Palestine daily herald. [volume] (Palestine, Tex.) 1902-1949, 1904-09-06
SEEING THE FAIR
In DETAIL

Tools OF q oRee Great Industry-Whal-
ers' Outfit From North Carolina That
| Has Seen Years of Use-Ths Killing
of Whale-The Kind of FowIing
Piece George Washington Carried.
Birds of North Carolina-Two That
Tennyson Mentions - Fisher Birds
Milliners Nearly Exterminated the
Snowy Heron - Shore and Marsh
| Birds.
ESPECIAL CORRESPONDENCE BIZ
MARK BENNITT.l
Perhaps because a near neighbor OF
mine followed the sea In his youth and
used to regale me in after dinner hours
with narratives of life aboard whaler
/ was more interested than you may be
in the old whaling outfit which hangs
in the North Carolina exhibit. What
exciting scenes must have accompanied
their use! The picture in the old geog-
raphy labeled whaling In the Arc
tics" represented a whale breaking a
boat in two with flip OF his tail, while
men were flying in the air like SO many
pairs of open shears in the hands of a
juggler. That picture gave me a per-
petual distaste for whaling IN its rigor-
Gus reality, but the narratives have
never lost flavor.
lo@ bel fey
still an industry Of no small Importance
along the Atlantic coast, for we still
must have whalebone. Whales are, in
fact more abundant than at the time
whaling lost it's greatest importance,
following the discovery Of petroleum.
The whaling of North Carolina is shore
whaling" but the whalers outfit is the
same as used aboard ship when the
whales are dashed to the sides to be cut
up and the blubber tried out on board
the vessel This outfit was in use as
late as last spring Off Beaufort. On one
of the lances we may read upon label
In the whsler's own language, Bin in
43 Whales"
When a whale was sighted in the
old days the first act was to harpoon
him. This act was usually attended
with great peril. l suspect that the
men in the geography picture had just
harpooned a whale and the whale had
resented it. Then came the lancing
with the long sharp spear to reach the
lungs and cause death. Between the
happening and lancing a considerable
interval usually occurred The whale
would sound" after harpooning, go
ing below and taking with him boat
load of rope attached to the hsrpoon.
The harpoon has cruel barbs, its first
purpose being to fasten line TO the
whale. Sometimes the line would not
run smoothly as the whale went down.
Now and then 1t would loop around
some object in the boat-perhaps one
Of the crew-and many a whaler has
gone to Dayy Jones locker by that
swift route
The drag, which you may see here,
Is a wooden block twelve to fifteen
inches square, with hole through the
center. Through this hole the harpoon
rope runs, and when the drag may be
safely launched the rope is knotted
to hold the drag. which is intended to
retard the progress Of the whale and
tire him.
The lancing Of the whale is scarcely
less dangerous than the harpooning,
for the victim may still have much
strength and a worse temper than
when the big barbed harpoon entered
his side
The toggle iron is another form Of
hIrpoon, with point and barb on
hinge so that a backward pull when
1t Is once in the whale spreads the tool
in the animals flesh and holds It more
securely.
The whale gun was invented during
the later period Of the whaling indus
try. and the harpooner became the man
behind the gun. The whale gun has a
bore Of nearly an inch and carries a
ten inch bomb with rubber feathers to
guide the explosive missile. The gun
ner is not always sure of his where
abouts Immediately after shot on ac-
count Of a tremendous recoil. The
bomb has a fuse set at two seconds.
and when well within the vitals Of
whale makes quick work of him. The
powder horn and cap box hang beside
the old gun, and this whale spade. to
cut off the blubber, has seen service In
hundreds of whales. When passing
along the north aisle Of the Palace OF
Forestry take look at these tools used
in the romantic Industry that built up
New Bedford and other New England
towns in the early part Of the last
century.
When George Washington went out
into his preserves TO shoot few duck
or other birds. he carried a fowling
piece with barrel seven feet long. II
was a niuzzle loader and had a flint
lock. And. by the way. a fintlock
was about as ingenious an invention as
the modern breechloader A fowling
gun such as Father George must have
carried is in one Of the cases of the
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