Whaler's Boarding Knife
date: label: date made
content: 1876
label: collected
content: 1876
notes: label: Description
content: The work of carving blubber from a whale carcass and hauling the long, narrow strips of flesh, called “blanket pieces,” aboard the ship onto the deck was called “boarding.” The boarding knife was an extremely sharp, double-edged sword blade at the end of a short wooden pole. It served a variety of purposes, from cutting a hole in the whale’s flesh for the blubber hook, to cutting the long strips of flesh into shorter sections for further processing.
label: Description
content: These tools were kept extremely sharp to cut the whale’s flesh easily. With the decks and tools so slippery from the whale processing, using them was reserved for the ship’s officers.
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: Connecticut, Middletown
topic: label: used
content: Whaling
label: related event
content: The Development of the Industrial United States
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: A.R. Crittenden
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: AG.026608
label: catalog number
content: 026608
label: accession number
content: 4927
objectType: label: Object Name
content: knife, boarding
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: ferrous metal (blade material)
label: Physical Description
content: cast (blade production method/technique)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (handle material)
label: Measurements
content: blade: 32 1/2 in; x 82.55 cm
label: Measurements
content: handle: 27 3/4 in; x 70.485 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 60 1/4 in; x 153.035 cm