailed and technical rigs and sails of all the ships, the scrimshaw artist may have been a sailmaker or rigger.

  Scrimshaw began in the late 18th or early 19th century as the art of carving whale bone and ivory aboard whale ships. The crew on whalers had plenty of leisure time between sighting and chasing whales, and the hard parts of whales were readily available on voyages that could last up to four years.

  In its simplest form, a tooth was removed from the lower jaw of a sperm whale and the surface was prepared by scraping and sanding until it was smooth. The easiest way to begin an etching was to smooth a print over the tooth, prick the outline of the image with a needle and then “connect-the-dots” once the paper was removed. This allowed even unskilled craftsmen to create fine carvings. Some sailors were skilled enough to etch their drawings freehand. After the lines were finished, they were filled in with lamp black or sometimes colored pigments.

  Scrimshaw could be decorative, like simple sperm whale teeth, or they could be useful, as in ivory napkin rings, corset busks (stiffeners), swifts for winding yarn or pie crimpers. The sailor’s hand-carved scrimshaw was then given to loved ones back on shore as souvenirs of the hard and lonely life aboard long and dangerous voyages.

  date made

  mid 1800s

  1840 - 1860

  ID Number

  DL.057605B

  catalog number

  57605B

  accession number

  2009.0206

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Gill Net Float

  Description

  This simple object packs a lot of meaning for certain residents of the lower Columbia River near Astoria, Oregon. It is a cedar net float, made about 1955, for use on a gill net, the preferred gear of commercial salmon fishermen in the area. While this float was never used for that purpose, it remained in Astoria where, some fifty years later, it was fashioned into this object commemorating the fishery’s former significance.

  The original float was made at the Columbia Net Floats Mill, which operated in Astoria from 1952 to 1959. According to mill worker and fisherman Cecil Moberg, “There were three steps in the process to make floats. The bolts of cedar were cut into six inch blocks by a twenty-four inch cutoff saw. The next machine was a ram device, which pushed the blocks through a round die. A hole was drilled through the center of the block by a belt driven wood lathe. The blocks were then put on a high speed lathe and were hand turned in three motions: one sweep to the right, one to the left and one finishing sweep over the whole float, giving them a smooth finish.”

  Moberg estimated the mill produced about three million floats in seven years of operation. Considering that an average Columbia River gillnet was about 1500 feet long and had about 500 floats, it is not hard to imagine a need for millions of floats among local gill netters.

  By the time the mill closed, fishermen had begun using plastic floats. The surplus cedar floats were eventually given to the Columbia River Maritime Museum’s Auxiliary. Members of that group, including donor Frankye D. Thompson, were inspired to create souvenir items to call attention to Astoria’s past. They cut the floats in half and affixed the flat side with images from the fishery’s heyday. The photo on this float shows the fleet of sailing gill net boats around the turn of the 20th century. Called the “Butterfly Fleet” by Astorians, the small, sprit-rigged vessels are emblematic of the town’s fishing heritage. A piece of lead and lead line decorate the float, and historical information provided by Cecil Moberg is provided on a piece of paper rolled to fit inside the hole where the float would have been strung on the float line.

  Date made

  ca 1955

  mill worker and fisherman

  Moberg, Cecil

  display surplus cedar floats donated by Columbia Net Floats Mill

  Columbia River Maritime Museum

  maker

  Columbia Net Floats Mill

  ID Number

  2005.0150.01

  accession number

  2005.0150

  catalog number

  2005.0150.01

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Whaler's Fluke Lance

  Description

  The most dangerous act in the dangerous business of whaling was “spading flukes.” The whaleboat drew up close alongside a desperate, unpredictable whale on the water surface, and a crewman used a boat spade or fluke lance to sever the whale’s tail tendons. This effectively immobilized the prey, for the whale couldn’t swim without its tail.

  According to James Temple Brown, who wrote the 1883 catalog of the Smithsonian’s whaling collection, the fluke lance was exceedingly rare and was regarded as “a monstrosity by all the fraternity”. This rare inscribed example was used aboard the starboard whaleboat of the bark Sea Fox.

  Date made

  ca 1880-1889

  authored whaling reference material

  Brown, James Temple

  maker

  Driggs, James D.

  ID Number

  TR.056358

  catalog number

  056358

  accession number

  012298

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Sperm Whale Tooth Watch Stand

  Description

  Scrimshaw known to have been made specifically for men is comparatively rare. This unfinished tooth was hollowed out at the back to carry a gentleman’s pocket watch inside, perhaps set on a wardrobe, a bureau or a dressing table overnight.

