The principle sources for whale oil in the days of Yankee whaling were right whales, bowhead whales and humpback whales. Whale oils were the first of all oils - animal or mineral - to achieve commercial importance. Otherwise known as “train oil” the whale oils are varying shades of brown in color, depending upon the age of the blubber from which they were boiled and the general health of the animal from which they were obtained. Although Americans had ceased to hunt sperm whales the commercial uses of spermaceti and sperm oil both lasted well into the 1960’s in a variety of industries including leather tanning, cosmetics, the garment industry and in the manufacture of typewriter ribbons. Before its use in candle making spermaceti was used as a medicinal ointment and as a sizing in wool combing. Their high illuminating power made spermaceti candles the standard for photometric measurements. This material was the most valuable product of the Yankee whaling industry as it has a high melting point and burned cleanly and brightly and without odor. It was barreled separately from any other oils obtained in the fishery. While in the head it is a rose-tinted, semi-transparent liquid that crystallizes upon contact with the air. It was known as “head oil” or “head matter” as it was found in the heads of sperm whales where its true anatomical function is still debated. Unlike any other whale oil apart from sperm whale body oil and the material found in the head of the bottlenose whale ( Hyperoodon ampulatus) spermaceti is a liquid wax. About half of the crude sperm oil obtained by American vessels at the height of the fishery was exported to other countries. A byproduct of the sperm oil refining process was high quality soap. Great quantities of sperm oil went into public and private lighting as well as lighthouses. It burns very clearly and brightly and without smoke or odor. Another feature is its superb qualities of illumination. One in particular is that it retains its lubricating qualities in extreme temperatures making it ideal for light, rapid machinery. It has particular qualities separating it from almost any other type of oil. Oil from sperm whale blubber otherwise known as body oil is of a light straw color. The primary products of the Yankee whale fishery were sperm oil, spermaceti, whale oil and whalebone and occasionally ambergris if any were discovered. That whales had to die to provide these things is a fact of seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century life.“ Oil was needed for light and lubrication baleen was needed for skirt hoops and corset stays. it is only through the lens of hindsight that the whaleman’s job becomes malicious or cruel. In Men and Whales, Richard Ellis writes that, until the beginning of the twentieth-century, whaling was considered an admirable occupation. Original verse from the journal of Henry Smith kept aboard the bark Marcella of New Bedford, 1840-1841, Benjamin Ellis, master. “Success to the old Marcella may she speedily return to her original haven abundantly laden with the riches of the ocean.” The answers to why so many people went whaling are many and varied but the underlying principle is that whale products had a strong commercial value if one knew how to exploit it. Few individuals got rich whaling and most of those were owners and agents. In the Yankee whale fishery injuries and death were common to almost every voyage. Whaling was an exceptionally dangerous business both physically and economically. Why Hunted? “Abundantly laden with the riches of the ocean”: Why whales were hunted
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