HUNTED WHALE

These intriguing 250 photos from Nantucket Whaling Museum open up a new world of hard-fought battles with nature and with the magnificent creatures that provided a livelihood for whalers and associated industries such as candle-making. A gripping first hand account of a hunt by Robert Cushman Murphy sets the scene, and photos of the officers' quarters emphasize the cramped conditions. The first officer's cabin is a postage stamp and even the captain's cabin was spartan, although sometimes he would be accompanied by his wife and children. The rank and file sailors of all colours and races would be squashed into a confined space, alternating on a bunk every four hours when their shifts ended and began. Shipboard justice was harsh, there was no doctor on board, and the sailors would use any leisure time in creative crafts such as decorative ropework, needlework, and scrimshaw, of which there are many impressive examples in the exhibition. Pictures would be inked on a whale's tusk, looking rather like a tattoo, and an example here shows a whaling ship on one side and the presidential seal on the other. Capturing a whale would involve harpooning the animal, dragging it, and finally dispatching it with a lance, all perilous manoeuvres. The book describes in detail the cutting-in process and the rendering of the fat into blubber in a rendering trypot, with whale oil being a by-product. Exhibits pictured here include grapnels, blubber hooks, lances and harpoons, as well as domestic items such as an Inuit stone Quilliq lamp for burning blubber, and headgear including three battered top hats and a lady's bonnet. 208pp, beautiful colour photos of every exhibition item.
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