This photo released by the New Bedford Whaling Museum shows the tip of the bomb lance fragment, patented in 1879, that was removed from the neck of a bowhead whale captured at Barrow, Alaska, in May 2007. The body of the bomb lance was not recovered. The shiny scars are the result of a chain saw cut. (AP Photo/New Bedford Whaling Museum)
Cool story!
Ping.
Holy cow, had no idea they could live that long.
I didn’t realize they lived that long.
Had it been found washed up on a beach along with whale bones, it would have been Millions of years old, and come with a theory that man hunted whales with primitive iron weapons.
Of course, a decayed and fosilized outhouse nearby would be "the foundry" where these primitive early iron spear heads were made....
That’s a whale of a story!
Interesting stuff. There have been reports of finding arrowheads and musket balls in the shells of alligator snapping turtles, as well.
Great story. Now I suppose some anti religious schmuck will find Jonah in a whale to prove he never left the belly of the whale.bwhahaha!
“Consider the subtleness of the sea; how its most dreaded creatures glide under water, unapparent for the most part, and treacherously hidden beneath the loveliest tints of azure. Consider also the devilish brilliance and beauty of many of its most remorseless tribes, as the dainty embellished shape of many species of sharks. Consider, once more, the universal cannibalism of the sea; all whose creatures prey upon each other, carrying on eternal war since the world began.“Consider all this; and then turn to this green, gentle, and most docile earth; consider them both, the sea and the land; and do you not find a strange analogy to something in yourself? For as this appalling ocean surrounds the verdant land, so in the soul of man there lies one insular Tahiti, full of peace and joy, but encompassed by all the horrors of the half known life. God keep thee! Push not off from that isle, thou canst never return!”
“The bomb lance fragment, lodged a bone between the whale’s neck and shoulder blade”
That whale probably always knew when the weather was about to change.
Thar she blows! Boats away boys, away!
Thar she blows! Boats away boys, away!
Uuhhh, Inupit indians were using explosive harpoons to hunt anything in 1890?
Should this piece of someone's heritage not return to New Bedford instead?
I bet that was a pain in the neck
on what other thread could I possibly invoke a reference to a “Nantucket Sleighride?”
Call me Ishmael...
The Greenland Whale Fisheries
(trad arr. Back of the Moon, on our 1st album ‘Gillian Frame and Back of the Moon’)
Greenland is a hell of a place
It’s a place that’s seldom green
Where there’s ice and snow, and the Whale fishes blow
And the daylight’s seldom seen brave boys
And the daylight’s seldom seen
In eighteen hundred seen and sixty three
On June the thirteenth day
Our gallant ship her anchor weighed
And for Greenland sailed away brave boys
For Greenland sailed away
Our Captain he stood on the quarter deck
With a spy glass in his hand
There’s a whale, there’s a whale, there’s a bloody great whale
And she blows on every span brave boys
And she blows on every span
We hit that whale and the line paid out
But she made a flunder with her tail
And the boat capsized and ten men were drowned
And we ne’er did catch that whale brave boys
And we ne’er did catch that whale
The loosing of those ten brave men
It grieves my heart full sore
But the loosing of that bloody great whale
It grieves me ten times more brave boys
It grieves me ten times more
When the ship is moored and safe secured
And all tied up on shore
We’ll all raise a glass take a bonny willing lass
And make this ale hoose roar Brave boys
And Make this ale hoose roar