  Patriotic imagery was very popular on American scrimshaw. At the top is a large eagle in flight clutching arrows and an olive branch; the hole for the watch is framed by a simple scalloped line. The space at the bottom was probably reserved for the owner’s initials or possibly a date, and the two holes were likely drilled for ivory buttons. The piece was unfinished when it was donated in 1875 by J. H. Clark of Newport, R.I.

  date made

  19th century

  Associated Date

  collected

  ID Number

  DL.024905

  catalog number

  024905

  accession number

  4331

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Knife

  Description

  A knife was an essential tool on a whaleboat, where the quick cutting of a tangled line snagged on a man’s ankle or on an object in the boat could mean the difference between life or death.

  Date made

  1880s

  ID Number

  TR.103026

  catalog number

  103026

  accession number

  12328

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Rain Pants

  maker

  Dutch Harbor Gear

  ID Number

  2007.0178.10

  catalog number

  2007.0178.10

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Scrimshaw Ivory Jagging Wheel

  Description

  Pie crimpers or jagging wheels are among the most common scrimshaw items carved by American 19th century whalemen. They were useful, as well as decorative kitchen implements. The fluted wheel was used to cut dough or seal the top of a pie crust to the sides before baking.

  This example’s shaft is in the form of a snake or sea serpent, with a tongue in the shape of a three-tine fork. The fork was used to decorate or poke holes in the upper pie crust to vent the steam created by baking.

  date made

  19th century

  Associated Date

  19th century

  ID Number

  DL.388597

  catalog number

  388597

  accession number

  182022

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Ambergris

  Description

  Pound for pound, ambergris was the most valuable product produced by the whale. It was—and is—also the rarest and most enigmatic whale product. An opaque, waxy substance from a sperm whale’s intestines, it was found occasionally in the stomachs of whales being processed on whale ships. More commonly, it was found floating on the surface of the world’s oceans or washed up on the shore in pieces that could weigh several hundred pounds. It was used by western cultures as a fixative to prolong the scent of perfumes into the later 20th century.

  But why it is formed—and from which end of a sperm whale it is expelled—remains unknown. Fragments of squid beaks are often found inside the pieces, and some scientists believe that ambergris forms around the sharp, indigestible squid beaks to prevent irritating or cutting a whale’s intestines. Others consider it the cetacean equivalent of human gallstones.

  ID Number

  1991.0083.01

  catalog number

  1991.0083.01

  accession number

  1991.0083

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Scrimshaw Ivory Whale Stamp

  Description

  Carved from the teeth of captured sperm whales, whale stamps were used to record the type of whale and number of barrels of oil they yielded.

  The stamps were inked onto the page of whaleship logbooks or sailors’ journals, with an empty space in the whale’s body for writing in the number of barrels. This example in the form of a sperm whale is decorated with steel pin heads and a turned handle.

  date made

  1800s

  ID Number

  1978.0052.06

  accession number

  1978.0052

  catalog number

  1978.52.6

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Fisherman’s Knife

  Description

  A good, sharp knife is an essential tool for fishermen working on the fish deck of a catcher-processor. Aboard the Alaska Ocean, each deckhand carries a “Vicky,” shorthand for a Victorinox knife. This example is 7.5 inches long, including the handle. It is used for mending nets, cutting lines, and for general duties like cutting up cardboard for the on-board incinerator. The holder for this knife has weathered a lot of use, evidenced by the tape repairs.

  In a June 2007 interview with deck boss Brent Walter (who was in his twelfth year working on the Alaska Ocean) and deckhands Ben Boyok and Matt Prebezac (who had been with the Alaska Ocean for seven years and two years, respectively), they agreed that net repair was the hardest part of the job. The main difficulty involves learning to conceptualize the repair. Because the net mesh is so huge, it takes time and experience to understand how to make the repair correctly. At the time, the Alaska Ocean was fishing in waters about 50 miles off the coast of Washington State and using a mid-water trawl. Repairs to the nets were minimal. The deckhands expected to do more net repair later in the season when the vessel moved to the Bering Sea, where the nets get torn from bottom-fishing.

  The Alaska Ocean is a 376-foot-long vessel in the Seattle-based catcher-processor fleet. Workers catch, process, package, and freeze groundfish—mostly pollock and Pacific whiting—in the Bering Sea and in the waters off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

  date made

  ca 2007

  maker

  Victorinox Swiss Army

  ID Number

  2007.0178.03

  catalog number

  2007.0178.03

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Factory Processor’s Gloves

  Description

  Despite automation of basic fish processing functions like gutting and filleting, there is still a lot of handwork to be done aboard a factory trawler like the Alaska Ocean. And work around cold water, fresh fish, and heavy machinery means that gloves are a crucial part of a factory worker’s outfit.

