Whaler's Blubber Fork
date: label: date made
content: mid-1800s
notes: label: Description
content: Once a whale was killed and its blubber was cut up and hauled aboard the ship for processing, the chunks of flesh were moved around the slippery vessel with long-handled, two-tined blubber forks. These forks were used to pitch the pieces of minced blubber into the hot try-pots to boil it down into oil. The long handles prevented sore backs from too much bending over and protected the men from getting too close to the boiling oil.
topic: label: used
content: Whaling
label: related event
content: Expansion and Reform
setName: label: See more items in
content: Work and Industry: Fisheries
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content: Cultures & Communities
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content: Work
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content: Natural Resources
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content: Transportation
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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: Brown, James Temple. The Whale Fishery and Its Appliances
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: Mackey & Pindar
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.055818
label: catalog number
content: 055818
label: accession number
content: 012285
objectType: label: Object Name
content: blubber fork
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: iron (fork material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (handle material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 38 in x 2 3/8 in x 1 7/16 in; 96.52 cm x 5.99999 cm x 3.59994 cm