Clamp being filed

Clamp being filed

Clamp being sanded

Jeff and Nicholas admiring a students work



all photos courtesy Gina Picton

From my esteemed correspondent Gina Picton comes this brief summary of the weeks progress on the whaleboats:

"The CHAD students were in again this week. They are working on the frame bending jig. I’ve attached some pictures of them working with teacher Jeff Gerstemeier (in the hat) and workshop volunteer and instructor Nicholas Pagan. The jig has many built in clamps to hold each frame in place and the students are learning to use the different tools needed to complete the project. They have 29 ready to go, with just a few more to finish."

Gina says a couple more boats will leave the boatshop this week, allowing work to begin on setting up the support structure need for building the whaleboat. There is a possibility of some names to apply to the student photos above and also some photos they've taken of the work as well! Stay tuned.

the Whaleboat

Artwork from the logbook of the ship Iris while on its voyage from 1843-1847. The painting depicts a sperm whale upending one of the whaleboats chasing it.

Courtesy Girl on a Whaleship

This detailed painting of the killing of a whale by a whaleboat crew was done on the inside cover of a logbook. The logbook covers two voyages; the ship Alexander Barclay, 1837-1840 and Charles W. Morgan, 1841-1842.

Courtesy Girl on a Whaleship

Diagram ({{Information |Description={{en|1=Side and interior plan of whale-boat equipped with apparatus of capture, &c. Noted on the drawing as Plate 192. sec 5 v ii pp241, 252. not clear why the file name says fig 193.}} |Source=NOAA Photolibrary Image ID: figb01)

Courtesy NOAA

Azorean whaleboat racing

C0urtesy Azorean Whaleboats

The Queen's Ranger's whaleboat after its trip from Crown Point to Fort Ticonderoga
(courtesy David Michlovitz)

Courtesy Fort Ticonderoga Brigade

The past--a district Missionary's whaleboat

In early days the work of the "Southern Cross" was supplemented by the district missionaries in their whaleboats, but in recent year these have been replaced by launches and schooners

Courtesy Anglican History Oceania 1849-1949

from 'Into the Deep', a documentary by Ric Burns
The history of the American whaling industry from its 17th-century origins in drift and shore whaling off the coast of New England and Cape Cod, through the golden age of deep ocean whaling, and on to its demise in the decades following the American Civil War.
Find here, and here.

I just happened to catch the airing of this documentary on PBS, I rarely watch TV so it was extremely fortuitous. I was deeply moved and impressed by this work.
Ric Burns is without doubt a most discerning and articulate documentry filmaker. I recommend this film highly. It focuses acutely on the wreck of the Essex, an American whaleship and more generally on American whaling. The wreck of the Essex is reputed to be one of the inspirations for Moby Dick, and the documentary focuses quite a bit on Melville's celebrated work. Do not miss this!

Courtesy Ric Burns, PBS, and Mystic Seaport

Aquatic Mammals
Caption: Darting Harpoon into Sperm Whale
Image Date 1926
Subject Whaleboats
Whaling
Harpoons
Sperm whale
Image Source Author Cook, John A.
Image Source Title Pursuing the Whale : a Quarter-Century of Whaling in the Arctic
Pub. Info. Boston, MA : Houghton Mifflin Company, 1926
Page No./Plate No. Facing page 8
Digital collection Freshwater and Marine Image Bank
Repository Most materials are located in the University of Washington Libraries. Images were scanned by staff of the UW Fisheries-Oceanography Library
Copyright Materials in the Freshwater and Marine Image Bank are in the public domain. No copyright permissions are needed. Acknowledgement of the Freshwater and Marine Image Bank as a source for borrowed images is requested.
Ordering Information The University of Washington Libraries does not provide reproductions of this image. This record contains a citation for this image. If you want to use the scanned image, acknowledgement of the Freshwater and Marine Image Bank as a source for borrowed images is requested.
Type Image

Courtesy University of Washington Libraries

A whaleboat chasing its prey

Courtesy Girl on a Whaleship




From the introduction to ' The Whaleboat A study of Design, Construction and Use from 1850 to 1970 by Willits D. Ansel, published by the Mystic Seaport Museum:

The term "whaleboat" properly describes boats used for hunting whales, lthough it has also been applied to other boats having similar features, generally sharp ends. Whaleboats ere used by the thousands aboard American whaleships in the middle of the nineteenth century and, in lesser numbers, aboard the vessels of toher nations and at shore stations around the world. The whaleboat was a double ended, light, open boat with a length at that time of between twenty-seven and thirty-one feet and a beam of slightly more than one-fifth the length. It was pulled by oars and sailed. It was a fine sea boat, not only adapted to its function but also handsome. Though there were variations in size, lines, and construction, the general characteristics were well defined.
The whaleboat was once the most widespread of all small craft. In the late 1800s it was known in the Pacific in such widely separated places as Easter Island, Tasmania, the Bonin Islands and the Aleutians. In the Atlantic, it appeared in the north off Greenland, in the Azores, the Grenadines, and south to Tristan da Cunha and still farther south to Antarctica. In the Indian Ocean it was seen in the Mozambique Channel, Kerguelen Island and Cocos. It was used in the Arctic Ocean at Herschel Island on one side and Spitsbergen on the other. Whaleboats were seen in the most remote places in the sea.
The last voyage of a whaleship that carried whaleboats was in the 1920s. At a few far scattered places the boats continued to be used for shore whaling, as at Tong and Norfolk Island in the Pacific and at Bequia and the Portuguese Islands in the Atlantic. Two whaleboats are still maintained at Bequia and whaling on Pico and Madeira.* In 1969 there was whaling at Fiji. Elsewhere on remote islands the type survived for carrying cargo and passengers.
In the United States, where the whaleboat was carried to its final stage of development and where the boats were build by the thousands, very few remain outside of museums, although an undermined number survive in Alaska.
Much has been written in praise of whaleboats:
Their shape "ensures great swiftness as well as qualities of an excellent seaboat." 1
The boats were dry and rode "as gracefully as an albatross...for lightness and form, for carrying capacity compared with its weight and sea-going qualities, for speed andfacility of movement at the word of command, for theplacing of menat the best advantage in the exercise of their power, by the nicest adaptation of the varying length of the oar to its position in the boat, and lastly, for a simpicity of construction which renders repairs practicable on ships, the whaleboat is simply as perfect as the combined skill" of generations of boatbuilders could make it. 2

