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Harpooned: The story of whaling
Spence, Bill, The Story Of Whaling
192 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1980
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November 14, 2025
“Harpooned: The Story of Whaling” by Bill Spencer. First edition published 1980. This book has 200 photographs and manufactured in Great Britain.
This book is a hardback, and divided into 12 chapters:
1. Early whaling
2. Spitsbergen
3. American Beginnings: Dutch Supremacy
4. Wary Expansion 1712-83
5. The British Boom 1783-1812
6. American Expansion: British Decline
7. The Great Days of American Whaling
8. The Birth of Modern Whaling
9. The Antarctic Boom
10. The Death of the Whale
11. Bibliography
12. Index
I read this book as part of my ongoing learning about whaling and American maritime history. The more *I read about it, the more I learn and this will help me teach the subject to my students.
Many nations have hunted whales, from the Norsemen and the American Indians to the modern factory mechanisation of the Japanese and Russians.
- “Save the whales”
- Whales nearly going extinct- protect them!
- The whole gory process of reducing the whale
- The whale anatomy
Acknowledgements:
“Finally, my thanks go to all those whale men who ever sailed the oceans and braved the dangers they encountered in hunting the whale - without them, there would have been no history to relate. My sympathy goes to the whale. It is hoped that this mammal will survive the prodigious slaughter which has gone on, not only in recent years, but throughout the centuries, so that it will continue to fascinate and intrigue mankind in forthcoming generations.” - Bill Spence.
Early Whaling;
“..carcasses of stranded whales” have been found in “North Sea”.
“The whale is depicted in Stone Age rock carvings in Norway, but there is no evidence that it was hunted at that period.”
“Whales have always been abundant along the Pacific coast of America..”
American Indians - The Eskimo - “until contact was made with white whalemen”..
“..the whole an aid to survival and a source of food, clothing and building materials for his (the Eskimos) house..”
“The Phoenicians left little writing about themselves… they were great seamen and traders..” It was likely they hunted sperm whales in the Mediterranean.
“The Cretans hunted dolphins in the Aegean some 1000 years after the Phoenicians.”
There are references of the whale in “Aristotle (384-323BC) and of Pliny the Elder (AD23-79)..”
“Norsemen were whaling off the coast of Norway. A similar method was used by 9th century Icelanders, and in modern times it has been witnessed in the Orkneys, the Shetlands, Newfoundland and the Faeroes.”
“Whale fishery along the French Coast in AD875”
Then “over a hundred years later the Viking colonists in Greenland were finding the whale useful in facing the harsh winters.”
“..in 1315 and 1324 all whales upon the shore of the realm were, except in privileged places, the king’s property.”
During this period “the basque of France and Spain were taking advantage of the abundance of whales in the Bay of Biscay and developed what is regarded as the first commercial enterprise in whaling history.”
“..basque whaling reached its peak in the 13th century.. it did continue into the 17th century.”
“While the Basques were masters of the whaling trade in Europe, the Japanese were developing ideas of their own. The inhabitants of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island, were killing whales by means of spears treated with poison made from aconite roots, in a similar manner to the natives of Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka and the Kurile Islands.”
“In 1600.. the Japanese introduced a new technique for catching whales which is unique in the history of whaling. Nets, strongly constructed yet light enough to be handled by men in open boats, were used to tangle the whale. 6 boats, working 3 nets, lowered them into water shallow enough to prevent the Eddie from escaping by diving beneath them. 20 beater boats ranged behind and on either side of the whale. Forced it towards the net. Once tangled, hunters harpooned and killed it with lances. The whisky was then towed ashore by more than 10 boats in two ranks..”
This method proved successful but costly because of the high wastage of nets. Only wealthy merchants could afford.
Factory was built close to the waters edge as possible, with a suitable beach where the dead whale could be hauled in easily.
“Ever possible use was made of the dead creature: the blubber was boiled for oil; the flukes and meat were salted and sold as food; some of it being exported; the bones were sawn and chopped, boiled, crushed and boiled again, to get as much oil from them as possible; the residue was used as a fertiliser.” This method of whaling flourished in Japan for about 300 years.
In 1816, “the early type of harpoon-gun was fitted on a swivel mounting in the bow of the whale boat..”
In the last chapter of the book, there are graphic black and white photographs of dead whales, that frightened me, glad they weren’t in colour, gruesome.
