One early account in the Connecticut Current, Hartford, Conn., Feb. The harpoons had to be much smaller than swivel-gun harpoons, however.Įarly attempts in the development of shoulder-fired whale guns were fraught with failure. However, swivel guns imparted excess stresses to the whaleboat due to the recoil of these large guns.Ī solution to the excessive recoil imparted to the whaleboat was to discharge the harpoons and bomb lances from shoulder guns. (A discussion of these guns is presented on the In 1731 swivel guns mounted in the bow of the whaleboat were introduced to fire a harpoon into the whale at a greater distance. Explosive harpoons were also tried without much success. Early attempts employed poison to eliminate the need for lancing, and to kill the whale quickly before it would be lost. To minimize these risks several approaches were taken. Many whalelines had to be cut to prevent loss of a whaleboat this resulted in lost whalecraft and a lost whale. Once the whale was harpooned it would often dive below the ice and pull the whaleboat into the ice and destroy it. These problems were compounded when whaling in ice fields getting close to a whale through the ice to harpoon and lance it was a hazardous operation. Problems in capturing whales included difficulty in penetrating tough blubber, getting close enough to the whale to dart an iron effectively, and killing with a hand lance while alongside a fighting whale, especially in rough weather. Shoulder_Guns Whalecraft Whaling WhalesiteĪdvertisement in the Whalemen's Shipping List, and Merchants' Transcript, Aug.
0 kommentar(er)