As surf boats the whaleboats were "without rival, better than a lifeboat which is a compromise because it has to carry a larger number of people...The whaleboat was the best seaboat that man could devise with no limits to size, weight, or model. "3 A whaleboat type, locally called a longboat, was adapted on Tristan da Cunha around 1886, after fifteen men were lost in a lifeboat. The longboat coxswains conider their light, canvas covered boats fine surf boats. 4
Howard Chapelle cites the whaleboat's reputation for good performance under oars and sail under all conditions.5 Others noted their maneuverability and speed and, last but not least, the cheapness of their construction.
Such praise was deserved. However, the whaleboat was the product of compromises, and was excelled in some functions by specialized boats. There were faster pulling boats, such a certain ones used in nineteenth-century smuggling in southern England, and certainly some lifesaving boats were safer in surf or a breaking sea. In terms of all-around performance, however, the whaleboat rated very high.

1. Charles M. Scammon, The Maritime Mammels of the Northewest coast of North America and the Whale Fishery, rev. ed. (Riverside: Manessier Publishing Co., 1969), p.224.

2. William Davis, Nimrods of the Sea, rev. ed. (North Quincy: The Christopher Publishing House, 1972), pp157-58.

3. Clifford W. Ashley, The Yankee Whaler, (Garden City: Halcyon House, 1942), p.59.

4. Notes on the Tristan da Cunha boats were provided by the island's administrator, J. I. H. Fleming, in 1973.

5. Howard I. Chapelle, The National Watercraft Collection, (Washington, D.C., Government Printing Office. 1960), p. 262

* Whaling was banned in the Azores in either 1986 or 1987, even though other small groups of shore based whaling, such as the Inuit and the Bequian whalers were allowed to continue as their whaling is considered 'indigenous'. It's my belief that the Azoreans should also be allowed to take whales based on their long standing practice. (ed.)

While not meant to condone the wholesale industrial slaughter of whales by, in particular, Japan and Norway, I do feel the history and development of the whaleboat a legitimate area of inquiry.

Currently I am writing a weblog about the construction of two whaleboats being built to fit out the restoration of the Charles W Morgan underway at Mystic Seaport. The boats are being built to historic standards at both the Independence Seaport Museum's boatshop in Philadelphia, PA and at Rocking the Boat in Brooklyn, NY.

Molds completed!

One of the lofting boards in the workshop

Two mold halves about to be joined by Gina

I asked Gina how the lines on the lofting board were transferred to the pieces of wood used to build the molds. She asked if I knew of the nailhead technique. I did not, so she showed me how it works. Nails, like the ones in thi photo, are pounded in at regular intervals along the lofted line of the drawing, the the wood for the frame piece is aligned and gently impressed with the curvature of the drawing. You can see the nailhead indentations in the board.

Tools of the trade

Gina Pickton explaining some of the vagaries of the lofting/mold building process to me.

Lots of work to finish up and boats to be moved before the building of a whaleboat can take place. This will hopefully all be accomplished this week. Next a structure will be built in about the area occupied by the blue lift to attach and stabilize the boat skeleton, the molds, keel, stem and sternpost on a 'strongback' or table/platform as these boats are built upright, Norwegian style and not upside down which is the more common practice.


All Photos courtesy Snez'a Litinovic

Last Sunday, (meaning March 8) I met a new friend for the first time. We'd been conversing by email and since she lives in Philadelphia I thought we could combine a visit to the Independence seaport museum with a visit to the workshop to update the progress on the whaleboats. Snez'a had never seen the museum and we had a lot of fun viewing and discussing the collection. Snez'a is an architect (her firm, 119 Degrees Architects) so a lot of what she was seeing in terms of process and drawings and form made sense to her, and led to lively discussion. I had left my camera behind but fortunately Snez'a had a little battery time left on her camera and was able to get some photos. Gina Pickton was finishing up the mold building for the whaleboat project and was very gracious in showing us how the process worked and answering our questions.

Molds finished and stored awaiting the building of support structure and strongback

Same with these, one set for Philly and one for NYC

One half of the frame building jig being built by the school team from CHAD school in Philadelphia

ditto


photos courtesy Gina Pickton

Gina finished up the molds for both boats this week and was kind enough to send some photos along with a brief update on the progress.

"This week we finished up both sets of molds. Now we’re taking a moment to finish up the Elco’s Tranquility and Bear Cub, and the Marsh Cat to clear space before we continue on.
The pictures above are of both sets of Whaleboat molds ( for this workshop and the one in NYC at Rocking the boat, ed.), stored out of the way until needed

On Wed we have some regular kids from the CHAD school here in Philadelphia. They are working on jigs for the whaleboat.The lobster trap looking thing is the frame bending jig the kids are working on. We’ll get pictures of them working on it next week."

Once the project is properly underway, Gina will be sending me regular updates and I will attempt to visit as often as possible as well to document the build in Philadelphia, with project director Geoff McKonley updating me from NY.
Stay tuned.