The Carthaginian and Whaling
The original Carthaginian was a wooden hulled ship that used to deliver freight between New England, Hawaii, and China in the 19th century. The 960-ton Carthaginian was going to Honolulu for repairs when it hit a reef and sunk outside of Lahaina Harbor. A replica of the Carthaginian now sits in Lahaina Harbor and is a mini floating museum on whaling. The replica was built in 1920 in Germany and was brought to Lahaina in 1973. It took 7 years to completely restore the ship.
Hawaii got involved in whaling back in 1819 as an ideal destination in the whaling off season for rest and relaxation. Hawaii's people were friendly and the weather was warm and sunny. After being out to sea for months at a time, whaling ships would arrive and dock in Lahaina Harbor where they could restock their supplies. In the first year of whaling there were only three whaling ships but soon every year there were more and more. In 1830 they grew to 157 whaling ships in Hawaii and in 1844 there were 471 ships. In all of Hawaii's whaling years there have only been 2 whales caught in the waters of Hawaii. The first whale was caught in 1819 and the second was caught in 1839. The reason why there were only 2 whales caught is because Hawaii has humpack whales and those kinds of whales sink when they are killed.
There were only 30 men on each ship. One of the major jobs that seven of the sailors would have to do is go on a rowboat to the whale and harpoon it. Then they would put a rope around the whale and row it to the ship. The rowing could take as much as an hour till they got back to the ship.
After they got back to the ship the men would attach the whale to the side of the boat. Next they would strip off the whale's blubber. After that the strips were taken to a room where it would be cut up into little pieces. Then they would strip the baleen or teeth off. Baleen acts as a net that separates the krill and plankton from the water. It is made of the kind of material that is found in fingernails. Sperm whales have 2 kinds of oil. The first is called sperm oil and it is found in the blubber and head of the whale. The second kind of oil is called spermaceti which is only found in the head. First the oil was taken from the head. The cut up pieces of blubber were boiled. Some of the crew members would boil the blubber for many hours. Next the oil was separated from boiling blubber then poured into copper containers for cooling and storing. Any leftover skin that they had would be used to keep the fire going. The crew members would cooperate with each other to get their jobs done.
Sperm whales can be 59 feet long and can weigh up to 35 tons. Humpback whales can be 50 feet long and can weigh up to 33 tons. The sailors would try to hunt the sperm whales because after harpooning the sperm whale, it wouldn't sink like the humpback whale.
Since blubber and oil were very valuable in those days the sailors would go into the whaling business because of the money. Some of the products that were made from whales were The captain would get 1/25 of the money and the sailors would earn 1/250 of the money or 35-55 cents. The sailors had the least room; they had to share their room with 22 other men. The cooks had to share a room with 4 other people. The captain had the most room, the only time that the captain had to share his room was if his family came along. The trip could last from 1-4 years long.
The sailors would have to survive on food that was half eaten by bugs. The food that they ate would have to last for a long time, even for a year or more. To make sure that they would last the foods were pickled, dried or salted.
The crew would have to trust their captain and believe that they would catch whale. The crew showed faith because they weren't sure if they would be able to catch a whale and they had to trust that they were going to. The whaling ship also showed patience because sometimes there weren't any whales sighted for a long time and the crew had to be patient. When the sailors didn't have anything to do they would pick up hobbies like building a ship in a bottle, scrimshaw which is the carving or engraving of whale teeth or bone, keeping a diary or writing to their family.
Resources:
Bendure, Glenda, and Friary, Ned. Hawaii
5th Edition
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