New England Whale Ship
date: label: Date made
content: 1875
label: model was purchased
content: 1875
notes: label: Description
content: This model represents a typical Massachusetts whaleship of the mid-19th century, fully rigged and ready for a long cruise that might last for as much as four years. The name “<I>U.S. Grant</I>, Edgartown” on the ship’s stern is fictional—no ship by that name ever sailed for the whaling fleet. The ship’s bottom is lined with copper sheathing, to keep out the <I>teredo navalis</I>, a tropical worm that bored into the wood of ship’s hulls and weakened the structure, as the termite does to wooden structures on land.
label: Description
content: The whaleboats are the most prominent features. After whales were sighted by lookouts perched at the mast tops, the boats were dropped over the sides of the mother ship to chase them. Also over the side are the cutting stages, where the whale’s fat, or blubber, was sliced off the body in long strips.
label: Description
content: The main feature on the ship’s deck is the try-works, or giant pots set into a brick framework, where the whale’s blubber, was boiled down into oil. After the blubber became liquid, it was drawn off to cool and then poured into heavy barrels and stored below in the ship’s cargo hold.
label: Description
content: This model was purchased in 1875 at Edgartown, on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Mass.; it was one of the first objects in the Smithsonian’s National Watercraft Collection.
place: label: model was purchased
content: United States: Massachusetts, Martha's Vineyard, Edgartown
topic: label: Subject
content: Whaling
label: related event
content: The Development of the Industrial United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Maritime
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content: Work
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content: Natural Resources
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content: Transportation
label: See more items in
content: On the Water exhibit
label: Exhibition
content: On the Water
label: Exhibition Location
content: National Museum of American History
publisher: label: Related Publication
content: National Museum of American History. On the Water exhibition website
label: Related Web Publication
content: http://americanhistory.si.edu/onthewater
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: TR.025726
label: catalog number
content: 025726
label: accession number
content: 4353
objectType: label: Object Name
content: ship
label: Object Name
content: ship model
label: Object Name
content: model, ship
label: Object Name
content: rigged model, ship
label: Other Terms
content: ship; Maritime; Whaling
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 30 in x 52 in x 22 in; 76.2 cm x 132.08 cm x 55.88 cm
label: Measurements
content: bowsprit: 18 in; x 45.72 cm
label: Measurements
content: mainmast: 30 in; 76.2 cm