Hand Lance or Killing Iron
notes: label: Description
content: A hand lance with a long iron shaft and a small oval or leaf-shaped tip was also known as a killing iron. It was designed to dispatch a whale quickly and efficiently, once the mammal came to the water surface for the last time.
label: Description
content: The hand lance was stabbed repeatedly into a whale’s thick neck arteries. The sharp leaf-shaped tip allowed easy removal for another thrust. Cutting these arteries prevented the whale from deep dives and hastened its bleeding to death.
label: Description
content: Normally, multiple hand lances were carried aboard a whaleboat, so that if one was lost it could be easily replaced without returning to the mother ship for a spare one. By the late 19th century, guns had replaced most hand-thrown harpoons and lances. They were more efficient, more accurate, and safer, for a whaler could shoot a dart at a greater distance from the dangerous whale than a harpoon could be thrown.
topic: label: used
content: Whaling
label: Subject
content: Fishing
label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
label: related event
content: Civil War and Reconstruction
label: related event
content: The Development of the Industrial United States
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Fisheries
label: See more items in
content: Work
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content: Industry & Manufacturing
label: See more items in
content: Transportation
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: J. H. Bartlett & Son
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.072825B
label: catalog number
content: 072825B
label: accession number
content: 10616
objectType: label: Object Name
content: lance, hand
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: pole: 66 3/4 in; 169.545 cm
label: Measurements
content: lance: 63 in; 160.02 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 129 3/4 in; x 329.565 cm