  These heavy vinyl gloves were worn by a female fish processor during the summer fishing season in 2007. An estimated 1200 to 1400 pairs of these gloves were being used, cleaned, and reused aboard the Alaska Ocean in 2007.

  In addition to these heavy work gloves, the onboard laundry operation oversaw the distribution of 5,000 pairs of lighter rubber gloves, 800 pairs of cotton gloves, and 1200 pairs of wool gloves. The crew working in the freezer hold, known as the “pain cave,” wore thick, insulated gloves, and lab workers used disposable gloves when conducting tests on products for quality control.

  date made

  2007

  worn

  2007

  ID Number

  2007.0178.16

  catalog number

  2007.0178.16

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Scrimshaw Tooth

  Description

  Women and ships were the most popular subjects for scrimshaw carved by crewmen on long, slow whaling voyages. In this deeply engraved example, a beautifully coiffed and fashionable young lady, possibly in mourning dress, has pulled a locket from her bodice and is gazing at the image of a smiling young man. The curls of her girlish hairstyle would indicate that she is unmarried, although the traditional ring finger of her left hand is not shown. The mid-19th-century date of this tooth is suggested by the style of the dress.

  Date made

  ca 1840

  maker

  unknown

  ID Number

  TR.374506

  catalog number

  374506

  accession number

  136263

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Fisherman’s Sweatshirt

  Description

  This heavyweight, extra-large hooded sweatshirt was worn by one of the deck hands working aboard the Alaska Ocean catcher-processer in 2007. It features the logo of the Alaska Ship Supply store in Dutch Harbor, Alaska, a major commercial fishing port at the end of the Aleutian Chain. Although the Alaska Ocean’s home port is now Seattle (it was formerly Anacortes, Washington), Dutch Harbor serves as the vessel’s home base during the months it operates in the Bering Sea.

  The 125-person crew of the Alaska Ocean is at sea for several weeks at a time, and they look forward to reaching Dutch Harbor where they unload the frozen fish products and resupply the ship. The captain and crew can take care of personal business while in port as well, and stores like Alaska Ship Supply cater to their needs by selling clothing, supplies, marine hardware, groceries, postage, and other items.

  The Alaska Ocean is a 376-foot-long vessel in the Seattle-based catcher-processor fleet. Workers catch, process, package, and freeze groundfish—mostly pollock and Pacific whiting—in the Bering Sea and in the waters off the coast of the Pacific Northwest. The vessel can harvest about 325 metric tons of fish per day and can freeze over 250,000 pounds of fish product daily.

  date made

  ca 2007

  maker

  Alaska Ship Supply

  ID Number

  2007.0178.06

  catalog number

  2007.0178.06

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Wood and Ivory Parallel Rule

  Description

  Part of the navigator’s tool kit, parallel rules were used to transfer compass points, course lines and other directional information across large charts without change. This large wooden set has a carved ivory whale inlaid into its surface, with a brass tack for the whale’s eye.

  ID Number

  1978.0052.08

  accession number

  1978.0052

  catalog number

  1978.52.31

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Whaler's Shoulder or Darting Gun

  Description

  By the later 19th century, guns had replaced most hand harpoons and lances, since they were far more efficient and deadly to the prey. They also could be shot from a safer distance from the prey than the hand tools could be wielded. The darting gun was one of the more popular types. Loaded with different darts, this versatile weapon could be used both for harpooning and killing whales.

  This particular gun was displayed at the 1883 International Fisheries Exhibition in London, England. After the display ended, it was donated to the Smithsonian by its inventor, Capt. Eben Pierce of New Bedford, Mass.

  date made

  1880s

  guns replaced hand tools

  late 19th century

  displayed at the International Fisheries Exhibition

  1883

  maker

  Pierce, Eben

  ID Number

  TR.316550

  catalog number

  316550

  accession number

  66767

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Factory Processor’s Apron

  Description

  This vinyl bib apron was worn by fish processor Thelma McFarland over her coveralls and rain pants during her work shifts aboard the factory trawler Alaska Ocean in the summer of 2007. Processors like McFarland stand at long tables or conveyor belts and encounter considerable water and fish parts as they work. Processors typically wear aprons of one sort of another for protection.