This book is a hardback, and divided into 12 chapters:
1. Early whaling
2. Spitsbergen
3. American Beginnings: Dutch Supremacy
4. Wary Expansion 1712-83
5. The British Boom 1783-1812
6. American Expansion: British Decline
7. The Great Days of American Whaling
8. The Birth of Modern Whaling
9. The Antarctic Boom
10. The Death of the Whale
11. Bibliography
12. Index
I read this book as part of my ongoing learning about whaling and American maritime history. The more *I read about it, the more I learn and this will help me teach the subject to my students.
Many nations have hunted whales, from the Norsemen and the American Indians to the modern factory mechanisation of the Japanese and Russians.
- “Save the whales”
- Whales nearly going extinct- protect them!
- The whole gory process of reducing the whale
- The whale anatomy
Acknowledgements:
“Finally, my thanks go to all those whale men who ever sailed the oceans and braved the dangers they encountered in hunting the whale - without them, there would have been no history to relate. My sympathy goes to the whale. It is hoped that this mammal will survive the prodigious slaughter which has gone on, not only in recent years, but throughout the centuries, so that it will continue to fascinate and intrigue mankind in forthcoming generations.” - Bill Spence.
Early Whaling;
“..carcasses of stranded whales” have been found in “North Sea”.
“The whale is depicted in Stone Age rock carvings in Norway, but there is no evidence that it was hunted at that period.”
“Whales have always been abundant along the Pacific coast of America..”
American Indians - The Eskimo - “until contact was made with white whalemen”..
“..the whole an aid to survival and a source of food, clothing and building materials for his (the Eskimos) house..”
“The Phoenicians left little writing about themselves… they were great seamen and traders..” It was likely they hunted sperm whales in the Mediterranean.
“The Cretans hunted dolphins in the Aegean some 1000 years after the Phoenicians.”
There are references of the whale in “Aristotle (384-323BC) and of Pliny the Elder (AD23-79)..”
“Norsemen were whaling off the coast of Norway. A similar method was used by 9th century Icelanders, and in modern times it has been witnessed in the Orkneys, the Shetlands, Newfoundland and the Faeroes.”
“Whale fishery along the French Coast in AD875”
Then “over a hundred years later the Viking colonists in Greenland were finding the whale useful in facing the harsh winters.”
“..in 1315 and 1324 all whales upon the shore of the realm were, except in privileged places, the king’s property.”
During this period “the basque of France and Spain were taking advantage of the abundance of whales in the Bay of Biscay and developed what is regarded as the first commercial enterprise in whaling history.”
“..basque whaling reached its peak in the 13th century.. it did continue into the 17th century.”
“While the Basques were masters of the whaling trade in Europe, the Japanese were developing ideas of their own. The inhabitants of Hokkaido, Japan’s northern island, were killing whales by means of spears treated with poison made from aconite roots, in a similar manner to the natives of Aleutian Islands, Kamchatka and the Kurile Islands.”
“In 1600.. the Japanese introduced a new technique for catching whales which is unique in the history of whaling. Nets, strongly constructed yet light enough to be handled by men in open boats, were used to tangle the whale. 6 boats, working 3 nets, lowered them into water shallow enough to prevent the Eddie from escaping by diving beneath them. 20 beater boats ranged behind and on either side of the whale. Forced it towards the net. Once tangled, hunters harpooned and killed it with lances. The whisky was then towed ashore by more than 10 boats in two ranks..”
This method proved successful but costly because of the high wastage of nets. Only wealthy merchants could afford.
Factory was built close to the waters edge as possible, with a suitable beach where the dead whale could be hauled in easily.
“Ever possible use was made of the dead creature: the blubber was boiled for oil; the flukes and meat were salted and sold as food; some of it being exported; the bones were sawn and chopped, boiled, crushed and boiled again, to get as much oil from them as possible; the residue was used as a fertiliser.” This method of whaling flourished in Japan for about 300 years.
In 1816, “the early type of harpoon-gun was fitted on a swivel mounting in the bow of the whale boat..”
In the last chapter of the book, there are graphic black and white photographs of dead whales, that frightened me, glad they weren’t in colour, gruesome.
April 12, 2012
With my first thriller, FALKLANDS DEADLINE set in the Southern Ocean, I'm always interested in books depicting life on South Georgia Island. Spence's portryal of life at the whaling station of Grytviken and the illustrations he includes added depth to my knowledge of whaling in the Antarctic.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews