Whaling ship with whale
alongside 'Hualueidaskip'.
This is a picture from the late 1800's to early
1900's judging from the steam - powered catcher boat. During this
era, "industrial whaling" was starting to become
successful. Industrial whaling is the name given to the era where
the capture and processing of whales became much more mechanized
and efficient. Initially it started due to the invention of the
explosive harpoon fired from a cannon mounted in the bow of the
catcher boat.
The catcher boats were steam powered and so
could catch up with the fast swimming baleen whales, something
that was not possible with man-powered old style whale boats.
Despite these advances, the early steam-powered
catchers were slow, slower than the whales they were trying to
catch, so the simple overtake by speed method didn't work.
Instead, the boats would hang around and "ambush" a
surfacing whale with the extra burst of speed helping the catch
though the whale could escape by swimming away.
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