  Although the on-board laundry crew takes care of cleaning workers’ coveralls, rain pants, gloves, and plastic sleeves, each worker is responsible for cleaning his or her apron. McFarland, who is about 5 feet tall, adjusted her apron to suit her small frame by cutting off the lower portion. She also personalized it by writing her name in permanent marker across the bib.

  date made

  2007

  used

  2007

  used

  McFarland, Thelma

  ID Number

  2007.0178.18

  catalog number

  2007.0178.18

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Fanny Pack

  Description

  Machinery noise on the fish deck can be deafening, and voices can get lost, no matter how loud. To make sure a message gets communicated and received, the deckhands carry radio microphones, and the fanny pack is the preferred way of keeping the instrument at hand but protected from water, dirt, and slime.

  This black nylon fanny pack was worn by a deckhand working aboard the catcher-processor Alaska Ocean in the summer of 2007. He used the radio, along with a microphone clipped to his life vest for communicating with the wheelhouse and other deckhands.

  The Alaska Ocean is a 376-foot-long vessel in the Seattle-based catcher-processor fleet. Workers catch, process, package, and freeze groundfish—mostly pollock and Pacific whiting—in the Bering Sea and in the waters off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

  date made

  ca 2007

  maker

  REI

  ID Number

  2007.0178.04

  catalog number

  2007.0178.04

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Ship Model, Containership Emma Mærsk

  Description

  At launching in 2006, the Emma Mærsk was the world’s largest containership, a distinction held until her seven sister ships Estelle, Ebba, Edith, Eleonora, Elly, Evelyn, and Eugen Mærsk, were launched in 2007–08. Built at the Odense Steel Shipyard in Denmark, the ships are owned by the A. P. Moller-Maersk Group, the world’s largest global shipping company, whose beginnings date to 1904. Emma Mærsk is named for the late wife of Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, the son of the company’s founder, who served as the CEO from 1965 to 1993 and on its board until 2003.

  Containers are standardized, reinforced steel boxes that can be packed with a wide array of products and materials and transported on ships, trains, and trucks. Loaded into the vast holds and onto the massive decks of containerships, they can be used time and again to carry goods between manufacturing centers and consumer markets around the world.

  As globalized commerce expanded in the last half of the 20th century and into the first years of the 21st, ocean carriers grew as well. The first containerships in the 1950s were adapted freighters, the largest of which could carry about 800—1,000 containers. The standard designation for containers is teus—twenty-equivalent-units—or containers measuring either 20 or 40 feet in length. Ships specially constructed in the 1970s to carry containers in cellular sections of the hold could carry between 1,000 and 2,500 teus.

  The third generation ships were built to the maximum size that could be accommodated by the Panama Canal, an important throughway on global shipping routes. Built in the 1980s, these ships, called Panamax vessels, could carry between three and four thousand teus. Subsequent generations—the Post Panamax vessels of the 1990s (4,000–5,000 teus) and the Post Panamax Plus ships built between 2000 and 2005 (5,000–8,000 teus)—are too large to travel through the Panama Canal. With the increasing volume of global shipping during this period, other ocean routes became more important, especially those connecting Asian ports with the U.S. West Coast. However, as containerships increased in size, the number of ports worldwide that could accommodate them also decreased.

  The Emma Mærsk represents the sixth generation of containership, also called the New Panamax class, because it will be able to travel through the new Panama Canal after it opens around 2014. The vessel, with a capacity of 11,000 teus, is the first to be launched in Maersk’s PS-class. The ship has a waste heat recovery system, which uses exhaust gasses to generate some of the electricity needed aboard the vessel. Its hull is also covered with silicone-based paint, which improves fuel efficiency. The Emma Mærsk entered service on the Europe to Asia route in 2006.

  date made

  2007

  ship launched

  2006

  late wife of founder and CEO of the company

  Maersk, Emma

  ship's namesake

  Maersk, Emma

  built the ship

  Odense Steel Shipyard

  maker

  Modelos Navales Riera, S.L.

  ID Number

  2008.0039.01

  catalog number

  2008.0039.01

  accession number

  2008.0039

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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  Factory Processor’s Rain Pants

  Description

  Fish processors aboard trawlers like the Alaska Ocean wear waterproof pants over their coveralls and other clothing to protect themselves from the water and fish slime that are constant companions in the factory. This pair is dark blue, the same as those worn by deck hands. These pants are small and were worn by processor Thelma McFarland in the summer 2007 season.

  date made

  2007

  used

  2007

  used

  McFarland, Thelma

  maker

  Helly Hansen

  ID Number

  2007.0178.21

  catalog number

  2007.0178.21

  accession number

  2007.0178

  Data Source

  National Museum of American History

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