The earliest method of killing whales was by means of the bow and arrow, and the first accounts of New England whaling refer to the harpoons as being made of stone or bone. There are three kinds, however, that have been popular among American whalemen: one had one barb (Figure 1), shown on the preceding page; another had two barbs (Figure 2); and the third was the “toggle iron” (Figure 3), which has already been described. The edges were sharpened like a razor and were protected by a wooden cover when not in use. They were so sharp that Melville in “Moby Dick” describes his whaling hero, Queequeg, as shaving with one. The lance (Figure 4) which was used after the harpoon had been driven in “to the hitches,” or its entire length, resembled a flat spoon, and was very sharp on the edges and on the point. The long line was attached to the harpoon, and shorter lines, called “monkey ropes,” were made fast to the lances.

It has been shown by the records of one James Durbee, a veteran harpoon maker of New Bedford, that between the years 1828 and 1868 he made and sold 58,517 harpoons, and he was only one of eight or ten manufacturers of whaling implements in that one port.

An interesting and authentic anecdote of a lost harpoon describes how a Captain Paddock in 1802 struck a whale, which escaped with his iron, and in 1815, thirteen years later, the same captain killed the same whale and recovered his lost weapon.

A whaler is supplied with from four to seven whaleboats, three of which are usually on the port side, one on the starboard side near the stern, and the rest are on deck; it was the improved early canoe, sharp at both ends so as to make a dash at the whale and then be able to retreat just as easily. The floor was very flat so as to enable the boat to be turned quickly in order to dodge a sudden movement of the whale. The boat was about twenty-eight feet long, was equipped with one long steering oar and five rowing oars, and a sail which was occasionally used; also paddles were sometimes resorted to in order to avoid noise. In the bow of the boat two seven-foot harpoons were placed ready for use. A warp was securely fastened to them, and to this warp was secured, after the boat was lowered, a line of two or three hundred fathoms of the best manila two-thirds of an inch in diameter, and with a tensile strength of about three tons. It ran from the harpoons through a chock or groove in the bow to a coil in a depressed box near by, and then lengthwise along the boat to the stout loggerhead or post in the stern, around which it made a turn or two, and then went forward to the line tub near the tub oarsman. Its twelve or eighteen hundred feet of line were coiled in this tub, with every possible precaution to prevent fouling in the outrun. When the rope was coiled and the tub was covered, it was said to resemble a Christmas cake ready to present to the whales. The loggerhead was for snubbing and managing the line as it ran out. A spare line was carried in another tub. A boat was also supplied with extra harpoons, lances, spades, hatchet with which to cut the line if necessary, lanterns, box of food, keg of water, and compass, weighing, all complete, about twelve hundred pounds.