1000 AD-Eskimos know how to whale, but with primitive methods.
1620 AD-Captain George Waymouth saw Indians whaling off the coast of Maine. The Indians used harpoons with a bone tip. The harpoons all had ropes tied to the end. At the end of the ropes were either blocks of wood or blown-up bags made of skins, they were there to keep the whale from diving too deep or swimming too fast.
1640 AD-Shore whaling began in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
1750 AD-New England whalemen began to carry rendering pots (tryworks) aboard their vessels.
1791-The first American whaling ship rounded Cape Horn.
1820-Whaling grounds expanded to include Hawaii.
1848-Captain Thomas Roys forced his way through the Bering Strait into the Arctic Ocean. That is the beginning of whaling in the Arctic Ocean.
1860 - Whalers trade with the eskimos in the Hudson Strait. Take a look at a table showing what they traded.
1880-Steamships are the new ship used for whaling. The Bowhead population declined.
1908-Whale population in the Arctic Ocean had dropped so much that it was no longer a large industry for Alaska.
1912-United States Whaling Corporation used killing boats: at the bow of the boat is mounted a muzzel-loading whale gun with a 3-1/4-inch bore. Black powder was put in first, second the waste, and third the harpoon attached to a rope leading to the wenches. Outside the gun and part of the harpoon was a bomb, with expanding arms and so timed as to explode inside the whale. The average distance to shoot it was 120 feet.
1925-The invention of the stern slipaway allowed whalers to haul whole carcasses aboard a factory ship to be processed.
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