Object Title

Gun - Whaling or Harpoon gun

Date

about 1920

Object Number

XIX.917

Provenance

Purchased from a private individual, 2002.

Physical Description

Appears almost as an old swivel gun with the barrel trunnions loacted in cradles which join below the barrel into a sigle shaft known as a pintle, itself sitting on a pedestal.

Techniques

Cast

Materials

Steel

Firearms/Artillery

Serial Number 562

Calibre

90 mm

Inscriptions and Marks

Kongsberg Vapenfabrik

Associations

Places Norway

Information

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Developed by wealthy Norwegian whaler Svend Foyn (1809-1894), whaling cannon such as this were designed to fire grenade harpoons, which exploded on impact, thus making the kill quicker, more efficient and (arguably) more humane.

Whales have been hunted for millennia, firstly for subsistence and since the 15th century increasingly for profit, with the practice now largely banned by international agreement since 1986. Whale products include food, manufactured items such as ladies stays, combs, buttons, bristles, umbrellas etc., soap, candles, lubricants, and above all lighting oil made from whale fat or blubber.

This type of cannon was a major advance on the earlier whaling methods. Ocean-going whale-catching in earlier years was done using open boats, lowered from a mother ship, with hand-thrown harpoons. This only worked at very short range, required immense strength and skill, and was extremely dangerous, not least as whales could upset the boats or drag them under by the harpoon line. The ships, not necessarily much larger than the bigger whales, could be lost too, as in the case of the Essex, sunk in 1820. The introduction of the cannon made whaling safer for the seaman involved and examples of this design are still used today by those countries still permitting whaling.

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