12th Meeting Notes [December 1, 1997]
On Whales, Whaling and MOBY DICK
I. On Whales -- big, waterbone, warm-blooded, tail-propelling mammals; breathe oxygen from the air/need to surface at intervals; found in salt water oceans; vary in size, shape, speed, ferocity, preferred locale; vary also in their commercially usable byproducts -- whale oil/ spermacetti/ ambergris/ whalebone/baleen
II. On Whaling -- an international enterprise that the United States came to dominate in its heyday, the 1840s; whaling a substantial business, involving large capital investments, a specialized work force, and an international market for its several products
III. On Moby Dick -- a novel about a whaling voyage written by Herman Melville, published in 1851, one of a series he wrote involving the sea; critically and popularly neglected until 1920s, when it came to be widely regarded by critics as the greatest American novel.
WHALES -- Cetaceans (dolphins/porpoises/manatees?
Big animals -- nature's biggest, by far (elephants next)
Up to 200 tons/ 40,000 lbs ( weight of 2500 adults)
Up to 100' - 120' long -- > two MTA subways long
Up to 75' circumference at fattest part -- the width of four subway cars
Aquatic/waterborne/swimmers -- propelled through water by force of its flat/horizontal tail, which moves down and back
Have short fins/flippers along either side for steering/direction?
Dorsal fin (on back) for stabilizing
Normally operates near surface to accommodate need to breathe/exhale, done through blowhole(s) on top of skull; can dive to 1000 meters and can stay down upwards of an hour
Speed -- upwards of 10 knots for limited time; cruising speed slower
Types of whales -- by what they eat (squid or kril) and what they eat it with (teeth or baleen/whalebone filters)
The two types most seriously hunted in 19th C:
Right Whales -- baleen/2 blow holes/ head shaped like the pointy end of a shell casing; swims with its mouth open, filtering kril/plankton through its baleen
Hunted for its baleen, in addition to whale oil; migratory patterns more cosmopolitan than toothed whales
Spermacetti/Sperm Whales -- squid eating, with teeth, 1 blow hole; head like the end of a 6x6 railroad tie ; hunted for its spermacetti oil, in addition to its whale oil; migratory pattern favors warm waters
Physical characteristics --
Sight -- eyes off to side of skull; can't see directly ahead (especially so with sperm whales)
Hearing -- slits behind the eyes for hearing -- rudimentary sonar system/echolocation?
Smell -- No nose? no smell?
Inter-whale communication??
Sexual differences -- Male whales 3 times as large as females; males polygamously inclined; females protective of young
Reproductive Biology -- Female impregnated by male with 43" penis; either bump into each other belly-to-belly in vertical position; or lay floating along beside each other
Gestation -- 10-16 months (newborn whale 20' long)
Life span -- whales old at 40-50 years; ancients to 100
No natural predators other than other whales (and man)??
Not naturally aggressive with respect to man (no evidence of man-eating tendencies); but tail powerful enough to stove in substantial ships; could also easily pull six-person whaleboats for miles and/or take boat under when diving
On Whaling
Whales prized for their oil in Middle Ages; Basques of SW France among earliest known offshore whalers; whales washed up on beaches or trapped by tidal flows in enclosed areas the easiest catches; NAmerican Indians ventured out from beach in canoes after coastal cruising and generally smaller whales; offshore whaling begins in earnest in 18th C.; first American centers were the Massachusetts islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Mystic, Connecticut, and Sag Harbor, NY. By 19thC, American whaling concentrated in ports on Massachusetts's Buzzard's Bay, among them Fairhaven, Mettapoisett, and especially New Bedford.
Truism of the whaling business: The most commercially desirable whales also the farthest off shore: required extended voyages to hunt and kill these whales; processing of whale blubber for its oil had to be done aboard the ship, rather than have it return from the whaling grounds filled with blubber; to return with barrelled oil.
Three/four -year voyages the norm by 1830s -- stay out until holds filled with oil or food/water supplies exhausted; holds give up space in stored food/water as it consumed and whale oil processed and stored
Business of Whaling -- Capitalization -- Investors in ship/voyage -- provide the bottom, supplies and food for 40 men; Captain on salary??
2000 shares in all, after expenses covered -- 1000 to investors
Officers and crew on shares -- 1000 shares -- 25 each if evenly distributed
Captain -- 400 shares (enough to become an investor and go whaling no more)
Starbuck -- 200
Stubb -- 100
Flask -- 75
Harpooners (3) -- 90 shares ( Queequeg -- 11 shares (1/90th)
ABSs (18) -- 75 shares (Ishmael -- 3 shares (1 300th)
Others -- 5 -- 60 shares
Ishmael could come away with a couple hundred dollars for 4 years -- along with being fed and housed for the duration of the voyage
Income -- Whale oil as lantern-lighting oil (no petroleum/kerosene); spermacetti oil for fine candles and lubrication; whalebone for corset stays (no plastic)
The mechanics of whaling --