Question about whaling gear -- lance tails

[Museumvillage]

Nearly completed Model Shipways Whaleboat

What are the LanceTails?   How were they used?

IMG_8665.JPG

[wefalck]

Sorry, but it is not clear what you are referring to. Perhaps you could post a detail picture of the part in question ?

[Museumvillage]

Thanks for responding to my question.  I mostly wish I knew what the REAL lance Tails were and what their use was.

 

The Lance Tails are only described as ~12" long.  They are shown in the Sheet 3 drawing starboard side hole right after the starboard Kicking Strap hole.   I'd like to make them as authentic as I can but Authentic to What? 

In the photo below I'm trying to show the sheet 3 drawing area with the same area of my model on top of it.

Bob Breur from Museum Village

[wefalck]

Sorry, but the picture is sideways and too small to be really readable ...

[bruce d]

If I understand correctly, you are asking about a hole called a 'lance tail'. I do not know for sure if this is the answer but here goes:

A whaler's lance was a close quarters tool. It had a wrought iron head about five or six feet long fixed to a hickory pole about the same length. A line from the pole ended in a loop worn around the user's wrist. The lance was driven home, often repeatedly, and the mate had the job of hanging on while the struggle got rough. To keep the lance straight was a difficult task and had to be done immediately and rapidly while fighting the whale so a slot was provided in the bow area. The lance was rammed into the slot and the mate levered the handle to straighten the shaft, often in seconds in the middle of a kill.

I do not know the name given to the slot for this horrific purpose but the position of the hole indicated fits (if I understood the question).

HTH

Bruce

[Museumvillage]

Trying a bigger photo.

[wefalck]

I gather the 'bible' at leas on US American whaleboats is

 

ANSEL, W.D. (1983): The Whaleboat.- 147 p., Mystic, Co. (Mystic Seaport Museum Inc.).

 

I quickly leafed through the illustrations in my copy to see, whether any enlightenment could be found. According to Ansel the notch for straigthening irons would be cut close to the bow on the port side (for the boat of a right-handed harpooneer).

 

Ansel does not mention the 'tails' in the drawings. By their length and the fact that they are drawn in your plan in association with the forward thwart, I would think that these are lanyards with which the spare iron were secured to the boat. That is, if they are really 12" long. If it reads as 12', however, then these could be spare lanyards attached to the lances and the harpoons - they were attached to the iron, went along the wooden shaft with several half-hitches in between and ended in a spliced eye to fit around the wrist of the harpooneer.

[Jaager]

2 hours ago, bruce d said:

A line from the pole ended in a loop worn around the user's wrist.

I must be seeing this wrong in my mind, because I can imagine a struck harpoon, a whale managing to submerge, and a harpooner dragged  overboard and trailing behind under water like a tin can behind a newly weds' car.

[wefalck]

The loop around the wrist is for the lance, not the harpoon, of course !

 

The harpoon is let let go after placing it into the whale, the line runs out from the tub controlled by the post in the thwart in front of the harpooneer, who keeps it tight by holding it with a pair of 'nippers' to protect his hands, while it is running out. It is also cooled down by dowsing it with seawater. The line is then slowly heaved in by the crew, when the whale resurfaces to take a breath - a process that is repeated until the whale is so weakened that it can be approached to kill it with the lances.

[bruce d]

57 minutes ago, wefalck said:

That is, if they are really 12" long. If it reads as 12', however, then these could be spare lanyards attached to the lances and the harpoons -

I think the same applies to the lances, but the closer picture shows 'frills' much closer to 12 inches. I have no real idea why they exist on a lance on a boat in the hunt.

 

35 minutes ago, Jaager said:

I must be seeing this wrong in my mind, because I can imagine a struck harpoon, a whale managing to submerge, and a harpooner dragged  overboard and trailing behind under water like a tin can behind a newly weds' car.

The line to the wrist is on the lance, the killing weapon, not the harpoon. Grizzly stuff.

[wefalck]

There is a lot of loose gear in a whaleboat and it may have to rowed for hours in a heavy sea. So it is a good idea to secure with lanyards those things that are vital to the purpose, namely the hunting gear. Securing the lances with a slip-knot to the boat might be useful.

[Mike_In_RI]

Re" Lance Tails".

Please ignore if this has already been answered.

From page 33 of the Ronnberg book (and build manual).   ".... a bundle of rope yarns   ".... These were called "lance tails" by Walter Channing in his plan of a beetle whaleboat; their name hints that the business end of the lances were tied down to the thigh board until needed during the lancing process. "

 

 

[Museumvillage]

Thanks Mike from RI,

 

  I kind of guessed the same but never saw a picture or sketch of them in use so I wondered.  Since then I've finished the model with Kit and Imagination.  I even included a scale Rat just to port of the centerboard well..  I'll attempt to include a JPEG; I've had trouble doing this before.

[bruce d]

Very nice model (including the rat).

[Mike_In_RI]

Great model, I will certainly check out you build. Very nice job.

 

Just in case you need support documentation for the rat .... "A boy, a rat and a whaleship".

 

This whaleboat is in the New Bedford Whaling Museum. You can make out the almost used up lance tales. Without knowing any better, it might be (or not) that the lance tip was tied to one of the thin tails in place and just yanked out when the lance was grabbed. I just noticed in Ronnberg's book, page 121, his model shows the tails with stopping knots. The photos in the build manual that came with my model are almost impossible to make out. They are copies of copies, etc...

 

[bruce d]

1 hour ago, Mike_In_RI said:

the lance tip was tied to one of the thin tails in place and just yanked out when the lance was grabbed.

That makes a lot of sense. The crew would be keeping their eyes on the prize and would not want any fiddling around at the crucial moment.